Snow Leopard Virus? RAM? Video Card?

I have a beautiful, original, Macbook Pro (2006) running 10.6.8. About a month ago, a set of bars similar (see attached image) began appearing next to my trackpad cursor. After about 15-20 minutes of the bars on screen, my computer would freeze. Over the next week or so, this would happen more frequently and eventually my screen began distorting. I'd have to force shut down and restart, but after a couple more days, I could barely get my laptop to boot.... it would freeze on gray screen.
Anyways, I eventually had to wipe the computer. I couldn't get any of my restore discs to work, but I was able to boot off of an external drive and re image. After reimaging, I totally wiped it with my original Tiger restore discs and worked it back up to 10.6.8 (which is as high as it can go).
Keep in mind, before I reimaged, my coworker ran a diagnostic on it and all it said was that my battery was bad.... I purchased a 3rd party battery on eBay about a year ago.... seems fine to me. We also tried swapping the RAM with some other used RAM but this reproduced the same issues.
So now it's been a couple weeks since I reimaged and then wiped my laptop... it's been working beautifully.... but the issue just came back!!!!
Today, I was actually able to start it up with the original Tiger restore discs, but about 10 minutes into the install, the bars appeared next to the cursor!!! I attached a pic so you can see what they look like. The install is still going, with the bars!!! I'm just gonna let it go and see what happens!!!
Has anybody ever seen this issue??? Any advice? I don't want to put much more money into this laptop, but if it's a simple fix then I'm all ears!!! I thought about buying some new RAM, but like I said, I've swapped out the (2) 1 GB sticks and it didn't help.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! I actually recently ordered a new MacBook Pro, but I'd really like to keep this one alive!!!
P.S. The 2nd picture is an image of my screen when I boot up.... this screen appears "sometimes".

Courtesy of BDAqua
Take a screen shot & view that in Preview, move the Preview window around, if you see double lines it's a Video card/VRAM problem, if the lines do not move moving the pic around then it's the LCD or cable.

Similar Messages

I installed snow leopard and now videos on my Xfinity home page won't play

I installed snow leopard and now videos on my Xfinity home page won't play

You may be in the same boat as me.
I deliberately bought a refurb Feb 2011 MacBook Pro, because it would have originally shipped with Snow Leopard. I have to run an application for my job, which does not run under Lion.
Unfortunately, Apple is now upgrading all Snow Leopard machines, before selling them as refurbs. I purchased a legal copy of Snow Leopard, and have tried various downgrade solutions that I found posted on the net, without success. No matter what I do, it always goes into "three beep mode" after trying to install Snow Leopard.
The latest development came this evening, while I was talking to the "geniuses" at Apple. Apparently, there is now a firmware revision that loads the first time you run Software Update under Lion, and it locks the machine so that it can't revert to Snow Leopard.
The only option they have been able to offer me so far, is to return the machine and get a refund. This is maddening, as I HAVE to have a Snow Leopard machine, and can't find any other way to purchase one.

IDVD on Snow Leopard: Flashing blue video on disk image

I recently updated my system to Snow Leopard and have run into this problem using iDVD. I created a 20 minute movie using FC Express HD and brought into iDVD. No problems creating menus, etc., and then created a disk image. While viewing opened disk image in DVD player, video played normally until some music started playing at the event I recorded. As soon as voice is heard in song, the video freezes, and turns into a flashing blue image. The flashing continues until the song is over a couple minutes later. After that, video displays again normally. I created a short segment (480x270) using Mpeg Streamclip to show how problem occurs.
http://www.roslender-ballroom.com/idvd/show.mov
(Might take 30 seconds or so to download before displays.) I was wondering if this is a DRM thing with the music playing in the background? Does SL have this type of checking now? If so, why wasn't audio cut out too? As a test, I created a disk image of same video using Toast 9 and it worked fine (no flashing). I also, booted up my 10.5.8 system backup and created disk image using iDVD and same iDVD file and everything worked fine there, with no flashing during segment with music. Puzzled.

