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Odd screen glitches in Snow Leopard. GPU Fault?
- Thread starter jgbhardy
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mrchinchilla
macrumors 6502
I've had this problem occasionally and I've pinpointed it down to the old metallic/silver QuickTime plugin which seems to incur some problems with WindowServer and is fixable by restarting the process (logging out). The problem, I have determined, lies within the driver for the integrated Intel graphics on 10.6 as I've tested it on a few Macs, one of which running 10.5 then 10.6, while not encountering this problem on the other Nvidia and ATI Macs.
Well my flash idea didn't seem to be right. But this QuickTime plugin, does it run even without opening QuickTime because I get the glitches even if I don't open QuickTime.
Also I keep getting the same glitch now, which is a grey or black bar just below the Menu Bar. My mouse will appear above it and any windows but the icons on the Desktop are covered by it. 😡
slapguts
macrumors 6502a
I'm also getting the strange bar just under the menu bar.
I've tried going from a fresh reboot, and not using flash or Quicktime, and they've appeared. There are currently three or four threads about this issue, and the one thing they seem to have in common is integrated graphics.
I'm covered by Applecare for another 15 months, so I'm not too worried, but would like to get it taken care of.
Even if you haven't loaded quicktime or flash, Finder loads the plugins of quicktime to allow it to thumbnail and Safari would enable flash.
One of my course mates has this issue on a old MacBook and Apple don't do anything about it.
10.6.3 is a wait for you guys then!
Yep and in light of the new seed being released to developers with focus on testing graphics drivers maybe it could have something to do with solving this all though most likely it will just be about OpenGL 3.0 🙁
mrchinchilla
macrumors 6502
I only ever had it happen to me when the plugin was loaded on a webpage, it would freeze Safari and then I would get those odd 'glitches'. The process's name is QTKit or something along those lines, and, from looking in Console, it appears it causes some kind of fault with the WindowServer daemon, and namely the drop-shadow. It would be a lot more useful if I had a log to-hand, if the problem arises again for me, I'll be sure to post the log on here. And maybe an idea for you to do if it happens again: just check out Console (located in /Applications/Utilities/).
slapguts
macrumors 6502a
Mine don't ever really go away. What should I look for to post in Console?
I also did some digging on the Apple Support forums, and found a tip. If you change the screen resolution to anything else, and then change it back, they go away. Temporary fix, I guess. I made sure to check the 'Show displays in menu bar' option to make it easy to do.
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Eidorian
macrumors Penryn
Macula
macrumors 6502
Penryn Blackbook with X3100 graphics here, suffering from the same issue.
In addition, the Dashboard, Exposé and Spaces are jerky when used with an external monitor in extended desktop mode.
This is ridiculous. I hope 10.6.3 address the issues. If Apple wants to retain exclusive control over their hardware and drivers, they need to do it properly.
In addition, the Dashboard, Exposé and Spaces are jerky when used with an external monitor in extended desktop mode.
This is ridiculous. I hope 10.6.3 address the issues. If Apple wants to retain exclusive control over their hardware and drivers, they need to do it properly.
its interesting my Macbook with x3100 has never had any problems.
My Mac Pro started having these problems with this after a reinstall & HW Test
but it the video was also freezing. it has also been getting WindowsServer 69/79 KCG Breakpoint 6
after some research i found out it possible i have bad GFX Memory
im not saying you all have bad gfx cards but,
its not always the software, seems strange some people are always getting it others are not.
My Mac Pro started having these problems with this after a reinstall & HW Test
but it the video was also freezing. it has also been getting WindowsServer 69/79 KCG Breakpoint 6
after some research i found out it possible i have bad GFX Memory
im not saying you all have bad gfx cards but,
its not always the software, seems strange some people are always getting it others are not.
What confuses me is that I was running Snow Leopard since Day 1 with no problems. However, I had to reinstall Snow Leopard earlier this year and since then I've been having these graphics glitches. It only happened after doing the 10.6.2 combo update. (I was on 10.6.2 before the reinstall as well with no problems, but did not update through the combo update, just from 10.6 to 10.6.1 to 10.6.2).
slapguts
macrumors 6502a
I'm having the same problems with my late 2007 Macbook with the X3100.
I have narrowed it down to something having to do with Safari. If I don't use Safari, I NEVER get the glitches, but if I switch back to Safari, after some different period of time, the glitches will come back. Not sure if it's flash or quicktime related, but it has something to do with Safari.
I've switched back to Firefox, reluctantly, until this issue is resolved.
--Matt
I have narrowed it down to something having to do with Safari. If I don't use Safari, I NEVER get the glitches, but if I switch back to Safari, after some different period of time, the glitches will come back. Not sure if it's flash or quicktime related, but it has something to do with Safari.
I've switched back to Firefox, reluctantly, until this issue is resolved.
--Matt
Ok,
I THINK it has something to do with either Flash or the Quicktime Plugin for Safari that uses the black UI. I need to do some more testing to see if I can reproduce it, but I'm pretty sure something with the interaction between Safari, and either Flash or the Quicktime plugin is to blame.
Firefox and other browsers use some other plugin for playing back quicktime media, with the old QT7 interface.
I'll mess with it some more and see if I can narrow it down some more.
The other thing is I think I'm running Flash 10.1 beta, so I might try to uninstall that and go back to the 'stable' (hah) release of Flash instead.
--Matt
I THINK it has something to do with either Flash or the Quicktime Plugin for Safari that uses the black UI. I need to do some more testing to see if I can reproduce it, but I'm pretty sure something with the interaction between Safari, and either Flash or the Quicktime plugin is to blame.
Firefox and other browsers use some other plugin for playing back quicktime media, with the old QT7 interface.
I'll mess with it some more and see if I can narrow it down some more.
The other thing is I think I'm running Flash 10.1 beta, so I might try to uninstall that and go back to the 'stable' (hah) release of Flash instead.
--Matt