Apple releases iMac freezing fix, MacBook Pro software update

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bucci View Post


    I've been having a lot of crashes recently as well. I thought it may be heat related so I got a temperature widget. Turns out my video card was getting up to 67C (152.6F) and the CPU was 55C (131F)! Since then I've downloaded a program called smcFanControl and bumped up the CPU fan from a default of 1000rpms to 2700rpms. It's a little louder, but I haven't had any crashes since. Temperatures now average at 38C for CPU and 46C video.



    It looks like there is some sort of disconnect from the heat sensors to the fan controls. That's my guess at least.



    http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/



    Actually, heat in the new iMacs could be very relevant. I've even noted in my older G5 iMac just upgraded to Leopard the hard drive is getting hotter than before. I have no idea why, perhaps Leopard has more going on in the background.



    In any case, heat could definitely cause lock-ups as the hardware stops responding, or acting erratically. I think your suggestion of using a tool like smcFanControl to try to keep the system cooler is an excellent idea. When my new 2.8GHz iMac gets here next week, this will probably be one of the first extras I download and install.



    From all the postings I've been reading on this issue this past month, it seems pretty clear to me that the ATI video card is the culprit here, whether it's defective in some way, or overheating, or bad drivers, is unknown, but heat is an easy issue to check out at home.



    Thanks for the idea.
  • Reply 22 of 43
    Temperatures are not a concern unless they are in the 80-100 degree range which is considered 'hot'
  • Reply 23 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by l33r0y View Post


    Temperatures are not a concern unless they are in the 80-100 degree range which is considered 'hot'



    Celsius or Fahrenheit? My G5 Tower and iMac are always running over 100º F. If the hard drive gets over 135º F, utilities will advise you to let the device cool down first.
  • Reply 24 of 43
    Doh!!!



    http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...s/article.html



    That link aside my 2.4GHz 20" Al iMac is running fabulous so far with Leopard and all the updates installed. Don't even have any gradient issues as others are complaining about but we'll see as time is the true test. If you all want some pictures of my iMac in action let me know and I'll post them for you to see.
  • Reply 25 of 43
    wnursewnurse Posts: 427member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by li cricket View Post


    I am having the same problems, and spent 5 hours on the phone with Apple yesterday.They do not even acknowledge there is a problem, did not mention a fix. I installed the fix this morning and still have the same problem. I am truly disappointed. No problems on my new MacBook though.







    You expected apple to acknowledge there was a problem?. Where do you think mac fanatics get their attitude from (try posting something bad about the mac and see how hated you are). Apple not only never acknowledges there is a problem (until they fix the problem) but frequently delete post on their support website complaining about the problem. I assure you, apple has acknowledged this internally but will never admit to anything until they release a fix (and they you might be lucky if they told you what the fix was for... other than some generic "fixes prolem with imac).
  • Reply 26 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wnurse View Post


    You expected apple to acknowledge there was a problem?



    Actually, while slow to acknowledge this current iMac video freeze issue, Apple did so when the public was beginning to notice. No company acknowledges liability for any issue with their products until they have a solution at hand, or are forced to by overwhelming visibility of the issue.



    It's still not clear to me just how many people are having this issue, while it IS clear that a vocal minority are. I've been reading the forum discussions on this issue for over a month, and see multiple postings of the same user's comments over and over on different discussion boards. However, my queries with AppleCare reps I know tell me that they've actually had very few support calls on the issue, compared to their day-to-day issues like the new Leopard release. It's easy to jump on the hardware failure bandwagon when one's issue may actually be a software corruption issue of key files on their hard drive. Many people on these forums who initially thought they were sharing this issue eventually came back to post the problem went away when they did X (some OS or application fix, or removing problematic USB devices, or other hardware configuration issue).



    I've just moved ahead and ordered a new 24" 2.8GHz Aluminum iMac, so I'll know soon enough if it's common enough to affect my order. I'm pretty conservative with my Macs, performing regular routine software updates and utilities maintenance/backups and the like, so if my new iMac starts freezing sporadically, it will quickly become clear that the fault lies with the hardware.
  • Reply 27 of 43
    wnursewnurse Posts: 427member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave Marsh View Post


    Actually, while slow to acknowledge this current iMac video freeze issue, Apple did so when the public was beginning to notice. No company acknowledges liability for any issue with their products until they have a solution at hand, or are forced to by overwhelming visibility of the issue.



