No its very accurate. I've been doing this for 20 years I don't need wikipedia to explain to me how device drivers work. On these systems firmware is nothing more than software that runs hardware.
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iMac Freezing Fix ETA?
- Thread starter wakerider017
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No its very accurate. I've been doing this for 20 years I don't need wikipedia to explain to me how device drivers work. On these systems firmware is nothing more than software that runs hardware.
Yes, but as far as I know if you update the firmware, re-installing the OS will not roll anything back.
I am not a mac expert, but have worked with a lot of PC's. Flashing the mobo, video card, etc firmware was a one time job... no going back.
You were dealing with GPU's back in 1987???
GPU firmware is essentially the CMOS for the graphics card. It's the core instructions by which the data sent to it is interpreted and handled. In GPU firmware updates you can enable or disable functions of the hardware that the drivers cannot.
Drivers interpret and handle requests to the graphics card from the operating system. They're basically just the go-betweens.
It's like this: Let's say that you're CEO of a large company and you need to get something completed to present your view and ideas to the rest of the company at large. The director of your PR team is deaf but is VERY good at their job. If you want to talk to them you can do so by the use of a translator. They convey the information you want to present and let you know what the PR director is saying. That's the function that the driver holds. Now, if you want to change the way they do things you can upgrade their systems or software - they still do the same job but with new software they change the WAY they do their jobs and how efficiently it's performed. That's a firmware update.
That's all.
Driver != Firmware
Well after I posted to you, I do need to correct myself. The term 'firmware" is actually incorrect. Device drivers and firmware seems to be getting rolled into one term so in that case you are correct.
The point I was trying to make is these are not true firmware downloads because in that case you are correct you would have to flash the bios, not sure if that procedure is the same when using EFI.
These updates 1.1, 1.2 and for Leopard 1.3 are nothing more then device driver updates, which is the reason why archive and install worked.
As far a the problem I am guess like everyone else, all I can say is for me the only time I ran into a problem is when I started to install these imac updates, 1.1 didn't hurt anything 1.2 killed my system. Which is why I felt I had nothing to lose attempting to go back.
I really hope they get this fixed soon or admit to something, I wanted to buy another iMac but of course I won't until this issue is resolved one way or the other.
I was at the Apple store tonight and at least everyone there was willling to admit they have heard about they problem and just waiting to see what approach Apple takes.
You can upgrade and revert firmware in most cases but the reinstall of an OS will not revert firmware on its own. You'd need to do that manually.
Don't knock the Hercules monochrome graphics board! ISA green screen FTW!
Or VLB but that's more of a 1989-1990 push.
You can upgrade and revert firmware in most cases but the reinstall of an OS will not revert firmware on its own. You'd need to do that manually.
Don't knock the Hercules monochrome graphics board! ISA green screen FTW!
Or VLB but that's more of a 1989-1990 push.
Well its kind of funny I work for IBM we were using things like cache which we called dasd fast write and raid in some cases 20 years ago for cache and about 15 years ago raid. I always laugh when people thing raid is something new.
My first pc was an 80/86 I think it was about 8mhz, with 640k onboard. Scary.
<-- Citrix, AS/400, wintel, mac sysadmin. Er, iSeries. I'm not gonna get used to that.
Have to love those AS/400 systems. I've always worked with mainframes, working mostly with the OS and some third part software from Computer Associates. MVS back then it moved to OS 390. I swear you could leave the mainframe workd for 10 years come back and not much has changed.
Lets see 1987 I met a girl that is now my wife, got my first Mustang GT and started College. Damn you guys are starting to make me feel old.
Too bad about that forced CISC to RISC migration in 2000 or a lot of people still would be on those old RS6000 and 390 systems. It's funny tho that you don't hear the RISC discussion regarding the PowerPC systems anymore. I still think it was probably the best thing that Apple did in sticking with those RISC chips. Hence my Powermac Dual G5 2.0 that I'm afraid to give up. Sure, it's not a "new" intel system and it's physically slower than the core clock speed of 2.4 GHz in my new mac (getting it tomorrow!) but in terms of raw processing power the intel systems are only JUST catching up with the true 64-Bit RISC chips of 10 years ago. That's why HP and Intel built the Itanic. Er, Itanium.
At least they finally got it working (3 years ago?) - their first iteration was a monsterous 200MHz (in the days of 1.5GHz P4 chips) and it had to be cooled with liquid nitrogen! I think their downfall was the parallel processing of 256-bit VLIW - had they stayed with a standard 128 they would have quadrupled their processing speed and been 1/8th of the way to a good true 64-Bit RISC chip of the day (2000). Oh, and remember that they were pushing the "64-Bit" name by running two 32-Bit chips in parallel on the same die. Funny that the same chip later became the first Core Duo. Heh.
Ok, I'm done now.
I was in 5th grade but my wife was a Junior in High School. No, I never let her forget that.
iMac 24 Replaced
I took my freezing iMac in for repair at the local Apple Store last week. Today, I get the call that it's been repaired and is ready for pick-up. When I received the computer, I asked if I could test it before I took it home and they agreed. I started it up, and BAM FROZE MULTIPLE TIMES! Then I asked to speak to the manager so she came over only to witness the multiple freezes for herself. She then said that it needed to be checked in for 5-7 days. I told her I was a student and checking it in would be extremely inconvenient and that the iMac was defective out of the box. She politely agreed to giving me a replacement. I bought the iMac in August so it's well out of the return period. So far it's working perfectly like a Mac should.
