iMac freezing

[iDummy]

Hello all. Total newbie here, and not terribly great w/ computers, so I thought I'd ask for input.
In Feb. I purchased an iMac 3.06 w/ the 1TB hard drive. It has been great, until the last couple of weeks. Now it freezes every couple of days. I restart it, and it is still frozen. After a couple of hours, it unfreezes itself. It seems to happen randomly and not when working with particular applications. Is there a history of this? And if so, any idea how to resolve the issue?

[backtomac]

Hello all. Total newbie here, and not terribly great w/ computers, so I thought I'd ask for input.
In Feb. I purchased an iMac 3.06 w/ the 1TB hard drive. It has been great, until the last couple of weeks. Now it freezes every couple of days. I restart it, and it is still frozen. After a couple of hours, it unfreezes itself. It seems to happen randomly and not when working with particular applications. Is there a history of this? And if so, any idea how to resolve the issue?

Try repairing permissions using disk utility first.

[kaiwai]

Hello all. Total newbie here, and not terribly great w/ computers, so I thought I'd ask for input.
In Feb. I purchased an iMac 3.06 w/ the 1TB hard drive. It has been great, until the last couple of weeks. Now it freezes every couple of days. I restart it, and it is still frozen. After a couple of hours, it unfreezes itself. It seems to happen randomly and not when working with particular applications. Is there a history of this? And if so, any idea how to resolve the issue?

Have you installed the latest updates? have you installed the latest firmware provided by Apple? what version of Mac OS X are you running? have you upgraded to 10.5.7? combo or delta? lots of information is missing from your post.

[Tauron]

Have you tried to uninstall all microsoft software? Try that and reboot.

[addabox]

Try downloading the iStat Pro widget for dashboard, and take a look at fan speed and temperature from time to time.

Overheating can cause seemingly random freezes, and overheating can be cause by wonky fan behavior.

[addabox]

Another idea is to download a third party fan control like this (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049) and run your fans a little faster for a while, and see if that clears up the problem.

If so it's definitely overheating and you should check with Apple for repair/replace.

[backtomac]

^^^^

Those are good ideas by Addabox.

I'd heed them if I were you.

[macxpress]

Have you added any 3rd party RAM? If so, take it out and see what happens. It could be a bad stick of RAM.

Also, you could run the Apple Hardware Test. I think its on the 2nd DVD that came with your iMac. Insert it and hold down the D key. If it comes up with any error codes, make sure you write them down EXACTLY as displayed. I would take it to Apple if you get any error codes.

[PB]

Also, you could run the Apple Hardware Test.

I agree, this is the first thing to do when a Mac behaves erratically or crashes regularly. Run the test and post back here if there is something abnormal.

Like said previously, a problem in heat dissipation is a possible culprit. But a starting-to-fail hard drive could be also. In any case this seems to be rather hardware- than software- related, which is bad in the sense that you will probably need to send the machine to Apple for repairs.

[Tauron]

I agree, this is the first thing to do when a Mac behaves erratically or crashes regularly. Run the test and post back here if there is something abnormal.

Like said previously, a problem in heat dissipation is a possible culprit. But a starting-to-fail hard drive could be also. In any case this seems to be rather hardware- than software- related, which is bad in the sense that you will probably need to send the machine to Apple for repairs.

Uninstall Office before doing the hardware test otherwise will will come back obviously positive.

[Dr Millmoss]

Have you installed the latest updates? have you installed the latest firmware provided by Apple? what version of Mac OS X are you running? have you upgraded to 10.5.7? combo or delta? lots of information is missing from your post.

This is pretty much the only advice I can agree with in this thread, especially since the model mentioned (with the BTO video card at least) had known hardware issues, and we know nothing else about the OP's problem.

[kaiwai]

This is pretty much the only advice I can agree with in this thread, especially since the model mentioned (with the BTO video card at least) had known hardware issues, and we know nothing else about the OP's problem.

What annoys me the most is that it has been 5 days and the original person who posted here can't even be bothered participating in trying to diagnose the problem. I sometimes wonder why I even attempt to help people who quite frankly are ungrateful little shits.

[Dr Millmoss]

Don't hold back -- tell us how you really feel about it!