Yes, I have added extra non-apple RAM, total is 8GB. I think first 1GB was Apple, and the rest are matched pairs from Crucial, a well known supplier of memory here in US. Memory info from System Profiler is below. Not sure how to check if memory is bad. Again, problem does not show up using iDVD in 10.5.8. If problem can't be identified, I'm hoping it will magically go away as future software updates are applied to 10.6. Thanks for your help.
Memory Slots:
ECC: Enabled
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1:
Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x830B
Part Number: 0x4E54353132543732553839413842442D3343
Serial Number: 0xB2FA3254
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2:
Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x830B
Part Number: 0x4E54353132543732553839413842442D3343
Serial Number: 0x9A023352
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1:
Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x802C
Part Number: 0x39485446363437324A592D36363742344433
Serial Number: 0xD809AA1F
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2:
Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x802C
Part Number: 0x39485446363437324A592D36363742344433
Serial Number: 0xD809A9F9
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3:
Size: 1 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x802C
Part Number: 0x3138484631323837324A4436363744364434
Serial Number: 0xD829129F
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4:
Size: 1 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x802C
Part Number: 0x3138484631323837324A4436363744364434
Serial Number: 0xD8291246
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3:
Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x802C
Part Number: 0x3138484632353637324A4436363745314434
Serial Number: 0xE149065E
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4:
Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x802C
Part Number: 0x3138484632353637324A4436363745314434
Serial Number: 0xE149074B

I want to use Final Cut Pro v 10 on my MacBook Pro and need advice with ram, video card or HD upgrade for optimal performance.

I currently have 8GB ram and the stock video card and an ssd HD 240 GB.

what Russ said…
ext.HDD, for simple AVCHD tasks, I would recommend usb3 too…
It's not state of the art hardware, but it's not chopped liver either.
LOL Thank, you, Russ for phrase-of-the-day!
<scribbling into my vocabulary book>

Why can't I install Snow Leopard on my videos hard drive?

I have a Mac Pro with four hard drives. Lion is on the primary drive but I need Snow Leopard for a legacy app. My plan is to install Snow Leopard on a hard drive that I use for video projects, and then restart from that drive when I need to use the old app. The problem is that the Snow Leopard installation disk says that it can't install onto the videos hard drive unless I partition the hard drive, which will erase all the data. Why can't it install onto the videos hard drive? There's no operating system on that hard drive. The hard drive has folders for Final Cut Express Projects, iMovie Events, iMovie Projects, DVDs movies I've ripped, a folder of music, and an iDVD project. What do I need to remove to enable installing Snow Leopard?

If I understand what you are saying you have a drive with "stuff" already on it and you want to install a version of OSX on to it while still retaining that "stuff". If that's what you want to do you cannot do that mainly because there's already "stuff" on that drive.
The only way you can do this is to either of the following:
a. Copy the "stuff" off that drive to another drive. Install the OS. Copy the "stuff" back on to the newly created boot drive.
b. Copy the "stuff" off that drive on to another drive. Partition the drive into at least 2 partitions; one for the boot and one for the "stuff". Install the OS into one of the partitions. Copy the "stuff" back to the other partition.
Either way, if you want to use that disk for a boot disk, you got to get that "stuff" out of the way to do the OSX install on to that disk.

Upgrading Power Mac G5 Dual 2.0 Ram/Video Card/Hard Drives

Hi there,
Ok so I am an avid Mac user, but have neglected one of my machines lately. This old Power Mac G5 just pushed the 3 year mark and I had a bunch of repairs done to it (New Logic Board, Hard Drive, Power Supply) before the Apple Care ran out. I used to do all of my editing and stuff on it but haven't had time this past year so it has just sat here and not gotten any use. I felt as if it was time to get back in the game so I picked up another Apple 20" monitor, some M-Audio studio monitors, a 11" Wacom, but feel the machine is too outdated to do anything.
Ok first off, I am looking to upgrade from the four 256 sticks (1GB) that I have in my computer with some 2 2GB kits (1GB x 2) (4GB total) and have been looking at the ram that Crucial suggests for this machine (8 Slots). Is there anything that I should look for in ram that will help me get through all of my 3D motion design faster (HD Final Cut too). I don't know a lot about ram when it comes to buffers and such, just how to buy compatible ram. Any suggestions?
Second I am looking to upgrade my video card. I currently have the GeForce FX 5200 with 64 MB of VRAM, which is completely unacceptable. I am looking for a card that can handle all of my motion work along with rendering in Final Cut, something with 256MB of VRAM or more.. I want something that has 2 DVI connections so I don't need an adapter like I currently do with this card to hook up both Apple displays. Suggestions?
Lastly I am looking to up my storage space on this beast. I currently have a brand new 160GB main HDD (Courtesy Apple Care) and a 250GB Maxtor internally. I would really like to have at least a TB of storage. My question is wether I should just keep the 160 for the main boot up drive and apps along with minimum documents to keep the speeds faster, and get a 500 internal and 500 exclosure, or get two 500's for internal?