    It's still not clear to me just how many people are having this issue, while it IS clear that a vocal minority are. I've been reading the forum discussions on this issue for over a month, and see multiple postings of the same user's comments over and over on different discussion boards. However, my queries with AppleCare reps I know tell me that they've actually had very few support calls on the issue, compared to their day-to-day issues like the new Leopard release. It's easy to jump on the hardware failure bandwagon when one's issue may actually be a software corruption issue of key files on their hard drive. Many people on these forums who initially thought they were sharing this issue eventually came back to post the problem went away when they did X (some OS or application fix, or removing problematic USB devices, or other hardware configuration issue).



    I've just moved ahead and ordered a new 24" 2.8GHz Aluminum iMac, so I'll know soon enough if it's common enough to affect my order. I'm pretty conservative with my Macs, performing regular routine software updates and utilities maintenance/backups and the like, so if my new iMac starts freezing sporadically, it will quickly become clear that the fault lies with the hardware.



    Hmm, no.. companies do acknowledge problems even when a solution is not at hand. This is just apple way of doing business. I know of no other company that deletes complaints about their product as consistently as Apple. That is way beyond just not acknowledging a problem.. that is also attempting to prevent your customers from also acknowledging a problem. It's like Apple think if they delete the messages, means there are no problems. Leave the messages alone, reassign the people responsible for deleting the forum postings to actually fix the damn problem.



    As to the cause of the problem, that is apple to figure out really. I suspect it's an hardware issue for a couple of reasons.



    1. It doesn't happen on other machines (possibly ruling out software)

    2. It happens on some Imacs suggesting a component quality issue (probably not all imacs have this defective component).
  • Reply 28 of 43
    FWIW, I had a hosed Leopard installation on my 24-inch iMac and decided to do a complete reinstall of the original software - wipe the hard drive, restore the software as it shipped, no 1.1/2/3 updates, no Leopard. The machine has been stable since Wednesday. I bought my iMac the week it was released and never had a problem until the 1.1 update, so we'll see how it goes.
  • Reply 29 of 43
    ragsrags Posts: 8member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nickmini View Post


    Does it also magically remove the condensation in the right corner of the screen?



    Do you really get condensation on your screen? I'm planning to buy one of the cute new iMacs, but with all of these reports, I'm considering to wait for the second generation. I hope I don't need to wait for a very long time :-(
  • Reply 30 of 43
    buccibucci Posts: 100member
    True, but you also have to consider the limited space inside the iMac. The heat doesn't really have anywhere else to go except spread to neighboring boards and components.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by l33r0y View Post


    Temperatures are not a concern unless they are in the 80-100 degree range which is considered 'hot'



  • Reply 31 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wnurse View Post


    Hmm, no.. companies do acknowledge problems even when a solution is not at hand. This is just apple way of doing business. I know of no other company that deletes complaints about their product as consistently as Apple. That is way beyond just not acknowledging a problem.. that is also attempting to prevent your customers from also acknowledging a problem. It's like Apple think if they delete the messages, means there are no problems. Leave the messages alone, reassign the people responsible for deleting the forum postings to actually fix the damn problem.



    While I suppose Apple may remove the most inflammatory posts, I count over a thousand posts with over 50,000 views currently active on the Apple Discussion Forum in multiple threads related to this freezing issue, and they have been continuously active at least over the previous two months.



    I acknowledge that Apple has been accused of removing posts before, but I've never seen any evidence of this being a policy beyond some posting's language being over the edge, speculative about possible future products, or clearly substantially and factually inaccurate, which could confuse some Apple customers about Apple products.
  • Reply 32 of 43
    ukmacukmac Posts: 13member
    I agree that this patch doesnt seem to have fixed the iMac freezing issue. Certainly when I installed it I had 2 further freezes. Since then I have disabled TimeMachine and not had a further freeze( fingers crossed ) and am now up to 2 days 5hrs running. Not sure if that is just fluke but I am beginning to think TM has something to do with this.



