Apple/NVidia Driver Bug — Question Deleted 703
Joe Drago writes "I purchased a Mac Pro within the first week that they were available, and immediately upgraded to 3GB of RAM (knowing that OSX loves memory). When playing 3D games (World of Warcraft mainly), the game would Kernel Panic the machine if I had played it for a few hours, or if I swapped in and out of the game a few times, etc. I eventually found out (from an official Blizzard poster) that NVidia has a bug in their drivers that kernel panics a Mac Pro if any memory past the 2GB boundary is addressed in the driver. After waiting months for a resolution to this, I decided to post on Apple's support site. Here is an image of my post.. Within a few hours, they removed it from the site, placing it under 'Posts Removed by Administration.' What's going on here? Is Apple trying to hide this bug, or is there something more serious going on between Apple and NVidia?"
Forum rules? (Score:4, Interesting)
A screen grab? (Score:4, Interesting)
Was their expectation of it being removed? I find that more confusing then the fact that it was deleted.
I really wanted to buy a MacBook Pro but... (Score:1, Interesting)
I really like OS-X, however you have to buy Apple hardware in order to run OS-X. Apple does not support their hardware properly. Therefore, Apple does not support OS-X properly.
Censoring anything but "happy-talk" on their forums is not the answer. Apple are smart people, why can they not understand that simplest of simple concepts?
his "problem" isn't even possible! (Score:1, Interesting)
AFAIK, these days NVidia cards on macs use drivers written by Apple based on source they liscenced from NVidia.
Clearly a troll.
Windows does the same... (Score:2, Interesting)
ATI X1x00 is the go (Score:2, Interesting)
In a nutshell, pay less money, expect more issues. You paid for the 2GB RAM upgrade, why not the GFX card upgrade!?
FYI, I play WoW on my MacBook Pro with 1GB and a 128MB X1600 and it manages to run at full resolution on my 24" LCD (external) with no drama, plus with the Blizzard engine now supporting dual core properly, will do anything from 25-100 fps. That game on OSX is not as resource hungry as people think.
Re:I really wanted to buy a MacBook Pro but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Does Apple not have a reputation for excellent, reliable hardware that "just works"? I know Slashdot knows better, but the majority of people believe what they are told. Hushing things up makes perfectly good business sense, because by annoying a few customers, they avoid many potential customers learning to doubt the reliability of the product. They probably don't care that it isn't very nice for those customers, because they are a corporation and are legally obliged to maximise profits.
Re:Intellectual property (Score:2, Interesting)
I had kind of hoped that this post had the ring of truth to it - if the open source crowd are anything to go by (in trying to get specs and source for the nvidia card and drivers), nvidia are this paranoid with _everyone_.
Again, most of us here think the decision is batshit crazy. It may well be down to management being excessively paranoid in their interpretation of the license deal, but we don't know as we don't have access to those documents, only the management version. All I can confirm for sure is that this post (and several others like it) have been deleted in accordance with a policy that Apple believe is related to nvidia intellectual property. To the best of my knowledge though, there is no fix. My best reckoning is that this policy will quietly go away as if nothing happened when a fix is available.
Re:A screen grab? (Score:5, Interesting)
The screen grab wasn't of his original question, but of his question after they deleted all but the subject line.
It was only after the question was deleted that he began questioning Apple's motives.
My take on it is that nobody would buy a 3-gig box if they can't properly use the extra gig of ram, and this could hurt sales, as well as give people justification for post-xmas returns (and then buying the 2-gig machine at a post-xmas price).
Re:Apple Policy (Score:4, Interesting)
No, they should just not remove it! If you're looking at Slashdot or any of the various other forums around the Internet, you can usually go back all the way to the beginning and read any post that was ever made. There's no reason for Apple's forums to be any different.
Re:Intellectual property (Score:2, Interesting)
There has never been any such problem for PCs and they are using the same controller chips.
you live in a business owned (Score:1, Interesting)
i have never understood why treatment like this by companies is a.) accepted and b.) suprising to anyone after submitting to "a" by purchasing from known shitty megacorporations (aka, all of them, ever bought a cellphone? how about opened a bank account or shopped at wal-mart? guess who is the problem)
3
waspleg
Re:Here's my take on it (Score:2, Interesting)
Similar story from 10 years ago (Score:4, Interesting)
USR apparently did not want to deal with the product liablity. It would have bankrupted them to fix all of the modems. Instead they quietly dropped the product line and completely ignored me. I solved my problem by buying a bunch of modems from another manufacturer.