Hi-
With RAM, fancy isn't necessary, compatible is. Buffers aren't supported, so stick with the recommended memory. Memory should be 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMMs that are 2.5 volt, unbuffered, 8-byte, nonparity, and DDR400-compliant (PC3200).
Important: DIMMs with any of the following features are not supported in the Power Mac G5 computer: registers or buffers, PLLs, ECC, parity, or EDO RAM.
For two DVI outputs, and the power to run your software, the only choices are the Geforce 6800GT and the Geforce 6800 Ultra. For a bit less money, but requires an ADC to DVI adapter for second DVI, the Radeon X800XT will help with the softwares needs. These benchmarks will help you see the performance of the cards.
For storage, the 160gb will work for OS and applications, but you might as well add two 500gb-750gb drives. The new, enterprise drives have great performance, and though larger, will most probably work faster as a startup drive than the 160gb drive. These benchmarks are from a Mac Pro test, but the results illustrate the speed of the larger drives.
The Western Digital SE16 series, or the Seagate ES series offer excellent performance and reliability. See Storage Reviews. For a 1tb drive, see this article.
Of course, whatever you install, add enough external for full backup capabilities.

Snow Leopard and SDM express card eSata

SDM express card eSata don´t work after Snow Leopard install. Does any know how to solve this, driver update anywhere?

Well, I found some answers for the topic here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10109460&#10109460

Upgrade OS 10.4.11 to Snow Leopard? Ram?

I have Mac Mini OS 10.4.11
1.42 GHz PowerPC G4
512 MB DDR SDRAM
Need to upgrade OS so can synch IPod.
Can I buy the SnowLeopard CDs and upgrade?
Maybe I need more RAM?
Thanks for any help.

Hi Gretchen,
Saddly no, you cannot run or install Snow Leopard/10.6, nor Lion/10.7, 10.5.x is as high as you can go.
You can get a Mini 1.42 GHz up to 2 GB of memory though.

Help! My iMac keeps crashing since Snow Leopard and RAM upgrade...

...tried starting up from disc...new user...reset PRAM...still crashing...is it bad RAM? Is my Mac too old for the 10.6.8 upgrade?
Model Identifier:          iMac4,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed:          2 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          2 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Bus Speed:          667 MHz
Any help would be greatly appreciated...thank you!

Backup your current system. Do this:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Upon completion quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

Snow Leopard crashes and video

Hi all-
Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, my machine crashes once or twice a day. It seems these crashes are related to video- playing movies on quicktime 7 and X, streaming over the web on Safari, and rendering video with iDVD. To date I have reinstalled a clean versions of SL, 10.6.2, iDVD and it's still crashing. I have reset PRAM, repaired permissions, used disk warrior- nothing has helped. The latest odd thing is the top of the itunes window disappeared when browsing the itunes store. I have a reservation at the genius bar but would love to resolve this before I take my machine to the apple store.
Any suggestions??
Thanks a million,
Eddie

