After the graphics card update, my Mac would no longer boot. It would load part way, then just hang on a light blue screen and go nowhere. I wasn’t overly worried, because I had a full Time Machine backup (Apple’s automated recovery software) of my system from just hours before it died. Plus, I was able to boot into safe mode (-x on startup) and load up my full system to make another full backup of the drive, just in case.

Meanwhile, since I was able to boot into safe mode, I was Googling for ways to get my video drivers working again. I did end up finding the right drivers: Here (and if that link doesn’t work, just Google “X1900 XT EFI VGA Installer 0.1″). The installer ran fine, and after a reboot, my system loaded normally, though I’m still experiencing the graphical glitch. It seems I can’t play any videos on full screen, or they get all choppy and distorted.

So how will I fix it? Unfortunately, the only way I know to fix it is to reinstall the OS. There is a new hacked OSX version floating around called iATKOS. Version 4 installs 10.5.4 directly, so I’m hoping it will correct the problem. However, this is not an easy process. My Hackintosh is my main work machine, and I can’t afford to just reformat and take a chance with all my work data and software. I need to work on Monday morning, and if the install doesn’t go well I’d be screwed. So what’s my plan?

First thing tomorrow, I’m off to buy a new hard drive. That way all I have to do is pull out my existing drive, pop in the new one, and start the install. If it all goes to hell and I can’t get it to work, then come Monday morning, all I have to do is pop in my old drive and it will boot up just like it did today. No risk, no potential downtime; And if all goes well, hopefully a fully working and upgraded system in the process.

Wish me luck. I’ll post back in here when I’m done to let you all know if it worked.

EDIT: I got the hard drive installed today. I started by installing the iATKOS version of OSX, but it didn’t work with my video card. All pop-up menus were blacked out, so I couldn’t use the system at all. I reinstalled the latest version of Kalyway instead (with version 10.5.2 of OSX) and it went really smoothly. In fact, the install went even better than the previous version I installed. The video card drivers worked well, and it included drivers for my network card, and other devices. Once I was up and running I tested some video, and it worked fine. My issue was fixed. I then proceeded to install the updates one by one to see which one caused the issue. Turns out the latest version of Quicktime (version 7.5, which was released in conjunction with the new iTunes 7.7 for iPhone 3G) was the culprit. As soon as Quicktime was updated, I couldn’t play video anymore (it became slow and choppy). I then restored my entire system from my Time Machine backup (it restored everything… from my documents, to my music, to my applications and even my settings). It took about 2 hours to restore, and it went really well. The only issue is that my software licenses are now all gone and I need to re-enter my product activation codes (which makes sense, otherwise people could copy software to other machines that way). Then I used a software called Pacifist to override the new version of Quicktime with the older version (7.4.5) and voila! Video is working perfectly again! My system is running in tip top shape, fully restored, and even faster than before thanks to my new 1 terabyte hard drive. All is well in A7 land, and just in time for work.

A7