Good luck.
I took my freezing iMac in for repair at the local Apple Store last week. Today, I get the call that it's been repaired and is ready for pick-up. When I received the computer, I asked if I could test it before I took it home and they agreed. I started it up, and BAM FROZE MULTIPLE TIMES! Then I asked to speak to the manager so she came over only to witness the multiple freezes for herself. She then said that it needed to be checked in for 5-7 days. I told her I was a student and checking it in would be extremely inconvenient and that the iMac was defective out of the box. She politely agreed to giving me a replacement. I bought the iMac in August so it's well out of the return period. So far it's working perfectly like a Mac should.
Good luck.
Does your new iMac work then?
Christ, i must admit, even though i havent recieved my first mac (iMac 24") yet, im very worried about the products. In the old day, Apple had a reputation of beeing extreme quality, now it sounds like any other bamboo machine, wrapped in a smart box, with a great OS, which means jack, as long as the hardware is crap
Mediocre LCD quality and defective components, a real shame. I really hope i get pleasently surprised when it arrives, which i have been looking so much forward to, but my joy is fading...Maybe i should stop reading forums
Does your new iMac work then?
Christ, i must admit, even though i havent recieved my first mac (iMac 24") yet, im very worried about the products. In the old day, Apple had a reputation of beeing extreme quality, now it sounds like any other bamboo machine, wrapped in a smart box, with a great OS, which means jack, as long as the hardware is crap
Maybe i should stop reading forums
My replacement iMac is fine. I've installed Leopard and I'm currently transferring my data over from my laptop. All updates are installed on the iMac as well. I've tried reproducing the freeze on this unit and it's still chugging along. I'll be installing WoW tomorrow so I'll keep you updated.
To add to my previous post; I really think this is a hardware issue. The Apple technician conducted a Level 1 Repair, which only consists of software troubleshooting. When the manager tested the unit, it locked up within minutes. Even she agreed that it was a hardware issue and that led to my new replacement I'm typing on right now.
Does your new iMac work then?
Christ, i must admit, even though i havent recieved my first mac (iMac 24") yet, im very worried about the products. In the old day, Apple had a reputation of beeing extreme quality, now it sounds like any other bamboo machine, wrapped in a smart box, with a great OS, which means jack, as long as the hardware is crap
Maybe i should stop reading forums
These and the official Apple forums are killing me as well
. I'm also waiting for my first Mac - 24" iMac - and I'm pretty much expecting to get a freezer.I've even reached the point where I've started given serious thought to calling the store and cancelling my order (waiting on day eight now to hear from a local Apple retailer, looks like this might end up as a 10-14 day delivery - which of itself is rather unacceptable in my opinion), and get a Vista PC instead, possibly an Asus laptop, just to try something different from all the desktop PCs I've had over the years.
Too many PC hardware failures over the last 6-8 years (the mainboard on my one year old main PC fried a couple of weeks ago) - and just an urge to try something new - what was prompted me to order an iMac, but after too much time on Mac forums I'm seriously starting to think if I've just inadvertently set myself up for more headaches, and this time possibly right off the bat rather than a year or two down the line.
I'm really looking forward to getting that iMac, and I'm sure I'll love it - but only if it actually works
.
Does your new iMac work then?
Christ, i must admit, even though i havent recieved my first mac (iMac 24") yet, im very worried about the products. In the old day, Apple had a reputation of beeing extreme quality, now it sounds like any other bamboo machine, wrapped in a smart box, with a great OS, which means jack, as long as the hardware is crap
Maybe i should stop reading forums
"Back in the day" when Apple only had 2% market penetration there weren't enough people to bitch about quality. With higher market penetration comes more hype, traffic and pissing and moaning.
Pretty amazing we are still talking about these issues now into our what 3rd month after release? I may just wait for Rev B iMac or new Macpro. Someone should be holding apples feet to the fire over this crap. This is pretty darn poor.
I've installed the Graphics Firmware update, and this is how it shows up:
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro:
ROM Revision: 113-B2250F-219
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.219
So far so good. No white pixels / freezes yet.
I'm running a 24 inch iMac 2.8 ghz on OS 10.5.1.
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro:
ROM Revision: 113-B2250F-219
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.219
So far so good. No white pixels / freezes yet.
I'm running a 24 inch iMac 2.8 ghz on OS 10.5.1.
I've installed the Graphics Firmware update, and this is how it shows up:
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro:
ROM Revision: 113-B2250F-219
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.219
So far so good. No white pixels / freezes yet.
I'm running a 24 inch iMac 2.8 ghz on OS 10.5.1.
Same for me went from version 01.00.207 brought me to 01.00.219
Running Tiger 10.4.11
24" iMac 2.4
It was a firmware issue hopefully resolved finally. Have to say the things that upsets me more is I just purchased another iMac and im about to return that one for the second time due to stuck pixels. The quality control clearly could be improved.
I am going to raise hell tommorow about having to return my iMac for the second time due to lcd problems. Just glad I live 15 mins from the Apple Store. I feel really bad for people that don't live near one and have to deal with Applecare or shipping their system back and waiting forever.