Screen Tearing?

I got a brand new Imac and I'm not really sure what this is called. I looked at the similar topic on horizontal lines in the monitor...but mine doesn't look like that. When using the scroll bar in firefox or safari, I get this invisible horizontal line that moves along the application. Be it a forum like this or a simple image.
It never does this with the scroll wheel. Only with the bars. I have yet to find any applications that get the same effect. So far I've only seen it in firefox or safari.
I did some searching on google and this is about the closest thing I can find to what I'm talking about.
http://www.overclock.net/attachments/graphics-cards-general/106180d1240223886-sc reen-tearing-overclocked-cpu-ggdsg_19.jpg
It's not as extreme as that. But it's there. Is there a solution for this? Will it get worse?
edit
I also found the problem occuring in IPHOTO.
Message was edited by: Matt Arnold

I am having a MacBook pro which is running the latest update 10.6.2
My major problem is when I’m scrolling in slow speed or moving the window in Safari, Firefox and Chrome the text lines are flashing. The distortion can be described as ripples, waves etc. This is annoying in most of the pages of apple’s web site, especially in http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/. When I am scrolling/moving window the ripple of the bigger gray fonts is the most annoying issue. I notice the problem when I install the 10.5.5 or 10.5.6, I don't remember exactly. The only thing that I'm sure is when I bought it (Jan. 2009) the problem was not there. Moving from 10.5 to 10.6 some other issues that appeared through the updates of 10.5 are fixed. The most annoying that I still remember is the black screen (OS X crash) when the OS X wakes from sleep mode with password protection. This issue does not appears in Leopard.
This is the only reason that I am convinced we do not experience a hardware problem.
Another similar issue that appears in latest updates of 10.5 and still exists is when I move a finder window with blue folder icons in it circularly, the folders rippling, melting, tearing etc.
I am hoping that the 10.6.2 fix those problems but it seems it not.

Similar Messages

Macbook Pro 13" Screen Tearing Issue

Just recently purchased a new 13" Macbook Pro 2.4GHz, and noticed that when I am playing videos or even dragging a window across the screen, there is quite a considerable amount of screen tearing. I don't know whether this is to do with the video card, but the playback of videos is quite bad and the tearing is very noticeable. Any solutions would be greatly appreciated.

I am having the exact same problem (mid 2010 model, 2.66) i notice it happens when i quit a 3D video game like sims 3 or half life 2, even after the graphics update today. Its the worst when zoomed in (control + scrolling)
a temporary fix i ave found is putting the computer to sleep and then waking it again seems to fix it, but after a while it always comes back

Late 2006, 24" iMac, 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Screen Tearing, nVidia 7300

