back to article Sleek new Macs violate fanbois' Retinas with display garbage

Buyers of Apple's "jaw-dropping" Retina display MacBooks are indeed picking their chins off the floor - in reaction to bizarre on-screen glitches blighting the expensive lap-warmers. Two fanboi-support forum topics have sprung up to detail problems encountered when the shiny kit runs Mac OS X Lion and is woken up from sleep. …

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  1. TechnicianJack
    Trollface

    That's not a Mac fault, that's a Reality Distortion Field fault.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Close, but no cigar

      Intel video driver on Linux in some of the 3.2 kernels had a similar bug which got fixed. IIRC It was the kernel / direct rendering manager portion not xorg.

      These pics look almost the same as my Intel based Lenovo used to look quite often for a few months back. It stopped doing it after the most recent 3.2 kernel update.

      So let's not blame the RDF prematurely. You have some well known graphics stalwarts at work so my default assumption would be to point the blame at them first.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      No, it's what you get for looking at it with your old 3rd-party retinæ.

      You need to upgrade your iBalls.

    3. Darryl
      Trollface

      To me, those screencaps look like actual visual representations of the RDF in action... Wonder if maybe it's just a bit of RDF debugging code left in by accident.

    4. N13L5
      Devil

      thats not a redraw issue...

      ... thats your retina peeling off the back of your eyes

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Why didn't they wait?

    Clearly as the article mentions it's some kind of driver issue. Frankly it's really odd that Apple didn't release the new OS alongside the new machines anyway. Everyone is going to be upgrading in a few weeks (Apple are offering free OS upgrades to the owners of the new machine).

    Looks like the Retina support has been hacked onto Lion. One would assume in Mountain Lion things will work properly.

    Apple should clearly have waited. That way they could have built up stocks of the machines (mine was ordered over a week ago and isn't due until 2nd week of August) as well as had the new OS on the machines!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why didn't they wait?

      Not the first time they've been screwed by NVidia. The drivers for iMacs locked up and lets not forget the Macbook Pros that needed logic board replacements as NVidia's GPU chips were badly packaged and the solder failed (Nvidia admitted liability in the end).

      I really wish Apple would consider using both Intel and AMD processors.

      1. David Ward 1

        Re: Why didn't they wait?

        "I really wish Apple would consider using both Intel and AMD processors."

        and how would that help a graphics card driver issue?

        1. P Zero

          Re: Why didn't they wait?

          When was the last time you bought AMD, 1995?

        2. No, I will not fix your computer
          Stop

          Re: Why didn't they wait?

          @David

          The i3/i5/i7 processors come with Intel HD graphics built in and it appears the bug is related to switching between the inbuilt (processor supported) and card based graphics, a different choice (i.e. AMD APU/inbuilt graphics) *may* affect how the bug is exhibted?

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: and how would that help a graphics card driver issue?

          AMD processors come with nice integrated Radeon graphics engines.

          1. David Simpson 1
            Thumb Down

            Re: and how would that help a graphics card driver issue?

            The built in graphics in the APU is fine but compare performance for the CPU part with Intel and you'll see why Apple stayed away.

  3. Pooka
    Coat

    They're probably just....

    .... holding it wrong.

    Never mind, I hung it on the back of the door so I didn't need to hunt through the pile.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: They're probably just....

      3rd party code to blame this time.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: They're probably just....

        To be fair, could be. I have an a piece of software on my Windows 7 box that when you select it to graph under certain conditions does some very strange things to the display. Not as pretty an effect as the Mac mind!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          No excuse

          As the main reason Apple give for being so restrictive on hardware and not allowing anyone else to run OSX is to prevent exactly this kind of thing. They claim it gives them better quality control but given it is on such a limited range of hardware they obviously skipped over the testing this time round.

        2. RAMChYLD
          Mushroom

          Actually...

          I see that happen to Windows 7 all the time. On both AMD and NVidia kits.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: They're probably just....

        Personally, and I'm a Mac fan, I don't think they can hide behind a third party code defence.