*I couldn't find a crash log (they were empty) but I did find this:*
Thu Jan 7 00:35:40 2010
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x2a7484): Unexpected user trap, type 15
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x5d74bee8 : 0x21b2bd (0x5cf868 0x5d74bf1c 0x223719 0x0)
0x5d74bf38 : 0x2a7484 (0x591af0 0xf 0x0 0x0)
0x5d74bfc8 : 0x29d7ca (0xade93a0 0x1 0x10 0x97c2b80)
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: QuickTime Player
Mac OS version:
10C540
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.2.0: Tue Nov 3 10:37:10 PST 2009; root:xnu-1486.2.11~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: iMac9,1 (Mac-F2218FC8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 31952443715716
unloaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 2.0 (addr 0x1038000, size 0x12288) - last unloaded 293707402573
loaded kexts:
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp 3.0.4 - last loaded 42491838467
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt 3.0.4
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB 3.0.4
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv 3.0.4
com.cisco.nke.ipsec 2.0.1
com.parallels.kext.Pvsnet 3.0
com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport 3.1
com.microsoft.driver.MicrosoftMouseUSB 6.3.1
com.microsoft.driver.MicrosoftMouse 6.3.1
com.parallels.kext.ConnectUSB 3.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.2d0
com.apple.driver.AGPM 100.9.3
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver 1.2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 1.7.9a4
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver 1.7.9a4
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.1.0
com.apple.DontSteal_Mac_OSX 7.0.0
com.apple.iokit.CHUDUtils 201
com.apple.iokit.CHUDProf 214
com.apple.driver.AudioIPCDriver 1.1.2
com.apple.driver.NVSMU 2.1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPenrynProfile 17
com.apple.driver.ACPISMCPlatformPlugin 4.0.1d0
com.apple.GeForce 6.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.4.9
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight 170.0.14
com.apple.filesystems.ntfs 3.1
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 2.1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIRController 251.1.4
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 2.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 1.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.4.0
com.apple.BootCache 31
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1
com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43xx 421.91.26
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.0.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 3.8.4
com.apple.nvenet 1.0.69
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 3.7.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBOHCI 3.7.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.3.0
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.3
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.3
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.3
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 96.0.0
com.apple.security.sandbox 0
com.apple.security.quarantine 0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 2.1.11
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 96.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileReadCounterAction 17
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileTimestampAction 10
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileThreadInfoAction 14
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileRegisterStateAction 10
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileKEventAction 10
com.apple.driver.AppleProfileCallstackAction 20
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 1.7.9a4
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController 1.0.4d0
com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal 6.0.6
com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 73.0
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 2.2.4f3
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 10.0.3
com.apple.iokit.CHUDKernLib 207
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.7.2fc1
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.3
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 1.7.9a4
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 1.7.9a4
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI 1.0.4d0
com.apple.iokit.AppleProfileFamily 41
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 4.0.1d0
com.apple.NVDAResman 6.0.6
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 2.0.3
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.0.1d2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDKeyboard 1.2.0a3
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 1.2.0a3
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 3.8.4
com.apple.driver.BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.2.4f3
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.2.4f3
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 2.2.4f3
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 2.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 3.8.5
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass 2.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 3.7.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 2.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.6
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.6
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.6
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 402.1
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI 1.2.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 2.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 4.1.7
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 310.6
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.0.2
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 3.8.5
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 1.9
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 3.8.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.3.0
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.6.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 6
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 281
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.3
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.6
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.3.0

KM2M - RAM & Video card...?

Hey I have KM2M series motherboard (via km266 if that helps) and i'm looking to upgrade RAM and video card.
I'm looking at 512MB of pc3200 ddr400 memory, but I see that the motherboard likes 2100. If I use 3200 or even 2700 will the RAM clock down to the required speed? Basically, will I be screwed if I buy 3200 or 2700, or should I just buy 2100? I've seen posts where people have had trouble with 2700 and 3200 but could that be that the RAM wasn't the exact same (brand)? Please advise what I should buy that will work...
Second question: I'm looking at getting a Radeon 9600SE card (it's cheap and has a fan onboard), but i'm just worried about power issues. My power supply is 300watt, will that do for what I need?
Thanks in advanced!

My old pc had that motherboard (KM2M), well it's a very good board, but it doesn't have what you're looking for: great specifications.
1.Ram: you can use PC 3200, but this card only suppports PC 2100 (133 FSB), I was using PC 2700 but I was doing overclocking: FSB 150, so the Ram worked ok, because it was supposed to work at 166 Mhz. So you can get more Ram, but knowing that this board it's not goin to use the additional speed. And yes the RAM will clock down to the required speed. Kingstom are ok, and also Samsumg, Crucial or Corsair.
2.Vid card: Yo should really think about upgrading your mobo if you are going to buy a high end video card (9600, well it's SE version, but it's a 8 x card), so this board doesn't support AGP 8x, it supports only 4x, so, you can use it aldo, but you're not going to obtain what you from a card like this (I was using a Geforce 3 Ti 200 and it was really fine: 4x).
So, another problem is your PSU: 300 w it's obviosly very weak for those high end devices: PC 3200 and Ati 9600. So you could try changing the whole thing: motherboard, PSU, vid card, and RAM: only if you have the budget and if you want to obtain a high end PC.
It's up to you!
And also if you're not going to change te PSU please publish the PSU sepecs: +12v=12a
+3.3=20a

Quicktime X, Snow Leopard and "record" video @ 30fps?