Late 2006, 24" iMac, 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Screen Tearing, nVidia GeForce 7300 GT
I've been suffering with screen tearing, strange screen artifacts, etc. followed by totally unresponsive freezing machine. This problem has been happening to varying degrees for about 9 months.
Initially, I was able to mitigate the problem with smcFanControl. Adjusting the fan speeds up helped keep the machine cool and prevent most of the problems. Recently, we had a spell of hot weather and the fans just couldn't keep up. If you're using smcFanControl, the only fan speed that will really make a difference is the CPU. The HDD and ODD fans are no where near where you need to be.
Also, I noticed the machine was LOADED with dust when I took it apart, including the heat sink fins for the graphics card. If you have time you may want to try a thorough cleaning with compressed air before replacing the card. You just need to get through step 11 below to access what needs to be cleaned.
Based on reading here and elsewhere, I decided to replace the graphics card. To give back to the community, I wanted to layout the procedure here.
Where to buy the card.
I had a tough time finding the right card. I did exhaustive web searches using every combination of Nvidia 7300 GT, etc. You really need to search by the Apple part number. The Apple part number for the 7300 is 661-4179, for the 7600 is 661-4180. I found it at We Love Macs and at dv warehouse. I paid $248 for the 7600 card. BE CAREFUL buying a "refurbished" card. At We Love Macs, "refurbished" means "pulled from a working machine." Could be a machine with as much mileage as yours and prone to the same failures as yours.
The card is an MXM style card (generally used in laptops), with a giant heat sink and heat pipe assembly. The card can be separated from the heat assembly. If I had time, I would have tried a generic, cheaper, MXM style card.
Dispelling some myths.
People here and elsewhere have said that no Intel iMac graphics card can be replaced, that they're wedded to the logic board. The one on this model can be replaced, I've done it. Also, some have said you can't put a 256MB, 7600 GT in a machine that originally had a 128MB, 7300 GT. Also, not true. That's what I did to my machine and it is working fine.
So here's the step-by-step on my take apart and replacement. This is just one user helping out others, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. This takes about 1 1/2 hours to take apart and 2 to put back together.
1) Install the iStat widget and monitor the temperatures for a few days and record the temperatures (to be able to verify that you've completed the repair correctly later)
2) Make a complete backup of any internal drives and make sure the backup will be bootable (use Carbon Copy Cloner)
3) Use static safeguards, like an anti-static wrist strap.
4) Get a pen a stack of paper envelopes to separate and label the pieces you remove.
5) You'll need a #2 Phillips and #6, 8, 10 Torx. Most of the screws at T-8. There are 8 T-8s holding in the LCD. They are about 1 1/4" down. You'll need a long, skinny T-8 to get to them.
6) Unplug the machine and place it on it's back on a large white sheet of paper.
7) Remove RAM door, #2 Phillips x 2.
8) Remove RAM.
9) Remove 4 T-8s along bottom.
10) Remove large rectangular plastic bezel surrounding the whole machine, tilt up being careful not to stress iSight cables. You'll need to stretch it around the RAM ejection tabs.
11) Detach two iSight cables.
12) Peel up black stickers at lower corners of speakers.
13) Remove LCD screws, T-8 x 8. You'll probably drop a few, they're pretty easy to retrieve.
14) Remove two retaining screws on right hand LCD cable. T-6 x2 Unplug cable.
15) Remove LCD inverter cable, left.
Start unplugging everything connected to the logic board.
16) Unplug cable coming from right speaker. Note cable routing, it is the only one that's a little tricky. Also, note that the left one plugs in on the right and the right one plugs in on the left.
17) Remove right speaker. T-10 Note: left and right speaker screws are different lengths.
18) Unplug ODD blower cable.
19) Unplug ODD temp cable and lift up tape.
20) Unplug HDD blower cable.
21) Unplug the HDD temp cable.
22) Unplug the camera & mic cable.
23) Unscrew the clamp securing the airport card (has two antenna cables going to it, labeled PCIE), T-6 x 2
24) Unplug SATA cable.
25) Unplug Power cable, thick black plastic harness, socket.
26) Unplug ambient temp cable.
27) Unscrew the bluetooth card, T-6 x2.
28) Unplug CPU blower cable.
29) Unplug power button cable, 2 conductor, tiny cable, bottom left.
30) Unscrew left speaker, T-10, unplug from logic board, but just leave dangling, no need to remove cable completely.
31) Remove logic board screws. Be careful to segregate them, they have different lengths and different thread pitches and thread types. Some are machine threads going into metal, some are coarse threads going into plastic.
31a) Heat sink frame to case T-8 x 2
31b) Logic board to case T-8 x 3
31c) Screws at heat sink from arrows T-8 x 3
31d) Logic board at bottom near RAM slot T-8 x 2
32) Unplug ODD ribbon cable, be extremely careful. Release plastic tabs on each side to remove. Be sure it is fully and evenly seated when you put it back later.
33) Remove logic board with attached graphics card.
34) Unplug graphics card heat sink sensor cable at logic board end.
35) Remove graphics card screws 2 x T-6
36) Remove single screw from small L-bracket on heat sink 1 x T-6
Replace graphics card.
Reverse steps, put everything back together. Be careful not to pinch any cables when you put the logic board back in. When you put the LCD back in, if you can't get the screws to stick to the driver, use some glue stick from your kid's art supplies.
Test everything. You've disconnected every cable in the system.
I torture tested the machine with a space heater on it, 5 different videos of different formats playing at the same time. No problems.
I took a lot of pictures inside the machine. As soon as I figure out a good place to post them, I'll try to add a link here.
Good luck

Greetings!
I know this is in response to your post from over 2 years ago, but I was searching on Apple's site for the max RAM I can upgrade our refurbed iMac too and it brought up this post.
Oddly enough, I've been experiencing the same screen issues and locking up on our iMac as well. I was concerned it was a bad memory module, but now I'm thinking it's the same issue you found.
Because I bought this some 2+ years ago refurbed from Apple, I'm not surprised that could be the actual problem.
I've pulled this thing apart once to replace the hard-drive which crashed about a year ago, so I'm not totally new at opening it up, but this process you mention sounds pretty intense...just wanted to get your second take on it based on what I've done thus far.
Thanks again for posting this...it was an eye-opener as to what might actually be causing our issues with our trusted Mac!
Joshua

Screen tearing, but only on Retina display?