        After all one of the big advantages claimed to justify the initial price of a Mac is is that they're a fusion of hard and software developed as a package, so regardless of who wrote the video driver it should have been tested better. Shipping with video driver issues isn't on in a "premium" product.

        Mac's like Stella Artois should be reassuringly expensive... ;-)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: They're probably just....

          Agreed with you right until you mentioned Stella Artois...

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: They're probably just....

          and the amusing thing about that is that Stella is just cheap plonk in its home market, it's only sold as "reassuringly expensive" to dumb drinkers that don't know any better.

          Now what does that remind you of?

          Mine's an iLager...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Stella

            C'est "batteur de femme".

            Not "wife beater".

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Stella

            Whenever I think of Stella Artois I think of chav pissheads buying cans from the Offy!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does Danielbrown start with the word 'So' in an attempt to sound more intelligent, or to let us know from the word go (or so) that he's a dick?

    1. Captain Hogwash
      Pint

      Worth logging in...

      ...just to upvote and applaud you sir or madam. There's been far too much of this sort of thing recently.

    2. nanchatte
      Unhappy

      At least...

      ... He didn't start with um... Or one of its variants.

    3. nanchatte
      Unhappy

      At least...

      He didn't start with "um" or one of its variants.

  5. John Latham

    Fanboi?

    Pah, a proper fanboi will tell you that any problem with an Apple product is your own fault because you're doing it wrong...and I say this as someone who owns and enjoys a number of Apple products.

    Judging by the number of EFI updates associated with Thunderbolt on my last-gen MBP, Apple is running a bit ahead of itself with display tech.

    Suspend/resume behaviour has been a weakspot of every laptop I've ever owned. Ubuntu on a Thinkpad made me want to poke my own eyes out.

    1. James 47

      Re: Fanboi?

      AFAIK suspend/resume is shitty when you're not using Windows because the ACPI writers mainly target Windows machines and couldn't give a f**k about the rest. Not sure if Apple do their own ACPI implementation.

      (ACPI is a interpreted language that runs in kernel mode that tell the OS about the hardware capabilities of the machine. They are invariably very poorly written).

      1. Ramazan
        FAIL

        ACPI?

        Basically, Apple have three models of notebooks, so they don't need any kind of ACPI or even BIOS at all - they can hardcore all their HW specifics into bootloaders, drivers, HAL and OS itself.

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: ACPI?

          Yet they use EFI, which is the replacement for BIOS. EFI has BIOS compatibility so Boot Camp will work.

  6. the-it-slayer
    Happy

    Reply?

    "El Reg asked Apple whether this is an issue they are investigating, and how they intend to patch it, but have as yet received no reply."

    *sigh* You'll crack Apple one day El Reg. Shame they've put you in their spam filter though. You may want to register th3regist3r.co.uk and try that. *sniggers*

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: Reply?

      Personally, I think that "not talking to The Register" issue is quite simply so petty and unprofessional that I'm surprised a company like Apple can make such a decision at all.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "petty and unprofessional"

        What's in it for Apple? They've got enough money and power to make Solomon blush, and there's no shortage of tech publications that don't say nasty, hurtful, mean things about them.

        Mind you, its probably institutional now; I doubt anyone even remembers the whole Jagwire thing, and its just taken as read that the names of the Forsaken carved into Steve's Big Stone Slab of Shame are not to be forgotten or erased under any circumstances.

        1. Stretch

          Re: "petty and unprofessional"

          "nasty, hurtful, mean things" == truth

        2. james 68

          Re: "petty and unprofessional"

          that the new definition of honesty then? nasty hurtful and mean?

          guess you use the wikipedia version of the dictionary then

      2. the-it-slayer
        Megaphone

        Re: Reply?

        Apple probably see El Reg as "small fish", however not when it's one of the top 250 sites in the UK and top 3000 consistantly around the world. It's just funny every Apple article has the same "unavailable to comment" line each time. I think we get the message El Reg.

        1. Rob
          Happy

          Re: Reply?

          Indeed.

          @ElReg, just assume that we know you've contact Apple for a response and they haven't replied. You can surprise us off our chairs one day when/if they ever reply ;-)

        2. M Gale
          Trollface

          "I think we get the message"

          But evidently Apple don't.

