Mac OS X 10.4.7 Special Report: Third-party displays causing freezes

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 7:27 a.m. PT

3 min read

MacFixIt reader Ed Lau notes an odd case where the orientation of his third-party display was causing repeated freezes on an Intel-based iMac under Mac OS x 10.4.7.

Ed writes:

"I was experiencing reproducible freezes on my 20" Intel iMac soon after installing 10.4.7. After reading your article, I was disappointed to learn that I already had the newer update. My system: Intel Core Duo iMac (20"); Dell 2005FPW widescreen monitor (dual display mode, Dell in portrait orientation).

"On my system, I can consistently reproduce the freeze by doing either one of the following: Start the screen saver; Open System Preferences, go to Desktop and Screen Saver, click on Screen Saver, drag the window from the primary screen to the external screen. Result: Mac will freeze as soon screen saver preview appears on external screen

"Fortunately, I found the culprit! Switching the Dell from portrait to landscape (standard orientation) fixed the problem. It's inconvenient for me, but I'm leaving the Dell in landscape mode as a workaround. I'm awaiting another update from Apple."

MacFixIt reader Maurice reports a similar issue with a Samsung display:

"I also have the same problem with a Samsung 215-TW display. In portrait mode Quartz Composer would stop the system in its tracks; same with Photo booth and Safari would hang on random sites. However, all of my third party apps rand fine including Imagewell, Livequartz, Gimp etc. Only seemed to have the problem with a handful of Apple apps. At the same time everything ran fine on the iMac display. Switched the Samsung to Landscape mode and the problems went away.

"The Samsung was connected during the initial upgrade (early 10.4.7 delta) I have since done both the combo and Mac OS X 10.4.7 update patch. No change."

Index: