Sloppy animations after EFI update?

[vom]

The engineering department is calling me tomorrow to hopefully resolve this issue. I'll post details.

Did you get a callback ? I've tried calling all day and keep getting voicemail. I'm sure they are busy - I'm just anxious. This is really starting to drive me nuts.

 

[zbarvian]

Did you get a callback ? I've tried calling all day and keep getting voicemail. I'm sure they are busy - I'm just anxious. This is really starting to drive me nuts.

I did, but unfortunately I was far, far away from my MBA. They will call me again Monday/Tuesday =/

 

[vom]

The Apple rep I have been working with wanted me to take it to an Apple store so they could see it. However, since the guy in the store who took care of me didnt use MC he didn't have anything to use as reference. In other words, what I see as markedly choppy - he can't see it with nothing to compare to.

So if this is the Intel GPU drivers - I wonder who makes that ? What I mean is does Intel do the dev, push to Apple and they simply put it in OSX ? Does Apple do the driver dev or something in the middle where Apple may start with source from Intel and tweak ? Just wondering on the backend if this ever gets fixed who will do it - Intel or Apple.

I'm going to call them back tomorrow and see if he could recreate it by comparing to a bone stock Lion MBA.

 

[zbarvian]

The Apple rep I have been working with wanted me to take it to an Apple store so they could see it. However, since the guy in the store who took care of me didnt use MC he didn't have anything to use as reference. In other words, what I see as markedly choppy - he can't see it with nothing to compare to.

So if this is the Intel GPU drivers - I wonder who makes that ? What I mean is does Intel do the dev, push to Apple and they simply put it in OSX ? Does Apple do the driver dev or something in the middle where Apple may start with source from Intel and tweak ? Just wondering on the backend if this ever gets fixed who will do it - Intel or Apple.

I'm going to call them back tomorrow and see if he could recreate it by comparing to a bone stock Lion MBA.

Oh boy, I hope they don't defer me to store help too. I played with an i5 bone stock Lion MBA in the Apple store recently, and it was unfair how buttery smooth the animation was. I have an i7 so it's pretty frustrating.

 

[krylle]

Oh boy, I hope they don't defer me to store help too. I played with an i5 bone stock Lion MBA in the Apple store recently, and it was unfair how buttery smooth the animation was. I have an i7 so it's pretty frustrating.

btw.... i had the same problem on my MacBook Pro late 2010 with an i7 (first gen).... Apple changed with the Update to 10.6.4 the driver of the nVidia graphics card.... the failure was easy to solve (deactivate the power management of the nVidia by deleting the driver of the PM) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmoWoeNrkOs).... i told them the solution that it is 100 % the driver but Apple did not solved it until today....

i dont know what they do but the do it wrong..... i saw the choppy graphics on EVERY MacBook Pro 15 and 17 with an nVidia oder AMD-GPU in it.... even the new 2011 MacBook Pro does have the choppy graphics....the problem is the driver which controls the power management ...

 

[zbarvian]

That's interesting, unfortunately I am using integrated graphics. The specialist just got my screen recording of the bad animation and is sending it to the lead engineering team because it's a high profile case. So I'll hopefully hear back soon.

 

[krylle]

That's interesting, unfortunately I am using integrated graphics. The specialist just got my screen recording of the bad animation and is sending it to the lead engineering team because it's a high profile case. So I'll hopefully hear back soon.

how do you record it ? with QuickTime Screen Recording ? If so, i tried it, too... but the animation in such a recording cant be smooth enough to show it in a video because QuickTime isn recording at least 60 FPS.....

 

[vom]

how do you record it ? with QuickTime Screen Recording ? If so, i tried it, too... but the animation in such a recording cant be smooth enough to show it in a video because QuickTime isn recording at least 60 FPS.....

Exactly. I did the same thing and sent it to Apple. Sort of a photocopy of a photocopy - not going to work.

The bad news (for my case at least) is Apple said they couldnt reproduce. The tech claimed he compared a stock no-updates Lion MBA and didn't see the effect

Hopefully the other folks in this thread have luck. I wish I could just revert that particular update - reinstalling Lion and backing up and copying data is going to burn an entire day that I don't have.

 

[zbarvian]

Yes, I recorded the screen in Quicktime. The specialist watched my clip and agreed, saying the animation was "not smooth at all". So maybe some good will come of this. I really want this resolved though, because it is my only gripe with this computer.

 

[vom]

I did a reinstall from Command-R at boot. I had never done this so didn't know what to expect. I have everything still (Applications, data, settings). (PS: How do I get the install process to do a clean install ? Use diskutil in recovery and format the drive first I guess ?)

