David Portela

Q: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 Kernel Panics/Freezes in Lion & late Snow Leopard

I've found some other reports of these freezes scattered about the forums, but usually other people come in and post something about unrelated video cards. So this thread is specific to NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 running OS X Lion (10.7-10.7.3), to avoid confusion and cross-polination of different issues.

 

Hardware Overview:

 

  Model Name:          iMac

  Model Identifier:          iMac9,1

  Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo

  Processor Speed:          3.06 GHz

  Number of Processors:          1

  Total Number of Cores:          2

  L2 Cache:          6 MB

  Memory:          8 GB

  Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz

  Boot ROM Version:          IM91.008D.B08

  SMC Version (system):          1.37f3

 

NVIDIA GeForce GT 130:

 

  Chipset Model:          NVIDIA GeForce GT 130

  Type:          GPU

  Bus:          PCIe

  PCIe Lane Width:          x16

  VRAM (Total):          512 MB

  Vendor:          NVIDIA (0x10de)

  Device ID:          0x062e

  Revision ID:          0x00a1

  ROM Revision:          3370

 

 

Since upgrading to Lion I have had many issues with crashes and kernel panics characterized by the following symptoms, listed here in detail so that people can find them when they search:

 

  • Pixellation - colored pixels appear in different areas of the screen, in seemingly random bunches.
  • Mosaics - squares appear redrawn in the wrong part of the screen. Sometimes these squares are large, other times tiny.
  • Recovery - sometimes the system recovers once it starts doing these. Other times it just keeps going until it freezes/panics.
  • Kernel Panics - I've only had the "grey screen" appear once or twice. Usually there is a complete system lockup before this can happen, and I have to reboot the system manually.

 

Some solutions/attempts to solve:

 

  • Turn off Energy Saving - This is horrible for the monitor and can lead to burn-in, but I found that many of my crashes occured when the system was trying to recover from "screen sleep". So now I run a screen saver instead, which doesn't seem to trigger it as much.
  • Screen Saver - Sometimes I can "refresh" the system by turning on the screen saver and then coming back. Other times, this doesn't work and the pixellation/mosaic remains. Sometimes I can't even initialize the screen saver at all (in which case a total freeze usually occurs right after).
  • Rebooting - seems to clear things up for a while, but inevitably, the problem resurfaces.
  • Running Windows - Not really a solution, but I have had absolutely no issues with this behavior while running Windows 7 on this same machine (under Bootcamp).
  • Downgrading to Snow Leopard - I have not attempted this, but I've read others say that their crashes went away when they did. I would like some more concrete evidence on this if anyone has it.

 

My diagnosis so far:

 

  • OS X Lion's NVIDIA driver kernel extensions (kexts) seem to be faulty with this GPU. The Windows drivers for this GPU work better on Apple's own hardware than OS X Lion's. Anectodal evidence indicates that Snow Leopard's drivers (at least up to 10.6.3 – more confirmation needed) do not display this issue. I can confirm that this never occurred in Snow Leopard until Lion was released and I upgraded to it.

 

My request for help and information:

 

  • If you are running this GPU (GeForce GT 130) and OS X Lion, please contribute to this thread offering any solutions you may have or, at the very least, listing your hardware and GPU profile.
  • If you can, post crash logs so that we can compare common issues (NVDA Resman seems to be a huge recurring kext in the crash logs, for instance).
  • Post screen shots or pictures taken of the pixellation (colored pixels) and mosaic (squares drawn in the wrong place) phenomenon, so we can build a body of evidence regarding this issue. I will continue to update this thread with the same.

 

I feel Apple has ignored these issues for far too long, and required too many people to simply purchase new computers and new GPUs. If we can build a solid body of evidence regarding this specific issue, it will be a thread that Apple Support can be referred to.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 3.06 Ghz (Early 2009 – iMac9,1)

Posted on May 9, 2012 8:29 AM

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Q: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 Kernel Panics/Freezes in Lion & late Snow Leopard

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  • by Markus Kirschner,

    Markus Kirschner Markus Kirschner Mar 4, 2013 10:04 PM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2013 10:04 PM in response to David Portela

    I'm having the same problems with my iMac 2009. Noticed the news article at TUAW. I hope that Apple will finally fix this and the crashes will go away.

    Cheers,

    Markus

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Mar 4, 2013 11:46 PM in response to Markus Kirschner
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2013 11:46 PM in response to Markus Kirschner

    I think the only way to fix this computer is changing gpu and motherboard. It isn't a software issue.

     

    Btw, thank you for coming here! I'm proud of myself! :)

  • by lefterisgr,

    lefterisgr lefterisgr Mar 5, 2013 12:17 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 12:17 AM in response to David Portela

    Same exact problem here. I wish Apple would pay some attention.

  • by Ramona Adams,

    Ramona Adams Ramona Adams Mar 5, 2013 4:26 AM in response to sgadsby
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 4:26 AM in response to sgadsby

    Go back to the Apple store and show the posts in this thread to the genius.  That's what I did.  I proved to him that I could make it happen even though the hardware tests all showed there was nothing wrong.

     

    Luckily, the video card replacement seems to have corrected my issues, but...I have not used that computer as much as I used to. I moved all my important functions to my laptop and have been using that since I don't trust the iMac. 

