Q: Red and green square dots?

In our process of throwing things against the wall to see what sticks, when I run DiskWarrior it always comes up with red letter problems.warnings and soon after the repair there is a period of crashes (every time).

jmf

I removed 80gb of data. The pixel invasion has receeded. I am now able to allow my computer to go to sleep without fear of a pixel takeover and crash. However the problem persists. I notice a few green and red single pixels. So I fear that if my hard gets full with data the problem will be back with vengence.

I havent run Diskwarrior. I have used disk utlities several times it always gives my computer a clean bill of health.

I dont think the aggressive pixel behavour I experenced earlier this week is directly related to Mavericks, but rather things got worse because the installation of Mavericks took up lots of HD space. I am now convinced that the problem will become more acute as HD space gets used up. Things were at thier worse I only had 25bg of free disk space and as each crash generated data things began to feedback and spiral out of control.

I do not have a SSD. I am guess that none of you guys have one either? I also run Dropbox. What about you guys?

I only have 3 login items:

SmartDaemon (Disabled)

ItunesHelper (Disabled)

Dropbox (Enabled)

BTW I set up a new user, it made no difference.

Have things been getting worse for you guys lately?

While I have been plagued with video corruptions the last few months, the hard crashes were only about once per week. But in this past week, my imac has been crashing twice a day! Now this is really crossing a line. This has been a perfectly good machine, and some software update has caused it to become junk, and even a fresh install won't remedy it. I couldn't even sell it without reverting back to something old like 10.6.

Are you implementing the suggestions in this thread? I was in the same position as you but after removing all running programs (resident and login items) that I do not need or only used occasionally, I have eliminated the crashes. This is a broad net but until the source of the problem is found it is better than junking the iMac. When you are removing programs I recommend using a software tool like AppCleaner to be sure suspected problem routines are removed.

jmf

Okay, I did a PRAM/SMC reset Friday. This included removing ALL attached (USB HDD/FW/T-bolt/External Speaker) peripherals. Thumbs crossed, it has cleared my issue. It has been two full days with no issue which has been quite rare.

I did some heavy CPU activities this morning, I have been browsing the web and flash-related sites this evening, scrolling, 16 tabs open, no issue.

No Chrome

No Antivirus

I'll keep you posted. I have been extremely busy with work and have not had time to take my baby to my Apple Service Center yet. But I think this might have done it.

HayMoose

Haymoose - I followed your instructions and uninstalled Chrome and Avast Antivirus and have had no issues at all for 3 days. I think you might have discovered it. I will write in if I encouter any more issues.

I found that rdmgrab and rdmd (remote desktop RDM+) were causing this issue for me. Once I removed the binaries from /opt/local/bin/ and rebooted the problems vanished. I have a 27" imac Mid 2010 running Mavericks.

Hope this help someone

Mike C.

Mike C - I've been eagerly following this thread, as my late 2010 IMAC 27 started having this same problem about a couple months ago.  I have Apple Care and called them, but when none of their solutions worked, they told me to take it to the Genius Bar at my Apple Store (but will try that as a last resort) as their appears to be a question on whether this problem is hardware or software related.  I'm still on Snow Leopard.  My Mac has performed perfectly up till recently.  I've tried PRAM and using OnyX to clean it up, but that only lasts about a day before the dreaded plague returns.  I was about to try Haymoose's solution (although i haven't seen him respond since Nov 10) to see if it worked.  Then I saw your note as well on how to tackle this challenge.  How does a novice access /opt/local/bin to remove the binaries you mentioned?  Does it matter that i haven't used Remote Desktop (although the app is on my Mac).  Thanks.

Sorry for the delay guys. My issue has reappeared.

My fix did not work.

I agree this is a software issue, I still see them occur via VNC session, Parallels Access, and Screen Sharing. I am also seeing them when remotely accessing a work related mid-2012 Mac Mini.

I too plan to follow Mike C's steps to see if it goes away.

It's been a crazy week and I apologize again for not updating readers of this important thread.

Haymoose

Hey TerrellPDX,

Did you ever resolve the red and green square dots anomaly?  I'm having the same problem on my 2010 Imac and I'm trying to find the best solution.  I see alot of reports, but no clear answers on how to fix. Thanks.

Bill

Sounds like that would eliminate the graphics card and the monitor. Does that help you guys at Apple?

jmf

Well folks I officially proved it is not any 3rd party extention, and am at the end of a rope here.

After crashes sometimes twice daily, I went and bought a new external hard drive. Formatted and installed a fresh copy of Mavericks, did not resore any information or move any data over. Just minutes after the fresh system install booted, the pink squares appeared!

Of course I've learned to deal with the video issues, but after letting it sit for about an hour doing nothing, again still on its first boot from a fresh install, I sat down, opened system preferences, and it froze solid.

I'm convinved after everyone's information here that some video driver update that apple adopted and integrated several system version back is the culprit. I have NO idea what to do next, the only solution I see is reverting to a fresh install of 10.6 or 10.7 and not ever installing an update. That's certainly not acceptible for a computer that in my mind is still relatively new (Again, I have a Mid-2010 27" iMac with quad 2.8 i5). My computer is fast becoming a brick. I can't even sell it knowing that a fresh install will immediately have issues!

I too have this problem with (mostly) green/red tiny flickering squares randomly showing up on my 2010 iMac 27". I first noticed it shortly after upgrading to Mavericks which was about 9 days after my Applecare expired. I do not have this problem on my 2012 MacBook Pro Retina also running Mavericks.

The glitches will blink much faster when I scroll up/down within Safari.

I've read all the comments here, but it's not clear if anyone has found the silver bullet fix.

Thing's I've tried that did not fix the issue:

• Removed everything from my prefs/users/login items page.
• Turned off LogMeIn
• Emptied Trash (2TB drive with 1.39TB avail)
• Ran disk utility's first aid/repair
• Changed wallpaper several times
• shortened time screen saver kicks in
• switched from usb mouse to wireless
• changed display resolution
• updated iStat Menus from version 3.27 to 4.1

Things I have not tried yet:

• remove iStat
• stop 1Password
• uninstall Google Chrome
• unplug 2 fw external drives

Anyone figure this out yet?

Mid 2010 iMac 27" HERE ALSO. This is probably a combination of software and hardware, and that is why Apple is silent as a permanent solution would likely trigger a company replacement program. In the meantime, my solution is to use my Windows environment for critical projects that I would normally be doing on my iMac.

jmf