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iMac Graphics Problem

Love

Love

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 20, 2007
1,782
4
Just southeast of Northwestshire
I have a graphics problem with my first generation iMac Core Duo 17 inch. It seems that in numerous areas throughout the OS, particularly in graphics intensive areas. It's irritating when I go to work on a Final Cut Pro, or when I want to fold, i see nothing but garbled parts of my screen!
 

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How much RAM do you have total? 2GB suggested for graphics intensive apps.
What is the graphics card? Is it a NVIDEA 7600,GForce,ATI/RADEON?

Be sure to disable desktop image swapping if enabled, see if it helps.

Some of the early iMacs had the RADEON's which should be upgraded, and of course the RAM is helpful as well, you can research that at http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/ (OWC is cheap, ships fast, tested memory and reliable)

You can adjust frame rates and certain anti-alias settings of certain cards, if we know what you have.

-jim
 
It's an ATi Radeon X1600. You can't upgrade them in iMacs. I have 1 GB of RAM, so I guess I should have more. I can resolve the issue with Final Cut Pro by opening it, sleeping the computer for a minute or so, and turning on the computer again. More RAM couldn't hurt.
 
I was referring to [SIZE=-1]a 128mb to 256mb upgrade on the 3d card itself which "might" be an option for that early iMac (an informal suggestion sans warranty concerns, I am not sure). And of course 2GB of RAM should make a world of difference for you beyond any other suggestions or costs. If an intel duo core be sure to pair the memory in the DIMMS for interleaving (you get a 7-8% performance boost in applications that support it). Good luck with it.

-jim
[/SIZE]
 
Folding at home viewer runs that bad on my iMac Aluminium 24" (november 2007). I have no idea if it's working or not (i only see four processes going on).
 
Love said:
Tis what I thought.
Click to expand...

I had a 20" Core Duo iMac (same X1600) that started getting artifacting almost exactly like that. It got worse and then the system started locking up and eventually I couldn't even boot into OS X.

It was 6 weeks out of warranty (I passed on AppleCare... never again!) and it turned out to need a logic board replacement. :(
 
It could be a hardware fault, or it could be software. A complete erase and install would be the best way to see if it's software (or a fresh install on an external disk if you want to keep your current setup).

Adding more ram won't fix it anyway.
 
Please look closely at the screen snapshots they provided. The interlacing issue only occurs within the program window, not any surrounding elements displayed by OS X directly, i.e. the dock, title area, surrounding graphics and so on.

The graphics intensive work is attributed to the software itself, which taxes the operating system. If it was a bad chip, I'd expect it happening to all windows, all areas, intermittently at first and worse over time. That's not what the evidence shows, so far. Unless the user can supply snapshots of garbled chrome area, dock, etc. then I will confirm its obviously a chip issue.

Usually when only a few graphics intensive apps themselves behave badly it means a little more memory is the proper FIRST response. I am not discounting the other causes or remedies here, just... not yet.

-jim
 
after reading this post i thought i would try folding at home my self, and as surprised to see the exact same problem as you are experiencing...


this leads me to think its a folding at home software problem,

my mac is an Alu iMac - 2.4ghz w. 1gb ram
 
MrT8064 said:
after reading this post i thought i would try folding at home my self, and as surprised to see the exact same problem as you are experiencing...


this leads me to think its a folding at home software problem,

my mac is an Alu iMac - 2.4ghz w. 1gb ram
Click to expand...

I uninstalled folding@home from my iMac (exactly same configuration of MrT8064).

Is there another distributed computing project that runs correctly under Leopard?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects
 
Now you're all tracking properly. Just bear in mind the original author mentioned it was happening to other software as well, though unnamed.

The only other thing in common, aside from the named software, is your memory configuration, 1GB. Makes me say, hmmm.

BTW, regardless of causality, 2GB will make your iMac run considerably more efficient as more apps are opened and/or when 3D graphics with alot of effects and/or fonts with anti-aliasing using larger regions of memory than usual. Just sayin'.

-jim
 
JohanCruyff said:
I uninstalled folding@home from my iMac (exactly same configuration of MrT8064).

Is there another distributed computing project that runs correctly under Leopard?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects
Click to expand...

There is a Folding@Home client for Intel Macs, you do not want to use the PPC
version. Unfortunately the only thing you can check on the SMP version are text files.
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4650079#post4650079


Anyway, the problem with the OP seems to be software based. More RAM might help. Or do you have the version with integrated graphics?
 
Consultant said:
There is a Folding@Home client for Intel Macs, you do not want to use the PPC
version. Unfortunately the only thing you can check on the SMP version are text files.
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4650079#post4650079


Anyway, the problem with the OP seems to be software based. More RAM might help. Or do you have the version with integrated graphics?
Click to expand...

Thanks.
I'm sure I installed the intel one. I'll buy more RAM in the next weeks, and then I'll install F@H again on my iMac 24" Alu.
 
A lack of RAM shouldn't cause artifacts such as those. It would cause jerkiness and more instances of the spinning wheel.

I'd take that iMac in to be looked at. A failing GPU or its associated memory is often characterised by odd squares across the screen. Alternatively, a buggy set of graphics drivers would cause the same effect.
 
AlexisV said:
A lack of RAM shouldn't cause artifacts such as those. It would cause jerkiness and more instances of the spinning wheel.

I'd take that iMac in to be looked at. A failing GPU or its associated memory is often characterised by odd squares across the screen. Alternatively, a buggy set of graphics drivers would cause the same effect.
Click to expand...

In my case, the problem used to arise only with Folding@home Viewer.
Furthermore, if I choosed a couple of options different from "spacefilled", the application crashed. Always.
I think this could be a software issue.


P.S. I don't use Final Cut, BTW.
 
I've got a 24" Alu iMac with 4GB of RAM. Guess what?

Yep! Folding@home is bawked on my setup too.

This is the first instance where I've seen corrupted graphics like this on my setup and quite frankly, given that I'm running Leopard with beta software like this, does make me think of software problems (OS and app) before hardware.

Just my 2¢.
 
K, I think thats just a F@h bug, but it's happening on and off in:

Final Cut Pro
Lightroom
Photoshop
Aperture
sometimes even iMovie.

I'm gonna call AppleCare and see what they have to say for themselves.
 
KJmoon117 said:
My dock does this weird stacking crap with my stacks after I play EV Nova. So I'm in the same boat as you dude.
Click to expand...

That's pretty common. Are the icons invisible and the name blocks black? It's an odd bug I hope is fixed in the next update.
 
brop52 said:
That's pretty common. Are the icons invisible and the name blocks black? It's an odd bug I hope is fixed in the next update.
Click to expand...

Kind of, the icons are stacks behind each other (folder icons) so when you mouse over them it looks like there is a normal sized folder, medium size, and a large sized folder stacked behind each other. It keeps happening after waking, playing a game, and it goes away after I restart.

Sorry to go off topic here though but it didn't start happening until I started to heavily play Civ 4/EV Nova.
 
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