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Graphics Card Glitching? Or Lion Problem? nVidia 320m

A

aeronauticsrock

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 30, 2010
83
0
Hi everyone,

In the last couple days, Ive noticed some occasional glitching on my display. It lasts about a second, and has been happening 1-2 times per day. It is not in a consisten location. I managed to catch a screenshot of what it looks like (with my fantasy baseball league, lol). The glitching I have seen is on my external display- Dell U2410. It doest't seem to be related to the panel though.



Here are my system specs:

MacBook Pro, 13" Mid 2010
2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo
8GB 1067Mhz DDR3 Ram
NVIDIA 320m 256MB Graphics Card
240GB OCZ Vertex 2 Limited Edition SSD


ANY help on this would be appreciated. Is it a graphics card issue? I am under AppleCare until September, and might buy the extension if it looks like I have a flaky card.

Thank you!!
 

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So you haven't seen the glitch on your 13" display, and just on the monitor?

Regardless, call Apple Technical support or set up an appointment with a Genius Bar at an apple store near you.
 
I haven't noticed it on the built-in monitor yet, but I am always focused on the Dell. Next time it happens, Ill glance over and see if its on the MBP display.

Thanks for the tip on the appt- going in this afternoon.
 
I have a very similar issue - same mid 2010 macbook. So far the people I've heard of having this problem all have the same 320m graphics card, so I do hope this is only a software issue. Also, I never experienced any glitches under SL.

btw - have you encountered this glitch? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXhzTDbuhIA&feature=feedlik

And also could you tell us how that appointment with the genius bar went?

EDIT: yet another dude with similar issues https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3198992?start=0&tstart=0
 
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I never noticed the type of issue seen in the video. To be honest, I'm not sure if I tried dragging a file out of finder though.

The genius thought immediately that it was a failing graphics card. I mentioned that I hadn't really noticed it under SL (definitely suggests software).

Regardless, they took it for extensive testing and evaluation. He seemed confident it would be shipped back to me with a new main logicboard.
 
Since this bugged e a lot, I started messing around with the desktop and found, that if I switch the dock to 2d, both the dragging issue and this graphical glitch you experienced seem to have been resolved.

Anyhow, a new motherboard could never hurt.
 
Well, I got my MBP back today. They claim that their tests showed that my problem was with my aftermarket 8GB of RAM. Not sure if that seems likely, but they gave me 8GB of Apple Approved RAM for free, so I guess I can't complain.

Also, I tried the problem in the video you posted, and I could not see any glitching like that.


EDIT: It wasn't the RAM. I just had the problem again (this time on the built-in display) bigger than ever. Interestingly, It stayed for 5 seconds, until I tried to scroll, and then it disappeared.
 
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Not sure what's going on now though. Before I sent it in, on a fresh boot I would get to the log in screen (on Lion) in about 5 seconds.

Now it takes 20-25 seconds. Frustrating. Any ideas?
 
My late '09 MBP did this daily, every time it would switch to internal graphics. Forcing the nVidia would solve the problem. After 4 fix attempts, they replaced the computer with an early 2010 and the problem hasn't come back.

IMG_3339.jpg
 
PowerGamerX said:
So was the graphics card the issue? I have the exact same problem as the OP.
Click to expand...

It's unconfirmed in my book. They did nothing with the graphics card and I still have the issue, so no way to be sure.

That being said, Im almost POSITIVE it's a software problem. I never noticed it before Lion. Sounds like LOTS of people developed problems after going to Lion. I think they need to update the graphics driver, nothing more.
 
aeronauticsrock said:
It's unconfirmed in my book. They did nothing with the graphics card and I still have the issue, so no way to be sure.

That being said, Im almost POSITIVE it's a software problem. I never noticed it before Lion. Sounds like LOTS of people developed problems after going to Lion. I think they need to update the graphics driver, nothing more.
Click to expand...

Okay good. Yeah I never noticed it before Lion either come to think of it. That said other than the minor graphical issues it's working great.

