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News Archive for Wednesday April 7, 2010     Goto Current News Page

Mac Upgrades/Mods | Storage | Video | Audio/Home Theater | macOS Updates/Tips/Wi-Fi
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Notes on some OS X 10.6.3 graphics driver issues (7300GT AA issue, some ATI GPU issues w/PPC Games under Rosetta)
I'd mentioned last week that an iMac owner with 7300GT graphics wrote about display/graphics problems after the 10.6.3 update and yesterday saw this post on the OpenGL mail list:

"Multiple of our users report that rendering of anti-aliased GL_POINTS on the Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT seems to be totally broken since upgrading to 10.6.3. Downgrading to 10.6.2 fixes the problem. Other tested ATI Mobility X1600, GeForce 8600M, 9400M, GT-120 don't show any problems in this area, so i guess it is a driver bug for 7300/7600.
They report:

"...dots "barely" show up at the edge of screen and do not show up at all in the center. they appear as green dots (almost pixel sized lines actually) and the size and color arguments have no effect."


When I installed (upgraded to) OS X 10.6 originally I chose to install Rosetta (optional install) as I had some older PPC Mac games that I wanted to still be able to run. (And as noted earlier, some printer/scanner drivers are still not native Intel code and require rosetta.) I haven't tried any of my old PPC games under Snow Leopard yet, but had a reader with two ATI GPU iMacs report a problem with a PPC game (Dungeon Siege) after the 10.6.3 update.

"10.6.3 Graphics Issues - source of problem
I encountered identical graphics issues on two different model iMacs immediately after updating to 10.6.3 from 10.6.2. (2007 AL iMac w/Radeon HD 2600 and an early 2009 iMac w/Radeon HD 4850.) I used the 10.6.3 combo updater on both iMacs. Had reinstalled 10.6.0 and upgraded to 10.6.2 on one iMac just one week ago.
system log:
Apr 4 14:15:04 Gryffindor Dungeon Siege[948]: Error loading /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeonX2000GA: dlopen(/System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeonX2000GA, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:\n   /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeonX2000GA: no matching architecture in universal wrapper

Apr 4 14:15:04 Gryffindor Dungeon Siege[948]: Cannot find function pointer ATIRadeonX2000GAFactory for factory 1002514C-0000-0000-0000-000A27898D3E in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x17faeec0 </System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin> (bundle, not loaded)

Just check out the indicated files and the similar ones for other graphics cards and you will find they are Intel only.... It's back to 10.6.2 for me. I can count on one hand the Intel Mac games that interest me.
-Michael"

Update: Before I had time to even call to ask about this, I recd a reply:

"Re: Dungeon Siege regression in 10.6.3 on ATI R6xx, R7xx hardware
Hi Mike, on the Dungeon Siege corruption and error messages, two bits of news:
a) We've tracked down the change where we broke it. We'll work to get a fix as soon as possible.
b) it looks to me like the console error messages are not related to the corruption. I haven't yet tracked down what they mean, but I see them even in MacOS X 10.6.2 where Dungeon Siege looks fine.
Also, obviously, I'm bummed that we introduced this regression, and didn't catch it in our testing.
Sorry, folks!
chrisb"
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Apple Docs on iPad Troubleshooting (including WiFi, Bluetooth)

(Topic based Guides, Tips & Troubleshooting for Mac & iPhone/iPad/watchOS/tvOS Users.)

BTW - finally today I had a chance to actually try an iPad in-store. (The road-trip last week to do that got sidetracked - aka t-boned.) When the iPad was first announced I thought I'd pass on the first rev (wait for a later gen with more features/more storage/perhaps lower price per GB), but after seeing some of the TV ads, I'll admit I wanted one. Today I was only able to spend a few minutes playing with one, but my first impression was positive. I'd definitely like to get one eventually.
And while on the subject, here's some comments a reader (Developer) sent on 4/5/2010 regarding his iPad:

"24 hours with my iPad
Bought the 16GB model - I'm using it for development so I don't need any thing fancy. It is completely amazing. Not just a big iTouch. Apple has done it again. My inlaws are all drooling during easter dinner. I think they are all going to buy one.
Sent from my iPad
(after seeing (linked earlier this week here) issues some have seen with WiFi, heat, etc. I asked him about that.-Mike)
No overheating. I haven't had the device outside much. (some users in the sun noted iPad shutdowns/warnings). Cousins did play NFS for about 30 min on Sunday with heavy use after. No problems.
The wireless at work sucks but it seems to do ok there. I have a Timecapsule 1TB at home and it is lightning fast over N-only.
-Logan C."

I'm trying hard to resist the urge to order a first rev model but I'm going to put my 6800 Ultra DDL card on Craigslist and if it sells, I'll use those funds to offset the cost of an iPad...

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Apple related News/Articles/Rumors, Misc Software/App Updates

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