Crashing iMac returns

Cypher · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:23 am Post subject: Crashing iMac returns

Back in March / April I updating my iMac to 10.6.3 at which point it started to randomly crash. I suspected it was the 10.6.3 update, so I wiped my system and reinstalled a retail copy of Snow Leopard, followed by Combo updates to bring it back to 10.6.2 and all has been fine since.

Last week I got a stupid problem with webpages auto scrolling, they would just start moving down a line at a time, like I was pressing the down arrow. A few seconds later it would move another line and so on. I also noticed finder doing the same, basically anything with a scroll bar would start to scroll as I moused over it. Reboots and logging in to other accounts still gave the same problem.

I repaired permissions and ran all the maintenance scripts and also decided to update to 10.6.4 to see if that sorted it. It didn't, but I quickly found the culprit. I have a Shuttle Xpress hooked up to my iMac and its sat on top of an external DVDRW behind my monitor, something had fallen on it and was pressing some of the buttons Embarassed

So I now have 10.6.4 installed and the annoying random crashing bug has returned Twisted Evil

The iMac's apple care ran out the day I did it as well just to make matters worse.

I've tried checking the logs that I know about but I can't put my finger on whats causing the problem. 10.6.2 doesn't cause it though which is weird. Annoyingly the only way to recover from the crash is to power the system off which is only going to make things worse Sad

Anyone have any pointers on places to look that I might have missed ?
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Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
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Cypher · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:33 am Post subject:

This is where I mentioned the crashing problem last time

see here

its 3 posts from the bottom of the page.
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Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
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JohnnyBoy · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:44 am Post subject:

I can't re-create your problems Cypher (I'm still using 10.5.8 ), but your post did remind me of an article I read just the other day that also reported long-term and ongoing problems with 10.6: http://theappleblog.com/2010/08/10/snow-leopard-this-cat-has-fleas/
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Cypher · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:12 am Post subject:

10.6.3 and 10.6.4 have run fine on my MacBook Pro and Mac Mini, which was partly why I decided to take the plunge and update to 10.6.4 but something on this iMac definitely disagrees with it.

I do have a lot more apps and hardware on the iMac as its my main machine. I guess it may be something hooked up to it, or installed on it, thats causing the conflict with the OS but weirdly 10.6.2 is not effected.
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Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

TonyMontana · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:14 am Post subject:

I had regular freezes/beachball/crashes on 10.6.4 to the point I was doing a hard reset 1-2 times a day. I tracked it down to a bad LaCie external FW HD. Maybe a external USB/FW component?
I would run memest in single user mode for 2-3 hours and see if your RAM is faulty.
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MacMini 2.0GHz C2D (2009)
MacMini 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo
Dell Mini 10v *OSX 10.6.4*

JohnnyBoy · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:17 am Post subject:

TonyMontana · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:19 am Post subject:

TonyMontana · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:22 am Post subject:

Cypher,

I might have the Apple Service Diagnostic disc for that model laying around. I'll check tonight when I get home from work.
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MacMini 2.0GHz C2D (2009)
MacMini 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo
Dell Mini 10v *OSX 10.6.4*

JohnnyBoy · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:23 am Post subject:

ServiceTag · Member Joined: 17 Feb 2008 Posts: 66 Location: CA OC

[quote="TonyMontana"]I had regular freezes/beachball/crashes on 10.6.4 to the point I was doing a hard reset 1-2 times a day. I tracked it down to a bad LaCie external FW HD. Maybe a external USB/FW component?...../quote]

LaCie FW external? just wondering which model? was it gray upright in metal case, I believe d2 quadra model? That one, (older model) died on me completely. Later on I took a peek inside and found cold solder on pc board. Opened second one and sure enough it was close to fail as well.

I am still using a bunch of LaCie 2.5" rugged drives and I liked them a lot. Just recently got another LaCie 3.5" 1Tb FW Quadra and 1Tb Grand USB model. Hopefully they wont have a problems...

JohnnyBoy · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 4:12 am Post subject:

Cypher, did you ever get to the bottom of these crashes?
_________________
Intel Mini 2.0GHz C2D (4GB/120GB/SuperDrive/10.5.8 ), 120GB WD Passport, Logitech ergo k/b
iPod Touch (32GB, 3rd gen), iPod Shuffle (512MB, 1st gen)

Cypher · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 5:23 am Post subject:

no, they are so random its hard to find what the cause is.

I got a hardware test app (TechTools Deluxe) with my Applecare disk so I've run that several times and it passes without any issues.

It didn't crash at all yesterday and only once right at boot up on Thursday, than ok the rest of the day.

I've also used Onyx to run all the maintenance scripts and to repair permissions.

I'll see how it goes but 10.6.2 will be going back on if it continues.
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

Cypher · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 5:30 am Post subject:

Cypher · Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:12 am Post subject:

Hi Guys,

I thought I'd pop in to post an update on this for any others suffering the same problems.

The recent 10.6.6 update brought back the random crashes and I decided enough was enough and it was time to go back to 10.6.2, however 10.6.6 when it crashed seem to always mess up the video which gave me an idea it might be video related. I've been searching this fault for months now and never found any thing of help.

However if 10.6.2 was ok maybe the video drivers from that release might fix the random crashes. I googled and found others who had had the same idea. One guy on the Apple forums had even specified the 3 files you needed from the 10.6.2 installation.

ATI2600Controller.kext
ATIFramebuffer.kext
ATIsupport.kext

as mine was a slightly older iMac with an ATI Radeon HD2400 I grabbed the ATI2400Controller.kext instead.

These files can be found in /System/Library/Extensions

To get the files from 10.6.2 I installed Snow Leopard 10.6.0 to a spare HDD so I didn't mess up my existing 10.6.6 install. Once installed I booted from it and then updated to 10.6.2 combo update. Then I grabbed the three files and copied them over to my desktop on the 10.6.6 install.

I also downloaded an app called "Kext Helper Tool" from http://cheetha.net/ which is used to install the drivers
I rebooted into my 10.6.6 install and ran the "kext helper tool" it was then just a matter of dragging in the required 3 files from the desktop, typing my password and clicking the button Easy Install followed by a Reboot.

Its been four days since I did this and I've not had a crash or freeze since. I would normally have at least 3 freezes a night and sometimes many more.

Credit to KrzysiuTurek over on the Apple forums who pointed out the required video files and the method to install them. His full explanation is here about 7 posts down on page 21.
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

Cypher · Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:32 pm Post subject:

Well it's been just over a week now and my system has been 100% stable, not a single issue to report. Replacing the three ATI files seems to have done the trick Cool

_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S


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