Thanks for the update.
 
my 2010 macbookpro 13 with the 320 is not doing that odd yours is and i did the update instead of the clean install what were you doing when the graphics glitched, on both my mac mini and macbook i ran disk utility several times repairing permissions and such the i deleted out with app cleaner several programs i never used and some that were makng my mini act odd and have not had that much problems since
 
Same thing is happening to my 13" 2010 320m.

It's most definitely Lion, never occurred with SL and when I downgraded to SL, the artifacts stopped appearing. I just did a clean install of Lion a few days ago and now they're showing up again.

If it were failing graphics card then it would also show up in SL.
I'm giving Lion a bad :apple:.
 
exactly same problem here... I started to experience the glitches (on both, external and MBP LCD) after Lion installation on my 13" 2010 with 320M too, so I guess it really must be a software issue...
 
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aeronauticsrock said:
Not sure what's going on now though. Before I sent it in, on a fresh boot I would get to the log in screen (on Lion) in about 5 seconds.

Now it takes 20-25 seconds. Frustrating. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

The fastest MacBook Air (Quickest login time) still takes over 9 seconds, I hardly believe 5 seconds....
Anyway best of luck OP!
 
The same thing is happening to me, and I have a mid-2010 MBP with the nVidia 320M card. I didn't have these graphical glitches before upgrading to Lion, and they don't appear when I'm in Windows XP, so I'm guessing that it's a software problem and not my graphics card. I hope Apple releases a fix soon, because it's occasionally obnoxious. I can deal with it, because it goes away quickly, but.
 
I have not seen this issue with my MacBook Pro but I've run across similar threads in the past and one thing that I've noticed is that this issue seems to occur with Safari and/or Chrome (and I think I have a recollection of iTunes being involved), both/all of which are based on WebKit. I may be wrong, but I don't think it's hardware or OS related, but more WebKit related. It's possible that it's some combination of WebKit, OS and hardware though. I primarily use Firefox and have never seen the issue personally.
 
DewGuy1999 said:
I have not seen this issue with my MacBook Pro but I've run across similar threads in the past and one thing that I've noticed is that this issue seems to occur with Safari and/or Chrome (and I think I have a recollection of iTunes being involved), both/all of which are based on WebKit. I may be wrong, but I don't think it's hardware or OS related, but more WebKit related. It's possible that it's some combination of WebKit, OS and hardware though. I primarily use Firefox and have never seen the issue personally.
Click to expand...

I experienced problems mostly in Eclipse PDT and also in Chrome... :/ But lately I mostly use XCode, no problems there...

EDIT: I forgot to mention... there is no problem in Bootcamp Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
 
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Just wanted to pop in and say I am experiencing these exact same issues. Glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing these glitches, was seriously worried the graphics card was toast.

Same model as OP except I have HDD and stock 4GB Ram.
 
Clordio said:
Just wanted to pop in and say I am experiencing these exact same issues. Glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing these glitches, was seriously worried the graphics card was toast.

Same model as OP except I have HDD and stock 4GB Ram.
Click to expand...

Yeah, hopefully Apple will fix this with 10.7.2. It's a shame because it's the only thing I've really had any trouble with in Lion, and it's not really a big deal as it goes away after I scroll down a page etc. Just slightly annoying.
 
aeronauticsrock said:
Hi everyone,

In the last couple days, Ive noticed some occasional glitching on my display. It lasts about a second, and has been happening 1-2 times per day. It is not in a consisten location. I managed to catch a screenshot of what it looks like (with my fantasy baseball league, lol). The glitching I have seen is on my external display- Dell U2410. It doest't seem to be related to the panel though.



Here are my system specs:

MacBook Pro, 13" Mid 2010
2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo
8GB 1067Mhz DDR3 Ram
NVIDIA 320m 256MB Graphics Card
240GB OCZ Vertex 2 Limited Edition SSD


ANY help on this would be appreciated. Is it a graphics card issue? I am under AppleCare until September, and might buy the extension if it looks like I have a flaky card.

Thank you!!
Click to expand...

I'm having the same exact problems as you are. I'm glad I'm not alone here lol.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1221015/
 
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