Flashing monitor in CS5

[Caravaggio]

Hello,

I need some help. I am using photoshop CS5 design premium. My OS is 10.6.4. These are the specs for my mac pro.
Model Identifier: MacPro3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 12 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05
SMC Version (system): 1.25f4
Hardware UUID: 0613ACB3-FECF-5AE8-9CBA-353B667E52A0
The video card is NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

The monitor is a 30 inch cinema display.

I am having a strange issue in photoshop CS5. After a few hours of using photoshop the monitor starts flashing a greyscale pattern over the entire monitor. The pattern is horizontal bands that starts with grey at the top of the monitor and get progressively darker becoming black at the bottom of the screen. The banding is semi-transparent and I can see through it to the file and desktop beneath the pattern. The pattern pulsates very fast and is kind of hypnotic. It does not go away and I quickly get the dreaded spinning beach ball and there is no way to escape without manually shutting down the computer as I can't force quit photoshop or move to another application. Other times when I double click on a file to open in photoshop, the file appears scrambled and I can see the palettes inside of it all jumbled up, but this doesn't happen too frequently and more often I get the flashing gradient pattern that goes from black to white that I described earlier. The problem occurs with different files and is not confined to one user. It can start from asking photoshop to do the simplest thing like duplicate a file or create a new document.

These are the steps I have taken so far to troubleshoot the issue:
I have had Apple replace the video card but the problem still reoccurs. I have uninstalled and reinstalled CS5 and that did not solve the issue. I have run an extended hardware test which my computer passed. I have installed the update to photoshop which came out last week.I think it is called 12.0.1.

The technician who replaced the video card mentioned that Adobe still uses an older technology that scrambles the files all over the computer. I am wondering if this is causing the problem.

What can I do? I am desperate. Adobe does not acknowledge the problem when I call or blames it on a faulty video card. The problem only occurs when I run Adobe CS5. It did not occur in CS3 which I owned before upgrading.

Please help. Thanks.

[Doug Nelson]

Have you tried disabling OpenGL? It's in performance prefs.

[Caravaggio]

I haven't yet. Kind of didn't want to as I thought OpenGL was one of the main enhancements to CS5 or was that also around in CS4? I will give it a try as Adobe wanted me to disable it too. Still the NIVDIA GeForce 8800 GT is supposed to be powerful enough to run CS5 so I shouldn't have to, right?

[Doug Nelson]

It's actually a pretty weak card (at least in terms of OpenGL). Adobe engineers recommend at least 1GB of ram on the vid card, and capable of DirectX 11 (it doesn't actually use DirectX, but the internal hardware is the same for OpenGL). More is better. Especially for that monster monitor. The recommended config for that monitor is 2 highend graphics cards linked together, or one of the newest ones with multiple internal pipelines.

I know these specs are much higher than the specs on the Adobe sales page, but they also recommend 1GB of computer ram, so compare that to reality and that's the same disparity from their vidcard recommendations.

[Caravaggio]

Thank you Doug. I am kind of pissed now that Apple sold me this video card when I told them I wanted something powerful enough to run photoshop.

[Doug Nelson]

Well, there's "running" and then there's RUNNING

I don't mean to make light of your situation, I've been through similar myself many times. In fact, I'm going through it right now, only about audio components.

[Doug Nelson]

Some other things I've run into considering vidcards:

Some computers are too small to handle highend vidcards
MOST computers are too small to handle multiple vidcards
Some vidcards require a higher voltage than typical consumer computers can handle
MOST highend vidcards run extremely hot, and can cause heating problems in some computers, esp. in pairs
The 30" Cinema display is about the hardest monitor on the market to fit with a vidcard

You've undoubtedly seen the term "workstation" bandied about. There's only about 4 things that differentiates a workstation from any other computer, but being able to handle highend vidcards is top on the list. The Mac Pro is an OK workstation, better in these regards than most consumer PCs, but you still need to take the above points into consideration.

[Caravaggio]

So what video card do you recommend or think I should add to the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT that I currently have?

[Doug Nelson]

First of all, verify that the card is the problem. But I'd go with a Nvidia GTX400 series or or AMD HD 5000 series IF THEY FIT (I don't know Macs). Check the bus type, card length and height, connector type, and if it has special voltage or cooling requirements.

