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Odd screen glitches in Snow Leopard. GPU Fault?

jgbhardy

jgbhardy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 15, 2008
287
0
England
A while after I installed Snow Leopard I started to notice odd glitches I can't think how to describe them. They appear randomly and don't follow anything specific. Anyway has anyone else experienced these? They only started appearing once I had snow leopard installed. I have an early 2008 Macbook 2.4 GHz with an Intel GMA X3100.
Here are some screenshots so you can see what I'm on about, thank you if you can help.
 

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looks like a hardware issue

Could be the graphics card which I believe is the intel integrated chip


Doug
 
jgbhardy said:
A while after I installed Snow Leopard I started to notice odd glitches I can't think how to describe them. They appear randomly and don't follow anything specific. Anyway has anyone else experienced these? They only started appearing once I had snow leopard installed. I have an early 2008 Macbook 2.4 GHz with an Intel GMA X3100.
Here are some screenshots so you can see what I'm on about, thank you if you can help.
Click to expand...

If it were a hardware problem, the artifacts wouldn't show up in screen shots. This is something in software.
 
SPUY767 said:
If it were a hardware problem, the artifacts wouldn't show up in screen shots. This is something in software.
Click to expand...

Definitely.

Amazing how often this is forgotten with these threads. Definitely a software issue it would seem.
 
SPUY767 said:
If it were a hardware problem, the artifacts wouldn't show up in screen shots. This is something in software.
Click to expand...

NewMacbookPlz said:
Definitely.

Amazing how often this is forgotten with these threads. Definitely a software issue it would seem.
Click to expand...

Thanks I thought it might be software that is why I posted it in the Mac OS X forum rather then the Macbook one, also considering they only started happening in Snow Leopard. I thought I would just give the hardware details in case it could be that.

Can someone post a link to where you send Apple details of problems in the OS etc?
 
I have the same problem, it started upon upgrade to SL, on a late 2007 Macbook with the GMA X3100. Let's hope 10.6.3 sorts it out.
 
Hm, I also got a similar glitch a couple of times... I hope 10.6.3 will fix it!
 
SPUY767 said:
If it were a hardware problem, the artifacts wouldn't show up in screen shots. This is something in software.
Click to expand...
This is only true if it were a LCD panel/monitor problem. However, with video card issues, the issue will remain in a screenshot.

I vote for hardware issue. Take it to the Apple tech support.
 
Menge said:
This is only true if it were a LCD panel/monitor problem. However, with video card issues, the issue will remain in a screenshot.

I vote for hardware issue. Take it to the Apple tech support.
Click to expand...

True, what if its a problem with the driver for the GMA X3100 in Snow Leopard? Seeing as it only started after Snow Leopard was installed for me and other users. I think we need to do more then hope Apple has noticed this and are fixing it in 10.6.3 and perhaps tell them.

The problem with the Apple tech support is that I can't get to one easily and my Macbook is out of warranty now. :(
 
I have a similar issue with my 2007 Alu iMac with the ATi 2400 XT running 10.5.8. I've noticed it only happens when I run the machine for over a week or doing a lot of photo editing. A restart is the only way for me to fix the issue.
 
Intell said:
I have a similar issue with my 2007 Alu iMac with the ATi 2400 XT running 10.5.8. I've noticed it only happens when I run the machine for over a week or doing a lot of photo editing. A restart is the only way for me to fix the issue.
Click to expand...

O damn if it's happening to your iMac then it could well be a problem with the GPU if you're running Leopard instead.:(
 
No, it a Mac OS X problem. It never happens in Windows Xp or 7. No matter what I do. But it did happen once on 10.4.11 when I first got it. I think it has to do with bad drivers or something to do with full caches. One of the posts above has already said that if it shows up in a screen shot then it is software based.
 
I was just about to post a thread about this problem. Luckily I found this one. I did not have these problems until recently when I did a clean install of snow leopard (due to frequent kernel panics on my previous snow leopard installation). Hopefully the 10.6.3 update which is coming soon will sort it out. The glitches are very irritating.
 
Ok something different to what usually happens has just occurred and its only happening on one of my screens (I have my Macbook linked up to a 22" display).
I have a numbers document open and all the text and colours have gone strange, something really isn't right here.

Its only happening on my Macbook's screen whilst the 22" screen is normal and when i drag the window across onto the 22" it disappears. However the glitches that normally occur follow the window and don't disappear.
:confused:
 

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Intell said:
I haven't had those kinds of glitches. Mine match the first post.
Click to expand...

I usually don't have the second glitches I posted thats the first time its happened and worryingly only on one screen and with only the Numbers window.

GeneKam said:
Im having similar issues here, except restarts dont fix it. Its usually just with shadows but it spread to the top task bar a few times.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think its the shadows malfunctioning because before they started getting like that there was just no shadow.
I really do hope Apple fixes this in the next update but I feel like we need to report it.
 
It is getting incredibly frequent now and very annoying!
Can anyone post a link for reporting things to Apple I've tried searching for it but I couldn't find it. I know it exists as I've seen on a thread somewhere someone saying 'well report it to Apple and stop complaining' and posting a link to it.
Please help.
 
Well all I can think of is start it up with the original re-installation dvd and let it run for a bit then see if it still does that. If you can't then we know it a Snow Leopard issue if it still appears then its a hardware issue. Either way I think you should still take it to an Apple Store and show them what I does. On a different note. My iMac hasn't had any glitches since late January.
 
My MBA has just done similar to me.. Never happened before. Put it to sleep and it was there when I woke it up again, screensaver worked fine though... Rebooted and now ok...

Ignore the sig, I'm on 10.6.2 as well now...
 

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Intell said:
Well all I can think of is start it up with the original re-installation dvd and let it run for a bit then see if it still does that. If you can't then we know it a Snow Leopard issue if it still appears then its a hardware issue. Either way I think you should still take it to an Apple Store and show them what I does. On a different note. My iMac hasn't had any glitches since late January.
Click to expand...


The problem is that it appears randomly so I could run it of the disk for some time and it wont show up but the same could happen when running snow leopard. Which again means if I got to an Apple store I might not be able to show it to them then and only show them the screenshots. Plus the nearest Apple store is quite far away and I can't get there easily.

I actually dreamt this thread made it onto the front page of MacRumors :(
 
My first gen MacBook Air is also doing the strange shadows thing. I also have inverted colors in Dashboard occasionally.

Time to do a re-install of Snow Leo?
 
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