Hello,
Here's the situation...
I'm noticing screen tearing, but only on my Macbook Pro's retina display, not the external display that's also connected to it.
Here's my setup:
- Macbook Pro w/ Retina Display (Late-2012)
- External Monitor is an HP w2007 (1680 x 1050) and is connected to my rMBP's HDMI port via an Apple HDMI-to-DVI adapter
- I'm running Mavericks
- Testing using www.speedtest.net
When I run the speed test on the w2007 monitor, everything is fine. However, when I run it on my retina display, the speed meter indicator needle always tears.
Is anybody else seeing this?
Can others, especially with external monitors, perform this test and post your results here?
Thanks!

leroydouglas wrote:
Take in for a free assessment:
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/
on-line https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action
check warranty https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
Thanks. If I can't figure it out on my own, or with the help from this forum, I will do as you suggested.
To be honest, it's not affecting me that bad right now (I'm not doing a lot of gaming), but it bothers me that my superior retina screen is exhibiting tearing, but my old HP monitor is not.

Screen tearing at 1920*1080 resolution on samsung tv.

Today I bought a display port to vga adapter so I could use my macbook pro in collaboration with my tv. I find that just moving the cursor or anything causes vsync like related screen tearing. Is there anyway I could stop this from happening?
The specs of my macbook pro are:
13", mid 2010
2.66ghz Intel core 2 duo
6gb 1067mhz DDR3
Nvidia Geforce 320m 256mb
OSX 10.9.1

Hi-
If the graphics card firmware does not have resolution support needed for a particular monitor, it won't show as an option.
You can create new, custom resolutions using SwitchResX;
http://www.madrau.com/whatis/whatis.html
I've seen screen shots online where users have the option to choose 1080i or 1080p. This would be ideal!
The difference between 1080p vs 1080i is not something to worry about.
http://www.thebestplasmatv.com/guides/1080p-vs-1080i/

Screen Tearing Issues

As of today, my Mac Mini has experienced severe screen tearing issues, it generally happens on Chrome but has started to also happen on other applications such as Pages. My Mac Mini is virtually brand new and has been used for about 2 weeks. I am using an TV via an HDMI cable. It is the 2.3ghz model with 4gb RAM. The OS is Mavericks. I have tried restarting but that didn't help. Plus the Mac is now hot with very little apps open (Minecraft, Chrome (1tab)) and the fan is loud.

Doesn't sound good... You have 90 days free phone support and a one year warranty on your Mac Mini.
I would Contact Apple Support or the Apple Store where you made the purchased and have it checked out.
Additionally you might wat to get AppleCare, which extends the phone support and warranty to three full years.

Screen Tearing in games

Sorry in advance for the awkward setup I suppose. I use arch and and xmonad with an nvidia GPU and the official NVidia drivers. I want to do more of my gaming in Linux, but right now whenever I launch a game (mainly from Steam) I get pretty severe and constant screen tearing.
The main game I'm testing with is Crusader Kings 2. I am mainly running it in windowed mode - fullscreen mode seems to sometimes just show me a black screen.
I have gone into the Nvidia settings and made sure that the display I'm playing on is the primary display. I'm not sure what next steps to take.

brebs wrote:
filk wrote:a tear that slowly moved from top to bottom of my screen
Have you tried e.g. ExactModeTimingsDVI
I tried it just now, and it didn't help. This did tip me off to the xorg.conf file, and now I believe I may know the problem.
I have two monitors hooked up, that "nvidia-settings -q RefreshRate" reports as 59.89Hz and 59.95Hz. From what I can find online, Nvidia is treating these both as one big virtual screen (a hack) so that displays can be changed without restarting X, and assigning the virtual VSync rate of 60Hz, which causes the slowly moving screen tear.
I'm not clear how to fix this. I would by happy if the whole virtual screen was synced to the refresh rate of the primary monitor, because I don't care if the second tears. I would also be [maybe even more] happy to have each display set as a separate X screen and require an X restart on switch (this seems like an odd limitation, are there any plans to fix this in Wayland or the Canonical alternative?), if that would fix the problem and allow nvidia-settings to detect the correct refresh rate. What's my best bet for defeating that tear?