Upon doing Software Update from menu - it did show the TB update. I did the other 2 (iTunes and Security update) but NOT the TB. It seems to be back to normal animation speed.

Can someone who HAS done the TB update open a terminal and post the output of:

kextstat | egrep 'Intel.*Graphics'

I'm trying to see if I can find the driver versions. With my 'reinstall' of Lion, below is what I get (7.0.6).

68 0 0xffffff7f81338000 0x2c000 0x2c000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB (7.0.6) <67 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1>
95 0 0xffffff7f8185d000 0xe1000 0xe1000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphics (7.0.6) <72 67 9 7 5 4 3 1>

I'll keep an eye in this thread. Good luck guys.

 

[TheRealDamager]

I get this:


71 0 0xffffff7f8161f000 0x2c000 0x2c000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB (7.0.8) <70 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1>
73 0 0xffffff7f81659000 0xe1000 0xe1000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphics (7.0.8) <72 70 9 7 5 4 3 1>

 

[vom]

I get this:


71 0 0xffffff7f8161f000 0x2c000 0x2c000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB (7.0.8) <70 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1>
73 0 0xffffff7f81659000 0xe1000 0xe1000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphics (7.0.8) <72 70 9 7 5 4 3 1>

Thanks for getting that.

So then:

7.0.6 == 'stock Lion'
7.0.8 == 'mid-Sept update (TB update)'
7.x.x == who knows, hopefully a fix

 

[solarian]

10.7.2 latest:

69 0 0xffffff7f815d8000 0x3a000 0x3a000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB (7.1.2) <68 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1>
71 0 0xffffff7f81612000 0xe0000 0xe0000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD3000Graphics (7.1.2) <70 68 9 7 5 4 3 1>

note the driver name changes! (still sucks, choppy MC animations)

 

[vom]

10.7.2 latest:

69 0 0xffffff7f815d8000 0x3a000 0x3a000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB (7.1.2) <68 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1>
71 0 0xffffff7f81612000 0xe0000 0xe0000 com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD3000Graphics (7.1.2) <70 68 9 7 5 4 3 1>

note the driver name changes! (still sucks, choppy MC animations)

Now that I am back to 7.0.6 - I *really* notice that everything is faster - not just MC animation. Scrolling in web browser (Chrome in my case) is much smoother and fluid.

Anyone have any idea how we can push this with Apple ? I had to close my case - "they couldn't reproduce". This is absolutely a real performance issue on essentially one of Apple's top lines of product. Feeling kind of helpless here.

 

[zbarvian]

Now that I am back to 7.0.6 - I *really* notice that everything is faster - not just MC animation. Scrolling in web browser (Chrome in my case) is much smoother and fluid.

Anyone have any idea how we can push this with Apple ? I had to close my case - "they couldn't reproduce". This is absolutely a real performance issue on essentially one of Apple's top lines of product. Feeling kind of helpless here.

Can you explain how I could go back to 7.0.6? I have a 13" 2011 MBA.

 

[vom]

Can you explain how I could go back to 7.0.6? I have a 13" 2011 MBA.

All I did was shutdown and then hold Command-R and hit the power button. This will put you into the utility partition. One of the options is to install/reinstall Lion. You will need to be connected to the internet for this. It took me about an hour total (30mbit internet).

Understand also that this solution is overkill, but the price you pay with OSX. In Windows or Linux you could probably downgrade your drivers and not touch the rest of the OS. Apple doesn't really give you the ability to 'go back' with something this specific. Also understand that this is postponing the inevitable. Eventually you will need to update for something (10.7.2, 10.7.3, etc). That will have new drivers - guaranteed. The real issue is still to get Apple to recognize this and fix it.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS GOING TO REINSTALL YOUR OS. Personally I had no issues. Please understand that if you do this - YOUR ARE TAKING THE RISK ON YOURSELF. If you have anything on your machine that is important to you - I would back it up. Again, consider this your fine-print warning.

 

[zbarvian]

All I did was shutdown and then hold Command-R and hit the power button. This will put you into the utility partition. One of the options is to install/reinstall Lion. You will need to be connected to the internet for this. It took me about an hour total (30mbit internet).

Understand also that this solution is overkill, but the price you pay with OSX. In Windows or Linux you could probably downgrade your drivers and not touch the rest of the OS. Apple doesn't really give you the ability to 'go back' with something this specific. Also understand that this is postponing the inevitable. Eventually you will need to update for something (10.7.2, 10.7.3, etc). That will have new drivers - guaranteed. The real issue is still to get Apple to recognize this and fix it.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS GOING TO REINSTALL YOUR OS. Personally I had no issues. Please understand that if you do this - YOUR ARE TAKING THE RISK ON YOURSELF. If you have anything on your machine that is important to you - I would back it up. Again, consider this your fine-print warning.