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Mar 5, 2013 4:30 AM in response to Ramona Adams
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 4:30 AM in response to Ramona Adams

    How much did you pay for replacement? And please, can you put your Mac under stress to see if gpu is working correctly? Thanks

  • by Ramona Adams,

    Ramona Adams Ramona Adams Mar 5, 2013 4:49 AM in response to amandreamartino
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 4:49 AM in response to amandreamartino

    It was $180 at the Apple store for the new video card.  I did put it under stress.  I can open several youtube videos at the same time.  It used to crash with just one or anything that was similar.  Before the card replacement, I could force a kernel panic by doing anything that was graphic intensive. 

     

    Mine also started with the last SL release prior to lion.  I installed Lion hoping that it would fix the issues, but it did not.  There was a firmware update with that release.  I even replaced the hard drive and memory and restored back to original leopard.  Once the firmware was installed none of that would fix the issue. 

     

    So far, new card seems to be working good.  I just don't use it as much as I did.  But, it will play videos, netflix, etc.  so I feel that it is ok.  Just wish I had not waited so long to fix it. 

  • by Will Moindrot,

    Will Moindrot Will Moindrot Mar 5, 2013 4:54 AM in response to amandreamartino
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 4:54 AM in response to amandreamartino

    I got mine replaced for £130 at a Genius bar. I stress tested the replacement with this piece of software: http://www.geeks3d.com/20121129/gputest-0-2-1-for-mac-osx-opengl-benchmark-furma rk-gimark-stress-test-videocard/ (furtest)

     

    I ran that alongside several instances of OSX's grapher app (utilities), plus several Chrome windows runniny Youtube. It could run all night long with no issues. But running iPhoto the replacement card started to quickly show the same symptoms as the original card. If you get a replacement card I would avoid running Mountain Lion

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Mar 5, 2013 5:01 AM in response to Will Moindrot
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 5:01 AM in response to Will Moindrot

    I'm running all of these applications without a single crash... I'm not aving crashes using osx since months. But I simply can't trust this Mac. For example, I can only play rfactor using Windows for 5/10minutes before it crash in the same way my system was crashing when I wasn't controling fans.

     

    This is simply unacceptable.

     

    I would prefer to not pay for an Apple/Nvidia fault... I'll see how the situation will grow. Btw, thanks for your informations.

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Mar 5, 2013 5:02 AM in response to Will Moindrot
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 5:02 AM in response to Will Moindrot

    I need ML because I need updated xcode...

  • by celloist,

    celloist celloist Mar 5, 2013 6:49 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 6:49 AM in response to David Portela

    Check out the data tables:

     

    iMac (24-inch, Early 2009)
    24-inch display, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB, 1TB Serial ATA hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 graphics
    Power ConsumptionThermal Output
    IdleCPU MaxIdleCPU Max
    113.9 W208.9 W387.3 BTU/h710.3 BTU/h

     

    iMac (Late, 2009)
    iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)
    21.5-inch  display, 3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB,  500GB Serial ATA hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
    Power ConsumptionThermal Output
    IdleCPU MaxIdleCPU Max
    104 W241 W 355 BTU/h822 BTU/h

     

    While the later models are:

     

    iMac (Late 2011)
    iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2011)
    21.5-inch display, 3.1GHz Intel Core i3, 2GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB, 250GB Serial ATA hard drive, AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics
    Power ConsumptionThermal Output
    IdleCPU MaxIdleCPU Max
    80 W101 W273 BTU/h345 BTU/h

     

    Any wonder there is a thermal issue?!!

     

    I installed the smcFanControl application and cranked it up to 2190rpm to keep the temp at around 35C. No more kernal crashes but I still less occaionally see graphic annomalies after extended sleep. Seems the temps rise in sleep. Possible because the smcFanControl doesn't operate in sleep mode?

     

    https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3559

     

    I now also have a small supply of marshmellows and a stick just in case ;-). Have to wonder why the great and vernerable Mr Jobs in his greatness and visionary genius maintained such a proto-facist attitude about fans, the twirling kind? (NO! not the gay ones, Oh behave!!)

  • by MrMorn,

    MrMorn MrMorn Mar 5, 2013 6:50 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 6:50 AM in response to David Portela

    I'm glad that I've found this post. Having the same problems. Apple, please fix!

  • by MR.MICHAEL.STILES,

    MR.MICHAEL.STILES MR.MICHAEL.STILES Mar 5, 2013 8:05 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 8:05 AM in response to David Portela

    Again, the SMC is not a solution.  There is something else causing the problems that needs to be remedied, rather than the consumers having to find quick fixes.  From what I have read, it appears that the kernal panic has done some damage to the logic board and the GPU, both of which need to be replaced to ensure the fault does not continue.

  • by David Portela,

    David Portela David Portela Mar 5, 2013 11:17 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 11:17 AM in response to David Portela

    Thanks to TUAW for bringing attention to this issue.

     

    Hopefully this will bring about a resolution!

  • by joankito,

    joankito joankito Mar 5, 2013 12:38 PM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2013 12:38 PM in response to David Portela

    Same problems in my iMac of age... in The Netherlands.

    Don't dare to go back to previous software because of earlier problems with iPhoto and iMovie files...

     

    Joost

  • by alapaje,

    alapaje alapaje Mar 6, 2013 2:47 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 6, 2013 2:47 AM in response to David Portela

    Hello from France,

     

    exactly the same problem, with my iMad early 2009 with a GT120 :-(

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