Firefox version 22 screen tearing issue with video

So I've updated to Firefox 22 and have recently started noticing this really annoying screen tearing issue when scrolling. its only when i use Firefox sometimes it happens when I'm watching videos sometimes it just happens on normal every day pages. I've tried to duplicate this issue in other browsers (Chrome) and it just only seems to happen with Firefox. anyone else experienced this and knows how to stop it? kinda annoying

Hello,
'''Try Firefox Safe Mode''' to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.
''(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)''
* You can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the '''Shift''' key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
* Or open the Help menu and click on the '''Restart with Add-ons Disabled...''' menu item while Firefox is running.
''Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"''
'''''If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode''''', your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]] article for that.
''To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.''
''When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help other users who have the same problem.''
Thank you.

Screen Tearing With Radeon HD 6950

I am having problems watching DVDs. Every DVD I try to watch has a LOT of screen tearing.
I have tried mplayer, VLC, xine, and totem with the same results for all of them. Currenty, I am using the catalyst drivers supplied by AMD. Enabling v-sync and tear free desktop in the catalyst control center causes the tearing to stop, but then I only get about 10 to 15 frames of video a second. Finally, I installed xvba and tried to use vaapi, but the colors are extremely distorted (the image is either all green or all purple).
Has anyone encountered this problem? Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong so I can watch a DVD in arch linux and not boot in Windows?

Just use OpenGL as the video output driver. I use "mplayer -vo gl". For me this fixes all tearing in videos and it doesn't seem to skip any frames.

Vsync Screen Tearing / Scan Line Issue?

This is something I noticed on my iMac after updating to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. I noticed a horizontal break in the screen when I was doing any kind of graphic intensive operation. Anything from scrolling up and down on a web page in Safari, to switching screens in Spaces, to bring up my Dashboard or switching users with FUS. By opening a new movie recording in Quicktime X and simply moving the video around, you can clearly see this break is not a random screen tear, but actually some sort of scan line moving from top to bottom in my monitor. I've never seen this prior to Snow Leopard, but I suppose it is possible this is a hardware issue, rather than a software or driver issue. Can anyone else duplicate this on Snow Leopard? I am on a 2007 2.8 Core 2 Extreme iMac with RadeonHD2600 graphics.
I made a video of the issue and posted to youtube if you want to see what I am talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u2BIubdGu4
Message was edited by: Danny Z

I also get this issue in Snow Leopard when connecting my iMac up to a TV via the apply video adaptor. I didn't get this with Leopard and I don't get this on my iMac display.
I've been through all the video settings I can find (frame rates, display sizes, etc) and each one still has the issue. SL has changed the system preferences for external video so I guess something else may have also changed.

HDTV Shows - Screen Tearing in iTunes

I've noticed very minor screen tearing with HD shows when I watch them in iTunes. When I open the video file in Quicktime Pro, the issue goes away.
Anybody else noticing this? I mean, it's a minor, minor issue. But I'm wondering if maybe iTunes is bottlenecking its processing speed below HD bit-rates - because my Mac can play 122 Megabit Final Cut ProRes videos without a single hiccup.

Yep, noticed the same thing while watching the latest Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles ep last night.
There is definitely something sub-par going on w/ the way iTunes processes HD content.
BTW - this is on iTunes for Windows running on a speedy Vista machine that can easily playback all kinds of HD content w/ no problems otherwise.

Graphics update = screen-tearing in Safari

Has anyone else who has installed the Snow Leopard Graphics Update noticed a pronounced screen-tearing effect when scrolling in Safari? The first left 10% of a Safari window appear to be totally out of sync with the rest of the page.
UPDATE: The same effect doesn't appear to happen in Firefox. Maybe it's limited to Safari?
Message was edited by: Philpott

Thanks for the feedback. Sorry for the poor typing above, it should have read * I beta-tested*. Good computing.

Screen tearing in secure guest mode

Just got a new rMBP, 15" (no discrete GPU), 2.3GHz. Slowly installing stuff I want on it and I enabled FileVault. Once it was done, I restarted again and to check out the guest mode.
When Safari started up, it went into a semi seizure-inducing state. Going to the Yahoo homepage caused a LOT of screen tearing. Very noticeable on the scrollbars and anything with anything animated. Yet when I restart and log in as normal and go to the same page with Safari there were no rendering problems at all.
I have reset the PRAM/NVRAM and all updates are installed from the App Store.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is this likely to be a hardware problem or a software problem (gfx driver issue in safe mode)?
Thanks
Chris

Yep that "fixed" it. Very surprised that made it past QA.
I'd rather than have Filevault on than a working guest login.
Chris