JSL
Re:STFU and take it - Why is parent mod Flamebait (Score:3, Interesting)
As for "the freedom to use, modity, study and distribute software", I'd just like to quote what the parent said: "When you use proprietory software what are your options? Fix it yourself? All you can do is try to beg, goad, flatter, etc. the developer into fixing it. If the developer doesn't fix it then all you can do is live with it." Well, for 99% of the population, that's exactly the same choice they have with open source software. Even if you have all the required skills, digging into a project to track down a bug will almost certainly cost you more than it's worth. Of course then you'd get back on that high horse and say "Well, you didn't pay anything for it so STFU." In either case you end up paying in time or money, that is money, if you want working software.
Fortunatly, most of the time the developers are interested in fixing bugs, but that applies equally well to open and closed source software. If the bug is ugly or rare or difficult to fix, neither of them will and you're screwed in both cases. Sure, I could just make the software work the way I want to - it'd just take me a few centuries if not millennia.
Re:Apple Policy gagged (Score:3, Interesting)
I leave it to you to decide whether this is a good or bad thing.
See for instance Channel 4 on demand [channel4.com].
Will you offer 4oD for the Macintosh?
Unfortunately not at the launch of 4oD.
This is an industry-wide issue caused because the accepted Digital Rights Management (DRM) system used to protect online video content, which is required by our content owners, is not compatible with Apple Mac hardware and software. The closed DRM system used by Apple is not currently available for licence by third parties and there is no other Mac-compatible DRM solution which meets the protection requirements of content owners. Unfortunately, we are therefore unable to offer 4oD content to Mac users at this stage.
Re:Apple Policy gagged (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here's my take on it (Score:3, Interesting)
You will not be able to read this comment after 6 months. Only the parent comment, which this comment debunks, will be available. You will not be able to read any counter-argument to the parent comment after that time.
This opinion never existed. Any similar opinion you read about in the future is an unrepresentative one-off and will be marked "Troll" then clensed away for your convenience.
See slashdot.org/~CPMO for more info.
Re:Here's my take on it (Score:2, Interesting)
that's why I own a Dual Core G5 Mac Pro! (Score:3, Interesting)
original Dual processor 2.0Ghz G5. well, when I discovered a memory timing issue I was able to return the box for full
credit and got a Dual Core G5 with PCI/Express slots. I used standard Corsair PC-4200 memory when I upgraded to 4GB or RAM
and have had no problems. I looked at the design of the new Intel MacPRo.. I decided that I would rather stay with my trusty
G5 dual core. It runs Linux and OS/X well, I haven't had any lockups at all. I just wish the NVIDIA drivers were open source so
I can get 3D with Linux. For now I need two boxes, my AMD barton based PC Shuttle, and my Dual Core G5, both connected to my
belken USB/audio KVM.
My son managed to get OS/X running on his AMD Dual Processor Clone! My G5's Disk I/O is faster, We are still comparing CPU/Memory
video speed. Some benchmarks his box is faster, but not all.. even though his cpu clock speed is faster my box beats many of his
benchmarks. I've always been a fan of the PowerPC CPU. And at work, I use it's big brother, the P5.. it's a kick ass processor.
I would like to see Apple use the P6 processor for new designs. That would be awesome!
Re:Wrong place? (Score:3, Interesting)
That said, I'm not surprised the post was deleted. It came across as rude and demanding. "I need to hear from an official source as to who is correcting this bug" what the hell is that?
And since when is Blizzard the authority on what is an OS X bug, and what is an Nvidia driver bug?
OS X is notoriously picky on RAM - his Kernel Panics may be caused by incompatible ram.
The forum was obviously the wrong place to ask this question [apple.com]:
What is Apple Discussions?
Apple Discussions is a user-to-user support forum that enables anyone who uses Apple products to meet and discuss various topics, resolve issues, ask questions, get tips and advice, and more. You'll find a wealth of information about your favorite Apple hardware and software products that will help you get the most out of your purchase.
Though you'll find some great information and advice from many knowledgeable Apple customers in these forums, if you have a technical question or issue about an Apple product, please be sure to check out Apple's support resources first by doing these things:
* Consult the application Help menu on your computer.
* Visit our Service & Support site to view our product support pages and search for relevant technical support articles.
and
IMPORTANT: Employees of Apple Computer, Inc. ("Apple") may respond to issues within this forum. Apple is under no duty to provide a response to an issue, or to do so in a timely manner.
Why this was even posted to Slashdot is a bit of a mystery, though not surprising.
Re:Apple Policy gagged (Score:3, Interesting)