Concern about iMac freezing

markw10

I want to purchase one of the new aluminum imacs but am concerned about this freezing issue.



I want to go with the 20" imac. Is this problem with both 20" and 24" or just 24"?



Also, I originally figured it was a driver issue but am now hearing it's a hardware issue. I've heard about some people taking it in for repair and getting a new graphics chipset. Has this been confirmed? I'd at least feel better hoping a new imac would have this newer chipset.



For freezeups is this being only experienced with older 'new generation' imacs or is this also being seen with the latest purchases? When I buy I plan to go with refurbished. I'm hoping with refurbished they would be updated to any new graphics chips.

lorre

Well, all I can say is mine never froze on me and I've had it since mid August. (20 inch 2,4GHz)



I think it's a minority of the iMacs having the issue, but I can't tell for sure.



Some big site should do a poll on it to see exactly how many Alu iMacs are affected by it.

_ alliance _

I have had my 24 2.8 Ghz for about a month now. Had two freezeups in all that time. Haven't turned it off except for the hard reboots from those freezes, so the uptime is considerable for the number of freezes. I'm pleased with this considering the reports of others on this site...



Awesome computer so far. Almost my favorite, but that goes to my 12 inch powerbook, which remains the best computer i've ever had 4 years later.

normanack

Quote:

I've heard about some people taking it in for repair and getting a new graphics chipset. Has this been confirmed? I'd at least feel better hoping a new imac would have this newer chipset.



For freezeups is this being only experienced with older 'new generation' imacs or is this also being seen with the latest purchases?

I'd sure like to know, as I've just ordered a 2.8 Ghz 24" iMac. My anti-Apple husband will have a field day if it has a problem like this.

luigi

Yeah, not sure what it is, but my problem is back. It seems like it had been fixed with the last software update, but now it seems like it is back with a vengeance. Two hard reboots required within 5 minutes of each other, starting with waking up from sleep, so I'm not sure heat has much to do with it. Most reliably, it is triggered with recent use of the screen saver, especially Arabeseque and Shell, but also the RSS Visualizer, but it also occur randomly (a third time now in 15 min while typing this response). Note: my iMac screen is blank, but I was able to finish this memo by screen sharing from my MacBookPro! It seems that it is otherwise a wonderful machine, but not worth what I've been going through. I'm going to give it another week if I can tolerate it, see if another software update is offered, then take it into the store for repair/replacement.

_ alliance _

i dont understand how some have these extensive problems, some have it only rarely, and some not at all. really, doesn't make sense...

cubit

The only freezing I have had has resulted from leaving a thumb drive that is PC biased in when going into sleep mode.

wheelhot

So far, I've been reading through this forums and the problem is more common on 24" iMac's. Recently I went to a Apple store and ask the dealer about this problem and he says they did receive some returns. So I ask him bout their demo unit and surprisingly he said that it never hanged and its on practically the whole day. So if you dont mind, maybe you could get yourself a demo unit.