Screen tearing on video playback with mplayer and radeon driver

I use a old Radeon 9200 video card with the open source radeon driver, and after I configured the radeon driver to fix the screen tearing, it still has screen tearing
this is the xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
Identifier "My Graphics Card"
Driver "radeon"
Option "DRI" "on"
Option "DynamicPM" "on"
Option "ClockGating" "on"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
Option "EXAVSync" "on"
Option "DMAForXv" "on"
Option "ScalerWidth" "2048"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "on"
Option "RenderAccel" "on"
Option "AccelDFS" "on"
Option "AGPMode" "4"
Option "ColorTiling" "on"
Option "AGPFastWrite" "yes"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
and this is the ~/.mplayer/conf:
vo=xv
ao=alsa
mixer-channel=Master
nolirc=yes
nojoystick=yes
font=Arial
subcp=latin2
subpos=95
and I know that this video card is capable of playback without screen tearing, because if I boot windows xp and open any video file with VLC, there is no screen tearing
Last edited by Chrys349 (2011-10-31 03:03:06)

I have a Radeon 9250. Here is my setup:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Radeon 9250"
Driver "radeon"
Option "EXAVSync" "false"
Option "ColorTiling" "true"
Option "EXAPixmaps" "true"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "SwapBuffersWait" "true"
Option "TripleBuffer" "true"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
Option "AGPMode" "8"
Option "AGPFastWrite" "false"
Option "BusType" "AGP"
Option "DisplayPriority" "AUTO"
Option "IgnoreEDID" "false"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
Option "AccelDFS" "true"
Option "FBTexPercent" "0"
Option "DMSForXv" "true"
Option "SubPixelOrder" "NONE"
Option "VGAAccess" "false"
Option "DRI" "true"
Option "XV_VSYNC" "true"
Option "XV_CRTC" "auto"
Option "XV_BICUBIC" "false"
EndSection
I'm glad with the video quality, however, I do experience little tearing sometimes, especially in the scenes involving panning.
The XV_VSYNC option is supposed to eliminate tearing (due to the radeon manual), but it is ignored if KMS is enabled. Try disabling KMS if you don't mind some performance reduction. The Radeon driver generally has some annoying bugs and glitches in KMS mode.

Compositing causes screen tearing with Nvidia, is ATI a better choice?

So far, every Nvidia card I've used with Ubuntu, Debian and Arch has had intolerable screen tearing with a compositing manager running, while watching any video. I've installed the proprietary driver from Nvidia on a Debian machine but the screen tearing is still there. The cards I've been using are an 8600GT and a 9600GT.
I've tried xcompmgr, Xfce compositing and Gnome compositing all of which seem to cause the same symptoms.
It seems like I read somewhere that there's a problem with the Nvidia compositing extension or something like that...
Two questions...
1) Do ATI cards tear video with compositing enabled? (I'm hoping they don't...)
2) Is there any way to cure screen tearing with an nvidia card and compositing enabled?
Last edited by captainmurphie (2010-02-22 07:30:57)

ATI Radeon 4670 user here, KDE w/ Arch Linux. While I can't speak for other video cards, this particular card runs absolutely fine using xf86-video-ati and some xorg.conf tweaks. Though I don't play many games, I can tell you Alice runs fine via WINE. As far as OpenGL goes, the screen savers that are supposedly OpenGL work fine, too.
The only performance difference between this card and the 7600GS I was using beforehand that I can tell (minus the speed improvement) is being forced to view videos using the Xvideo driver in KMPlayer. If I view said videos via OpenGL, they display, however widgets on the desktop tend to offer display glitches while the video is ongoing.
I understand there's a good deal of reason for the commenting, and yes, ATI drivers aren't nearly up to par with their Nvidia counterparts, however this doesn't mean some folks aren't having success with the available driver(s) using little effort on their parts. As an ATI user, it'd be nice to see some fellow reports of success with ATI drivers, open source or not.

Screen Tearing / no Vertical Sync problem on 9400M powered Mac

Does anyone have a fix for the ugly screen tearing issue that happens on the nvidia 9400M powered Macs?
If you don't see it or know what i'm talking about, open up Safari or Firefox, go to slashdot.org for example and scroll slowly up and down the page. You will see horizontal lines "tearing" and an almost jerky display (on Macs with 9400M cards only). This problem plagued windows XP and is a huge reason I prefer Mac's.
Please Apple fix this, or offer an explanation. Anyone else want this fixed or know of a way to force vsync or triple buffering?

Hi, we have the same radeon card as you and am also suffering from the tearing issue. Did you ever manage to resolve the problem?
Cheers

Screen Tearing?

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