Filed under: Odds and ends, Bugs/Recalls, iMac, Troubleshooting, Universal Binary
My iMac Core Duo's odd behavior
There are a few odd behaviors on my new iMac Core Duo that keep reappearing. One of the most noticeable has been a switch of the ColorSync profile of the machine to a non-native profile, followed by a complete inability to change the profile back or to create a new profile. I don't know if everyone with iMac Core Duos are experiencing this issue, if it is an odd bug brought on by my use of an external 24-inch Dell monitor as my main display and monitor spanning turned on, or if it's something brought on by the numerous Rosetta and Universal Binary programs I'm running. For all I know, it could be a side effect of playing World of Warcraft for hours on the machine.
In any case, the fix for the problem would seem to be to run OnyX or Cocktail, repair all permissions and flush all the caches on the machine. This returns the ColorSync profiles to their defaults and allows me the ability to switch between the different profiles. Anyone else seeing this problem with their Intel-based Macs? It seems to recur about once a week for me. Any other peculiar bits of recurring odd behavior that you have noticed?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
valgonzarp said 10:14AM on 2-13-2006
Actually, I think this problem is not bound only to intel Macs, I had the same issue with Mac Mini and it appeared first when I was using fast user switching. Display properties would always switch back to Generic/Default color profile after switching users. Quick hack/workaround for that was to create symbolic link from your own calibrated profile (somewhere in the Library folder) to the generic one, so when it swtiches to the generic profile, it actually switches to your calibrated one, so in the end you notice nothing. Ugly, but it worked. I believe I found it somewhere on http://macintouch.com or macfixit.
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Chase Browder said 10:16AM on 2-13-2006
I have a similar problem on my 1.67 hi-res 15inch powerbook. Whenever use fast user switching login in to another user then log back in to my main user my powerbook starts the use the apple profile that came with the powerbook instead of my calibrated one. The only way to switch profiles again after that is to log out or reboot and then when i log back in the profile i have set as default is used again.
Chase
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Sam Critchlo said 10:23AM on 2-13-2006
I too have had this problem with fast user switching on my 15'', 1.5GHz PowerBook. What I found fixed it was to create a calibrated profile for each user account. This prevented the display profile from changing to (In my case) an sRGB profile.
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C.K. Sample, III said 10:23AM on 2-13-2006
Just to clarify: it doesn't switch back to the default for me. It actually switches to a non-native RGB colorsync setting. Very odd.
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John Laur said 10:24AM on 2-13-2006
I have the same problem on my 1.5G4 15" PB (pre scrolling trackpad/drop sensor).. It happens with Fast User Switching. I think if you set all your users to the profile you want then reboot you may work around the problem, but I have not tested this yet.
I also do run WoW on the machine and it apparently changes gamma using ColorSync's calls so maybe that has something to do with the problem triggering?
So anyway -- either this is an OS X bug or a WoW bug but probably not anything to do with the Intel machines necessarily.
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Mario Aeby said 10:24AM on 2-13-2006
It's because of this crappy Dell-Laptop below your iMac. Honestly.
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Wysiwyg said 10:25AM on 2-13-2006
Same here, in the iBook G4 933 14'. I still see this sometimes, and no amount of repaired permissons could fix that.
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chris rosa said 10:27AM on 2-13-2006
I've had this same problem on my iMac G5...both rev1 and rev2. In my situation, it seemed to happen when I used fastuser switching to change to another account, then switched back. A reboot would correct the problem.
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Jr. said 10:39AM on 2-13-2006
I have the same colorprofile problem on my iMac G4.
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Brandon Hays said 10:49AM on 2-13-2006
This is tied to Fast User Switching, happens on my 1.67 PBG4. It's a known issue with Tiger, you can fix it without rebooting from the Terminal (but not permanently, I'm afraid).
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060103162354164
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Leo said 10:50AM on 2-13-2006
I got the problem on a (iSight) iMac G5 and a PowerBook G4. There is an article on macosxhints how to avoid the bug: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060103162354164
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dombi said 10:57AM on 2-13-2006
I have had this Fast User Switching/display color profile bug for a long time. I am not sure if Panther had it or not, but Tiger definitely has it.
@John Laur: this is an OS bug, not a WoW bug. I do not have WoW.
I encourage you to submit this feedback to Apple, because they need to see how many users are affected by this bug. Please write up a short note abot this on the following page, maybe that will get them to fix this quicker.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
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Mac Diva said 11:02AM on 2-13-2006
CK, a suggestion. Include 'my' in headlines like the one above. You tend to make general statements about problems that you are having with your individual computer. That misleads people, both on the site and during searches. When Googling, for example, people will see this headline and think multiple users of the new iMac are having the problem. When, in fact, you are the only person known to be in that position. And, then, it turns out that the problem is not even specific to the new iMacs.
Maybe I am wasting my breath because this is being done INTENTIONALLY. Claiming to have found a quirk in a new computer model will attract page views. Engadget has cleaned up its act regarding rumors by creating a 'Rumor' category and adding a question mark to rumor headlines. This is a bad practice similar to that one. I wish other tech sites would be so honest, even if it means losing page views.
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C.K. Sample, III said 11:08AM on 2-13-2006
Mac Diva,
Done and done. Thanks for saying this so kindly and thoughtfully rather than just flaming me. Cheers!
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Ken Martin said 11:16AM on 2-13-2006
I have this since I turned on fast user switching on my 17" iSight G5 iMac.
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Pete said 11:21AM on 2-13-2006
I thought this blog wasn't to be used for technical support???
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MannyV said 1:14PM on 2-13-2006
As an FYI, the DMProxy (entry #9) hint has been working for me for weeks now. I don't particularly care why it works, but it does.
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Christopher Holland said 2:25PM on 2-13-2006
Short answer...
You can fix the problem by running the following program from the shell:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/Resources/DMProxy
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MarcoF said 1:38AM on 2-14-2006
Yup, same issue here, and definately related to fast user switching.. very annoying, but it seems to occur at random instances. I've been running two weeks without problems now, but sometimes I have this issue every day.. weird..
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