I got my MacPro in the mail last thursday. By the next day I had it mostly set up, then noticed that when playing DVD's, HD Movies, Games, and apples own screen saver Flurry. A line moves from the bottom to the top of the screen in about ten seconds, the line isn't black but rather you can see a time distortion between what is above and below the line. It basically looks like a VCR with the V-hold set wrong. This occurs every thing that moving 2D and 3D graphics are displayed across the screen. I called apple on sunday and giulded me threw software Checks, then advised that I take it in and set an appointment for me later that day. The "Apple Genius" that helped me was a total gerk. The said and wrote in his service report that he determined that the GPU s likly functioning under spec. and that I should have more resonable expectations. I would rely like comments. Is watching a tv show or a DVD with smooth play back an unresonable expectation. My system is a Quad proc 2.66 with 1 Gig ram and the X1900 XT graphics card.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Screen Redraw anomaly
- Thread starter John@Portland
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
John,
I have the standard video card in my Mac Pro which is provides less video performance then your card. I have absolutely NO video problems with DVD playback, games (Quake 4), etc.
If your looking for smooth DVD playback then your expectations are certainly not unreasonable. There may be some screen redraw errors that happen from time to time with games that require large amounts of video processing, however, it should not be a continuous issue. If it is, then something is wrong.
I would call Apple back and complain more if I was experiencing this problem. Perhaps you can get a different "genius" to help you this time.
Best of luck,
Dave
I have the standard video card in my Mac Pro which is provides less video performance then your card. I have absolutely NO video problems with DVD playback, games (Quake 4), etc.
If your looking for smooth DVD playback then your expectations are certainly not unreasonable. There may be some screen redraw errors that happen from time to time with games that require large amounts of video processing, however, it should not be a continuous issue. If it is, then something is wrong.
I would call Apple back and complain more if I was experiencing this problem. Perhaps you can get a different "genius" to help you this time.
Best of luck,
Dave
He did take that machine and said that he would replace the card but that if the replacment didn't fix the problem then the issues would be considered in spec. They have had it five day's and are still not done. Which I think is crazy, how long does it really take to replace a graphics card?
Not very long, but there are other people in the queue probably...
They don't just replace the graphics card either. They've probably got it on their advanced diagnostics system, which is like an ultra advanced version of Apple Hardware Test.
Takes 2 days to run all the way through...
They don't just replace the graphics card either. They've probably got it on their advanced diagnostics system, which is like an ultra advanced version of Apple Hardware Test.
Takes 2 days to run all the way through...
If they don't have a graphics card in stock and can't obtain one in short order then they should not hold my machine hostage. I gave it to them sunday so they have had it six day's now.
They aren't very expeditious. Worst repair time I had was three weeks for my PowerBook a couple of years ago (they fixed it properly though). It's usually about a week or two to fix anything. Dell rules Apple when it comes to repairs (overnight exchanges and all). I can't imagine what people who's livelihoods depend on their Macs do in those cases (get another??).
Hi,
I had exactly the same problem and eventually i found that it was the screen saver, once it had run the next time i used the computer i found that the performance had degraded and the line that go's up like a bad VCR started appearing, it even noticeably effected the smoothness of the dock and minimisation of open windows. its like the screen savers are buggy and still consume masses of system resources even though not currently active e.g. i found that all of my 3Gb of RAM was used. It would remain like this until restart.
Now i have the screen saver disabled and just have the monitors set to switch off after 10 minits. No problems at all
p.s. i got the tip from my friend who runs Linux and told me that Linux screensavers are notorious for leaky memory
I had exactly the same problem and eventually i found that it was the screen saver, once it had run the next time i used the computer i found that the performance had degraded and the line that go's up like a bad VCR started appearing, it even noticeably effected the smoothness of the dock and minimisation of open windows. its like the screen savers are buggy and still consume masses of system resources even though not currently active e.g. i found that all of my 3Gb of RAM was used. It would remain like this until restart.
Now i have the screen saver disabled and just have the monitors set to switch off after 10 minits. No problems at all
p.s. i got the tip from my friend who runs Linux and told me that Linux screensavers are notorious for leaky memory
If I ever get the computer back, apple has had it in for "repair" really just replace the graphic's card for 8 day's now. I will test your theory and get back to you.
I got my MacPro back Wednesday they replaced the graphics card but the issue still persist. The people at the apple store clam that it is within spec. In an attempt to see if I could get the issue to go away I zeroed out the hard drive. Then reinstalled the OS. I even made sure not to have anything to do with the suspect screensaver. Never the less the Redraw is still appearing.
I talked to level two tech support, they confermed the issue and passed it on. Hopefully apple will find a fix for this.