          1. Dan 55 Silver badge
            Devil

            Re: "I think we get the message"

            Funny how they remembered El Reg for this story though...

            Apple will only reinstate mute kids' app if makers win patent case

            "Apple are making no official comment on the case, but we were given an off-the-record briefing."

        3. Sean Timarco Baggaley

          Re: Reply?

          I can only assume most of the readers here don't remember what The Register originally looked like.

          "Biting the hand that feeds IT" has always been up there in the masthead, but El Reg also had another slogan: "Integrity? We've heard of it!" This seems to have faded out of use in recent years, which is a shame as it made it clear exactly where the site stood. There was also a truly laser-like focus on IT matters.

          Sadly, the British concept of the 'Red-Top' tabloids doesn't really exist on the other side of The Pond, so that element has also faded away. All that's left is the attempts at Sun-like sub-headings.

          I preferred the site when it was more focused on its core subject matter, its satire more biting, and a heavier load of irony and wit. Most of all, it the content selection and writing style is all over the place now. We might get solid, serious, reviews, while the next piece might be a bit from the Out-Law folks, followed by some biting bit of irony-laden satire, a retrospective on some old microcomputer, and a Special Projects Bureau update on the best cure for the morning after the night before. And on top of all that, there's a random sprinkling of Climateballs pieces.

          And that's before you get to the likes of Matt Asay, the purpose of whom I have yet to ascertain, let alone why I'm expected to give a flying toss what the FOSSer thinks about anything.

          There's no consistency. At all. Which might not be a bad thing, but then there's the poor quality control, with factual errors, typos, and whatnot.

          This is the internet. You cannot hope to be first every time. What you can aim for is to be right.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Coat

            Breaking News!

            Matt Assay thinks!

            And, as to its purpose... it probably appeals to the same sort of people who talk meaningless management-consultancy waffle in meetings. The people that El Reg used to laugh at have become its audience, and even its writers.

            Yes, I too think this is sad. In retirement, a long way away from everything that I ever worked with, it remains my sole daily link with the industry. Sometimes, though, I wonder about getting that coat...

  7. CADmonkey
    Flame

    "high-powered NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M"

    lol

  8. jubtastic1

    Display glitches

    Have seen them on every computer/OS I've ever used at one time or another, OS X windows that stall while minimising are the weirdest though, as they're usually still fully functional mid warp, forcing a screen refresh usually fixes things.

    Also, how can there be no icon for "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

    1. csumpi
      WTF?

      Re: Display glitches

      I have not seen any display glitch in the in the past 20 years. That on a wide range of machines, windows, many flavors of unix, even os x. (Although I don't have the new macbook.)

      Or are you just telling us that display glitches are perfectly normal?

      1. John Tserkezis

        Re: Display glitches

        "I have not seen any display glitch in the in the past 20 years."

        You're not looking hard enough. Types of glitches vary with era, around 20 years ago, you could point your finger to the video ram, and would probably be right. Nowadays, much more likely to be software/drivers.

        I wouldn't say glitches are common, but they do happen.

  9. hugo tyson
    FAIL

    Windows compatible?

    Looks like Windows compatibility to me; this crap Windows XP laptop here at work does that if I actually have to use it to do real work rather than just mail and web and reading PDFs. Ie. running MATLAB and an IDE and compilations. It runs out of handles and everything goes to shit.

    1. James 47

      Re: Windows compatible?

      Download Process Explorer and see what app is taking all the handles. The last time I came across this it was due to a handle leak in some Pointsec software. You could see the handle count ticking up every minute.

  10. AVDev
    Meh

    From my experience

    It's only when you've got the display settings on anything other than that which is marked "best for retina" in the System Preferences, and, in the event that it does occur, it's as simple as changing the display resolution (as mentioned in the article).

    The first thing I did when I got mine was change my resolution to the largest amount of scaling (smallest text size - Apple's done away with the concept of xxxx by xxxx resolution). Then, I noticed the weirdness after coming out of sleep, and upon changing the resolution noticed it went away. For some reason, I then decided to just leave it at "Best fro retina" - perhaps, because it's name suggested that it would behave? - and then the problem hasn't come back since.

