Monday, May 14, 2007
Tech: Washed out screen colors in Mac OS X
There is a very annoying bug in Mac OS X that causes the display to get a washed out color after switching back from Fast User Switching. Originally I thought this might be a hardware issue with my MacBook, or perhaps some issues caused by migrating my users from previous systems.The probelm is actually quite common and completely reproducable, however the solution is very difficult to find since it is not apparant as to what causes it. People also get different symptoms of the same problem. Basically after switching back from a different user, the display will suddenly change colors. For many people including me, it seems to just be a blue washed out color. Other than being very annoying, everything weems to work fine. Other people have more severe symptoms, where the screen changes colors so drastically that it is impossible to work. Any screen shots taken during this process actually captures the correct colors. And looking in the System Preferences I found that for some reason the color profile had been switched to Generic RGB, which incidently sets the display to a blueish hue.
After digging around for color profile related issues I found the solution on Mac OS X Hints. It looks like something in the Fast User Switching process kills the ability to set color profiles, and your display defaults back to a certain profile ( Generic RGB for me ). The solution is to run DMProxy, which fixes the color profile such that you can properly set and calibrate it again.
Run the following in the Terminal:
cd /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/
Current/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/Current/Resources
./DMProxy
You could also use a shell script or Automator to make it easier to run:
Create a new Automater Workflow > Run Shell Script
Add the following line:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/
Current/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/DMProxy
Save the Workflow and run it when the nasty bug comes back.
Labels: Mac OS X ColorSync Profile Bug Color Washed Out Blue Hue
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posted by Jambo Consulting at 1:46 PM
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