I finally got the Logitech Vision Pro camera, and it records my video at 30fps.
I was about to upgrade to Snow Leopard, but I tried QT X & QT7 on my friends MBP after he installed SL, and we could not get the same camera... at the same settings to get 30fps. (low motion blur).
I plugged the camera back in my MBP (10.5.8) and get the 30fps every time.
I'd like to install SL but this is holding me back. It took me a long time to finally find a solution to be able to record with a webcam at 30fps.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Please post here if you can figure out how to get 30 fps.
I need to capture my hands on the guitar without blurring for sharing quick ideas.
Also.. overhead piano.
I had finally solved it, but Snow Leopard has taken it away for some reason.
Thanks

Any way I can buy Snow Leopard using iTunes gift cards?

I thought I could download it through the App Store but I guess I was wrong. Is there any way the Apple Store would let me use the iTunes gift cards to buy Snow Leopard? Is there any way the Apple Store would let me use the iTunes gift cards to buy Apple gift cards? Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi...
You can purchase Snow Leopard from the Apple online store using a gift card.
Click here > http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A
Then click Add to Cart
Make sure the information in the shopping cart is correct then click Check Out Now.
Enter your Apple ID then click Continue.
In the next window you should see...
You can use up to eight gift cards in the Apple online store.
Is there any way the Apple Store would let me use the iTunes gift cards to buy Apple gift cards?
According to Apple you cannot use Apple Gift Cards to purchase another Apple Gift Card.

CS6 Macintosh RAM, Video Card, Scratch Disk?

I upgraded to the CS6 Master Collection in December and just installed it a couple days ago. I must say I love the new tiling options!
I am running the software, mostly Photoshop and Illustrator, on a 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro running 10.7.5. I am looking to improve processing times as I am starting to work with bigger images for graphics work, which are usually 75-100MB, but with some of them reaching the 200-300MB range.
I have some questions regarding computer upgrades:
1. Increasing the current 16GB of memory to the maximum of 16GB would run about $557.00:
a. Would I see much of a speed increase when using PS or Illustrator to work on a single file given the file sizes?
b. Would there be much of a benefit in speed when using both at the same time; for example, while waiting for Illustrator to process a large image I work on another image in PS.
2. Given the amount of RAM does a seperate scratch disk provide any benefit? I've used them on PowerPc Macs, but those only had 2GB RAM and a lot slower graphics cards.
3. Would there be much of speed increase by upgrading the graphics card from the current ATI Radeon HD 5770 to a ATI Radeon HD 5880? That would likely be the only card I'd ever upgrade to as it has the same basic monitor connectors as the 5770. The 5780 would run about $480.
4. I recently exported a AI file as a png file. If you examine the file's details using the Macintosh menu item "File: Get Info" it indicated that the file was 46,666 x 46,666 pixels with a size of 67.6MB, yet when I attempted to open it in PS I received a out of memory error even though PS indicated that there was over 15GB of memory available. The file would VERY slowly open in Macintosh's default Preview application so I don't think the file was corrupt.

Thanks for the information.
1. Sorry, should have stated 16GB to 48GB.
2-3. Did some further research on gpu and related items and I see that Illustrator depends upon RAM and a scratch disk while PS utlizes these plus the GPU. So upgrading the graphics card could benefit PS, especially if its listed upon the listed on tested cards:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/979969
4. I think have may detected a bad RAM card in slot #2 so this may be the cause.
I'll think I'll max the ram and install a scratch HD for now.

Dual loading Windows 7 with Snow Leopard Virus question

I just loaded Windows 7 onto my computer using parallels for various reasons that I don't want to get into. Will having Windows on my Apple computer make it more susceptible to viruses?

Mac OS X itself can't be infected with Windows viruses. You can get your Windows installation for Parallels infected, and could infect any file Windows can access with something that could harm another Windows system. If you allow your Windows installation to use Parallels to 'see' your files created and stored via Mac OS X, you could thus end up with files carrying an infection if your Windows install is ever infected. This could of course lead to your own files reinfecting Windows if you end up reinstalling it. You can get antivirus programs for Mac OS X, with the primary purpose really being to clean and prevent Windows viruses from being passed along or in your case getting through to your Windows installation.
To put it most simply, imagine having a pet that has a weaker immune system than you do. You can't catch the same diseases as this pet, but you might not know you are passing them along from a friend's pet or the old food dish from your previous pet. You stay healthy, but you might go through several pets before you figure out what keeps making them get sick and die.

Snow Leopard Virus? RAM? Video Card?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for