Weird Graphic Problem with Radeon ATI 4850

[horstman]

I installed SL on a Core 15/P55UD3R/Radeon ATI 4850 system using Tony Mac's outstanding guide and iso. I used Legacy ATI4800.kext (I think) and VoodooHDA.kext to enable graphics and audio. I confirmed QE/CI with Front Row and "ripples" when adding widgets to the Dashboard. I've updated to 10.6.2. The system has been running remarkably well - I don't think I've even had one kernel panic after over one month of operation. After about two weeks I started to see intermittent green dots and purple dots on the display and strange graphics smears on pages with a white background. Also, chunks of graphics will break off at weird geometric angles and corrupt the images on the display, as in the attached screen shot. The problem has definitely gotten worse, but it usually disappears when I start a new page, move the mouse around some, or restart. It's definitely annoying, but I haven't had any major crashes. I've been reading about the problems that the new 27" iMacs are having with this same video card. I've noticed that Apple has released a firmware update to address this problem.

Is this a hardware problem or a software problem? I was thinking of installing Windows on another HD to see if the problem happens there too.

Any ideas on how to fix this? Suggestions are most appreciated!!

Many thanks to Tony Mac for the excellent resource!

PS. Please excuse my noobishness. Horstman

Core i5/ P55UD3R/Radeon ATI 4850/ 4G DDR3/1TB Digital Caviar

 

[wlp5]

Out of the 100 people that usually claim a hardware problem on the internet, my guess is that only 3 of them actually have a hardware problem. But in your case, this actually might be the case. You should go ahead and try to get windows there and install a game to stress out the video card and make sure everything is working fine on the hardware side.

 

[thelostswede]

Indeed, does that card work in Windows?
I'd say the memory on that card is on the fritz, seen similar things before and those cards had to be RMA:ed.

 

[wlp5]

Indeed, does that card work in Windows?
I'd say the memory on that card is on the fritz, seen similar things before and those cards had to be RMA:ed.

Same here, that's why I've said it above. I've had one bad card some years ago, probably memory that was working fine in 2d but would crash and had various glitches in 3d. If you don't have a windows game , some 3d benchmark would probably do the trick. By pushing it in 3d, you'll be using all its memory and see...

 

[horstman]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try Windows and post the results. -- Horstman

 

[horstman]

Re: Weird Graphic Problem with Radeon ATI 4850 - Solved!!

Turned out to be a bad video card It had the same problems in Windows. I replaced it with a GeForce 8400 GS and it works perfectly. Thanks for the help!!

 

[tonymacx86]

Another happy nVidia user. !

 

[thelostswede]

I hope you're getting a new card on warranty...