But most of all, check with a Mac-savvy person (hopefully one will chime in here). You're in NYC, so you should be surrounded with shops that can help you. You might even be able to cart your Mac in to verify everything.

Or, if you can stand it, just buy this:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product...or_mac_us.html

[Caravaggio]

Adobe engineers recommend at least 1GB of ram on the vid card, and capable of DirectX 11 (it doesn't actually use DirectX, but the internal hardware is the same for OpenGL). More is better. Especially for that monster monitor. The recommended config for that monitor is 2 highend graphics cards linked together, or one of the newest ones with multiple internal pipelines.

Doug, I was wondering where you got this information from and if you could provide me with a link to it? Thanks.

[Doug Nelson]

Sorry, it's all from Adobe forums that are closed to the general public.

[Southbay]

I have the 2.8 version of your Mac, with the 8800GT, 20" ACD and 16GB RAM.

I experienced virtually the same screen anomaly recently, while working in CS5, and here's how I reconfigured my performance prefs.

Under Performance, check "Enable OpenGL Drawing"

Click Advanced Settings, then select Mode "Normal. Check Vertical Sync and Aniti-alias G&P as well. I started with the "advanced" setting, but think that's where I was asking too much of the card.

On a related note, I found the 10.6.3/10.6.4 OS updates really brought the 880GT to life. Xbench results confirm this. I've had no problems since setting my parameters as described, and IMO, find the 8800 able to handle CS5 quite well.

[Caravaggio]

Thank you Southbay. I changed my open GL drawing settings to what you suggested. Before I was running open GL in basic mode.

Two days ago Apple suggested I do an archive and install. Since doing that I have not had the issue, but am just waiting for the issue to reoccur.

By the way it seems that a lot of users on mac forums are having the same issue running NVIDIA and other graphics cards with OS10.6.4. Current advice seems to be to revert back to OS10.6.3. I am still running OS10.6.4, but will revert back to OS10.6.3 if the issue reoccurs. Here is a link to the discussion on Mac forums.

http://discussions.info.apple.com/th...art=0&tstart=0


Also an Adobe employee on Adobe forums told me that Adobe has reported to Apple that the NVDIA card doesn't work with OS10.6.4 and advises reverting back to OS10.6.3.

[Southbay]

^Thanks for the discussion link. Aside from the single incident (so far), it's been relatively smooth sailing here. It certainly does sound like something's fouled up though.

Right now, I'm more concerned about Adobe removing the option to print without color management in CS5. This has made profiling more bothersome than it need be.

[kav]

It's not a great graphics card by the standards of the PC side, but Apple's always been weak on that. If the hardware on your card isn't faulty, it's probably a firmware bug, or an OS bug. 1 gb ram cards don't exist on the Mac side, unless you're flashing the bios, and most of the testing on this is by gamers, so not really so much workstation cards anyway. I've been irritated with apple too lately for different reasons. Considering how much cheaper the parts are on the 2009 mac pro compared to the earlier generations, they could have at least obtained a nicer graphics card as a baseline.

[Caravaggio]

I agree with you, Kav and this issue has also made me quite annoyed with Apple. Tier two Apple technical support doesn't even seem aware of the issue and that it may be linked to the OS10.6.4 update although it seems to be happening a lot for users of applications that use open GL.

[Caravaggio]

For anyone experiencing the flashing monitor issue:

Apple advised me to revert my OS back to 10.6.3. It seems like they forgot to install the drivers for some video cards in 10.6.4 which causes problems running CS5. Since reinstalling 10.6.3, I have not had any flashing or freezing up of my system. Hopefully Apple will release a patch or 10.6.5 will take care of the issue.

[Southbay]

Originally Posted by Caravaggio

For anyone who is experiencing the flashing monitor issue:

Apple advised me to revert my OS back to 10.6.3. It seems like they forgot to install the drivers for some video cards in 10.6.4 which causes problems running CS5. Since reinstalling 10.6.3, I have not had any flashing or freezing up of my system. Hopefully Apple will release a patch or 10.6.5 will take care of the issue.

After finally shutting down Open GL completely and running CS5 in 32-bit, the recent Apple graphics update seems to have calmed things down. I've been back to running it in 64-bit with Open GL for 3 days now, without issue. But like you, I'm also waiting for 10.6.5, which appears to be just around the corner.