OSX Lion, Graphic Artifacts

How do you turn off the auto switching?

1. System Preferences > Energy Saver
2. You should see a checkbox that says "Automatic graphics switching".
3. UNCHECK this
4. Restart.

Good luck. I hope it works for you too.

The caveat is that "When automatic switching is disabled, your computer will always use high-performance graphics. This may decrease battery life."

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update as i haven't posted about the problems in a while. The day I first posted on the thread I had also sent a (shot in the dark) email to Tim Cook. Maybe a week later I had gotten a phone call from an Apple Executive who was interested in my problem. Over the course of a few days I had spoke to him and a support technician and overall they had told me they were working with apple's engineers. In the earlier stages of the process I went through with them they seemed interested in the problem. I had referenced both of the commonly known support threads relating this problem. I had included screen prints, screen shots, detailed information regarding which OS build has the most problems and when the problems are most likely to appear. The technician had said that this really seems like a software issue related to the GPU and OS build through software and I agreed. After a few days in a state of hope (lol) I had gotten a phone call from the apple exec with bad news. It turns out after the review the engineers had deemed the problem to be hardware related and I was back to square one. I had asked all the normal questions at this point regarding the replacement of my graphics card. 90 day warranty on the part and after that it's basically not their problem. You cannot purchase an extended warranty and if any issues arrise after the 90 day period I am screwed again. Really considering dropping the money on the new card however at my local apple store there is a 3-5 day turn around on the replacement. As of now i'm debating/trying to find time I will able to be without my machine that I use every day for work. I'm still on 10.8.2 and experiencing the problems.

@AndrewHumphreys are you still on 10.8 and is it stable? I will probably go back and do a clean install to 10.8 when I have some free time before I try replacing the GPU.

Has anyone encountered anything helpful at this point or is the problem still stagnant? Thanks and sorry for the lengthy post!

-Anthony

Hi Antony,

I can give you my experience, as I had the same machine as yours.

In my case, changing the GPU did not solve the problem, it changed it. I think the new cards they provide for service are flashed with an update (because the problem changed), but it did not fix my problem. I was having the artifact issues - to the extent where it would lock up my machine), and after the new GPU was installed the artifacts did go away but they were replaced with flashes/blinks of the screen - these looked like what would you would expect to happen to old TV sets if you dragged your feet on the carpet and touched it - white horizantal lines flashing across the entire screen. They would go from every 5 mins. to extream cases of every 45 sec.

Further through my experience, they changed every servicable part on my machine to see if they could stop this, LCD panel, power supply, hard drive, motherboard - nothing solved the issue. This was all with a clean install, no added software.

I made many trips to the Apple store and was patient and persistant. They resolved the issue by replacing my machine with a new generation (thin) iMac of the same specs.

They had to for two reasons, even though my machine was off warranty. 1) Since I paid for the first repair - the GPU replacement, they were obligated to solving the problem and 2) There are basic consumer protection laws that state that the item you purchase, regardless of warranty has a reasonable life expectincy - more or less a computer is expected to work for longer than 1 yr. in a fully functional state.

So, my thoughts would be to check your states/provinces consumer protection law, and have the repair done. If it works your good. If it does not, be persistant to require a resolution. A company of Apple's size and reputation will do right by you 9 out of 10 times.

Good luck.

Anthony,

No, 10.8 eventually went 'bad' on me, too - always when the GPU is changing power states.

However, an interesting post in this thread suggests changing the voltage of the GPU (a variation of the BIOS flash method) might work:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3194165?answerId=21875821022#21875821022&ac_cid=tw123456#21875821

The poster says he's been problem-free for a month.

Others in that thread have been successful with the BIOS flash, too.

thanks for your reply Andrew I can confirm though that the voltage change did not work on my end. this was one of the original fixes I had tried along with your flash fix. a few people on the PC end had recommended a voltage increase. this fix only lasted a month or so before artifacts and glitches returned. I can't remember the exact amount I increased off hand but I'm pretty sure that there is info in the links included in your (Andrew's) original fix.

I've been following this thread for a while now, having the blue and yellow blinking artifacts apparing from time to time over the last year.

I finally decided to take my 27" iMac (mid 2010) back to the store. I live in Norway, where consumer rights is strong. In the case of factory defects, warranty states that you should get a machine repaired for free up until 5 years after purchase.

Got it back today, and they had replaced:

• Display
• Graphics card
• Backlight board
• Power supply

Artifacts are gone, and I'm a happy customer 🙂

The graphic glitches on the display of my Mid 2007 24-inch iMac (below) disappeared for a while after updating to 10.8.4.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11373233/MacDiscussions/Screen%20problems%20 post%20Mountain%20Lion/Screen%20Shot%202012-12-11%20at%2010.39.54.png

At least they appeared to.

They are back again now (after several weeks missing) but not all the time. Most of the time my display is now free of these glitches. However, they still come backnow and then unpredictably.

A vast improvement over 10.8.3 but by no means perfect. At least it is tolerable now.

Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB

Software OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)

Hi. I started having these glitches and then hard freezes sporadically back when I was still on 10.6.8 a month or so ago. When I upgraded to 10.8.4, it got really bad. I could mainly just do email and some browsing. Anything more taxing or graphics/sound oriented would bring about a quick display glitch, then crash.

