Freezing iMacs may be victims of hardware, not software

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  • Reply 81 of 128
    teckstudteckstud Posts: 6,476member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bsenka View Post


    My hope is that the new iMacs will get such a reputation as a troubled model that sales will plummet to the point Apple will be forced to introduce a real desktop.



    I agree. There was no reason for that iPhoneish ugly iMac. There is no big power difference between it and the stunning white original- an unecessary greedy move. And this time make it HD.
  • Reply 82 of 128
    My 20 inch 2.4 iMac arrived Tuesday. I have the freezing/artifacting. Apple is sending me a replacement. I'm bummed because my 20 inch G5 has been trouble free for 2 and a half years.
  • Reply 83 of 128
    pbg4 dudepbg4 dude Posts: 1,611member
    I briefly thought about replacing my Rev A iMac G5 with this new model. Then I remembered all the crap I went through in '05 due to bad caps compounded with the local Apple store telling me my problem was the power at my house and they wouldn't fix it. Actually had to have an AppleCare 3rd party contractor come to my house (taking time off work) to fix it because the store refused service to me.



    Every time I think of buying a fresh new model I force myself to remember all the #### I went through with my iMac.
  • Reply 84 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jonnynyc View Post


    I actually am having quite a few freezing issues with my brand new Macbook Pro as well. Even something as silly as the graphics in iDVD freeze and crash more than half the time you open the program. When it does open and stay open the level of video glitches is unlike anything I've experienced on a Mac before.

    I have spent a month going back and forth with customer service and the best they offered after many fresh installs, new users and tests was for me to send my new almost 3000 dollar machine back to them for a week.

    I decided against that because I have a project due with a serious deadline which is why I purchased the machine to begin with.

    Has anyone had similar glitch and crash graphic issues on the newest Macbook Pros?



    Yes, I've had a freezing issue with my MacBook Pro 17" bought mid summer... cursor still moves, but everything else unresponsive. Seemed connected with networking... at least it seemed to typically happen when switching network locations. Also had a couple of kernel panics too. Total of about 10 freezes/crashes in a couple of months. Haven't seen the video glitches though.



    That said, I haven't had a freeze/crash now for about a month, so maybe one of the updates helped... then again I've been avoiding the particular sequence of events that seemed to cause the problem...
  • Reply 85 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gunnyman View Post


    My 20 inch 2.4 iMac arrived Tuesday. I have the freezing/artifacting. Apple is sending me a replacement. I'm bummed because my 20 inch G5 has been trouble free for 2 and a half years.



    Hi all, I just ordered a new 20" Imac 2.4. It is due to arrive at my local apple store any day now and yesterday I heard this unfortunate news that the freezing may be hardware/casecooling related.



    I see this person just got his, I know that some of the problems seemed they could be from applying a patch to tiger then upgrading to leopard. However like I am sure this person did I waited and ordred mine right after leopard came out, as mine should come with leopard pre installed not tiger.



    Just trying to find out the experiences of anyone else who just got one with leopard installed out of the box, do you have the freezing problems as well ?



    I am seriously considering calling the store and telling them to cancel my order and wait a few months to reorder till this whole terrible mess of a glitch is worked out!
  • Reply 86 of 128
    Jaysfan,

    my unit arrived with a Leopard "drop in" upgrade disk. The first thing I did when I set the machine up, was completely blow tiger away and install Leopard. I would HOPE that if Apple "fixed" an issue with a Tiger patch, they would have rolled that patch into Leopard, or at least issued a Leopard Patch as well.

    I've rolled the machine back to Tiger and am Dual booting Vista (I know ugh) anyway, Vista got a BSOD immediately after I saw artifacting while playing an HD Trailer. The report said the ATI graphics card was to blame.

    I'm waiting on Apple to send me an RMA box now. I wish the nearest Apple store wasn't 100 miles away, with gas costing ~$3 a gallon, I'm letting Apple deal with me via Fed-Ex.

    since you have an Apple Store to deal with, I say get the machine. Not EVERY one has been problematic.



    Good luck to you.
  • Reply 87 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gunnyman View Post


    Jaysfan,

    my unit arrived with a Leopard "drop in" upgrade disk. The first thing I did when I set the machine up, was completely blow tiger away and install Leopard. I would HOPE that if Apple "fixed" an issue with a Tiger patch, they would have rolled that patch into Leopard, or at least issued a Leopard Patch as well.

    I've rolled the machine back to Tiger and am Dual booting Vista (I know ugh) anyway, Vista got a BSOD immediately after I saw artifacting while playing an HD Trailer. The report said the ATI graphics card was to blame.

    I'm waiting on Apple to send me an RMA box now. I wish the nearest Apple store wasn't 100 miles away, with gas costing ~$3 a gallon, I'm letting Apple deal with me via Fed-Ex.

    since you have an Apple Store to deal with, I say get the machine. Not EVERY one has been problematic.



    Good luck to you.



