Overview:
I’ve installed OS X 10.5 Leopard on five Mac’s, four of which have no known issues. This post is about two issues I’ve had with Leopard on my main computer a Mac Pro.
Last fall when I installed OS X 10.5 (Leopard) on my main computer, a Mac Pro, I went against my better judgement and did an “Upgrade Install.” Now I normally wouldn’t do an upgrade, I’d do an “Archive and Install” which provides a cleaner OS install. With an “Upgrade Install” you often bring problems forward or create new problems in the newly installed OS, which is what I believe happened to me.
There’s been two issues with Leopard on my Mac Pro, one occurring since the initial upgrade, which I wrote about here, and the other occurring since installing Leopard update 10.5.2.
Issue One:
The longest running issue is a random but frequent display of graphical artifacts in the form of a single pixel width multicolor line across a window or windows on my desktop. These “artifact lines” conform to an application window and move and resize with the window they’re in. It’s happened with almost every application at one time or the other and there’s hardly been an hour when I haven’t had at least one artifact line displayed.
Yes, it’s a small thing but over a period of time it can drive you crazy. Imagine editing a photo and suddenly there’s this thin line of multi-color artifacts running across it requiring you to close the window and hope that it goes away when you reopen it, or perhaps you’re trying to get a screen shot and this line shows up across the window you wanting to focus on. Maddening!
This artifact problem is not mine alone and is well documented on the Apple discussion boards. The general consensus is that it’s a hardware issue of the ATI X1900 XT display card, perhaps generated by higher graphic demands of Leopard. There’s also some thinking that it’s a heat problem. These cards, while performing well, do tend to run hot. Knowing this, I’d initially installed a better heat sink and cooling system on my X1900 card in hopes of preventing the over-heating problem and to also reduce the noise of the stock cooling fan.
I’d never experienced this problem with OS X 10.4 Tiger and had been hoping that it was a software issue with Leopard. However, when the latest update of Leopard 10.5.2 was released and the issue persisted I’d about conceded that it was indeed hardware. Last week I placed an order for a HD 2600 XT graphics card to replace the X1900 but it hasn’t arrived.
Issue Two:
The second and more serious issue began occurring after I installed the Leopard 10.5.2 update. I started experiencing partial keyboard lock-ups (function keys and control keys would work, alphanumeric would not) and erratic mouse movement leading to an eventual system lockup that could only be solved by a hard power-off and reboot. These incidents seemed to be becoming more frequent.
My Search for Fixes:
As a first step in trying to fix these problems, I ran utilities Onyx and Cocktail to clean and reset permissions on OS X. I also booted from the Leopard install disk and ran Disk Utility to check and fix any problems with my boot hard drive. I removed and cleaned the cooling fins of the X1900 graphics card and reseated it. None of this helped.
Yesterday, I decided to re-install Leopard using the Install and Archive procedure. When completed I then reinstalled all updates using Software Update.
This reinstall seems to have solved both issues. It’s been 24 hours and it’s the first time I’ve not experienced one or both of these problems for this long of a period. I can only surmised that there were old or corrupted drivers/data left when I first did the Leopard upgrade.
Wrap Up:
My issues are fixed and as an added bonus Leopard now seems faster then ever before. I’ve noticed also that Spotlight doesn’t seem to take as long to index items upon boot-up.
So, does anyone need a Mac Pro ATI HD 2600 XT graphics card that will be delivered here today? ;-)
Disclaimer:
What worked for me may not work for anyone else even if you have the same or similar problems.
I only present this to share my personal experiences.
Updates:
02/20/2008 – 10:35 am
So about 10 mins after publishing this post I got my first horizontal artifact line in Safari. I guess I’ll need that HD 2600 XT card. :-(
Still no keyboard lockups.
02/20/2008 – 03:35 pm
Since my last update I installed Leopard Graphics Update 1.0. I’ve only seen one horizontal artifact line, the one mentioned above, and none since.
02/21/2008 – 06:25 pm
By using a system test utility to “max out” the X1900 graphics card I was able to get it to begin generating artifact lines. I then replaced the X1900 XT card with a ATI HD 2600 XT card and have not noticed any artifacts.
I can only surmise that my X1900 XT card was in fact beginning to go bad and that my “corrupted” initial install of Leopard was driving the X1900 beyond its limit.