    --

    Scott

    http://ukmac.net
  • Reply 33 of 43
    i read on someone's link somewhere, apple is working yet again on another fix.



    lets hope the next one works.
  • Reply 34 of 43
    ukmacukmac Posts: 13member
    Looks like I spoke too soon earlier ! Shortly after I posted I cam back to revive display from sleep and guess what ? Yep, locked up tight... So not Time Machine then...
  • Reply 35 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave Marsh View Post


    Please do, and let us know how it works, especially if you notice any differences. Since you have a stable iMac, it would be good to know that the update, which is recommended by Apple, is OK for iMacs not having the video card hardware issue. New drivers to better take advantage of the ATI card's features would be very welcome.



    I installed 1.2 last week. So far no hanging for me while in Leopard, but that was what I expected (and hoped) since I haven't experienced any hanging to date. I haven't tried bootcamp windows yet but will give it a try later tomorrow night. If I see any problems I will post it here.



    At this point I am thinking the hanging issue has something to do with how the new iMac is handling heat inconsistently between various identical iMac units. My guess is the internal heat sensors may not be working correctly in all iMacs the same way, thus the reason why some folks have the hanging issue and some don't. This is just my theory...
  • Reply 36 of 43
    Hello



    I used the updater to "improve graphics support" but now my MBP clicks after I perform an action....not always consistent. It reminds me of my old Powerbook 170 that would click whenver there was "beep" and I had my sound turned off...it would still send out a signal to the speakers which I could hear as a pop or click.



    Also, my fan is running non stop now (low speed). That also didn't happen before. Has anyone else had these issues since updating? Is it possible to roll back the firmware update? I wasn't having trouble before the update.



    Thanks



    Greg
  • Reply 37 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BrunoBruin View Post


    FWIW, I had a hosed Leopard installation on my 24-inch iMac and decided to do a complete reinstall of the original software - wipe the hard drive, restore the software as it shipped, no 1.1/2/3 updates, no Leopard. The machine has been stable since Wednesday. I bought my iMac the week it was released and never had a problem until the 1.1 update, so we'll see how it goes.



    I have the 24" iMac running 2.4 core 2 duo and 4 GB of RAM. Got it in the end of Sept. My machine worked great until I installed Leopard the other week. Since then, the performance has been terrible. I get the spinning wheel of death too often to recall (this never happened before) and simply opening the system preferences has become a challenge. I used to be able to open many applications at once, but now am limited to just a few before serious performance hits occur. I've experienced hanging in nearly every application at one point or another. I am considering uninstalling leopard (yes, the performance really is this bad). How was your experience in doing this? Anyone else reading this have any thoughts on this approach?



    Thanks.
  • Reply 38 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tgoss View Post


    I have the 24" iMac running 2.4 core 2 duo and 4 GB of RAM. Got it in the end of Sept. My machine worked great until I installed Leopard the other week. Since then, the performance has been terrible. I get the spinning wheel of death too often to recall (this never happened before) and simply opening the system preferences has become a challenge. I used to be able to open many applications at once, but now am limited to just a few before serious performance hits occur. I've experienced hanging in nearly every application at one point or another. I am considering uninstalling leopard (yes, the performance really is this bad). How was your experience in doing this? Anyone else reading this have any thoughts on this approach?



    Thanks.



    Leopard has not slowed down any of my Macs. I suggest rebooting from a Tiger partition and running DiskWarrior to rebuild your directory structure, then running iDefrag (Coriolis-Systems) to defragment and optimize the organization of files on your hard drive. Something other that Leopard is hosing your performance.



    If you don't have those utilities, try booting from the Leopard DVD and running Disk Utility from the Menu bar to (1) Repair Permissions, and (2) Repair Disk to assure nothing's amiss in the disk structure (not as powerful as DiskWarrior, but good first pass).