    So - IMHO - "Best for retina" is "best for retina" (and isn't "huge" enough to cause me much heartache until they get the overarching problem resolved.)

    that's my $.02 (or two pence if you will)

    1. Steve Knox
      Boffin

      Re: From my experience

      Apple's done away with the concept of xxxx by xxxx resolution.

      No they haven't. That's an underlying property of the system. They've just finally gotten around to hiding it, like they eventually do with everything remotely technical.

  11. jai

    an ordinary poor people's computer

    <grammar execution>

    God, it's like using an ordinary poor people's computer

    </grammar execution>

    Journalism on the web: literacy not a pre-requisite.

    1. ratfox

      Curious: Where is the mistake?

      God, it is like using an ordinary computer of poor people. I honestly don't see what the problem is with the sentence.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Journalism on the web: literacy not a pre-requisite.

      However anal retention evidently is a pre-requisite for commenting in the forums

  12. philbo
    Trollface

    What's the big deal?

    I've been able to get my Windows box to do this sort of thing for years. At last, Apple's finally catching up :)

  13. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Nice work, Balmer!

    "On affected Macs, the operating system's user-interface redraw process completely collapses, scribbling bits of Windows™ over the screen."

    A bit of industrial sabotage? The guy sure knows how to add insult to injury for those fanbois!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    This is why people buy Apple

    I've been trying to get this result out of Ubuntu/Gnome/Compiz for months.

    <---It's a toss-up between penguin and coat

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The repainting gets so bad, so many phantom copies of old windows laying around on my screen, that I can't really navigate to anything to fix the problem."

    Are those old windows like 3.1, 95, ME etc?

    I thought this was OSX?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  16. craigy2302

    Not the only issue...

    I have had my Retina MBP for just over a month, and am waiting for my 3rd replacement to be delivered. The first had major issues with image persistance, the second has image persistance and one of the fans sounds like its catching on something. My original Retina MBP and the first replacement both had the issues mentioned in the article.

    It's starting to get annoying, but I think Apple are doing their best to keep people happy... I've already had compensation for the 1st replacement.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow! OS X *really is* just another Linux.

    Flame on!

    1. Graham Dawson Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Wow! OS X *really is* just another Linux.

      You...

      Trolling only works if you actually have brains.

      1. the-it-slayer
        Linux

        Re: Wow! OS X *really is* just another Linux.

        Oxymoron? You moron.

  18. AceRimmer
    Flame

    It Just Works (TM)

    See title

  19. Anonymous Hero
    Trollface

    Just wait and upgrade to OSX Mountain Lion. Not that big of a deal.

    1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      New OSX

      Is that really how it's going to be called - Mount and Lie on? Please excuse my ignorance, I really don't know much about these Mac thingies...

      1. Ramazan

        Re: New OSX: Mount and Lie on

        Do you mean Lie on as in "assume a horizontal position on OSX" or as in "keep telling bullshit"?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is what happens when you try to show a 4-D image on a 2-D display.

    Just lower the dimensionality (System Preferences: Display Settings) and all will be back to normal.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    beta testing

    Beta testers will be used to this kind of thing (although W8 has been pretty good in this regard). More software than a hardware issue by the look of it, and Mountain Lion is not too far away. Although prospective 'retina' MacBook buyers may feel happier waiting for the hardware upgrade to display panel coming later in the year (according to digitimes).

  22. MikeyD85

    Patent Lawsuit coming.

    Microsoft were doing glitches like that back in the IE5 days.

  23. James 47

    Lion reviews

    Even on the Apple forums the reviews for it are pretty bad. I'll stick with Snow Leopard running on VMWare Player thank you.

  24. TeeCee Gold badge
    WTF?

    What are you on?

    You credited various "fanbois" with the error reports in that article.

    This is obviously incorrect. Real fanbois would just reboot and convince themselves it had never happened.

    1. ThomH

      Re: What are you on?