Per Apple Genius, I replaced hard disk. Same problems. Then the ram. Same. THEN sent the machine in for a logic board swap. Now you would think they would test it before sending it back. As soon as I got it home, same!

Brought it back yet again, and left it overnight. This time they thought they narrowed it down to a faulty drive cable. They ran some graphics programs all night and it was fine. I get it home: boom. Same glitches and crashing. Unusable at this point. Why would it be passing their stress tests then freak out once I get it?

Well, I went back to this thread (had started here when problem first started), and today I disable the automatic graphics switching preference in the Energy settings. Also disable display sleep. Well, I've been going for 12 hours without a single glitch. I've started to reinstall my programs and files (I had done a clean install) and so far all is good.

So...not sure what's up with that, but for some, this may be a fix. Hope they get to the bottom of this is an update!

rheuddog wrote:

Hi. I started having these glitches and then hard freezes sporadically back when I was still on 10.6.8 a month or so ago. When I upgraded to 10.8.4, it got really bad. I could mainly just do email and some browsing. Anything more taxing or graphics/sound oriented would bring about a quick display glitch, then crash.

Per Apple Genius, I replaced hard disk. Same problems. Then the ram. Same. THEN sent the machine in for a logic board swap. Now you would think they would test it before sending it back. As soon as I got it home, same!

Brought it back yet again, and left it overnight. This time they thought they narrowed it down to a faulty drive cable. They ran some graphics programs all night and it was fine. I get it home: boom. Same glitches and crashing. Unusable at this point. Why would it be passing their stress tests then freak out once I get it?

Well, I went back to this thread (had started here when problem first started), and today I disable the automatic graphics switching preference in the Energy settings. Also disable display sleep. Well, I've been going for 12 hours without a single glitch. I've started to reinstall my programs and files (I had done a clean install) and so far all is good.

So...not sure what's up with that, but for some, this may be a fix. Hope they get to the bottom of this is an update!

I would try that, but sadly my Energy saver prefs. doesn't include that option. I believe it is there on certain Laptop models, but not on Desktop models like mine. Presumably because they don't need to swap anything.

My next step is the repair shop. I will get my faulty internal optical drive fixed at the same time.

Message was edited by: El Deanio

I started getting graphic artifacts after upgrading to Lion too.

Early 2008 iMac ATI Radeon HD 2400.

The first time I ever noticed the graphic artifacts was after playing Star Craft II, and Diablo 3. Are graphic intensive games responsible for initially cauing the issue?

I had hoped Mountain Lion correted the issue, but it didn't.

Just updated to Mavericks and the graphic artifacts continue, if not worse. Usually are bad when I am watching a video, playing a game, or as many mention here, after the screen goes to sleep.

Why hasn't Apple addressed this? It seems to be a multi-device, multi-OS, issue spanning a few years?

I'll be honest. To those that have this problem, it really looks as if it's permenant damage to the graphics card. No update on the part of Apple is going to reverse this. My late 2007 iMac is heavily affected by this and Mavericks makes no difference as well. Another thing that I notice, using iStat Menus, is that the system is running HOT. Even when I turn the fans to the max, the GPU diode still idles around 180-210 degrees farenheit. These artifacts are consistent with damage to graphics cards due to heat. So, I think it's just that. Eventually, either through a faulty update or maybe it's just bad design, at some point, our graphics cards just fried. This also happened about a year after my Applecare expired, so there was nothing cheap that I could do.

I eventually just replaced my dying iMac with a custom built PC. I've at least still got my 2008 MacBook Pro that still runs like a champ.

Well, I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones. My situation was HORRIBLE, but as soon as I turned off 'automatic graphics switching', the problem went away. Been a couple of months now with NO issues. From what I understand, this hasn't solved the problem for everyone, though.

Graphic problems and running hot can be solved. My mid2010 Macbook Pro 17" 2.53 went with AppleCare 3 times for service. 2 times they replaced the motherboard and the last time the WD 1TB because of the long turning beach ball. I tried to turn off the graphic switch and icloud. My 4 weeks suffering ended in my own sollution that my user account has something gone corrupt. The computer runs stable at about 2000rpm ventilation. The temperature doesn't run hot anymore. If you cannot control the problem I can imagine you can throw away a good computer. Apple even with AppleCare did not come with a proper solution. I have the impression they ignore the problem. The corrupt user account can burn up your graphic card including the motherboard. It happened to my previous 17" MacBook Pro.

Solution 1 : create a new user account and transfer itunes, iphotes folders, email, .. from the original account

Solution 2 : clean install and put back the data from TimeMachine, NOT THE APPLICATIONS. Applications you restore one at a time with trial and error. Best ist also to clean install from the APP Store. If a problem shows up you delete the one application causing a problem.

So - maybe - upgrading to Mavericks (especially the latest version) could cure this problem with its (purportedy) improved energy usage? Improvements that I have assumed only applies to battery powered devices like MacBook and such.

I'm willing to give this a try. But I fear what else will be messed up during in the upgrade