Window border graphic distortion

I really think once you excede 5000 page outs is when it really is vulnerable to the distortion happening, and that only happens after 20 some minutes of RAM intenesive tasks.

Mac Mini Core Duo 1GB RAM, Sony VAIO RA-826G Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Unfortunately, you're right. I just got a MacBook, and I have the exact same issue you guys are having 😟

I think the theory about Rosetta apps might be correct - for now I'm trying not to use them where possible.

On a side note, I believe TinkerTool is capable of turning off window shadows globally - that might be a temporary solution if the problem is really bugging you. Also, I found that having the Dock magnification on very slightly allows you to fix corrupted Dock icons my mousing over them (if you're getting the Dock corruption, that is).

Andrew,

Thanks for confirming my theory ...

As to the Rosetta theory, I have not been running any PowerPC binaries for quite some time (well, none that I am aware of), and I can never see rosetta as a thread in the System Monitor (assuming it is called 'rosetta').

Needless to say, all "Kind" types in my System Monitor are Intel, and I get the corruption.

At this stage, I tend to lean more to the memory paging as a plausible theory.

Anyway, here's hoping for a fix.

I was pointing the finger at Rosetta merely because is uses a lot more RAM - and therefore pushes you nearer to that point where paging out occurs.

I stuck two 1GB sticks in my MacBook yesterday, and so far so good 🙂

I'm also wondering if this might be down to badly seated RAM somehow ? I know it's unlikely but....????

Could be ... but I'm not about to open up my Mini to install different RAM, or check it's seating. I'm currently running 1 GB RAM, but it's weird that the distortion only occurs sparodically. There does not seem to be 1 guaranteed thing to do to trigger it ... well, not that I've found yet.

I can have it when running only a couple of apps, get it when the Mini is woken from sleep, coming out of the Screensaver, etc. Too many scenarios.

I guess that I am just waiting in baited breath.

Oh ... can you do me a favour? What revision is your GMA 950 in the MacBook? Have a look in System Profiler under Graphics/Displays.

Thanks.

Well, I see folks who got new MacBooks are having the same problems...check it out here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=489831&tstart=0

Mac Mini Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1GB RAM

All,

I have sent a follow up to my Bug Report, highlighting that the new MacBook is experiencing the same issues. Have not yet had a reply.

Maybe that there is more than one Apple product with the problem now may speed up a resolution.

Regards,

Adrian.

Ok ... got a reply ...

Exactly the same response that I got from my last inquiry ... word for word ...

For me, the firmware update did not fix the problem, but an upgrade to 2GB of RAM did fix it. I am distortion free for one month now and I never shut my Mac Mini down for more than a few minutes to do the occasional reboot.

Have you used anything like Photoshop or Illustrator or InDesign in the last few weeks? Those are basically the only programs I know of that can page out so much RAM that it will cause distortion on the 2 giggers.

I'm leaning towards the Distortion being caused by the overheating of the GPU, for two reasons. Since updating with the latest Firmware which did the following...

The latest SMC update had the following consequences: a higher rotation speed for the fans; the CPU's temperature down 5 to 10C; the voltage of the CPU was modified; and the cooling system's temperature threshold was lowered, with cooler but noisier machines as a consequence.

Along with the fact that it's winter down here now and the environment I'm running my Mini is is about 10℉ cooler I haven't had the distortion once!

Of course I'm not totally convinced, as it still doesn't explain why so many people get the Distortions on waking their Minis or MacBooks from sleep.

Mini Mac Duo Core Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Well - this thread certainly is a long one. I feel I should add one more data point. I was finally able to reproduce this on my G5 at work! On an old system that has nothing in common with the new hardware - other than the version of the operating system.

Argh...

I'm not sure if there are several things going on here to cause the video buffer to get disorganized, but it appears to be something that can happen on multiple models...

From Apple Insider about the upcoming Tiger update:

"Over the weekend, the Cupertino, Calif.-based Mac maker continued its rapid seeding of Mac OS X 10.4.7, releasing build 8J2126 for Intel-based Macs.

In this latest build, Apple is reported to have tweaked metadata handling and sound playback. Fixes were also employed for screen and window display issues."

Mac Mini Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1GB RAM

Well, it's been a while, lots of updates installed since this thread started, and I haven't had any distortion for weeks. Could it finally be sorted??? I assume posting this message will anger the gremlins... We shall see.


Joules

As Richard Cartledge posted before this is a known issue (Bug ID# 4537369) currently under investigation by Apple. There is nothing you can do but wait for an software update.

/Sven