An additional indicator is that I noted a drop in temperature inside my Mac Pro one I did a clean install of Leopard, but still had the X1900 XT in place. This drop possibly was due to the X1900 no longer being driven as hard by the cleanly installed Leopard.
The bad side is that I down graded graphics cards in regard to performance but I believe the HD 2600 will be all I need.
Hey Earl,
I thought those Mac things Just Worked ™? :P
I was thinking I could use a nice new video card, unfortunately an upcoming trip to Disneyworld precludes any extracurricular expenditures at the moment. ;)
@Richard:
Hey, they do “just work”, unfortunately they don’t always “just work” so well. I’m still ahead of the “Vista curve.” ;-)
Let’s see, Disney World or a graphics card…definitely Disney World, good choice!
Hi,
I was interested to read that you conclude this was a hardware issue. There are hundreds of people posting similar issues, some on MacBook Pros, some on Mac Pros and others, like myself on a 20″ iMac Intel.
Having just upgraded to Leopard 10.5.4 I thought I would be safe from this, having waited out all the upgrades. But no. I am seeing the pixel line in a variety of programs and sometimes on the desktop with nothing open.
I have also had a few lockups since the upgrade. I should mention that my first try was an upgrade rather than a fresh install, which was not good at all, blue screen, freezes, the lot. With a clean install things got better but I am still seeing the graphics issue and the occasional lockup.
For an iMac, switching the graphics card is not possible. I just wondered if you had seen this issue again since switching the card?
@Mick England:
Since switching from the X1900 to the ATI Radeon HD 2600 video card there have been zero (‘0’) line/artifacts.
Initially I suspected that it was a driver problem with Leopard as I’d used this X1900 card with Tiger for some time without issues.
I still believe there’s incompatibility with some part of Leopard and select graphic drivers/devices. However, I also know from research that some of the X1900 cards have had similar artifacting issues as well.
I don’t have any advice beyond keep monitoring the support boards and maybe a Leopard update will one day fix this.
I’ve still got my X1900 in a box on the shelf. ;-)
I’ve got Leopard running on a 1st gen 17″ intel MBP and I’ve got not only the lines, but also graphic “tears” where a part of the screen will look like it pulled and skewed and also 2″ square or so transparent blocks of color *in addition* to the lines. My card’s a X1600. Pushed my 30″ cinema display fine in tiger, in leopard all of the above whether I have the display plugged in or just running the laptop screen only.
Everything I’ve tried hasn’t worked and I’ve just learned to live with it. It gets even worse in games where it looks like vertices get lost in limbo, but still form the geometry, creating massive spikes jutting off of objects.
Sounds like a Radeon driver issue personally and I hope whoever fixes it. While for the most part, I’ve been able to ignore it, it still really pisses me off.
This problem still hasn’t been resolved. I just bought a brand new Mac Pro with the ATI Radeon 2600 XT card, and at various times I am bombarded with artifacts on my Dell monitor. I called the local Apple store, and the person there didn’t know this problem existed. I only bought my unit there two weeks ago. Earlier in the year, I purchased two MacBook Pros with Nvidia cards and saw similar video glitches/artifacts on two both of them. I knew then that something was wrong (two units malfunctioning both at startup). I eventually returned them both. Apple knows that the expectation level is much higher for them than other manufacturers, that’s the only way to justify their cost. This sounds like a class action suit to me. Who’s with me? There QA dept may be killing their stock as much as uncertainty in the marketplace. Someone needs to address this issue quickly. Not many people I know will be williing to spend $3000 on a computer to have a “known” manufacturers defect along with it. This needs to be a hardware exchange.
Same problem here guys! I have 2×2.8 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 6Gb of Ram and the Radon 2600 xt. I get wicked triangle artifacts its like a kaleidoscope on my screen.
It only happens when I run cs3 photoshop, illustrator, indesign, and Strata 3d together. I talked with someone from Strata and he recommended turning down the screen resolution. It worked but sux to have a fuzzy screen.
Iam all for the class action law suit
Try running “smcfancontrol_2_1_3” It solved all my screen artifacts. when I’m running at around 95-106 degrees I’m fine, but when backup starts the temp jumps to 117 and the artifacts come back. So it looks pretty much a heat problem.