Thank you very much. Which version of Lion will it revert me back to? 10.7.0? Also, could I just hold off on future updates? And one last question, is it necessary to back up my machine and does apple provide a service for me to do that? Thanks again.

 

[vom]

Thank you very much. Which version of Lion will it revert me back to? 10.7.0? Also, could I just hold off on future updates? And one last question, is it necessary to back up my machine and does apple provide a service for me to do that? Thanks again.

It put me at 10.7.1. I *think* what it does is install the static image of 10.7.0 from the recovery partition - and then download any 'service packs' (i.e. rev bump to .1).

Holding off on future updates is your personal call. Myself - I'm going to download any updates that I think would affect graphics first and manually decompress and investigate them. I don't expect most users to know how to do that though. So again - it's your call. Personally I want it fixed so that I don't have to continually 'ignore' updates.

You use Time Machine ? That's Apple's official built in system. It's in System Settings. Basically you need an external HDD (or NAS) to dedicate to it.

Again - I did't lose any data at all. I'm not saying that you should just reboot, Command-R and go for it either - back your stuff up.

 

[solarian]

however the new 11c71 10.7.2 beta build contains a new driver for us, it still the same: sucks.

 

[vom]

I did, but unfortunately I was far, far away from my MBA. They will call me again Monday/Tuesday =/

Did you ever get a call back from them ? Did they close your case as well ?

It's really hard for me to decide to spend the $$$ to get Applecare if I get less 'vendor support' than I did when I ran Linux.

 

[zbarvian]

Did you ever get a call back from them ? Did they close your case as well ?

It's really hard for me to decide to spend the $$$ to get Applecare if I get less 'vendor support' than I did when I ran Linux.

Yes, and I talked to a specialist who represented the engineering team. They were mostly just collecting information about my machine as well as the issue but I haven't heard anything from them since Thursday. Apparently it is a "high-profile case," though.

 

[jriff]

It put me at 10.7.1. I *think* what it does is install the static image of 10.7.0 from the recovery partition - and then download any 'service packs' (i.e. rev bump to .1).

Holding off on future updates is your personal call. Myself - I'm going to download any updates that I think would affect graphics first and manually decompress and investigate them. I don't expect most users to know how to do that though. So again - it's your call. Personally I want it fixed so that I don't have to continually 'ignore' updates.

You use Time Machine ? That's Apple's official built in system. It's in System Settings. Basically you need an external HDD (or NAS) to dedicate to it.

Again - I did't lose any data at all. I'm not saying that you should just reboot, Command-R and go for it either - back your stuff up.

I have the sloppy animation problem also and I just reinstalled Lion. I have this:

66    0 0xffffff7f81338000 0x2c000    0x2c000    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB (7.0.6) <65 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 1>
   93    0 0xffffff7f8185d000 0xe1000    0xe1000    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphics (7.0.6) <70 65 9 7 5 4 3 1>

But it DIDN'T solve the problem. I still have the sloppy animations. I have a Mid-2011 i7 13" Air. I think this problem started after the EFI update but I am not sure. I would just like this solved :-(

 

[krylle]

The Thunderbolt-Update, which caused the sloppy animations cannot be downloaded anymore with the update-function... maybe thats a good sign...
i have still not installed the Thunderbolt-Update...

 

[vom]

Looks like Apple pulled the Thunderbolt update from Software Update. I guess it could be temporary or an accident - but hopefully it was intentional and at least in part due to the issues in this thread.

I 'reinstalled' Lion and am therefore running the original 7.0.6 driver. After I first reinstalled - when going to Software Update -> Details - it was going to install it (I didn't let it).

Trying right now confirms that it is no longer there.

I found this out from a parallel thread (one of several) on discussions.apple.com:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3333928

----------

The Thunderbolt-Update, which caused the sloppy animations cannot be downloaded anymore with the update-function... maybe thats a good sign...
i have still not installed the Thunderbolt-Update...

Sorry - jinx. Looks we are both monitoring and posting in the same threads

Thanks for the update though, fingers crossed that this means someone in Apple engineering acknowledges the issue and is working on a fix.

 

[krylle]

Sorry - jinx. Looks we are both monitoring and posting in the same threads

Thanks for the update though, fingers crossed that this means someone in Apple engineering acknowledges the issue and is working on a fix.

that's right