Q: iMac 24" Intel/Early 2009 Graphics Card Issues, How to Disable Quartz Extreme in Lion?
I have searched online but cannot find a method in Lion for disabling Quartz Extreme. Has anyone done this and if so, how is it done?
I have an iMac 24" Intel/Early 2009 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with the
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 256 MBgraphics card which is an MXM mobile card that so many people have had issues with and it has some serious and odd graphics card Issues. When connected to my Dell 2048 24" display via DVI adapter, it remains relatively stable. I do have freezes more often than what would be considered normal, but it is when it is a standalone iMac, with no external display that I have incessant freezes and graphics artifacts followed by a freeze. I've done the usual, fsck, permissions, permissions off Lion USB boot, Onyx, reinstall, unplugged everything but the keyboard and mouse and I've even disassembled the iMac and cleaned the graphics and CPU chips when I was putting in an SSD. I have installed a fan control app and the only reliable way to run this iMac when the external is not connected is in Safe Mode.
In Safe Mode it is stable and does not ever crash and is generally a usable machine, however, there are limitations so I'm looking for a way to disable Quartz Extreme in the latest Lion 10.7.4 ver. so I can run this iMac more as a "normal" machine with audio, search & etc working. Neither work in Safe Mode. I am hoping that by disabling Quart Extreme that I can get a stable machine back for those times when I'm traveling with my iMac and need to work.
Thanks,
JoeL
Atlanta, GA
iMac (2009) 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Added 2TB 7200rpm HD, maxed Memory
Posted on May 31, 2012 2:56 PM
I believe that I found the solution. I installed a program which I downloaded after installing XCode called Quartz Debug which has apparently allowed me to disable Quartz Extreme, 2D Acceleration and Quartz GL. I'm not sure which one of these changes has allowed my shaky iMac to run stably now for three hours, including a half hour running a flash game and to play about the same amount of the iTunes download of the movie Avatar, so I'm relatively confident that what I did is working. Both Flash and Quicktime seem to work fine although there does seem to be a bit of screen redraw lag when moving objects on the screen or opening new windows. Other features seem to work fine such as Dock magnification and the Scale and Genie effects.
To disable Quartz Extreme:
Install XCode and then under the XCode menu (the one to the left of "File") click on Open Developer Tool/More Developer Tools...
That will take you to this web page:
https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action?name=for%20Xcode%20-
(I don't know if just downloading QD will work without installing XCode, it might)
Select and dowload the package of Applications/Tools called:
Graphics Tools for XCode
Drag the Quartz Debug program to your Applications or Utilities folder. Start Quartz Debug. If you don't get the default tools window open when you start it, look under:
Window/Quartz Debug Settings
. . . and a window will open. You can also hit command-1.
In that menu I made these changes:
- Deselected Enable Quartz Extreme
- Checked the Disable 2D Acceleration
- Checked the Disable radio button under Quartz GL
I am not confident that the settings will persist if I close the program. One website suggested that by forcing quit they will persist, but I'm just not sure. I'll experiment with this later and post again if no one else does. So for now I'm leaving it running and with these settings and no other changes.
I also applied the following changes in Terminal although I'm not sure that it did anything:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120211025246804
So far it's working. I'll follow-up as I have time and once I'm back home.
JoeL
Atlanta, GA
Posted on Jun 1, 2012 5:55 PM