    If that finds nothing, I'd suggest you rerun the Leopard installer and select Archive & Install (this will retain your accounts/apps/file folders, but replace your System). This may affect Adobe apps (and require you to copy stuff from the Previous Systems folder or running the Adobe installer disk to fix).



    You have a powerful iMac. There's no software reason for Leopard not to fly on your machine.
  • Reply 39 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave Marsh View Post


    Leopard has not slowed down any of my Macs. I suggest rebooting from a Tiger partition and running DiskWarrior to rebuild your directory structure, then running iDefrag (Coriolis-Systems) to defragment and optimize the organization of files on your hard drive. Something other that Leopard is hosing your performance.



    If you don't have those utilities, try booting from the Leopard DVD and running Disk Utility from the Menu bar to (1) Repair Permissions, and (2) Repair Disk to assure nothing's amiss in the disk structure (not as powerful as DiskWarrior, but good first pass).



    If that finds nothing, I'd suggest you rerun the Leopard installer and select Archive & Install (this will retain your accounts/apps/file folders, but replace your System). This may affect Adobe apps (and require you to copy stuff from the Previous Systems folder or running the Adobe installer disk to fix).



    You have a powerful iMac. There's no software reason for Leopard not to fly on your machine.



    Dave,



    I ran repair permissions and repair disk as you suggested. After booting up and opening a few apps, things definitely seem faster. I'll see how this goes before rerunning leopard. If I do the rerun, would it be optimal to completely erase (copying files first of course) and do a clean install?



    Thanks,



    TGoss
  • Reply 40 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tgoss View Post


    Dave,



    I ran repair permissions and repair disk as you suggested. After booting up and opening a few apps, things definitely seem faster. I'll see how this goes before rerunning leopard. If I do the rerun, would it be optimal to completely erase (copying files first of course) and do a clean install?



    Thanks,



    TGoss



    Leopard also reindexes after installation, and if you've identified a Time Machine GUID volume, it will proceed with that backup, as well. Both these actions can slow down your initial Leopard experience, until they complete.



    If you have any problems with your current installation of Leopard after the indexing and backup complete, then I'd consider the Archive & Install option. To be fair, I'm not sure the Leopard DVD calls it that (that's old Tiger terminology), but the option that's equivalent is the one that DOES NOT erase your hard drive, and retains your user environment/applications/folders, and is NOT the one that says UPGRADE. Basically, it's the option that saves your current System folder to a Previous Systems folder, and creates a clean new one from your Leopard DVD.



    As I said earlier, any applications that installed files into this folder may have to be reinstalled, or their files dug out of the Previous Systems folder and placed in the appropriate place in the new System folder. Of course, simply running those applications installers over will also work. If you have Adobe CS2/CS3 on your system, I'd deactivate them temporarily, then reactivate them after the System replacement. Do NOT uninstall the Adobe suite. The CS3 installer doesn't work in Leopard (it appears to, but fails at the end).



    If you do reinstall a clean copy of Leopard's System folder, and you're not happy with the performance (which should be snappy, following the indexing/backup completion), I'd consider the next step I recommended (DiskWarrior/iDefrag, both run from either their CDs or from a Tiger startup volume). That will maximize your Mac's performance.



    On my Macs, I performed a SuperDuper! backup to an external FireWire hard drive, erased the volume, installed a clean copy of Leopard on the erased volume, and migrated my accounts/apps/folders from the SuperDuper! bootable volume at Leopard's initial startup. After I logged into Leopard then for the first time I immediately rebooted from my SuperDuper! Tiger FireWire hard drive backup to run DiskWarrior and iDefrag. After that I rebooted into Leopard and everything was sweet. (Note that neither DiskWarrior nor iDefrag nor SuperDuper! may yet be run from a Leopard volume, but they all work ON a Leopard volume. So, to use them you'll need to run them, say, from the Tiger SuperDuper! backup volume. I mention this in passing because I had previously been performing a nightly SuperDuper! Smart Backup to that external FireWire drive, and I had to turn it OFF after I migrated everything to the new Leopard startup volume, so that it wouldn't startup in Leopard and toast my backup.)



    Good Luck.
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