8400gs 512mb Weird horizontal line screen artifacts

Arck · #1 10-23-2009, 02:38 PM

Hey, first I want to thank everyone here for all the support as I've attempted setting up my machine these past few weeks and have been doing a ridiculous number of searches here and elsewhere, stealing your info without your knowledge =). I'm actually posting this here from said machine, and have the entire thing running smoothly except for one tiny... detail.

My screen is covered in artifacts that seem to be left over horizontal lines from my windows, icons, etc. etc. Nothing from the mouse cursor, just when I move the windows, type, or do anything of that sort. They appear first on startup as just misplaced lines from my desktop, but the second a window moves over them, they change. If I do a click-and-drag select on the desktop, I get the same result from the grey box.

What bothers me is that these only appear in OS X, I'm running XP and Ubuntu on two other, separate hard drives and my Geforce 8400gs 512mb does perfectly fine. This makes me think that it's a driver problem, but... that' where I'm lost. Have cleaned the card and PCI ports anyways just in case. Attached should be (assuming I did it right) a print-screen of my desktop with the artifacts. So first, relevant video info (I hope)

Graphics by NVIDIA:

Chipset Model: Graphics by NVIDIA
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x1
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x06e4
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: NVinject 0.2.1
Displays:
AY765C:
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Software
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Not Supported
NEC LCD1860NX:
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Software
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Not Supported

Am running OS X 10.5.8 Leopard, and installed from iatkos v7 on a D845GRG motherboard with an Intel Pentium 4 processor at 2.4ghz (not sure if this last bit is relevant)

The dual monitors worked fine on initial startup (and still do) with EFI strings from OSX86tools (as well as EFIHEX). I've found that I can run NVinject as well, (on its own, without the original strings) but I get the same exact artifacts issue. I've attempted NvDarwin for both 512mb and 256mb but neither have been able to get the card running at all. The same for NVkush. I've installed drivers from the 9f23 installer and from the Nvidia Universal installer, which have allowed me to use the EFI strings. Booting with only a single monitor on both the DVI and the VGA outputs of the card also still causes the artifacts. I've been working on this issue for 2 straight weeks now, and am at the end of the proverbial rope, desperate enough to start asking the internet for help.

I'm kind of hoping someone has had a similar experience and would at least be able to identify what the term for these artifacts is for further searches. or (hopefully) suggest some kind of a solution. Thanks a ton for any help.

thorazine74 · #2 10-23-2009, 03:43 PM

Do you realize you have no QE/CI? Try removing all the injectors and efi strings and see if artifacts stop appearing.

Arck · #3 10-23-2009, 04:52 PM

Thank you for your response!

Removed Nvinject (no efi strings at the moment) and it's back to the original driver. No artifacts, but stuck at 1024x768 and only a single screen.

I was aware that QE/CI wasn't working, but I didn't think it was important for normal desktop use, just for making things look much better. Since neither were enabled, is that what would have caused the artifacts? And if so, should I focus on getting both enabled?

thorazine74 · #4 10-24-2009, 02:53 PM

The problem could have been caused by nvinject, with nvinject installed you should have graphics acceleration, if not something is wrong.
Try using EFI Studio to generate a string or use anothes injector like nvenabler.

Arck · #5 10-25-2009, 03:14 AM

I've added strings with EFI studio, which gives me the same result as nvinject.

I booted again from the iatkos disk and installed the nvenabler.kext from it. Starting up with normal boot gives me a blue screen on both monitors, where the desktop hasn't loaded, but there aren't any graphical artifacts either. Added device ID (0x06e410de) to nvenabler, and I will look into the blue screen thing later and see if I can find any way past that. Safe boot just gives me the default vesa screen again with no resolution shifts, and only one screen.

Thank you again for your help here

Does anything come to mind right off that would cause these sorts of artifacts?

Arck · #6 10-25-2009, 10:23 PM

I hate to double post, but here's an update:

Installed Nvenabler.kext, which on normal boot would give me two blue screens... and that's it. No cursors, etc. The last lines that came up in verbose mode were along the lines of apci_smc_platformplugin (then some other stuff). Ran the login window fix from here:

http://www.osxjournal.com/fixing-iss...ation-started/

Just in case, but of course, no dice. I've installed a modified Nvdarwin.kext from near the bottom of this page for now:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/ind...c=139203&st=20

Which is generating the same dual screen riddled with artifacts as EFIstudio and nvinject. The only difference is now I'm listed as only 256mb VRAM in the system profiler.

My only guess is that there must be a conflicting file somewhere, but... I have absolutely no clue here. Does anyone have any ideas?

chico_stang · #7 10-25-2009, 10:37 PM

What bootloader are you using? If you are using Chameleon RC3, the card is recognized automatically as long as the "GraphicsEnabler" option is enabled. At least it works in Snow. Give it a try.

Arck · #8 10-26-2009, 12:08 AM

Hey, thanks for responding!

I'm running Chameleon v2 RC3. I added the graphics enabler option under the com.apple.boot.plist as
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
but I didn't notice any changes. Then again, I'm running under Leopard as well. Also tried installing the new PC EFI 10.5 by Netkas, but am now having Kernel Panics on startup.

I initially installed with iatkos v7. Is there any possibility of me just wiping this disk, then installing from a different source (kalyway?) and possibly not having this problem, or are all the sources essentially the same thing?

thorazine74 · #9 10-26-2009, 12:30 PM

Some suggestions, not sure if they would be useful:
- Try using latest nvenabler instead of the old ones.
- If you use PCEFI GraphicsEnabler make sure you know if your card is pci0 or pci1.
- The source should not matter I think, try updating to 10.5.8 and dont install any extra nvidia drivers pack, so your nvda* and geforce* kexts are not mixed up or anything.
- Check your card's device id is present in nvda kext plist.
- Double check you dont have any efi string or other injectors in place, or in other words, when you try something and it doesnt work, always return to previous state.

Arck · #10 10-28-2009, 10:55 PM

Just another update. I think I'll try updating this thread until I get this thing working, then if anyone else has a similar problem, maybe it'll be helpful for them.

Reinstalled and updated to 10.5.8, with no extra video kexts added later. I followed the advice on downloading nvenabler from the prior linked thread. This gave me the same dual blue screen error as nvdarwin. Checking in verbose mode, I can't find any errors though. The only possible error would be Display family matching failed, but from what I've read, this is caused by the OS trying to find the actual mac display, and really isn't a problem at all, as others can boot perfectly fine and don't notice it till later.

When I get the dual blue screens of death, I'm getting yet another weird video error with vertical bars. These disappear after a second though, and it's just two plain displays, with no login window. I've attached a photo, in case this is helpful.

Just in case it was a kernel problem (I'm running Voodoo 9.5.7) I attempted installing without them for the vanilla kernel. This failed to boot.

Adding my device ID to all the kexts generates a black screen on start up when it's added to the nvdaresman.kext. It's fine elsewhere.

I understand that running a different distro won't be much use, but I'm going to attempt two others, just in case. Kalyway and then iDeneb, if I can't get the former working. One is just to see if maybe running an earlier OS version will help, and also to see if maybe different drivers will do something.

I'll keep working on this until I either find a solution, or lose all my hair from frustration.