    Thanks for the quick reply Gunnyman,



    I am going to call the apple store to see if they have heard about how Apple is dealing with this. I know apple is aware of the freezing problem but there is no official word from Apple that states that it is GPU related. What info did they give you when you reported the issue, did you tell them you thought it was the GPU and did they say yes that's what it is? Just wondering how your experience was with dealing with the, their knowledge of the problem and how willing they were to send you an RMA or just try to blow off you question and say updates are coming like some other people have reported from their experiences ?
  • Reply 88 of 128
    I feel bad for all of you frustrated folks and I hope you get resolution soon. Just wondering if this affects all of the new Al Macs, or just the ones with the ATI 2600 on it. I just got a new 20" 2.0 iMac on Tuesday and have not had any of the freezing issues you all describe. Could this be because I have the ATI 2400XT instead?



    Here's hoping for a fix from Apple soon...
  • Reply 89 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jaysfan View Post


    Thanks for the quick reply Gunnyman,



    I am going to call the apple store to see if they have heard about how Apple is dealing with this. I know apple is aware of the freezing problem but there is no official word from Apple that states that it is GPU related. What info did they give you when you reported the issue, did you tell them you thought it was the GPU and did they say yes that's what it is? Just wondering how your experience was with dealing with the, their knowledge of the problem and how willing they were to send you an RMA or just try to blow off you question and say updates are coming like some other people have reported from their experiences ?



    I had to fight my way through Tier one Support to get to the iMac Product Specialist department.

    The Product specialist I spoke to, after hearing my problem, said "this unit is considered DOA" He then immediately connected me to Apple Sales Support and handed me off to them. I didn't have to get ugly with anyone. I was at first told, by the level 1 tech support person, that I had to check the system in to my nearest Authorized Repair center. I hauled the machine down to my Compusa, and after being told I'd be without my then 2 day old Mac for 2 weeks or more, I called Apple back and asked to be escalated to tier 2.





    I guess what the above rambling boils down to, Apple Level 1 support is unaware of the issue, but higher up the chain they are.
  • Reply 90 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gunnyman View Post


    I had to fight my way through Tier one Support to get to the iMac Product Specialist department.

    The Product specialist I spoke to, after hearing my problem, said "this unit is considered DOA" He then immediately connected me to Apple Sales Support and handed me off to them. I didn't have to get ugly with anyone. I was at first told, by the level 1 tech support person, that I had to check the system in to my nearest Authorized Repair center. I hauled the machine down to my Compusa, and after being told I'd be without my then 2 day old Mac for 2 weeks or more, I called Apple back and asked to be escalated to tier 2.





    I guess what the above rambling boils down to, Apple Level 1 support is unaware of the issue, but higher up the chain they are.



    I called my local apple store where I ordered the mac ( which is a university campus store) and explained the freezing problems and they said that they hadn't heard anything, that they had sold alot of imacs since the Aluminum upgrade and had sold lots of upgrade copies of leopard to those with Aluminum macs. They don't sevice them there but suggested that I call one of the other 2 authorized service stores in town.



    I spoke to techs at both of the stores and they both said that they had not heard anything etither. The most informative store which has a good reputation in town told me that they had sold 100's of the aluminium Imacs and only had 3 come back with any problems for repair, and none of the problems were related to the freezing issue and or GPU.



    They tech also said Apple is great and not to worry as he has seen incidences where Apple have even issued warranty replacement parts to machines even 2 and 4 years out of warranty because they stand behind their products and any deficiencys that they come with.



    Keep in mind that I am in Canada also. I'm not sure if there are any other Canadians on this form that are reporting the freezing problems or not. Just wondering if a different batch ( or production days ) of Imacs have been shipped to Canada and may not have the problem ?



    Just a speculation who knows what from the production line ends up where.



    I feel confident enough now that I think I will go ahead with the purchase and take my chances.



    Thanks for your comments they have definetly helped eliviate my Mac order stress.



    Jaysfan
  • Reply 91 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by da2357 View Post


    You're correct, the new iMac does not have a dedicated graphics card and yes, the GPU is built into the logic board.



    All new ALU iMacs have a dedicated video card in them, either ATI 2400 or the ATI 2600 Pro. The older white iMac 17in had an integrated intel video card.
  • Reply 92 of 128
    I may have ordered that RMA too soon,

    I ran software update this afternoon, low and behold I missed a Leopard update.

    Since running it, I've been glitch free. I watched 30 mins of HD and played quake 4 for nearly half an hour with everything set on wide open. No lock ups or tearing.
  • Reply 93 of 128
    lorrelorre Posts: 396member
    I've had my 20 inch 2,4 Al iMac since mid August and have never had it freeze on me. I don't do much graphic intensive stuff but my brother often plays Battle for Middle Earth 2 for hours non-stop and it hasn't frozen once.



    Am I the only one or are there more people like me out there?
  • Reply 94 of 128
    gargar Posts: 1,201member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lorre View Post


    I've had my 20 inch 2,4 Al iMac since mid August and have never had it freeze on me. I don't do much graphic intensive stuff but my brother often plays Battle for Middle Earth 2 for hours non-stop and it hasn't frozen once.



    Am I the only one or are there more people like me out there?



