DazzaG

Q: 24" iMac Screen Freezes since 10.6.3 update - pls help!

I don't know if this is just coincidence or not, but since updating my iMac to 10.6.3 it keeps on crashing. On 3 separate occasions today, whilst using my Mac the screen has gone completely black with thin white lines down it.....see pic below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6SYzhCgVYEU5TBKqRfOQ1Q?feat=directlink

The fans and hard disk are still running but it will not respond to any keyboard or mouse presses - I simply have to turn it off by holding the power button in.
It will then restart as usual.

Anyone got any ideas? Do you think that if I was to re-install Mac OS X from my original install disk it could solve the issue?

Thanks

Darren

24" intel imac 2.8Ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Mar 31, 2010 2:43 PM

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Q: 24" iMac Screen Freezes since 10.6.3 update - pls help!

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  • by KrzysiuTurek,

    KrzysiuTurek KrzysiuTurek Jan 12, 2011 8:58 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 8:58 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    http://krzysztof-turek.com/apple/1062atikext.zip - (only for ATI) If anyone has a system newer than 10.6.2, to not have to install 10.6.2
  • by balintalovits,

    balintalovits balintalovits Jan 12, 2011 9:21 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 9:21 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Isn't this replace dangerous?

    Does you iMac boot in?

    thx
  • by Vurey,

    Vurey Vurey Jan 12, 2011 9:27 AM in response to balintalovits
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 9:27 AM in response to balintalovits
    On the contrary, this fix has made my iMac work perfectly for the first time in months.

    Make sure you take the appropriate precautions to back up your data, but as long as your iMac is one of the affected models with an ATI Radeon HD graphics card, you should be fine.
  • by KrzysiuTurek,

    KrzysiuTurek KrzysiuTurek Jan 12, 2011 9:45 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 9:45 AM in response to DazzaG
    This probably is a list of files that need to replace for the NVIDIA GPU:

    NVDANV40Hal.kext
    NVDANV50Hal.kext
    NVDAResman.kext
    NVSMU.kext

    The risk is double. It has not been tested.
    And remember - make a backup
  • by wvisual,

    wvisual wvisual Jan 12, 2011 1:27 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 1:27 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Thank you so much for your work in figuring this out. I certainly hope Apple is paying attention as I've been dealing with this problem for over seven months.
  • by prygnos,

    prygnos prygnos Jan 13, 2011 11:59 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 13, 2011 11:59 AM in response to DazzaG
    The kext replacement solution is working for me so far (Mac 8,1 with ATI 2600).

    Thanks to the community for persistance and hard work. Now let's hope that the problem is corrected in a near update.
  • by Tim Isham,

    Tim Isham Tim Isham Jan 13, 2011 6:14 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jan 13, 2011 6:14 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Thanks so much for posting the files. My install disks are 10.6.3 so I couldn't try this fix before. I plan on trying it and I'll report my results here (and submit another bug report to apple if it works).
  • by olleka,

    olleka olleka Jan 14, 2011 1:35 AM in response to Tim Isham
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2011 1:35 AM in response to Tim Isham
    Hi.
    Thank you!
    I did not have the .kext files.
    Installed fine and is now working without smcFanControl.
    And iStat reports GPU temp to 57°. That would normally result in a freeze.

    I have Imac 1,8 and ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

    Regards
    Olle
  • by nekosaur,

    nekosaur nekosaur Jan 14, 2011 6:51 AM in response to olleka
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2011 6:51 AM in response to olleka
    Since performing the Graphics Driver fix -

    Reported via iStat Nano widget: Uptime is 2 days 12 hours, 23 minutes!
    This is the longest that my iMac has stayed on continuously (without hard reset due to freezing) in 9 months!

    Still stable, no weird behaviors at all. Believe me, I have been TRYING to get this thing to freeze. Not happening.

    Thank you again!
  • by RangerB,

    RangerB RangerB Jan 14, 2011 7:35 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2011 7:35 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    KrzysiuTurek thanks for the solution. I have read hundreds of blog entries and suggestions and your solution sounds the most promising. I have not tried it yet because I do not like working on the system library. I need to have someone with more experience do the work so I am going to take it into my local genius bar and see if they will do it for me. They need to know about this fix anyway. I will keep you posted. Thanks again, RangerB
  • by E85MAC,

    E85MAC E85MAC Jan 14, 2011 2:27 PM in response to RangerB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2011 2:27 PM in response to RangerB
    Hi, i have also been experiencing the freezing after updating from 10.5.8 to 10.6.6. Mouse would work but screen would freeze and sometimes the screen would go black. It would occur a couple times a day. Tried a bunch of suggestions with no luck. I was just about to try this kext replacement that seems promising when i came accross this: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964.

    After resetting my SMC, i have not locked up in over 72 hours. If it does lock up again i'll be doing the kext replacement.
  • by SeSam,

    SeSam SeSam Jan 15, 2011 4:41 AM in response to RangerB
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 4:41 AM in response to RangerB
    Just a warning to anyone.

    I bricked my iMac using the kextreplace solution.

    I copied over the 10.6.2 kext files (ATI2600, framebuffer and support). After reboot the machine was stuck on the spinning wheel / Apple logo boot.

    I booted into single user mode (CLI) and replaced the ATI2600 kext file to the 10.6.6 one. After that things went downhill...

    Now the iMac is resolutely stuck at the white/grey boot screen. Doesn't boot into safe mode, doesn't boot from CD. SMC and NVRAM reset did not help. NVRAM reset 3 times did not help. No way to boot the machine, it's now a very expensive brick with a large screen.
  • by Vurey,

    Vurey Vurey Jan 15, 2011 6:11 AM in response to SeSam
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 6:11 AM in response to SeSam
    SeSam wrote:
    Now the iMac is resolutely stuck at the white/grey boot screen. Doesn't boot into safe mode, doesn't boot from CD. SMC and NVRAM reset did not help. NVRAM reset 3 times did not help. No way to boot the machine, it's now a very expensive brick with a large screen.


    I'm really sorry to hear that. I'm not sure what to suggest. I can only say that in my experience, the kext replace worked with my iMac (7,1 20" with ATI 2400 graphics) and has been going great for the last 4 days or so.

    Does anyone else have any advice on resurrecting a bricked iMac?
  • by KrzysiuTurek,

    KrzysiuTurek KrzysiuTurek Jan 15, 2011 8:15 AM in response to SeSam
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 8:15 AM in response to SeSam
    Little late byt it could be usefull. Here is the script to restore files from backup in /Backup Extensions:

    rm -R /System/Library/Extensions/ATI2600Controller.kext
    cp -R /Backup\ Extensions/ATI2600Controller.kext /System/Library/Extensions/
    chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/ATI2600Controller.kext
    chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/ATI2600Controller.kext
    touch /System/Library/Extensions
    exit
    sudo -k

    the most important thing is chmod and chown command, of course this is the sample only for ATI2600Controller.kext file

    @SeSam - please tell me how looks your iMac screen after turn on maybe I can help you (is it black with something similar to command prompt or grey like when it boot up?). I had a similar problem after trying install Ubuntu on my machine.

    Can anyone confirm that the kextreplace solution works with Nvidia GPU?
  • by SeSam,

    SeSam SeSam Jan 15, 2011 8:51 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 8:51 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    @KrzysiuTurek: After a tritone, white/gray. No apple logo. None of the key commands work (c, option+v, option+s, etc.)
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