      To my great disservice, I've hired developers like that in the past...

  25. HeNe
    Joke

    Have You Tried Pressing ...

    ... Control-L to re-draw the screen?

  26. Jurassic
    Trollface

    Anna, Anna, Anna

    The more often and compulsively you search for minor problems to inflate out of proportion, to slag Apple and to be insulting to users of Apple's products (whom you call "fanbois"), the more desperate you make yourself appear to others.

    Ironic that you are displaying your own anti-Apple "fanboi-ism" (or more accurately "fangoil-ism") in your attempt to label others that way.

    It's also interesting to note that Apple users love the products they use, and have little interest or time to slag users of other products (unless they are responding to irrational rants like yours). But people such as yourself who seem to make it their personal crusade to slag Apple and its users, never have the same enjoyment with whatever non-Apple product they have settled on using.

    One can only assume that your rants are based on jealousy. After all, if you were totally happy with what you use, you would never want to waste your time vociferating against others (and making yourself appear vacuous).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anna, Anna, Anna

      No, Jurassic, it's not really that interesting.

    2. Handle This

      Re: Anna, Anna, Anna

      While going through your dictionary, I suggest you look up the word "ironic." Your use is.

  27. Nick De Plume
    FAIL

    How hard could it be?

    There are only two major (2) variants of the Macbook Pro line:

    - The ones with Retina

    - The ones without Retina

    With 13" and 15", and maybe with i5 and i7 spec'ced subcategories Apple only has to test maybe 4-5 machines.

    It's not like the Windows world. Hardware is tightly controlled, choice restricted.

    This is a major QC screwup, on pretty expensive machines, no less.

    But then you should never buy Apple's first versions of a new design. There have always been issues, for as long as I remember.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm...

    I wonder if this is related to the switching between Intel and Nvidia graphics issue which causes existing Mac Books to crash totally dead randomly when an external monitor is connected?

  29. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

    Ahh, Mac articles

    Cue a million pre-prepared responses involving the phrases "holding it wrong", "reality distortion field" and "big of a deal", complete with circle-jerk upvoting. It's as funny as a Jim Davidson box set.

    Attention commenters! If you've made the same joke in a previous comment, please refrain from repeating it. It will not become funnier.

    1. Darryl
      Trollface

      Re: Ahh, Mac articles

      If it wasn't that funny, perhape you were holding it wrong?

      1. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

        Re: Ahh, Mac articles

        Hmph. Just because that's funny doesn't mean it's funny in general :-)

  30. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Happy

    Problem solved

    Apple just renames their display technology iPicasso.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Deja-vu (all over again)

    My DP G5 ran 10.4.11 with nary a woe until I started running 10.5.8. Too many sleeps and it wakes up really grumpy -- the video is disconnected from the s/w buss. Apple's suggestion is to upgrade to a version that doesn't run on PPC. (Sigh -- at least I can ssh into the box for some work.)

  32. Tigra 07
    Thumb Up

    Fascinating...

    If screen print still works then sell it as modern art

    I'm sure it will sell better than these Blue Screen Of Death prints i sell occasionally

  33. Beelzeebub
    Flame

    Who cares

    If it's a pile of doo doo, the fanbois will pay as they always have done, not me tho

  34. johnny thunderchops
    Stop

    the only good thing to be made out of apples is cider ..the rest is just dog eggs :)

  35. LinkOfHyrule
    Joke

    It just works, bitch!

    And on the flipside, welcome to my world, the world of Windows XP - does this all the time but only for a few seconds when moving windows about - quality programming as always!

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cool

    Even Apple's Technical Glitches are Cool!!!!!

  37. Jim Birch
    Happy

    This is fun!

    Slagging off Apple glitches has got to be one of the most exhilarating things in my life!

  38. P. Lee
    Facepalm

    Is it just me?

    Or should all discrete graphics cards come with an "ultra-low-power" software switch which takes them down to integrated-graphics level? Splitting/switching the graphics between the main cpu and off-cpu seems like an inherently poor solution. Far better just to get nvidia (or AMD) drivers to handle the whole lot.

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