    Me. Until now, my 24" 2.8GHz 500GB 4GB ram is running flawless.

    Since yesterday i installed Leopard.



    But I have to admit I didn't really push it to its limits, yet.

    Did some Photoshopping, DTP, etc.
  • Reply 95 of 128
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lorre View Post


    I've had my 20 inch 2,4 Al iMac since mid August and have never had it freeze on me. I don't do much graphic intensive stuff but my brother often plays Battle for Middle Earth 2 for hours non-stop and it hasn't frozen once.



    Am I the only one or are there more people like me out there?



    Read above. We have nearly 8 iMacs running fine.
  • Reply 96 of 128
    I have had this problem about 2 weeks after setting up and running my NEW 20" IMAC. It first was once every few days now it is several times a day. Able to move the curser, cannot do anything else, can not activate force Quit. I have been through level one support 4 times, level two once. They are still not acknowledging a machine problem. Level two had me reinstall the operating system. An hour after it froze again! Also I mention the article and no one responded to it.

    If you are having issues you may want to save a few phone calls. They will ask you to



    1. Go to your libary folder trash the cashes folder restart

    2. Zap the pram on start up

    3. empty the safari caches folder then reset Safari ( doing this will loose history and other items)

    4. reinstall the operating system (This is a job for level two)

    5. What other programs you installed after purchase (MIne was bare bones out of box)

    6. run disk utilities verify disk permissions

    7. run disk utilities verify hard drive

    8. run disk utilities repair harddrive



    If you are mac savy doing this in advance may save you some time to be able to say did that, yeah did that, yep tried that one.



    I would suggest to anyone considering one, to hold off on a purchase untill Apple acknowledges the problem and says it is solved. Unlike the cube which had problems and was not popular this is their flagship machine no one buys it will force them to deal with the issue.



    Will be calling a six time and let everyone know how it goes
  • Reply 97 of 128
    I received my new 24" iMac yesterday and immediately reformatted it and installed Leopard on the startup partition. I then migrated my accounts/apps/data over from my old 2.7GHz G5 Tower to the new Mac. Everything works, and it's been running nearly 24 hours without a hiccup. I ran Software Update and installed everything EXCEPT the 1.3 update everyone is having problematic experiences with. Frankly, I'm afraid to install that update based on the horror stories I've read.



    I'm running SereneSaver Quicktime movies as my Desktop background which, in addition to being very soothing, keeps my video card working above idle. One thing I have noticed is that my new iMac is both more responsive than my old 2.7GHz G5 Tower AND runs 40º F cooler. All in all, it's a very satisfying upgrade at this point.



    So, for now, everything is fine.
  • Reply 98 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aplnub View Post


    Read above. We have nearly 8 iMacs running fine.



    "Nearly 8 iMacs"... would that be 7?
  • Reply 99 of 128
    I went to the local Apple store today and asked about the freezing. None of the 3 staff I spoke with had any issues with the freezing or heard of it. They mentioned about if people were running lots of apps and intensive graphics but, I mentioned I had seen it on the Apple forum and of course here.



    One of them took me over to a new AL iMac 2.8 with 2Gig Ram on it and sparked open Final Cut Pro and proceeded to run a number of processes. Not familar with it but, they then started iPhoto and iMovie as well. So all 3 running at once and flipping back and forth performing tasks with no issues.



    I asked if the machine was upgraded from Tiger or a fresh install of Leopard. He mentioned that it was a fresh install and was completely up to date.



    So is this issue luck of the draw on the hardware ?



    Really chomping at the bit to get it but, would like to see some response from Apple on the allegations of the boards claims of hardware problems. Killing me...
  • Reply 100 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by polar315 View Post


    I went to the local Apple store today and asked about the freezing. None of the 3 staff I spoke with had any issues with the freezing or heard of it. They mentioned about if people were running lots of apps and intensive graphics but, I mentioned I had seen it on the Apple forum and of course here.



    One of them took me over to a new AL iMac 2.8 with 2Gig Ram on it and sparked open Final Cut Pro and proceeded to run a number of processes. Not familar with it but, they then started iPhoto and iMovie as well. So all 3 running at once and flipping back and forth performing tasks with no issues.



    I asked if the machine was upgraded from Tiger or a fresh install of Leopard. He mentioned that it was a fresh install and was completely up to date.



    So is this issue luck of the draw on the hardware ?



    Really chomping at the bit to get it but, would like to see some response from Apple on the allegations of the boards claims of hardware problems. Killing me...



    My guess is it's luck of the draw. Many people have no freezing issues at all with their iMacs. Mine freezes occasionally, but so far only when I'm playing Age of Empires III. I don't think it's necessary due to a heavy load though because often it freezes within seconds of starting up the program (before I've even started a game). Others however get freeze-ups with hardly anything running and much more often... My *sense* is that it happens more often when I'm using Leopard than Tiger (I've been switching back and forth between the two a fair bit on this iMac for that and some other reasons), but I'm not entirely sure of that yet... *sigh*... it's not a big issue for me because it doesn't happen often enough but for some I've read about here it's pretty debilitating.
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