Freezing iMacs may be victims of hardware, not software

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  • Reply 101 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gunnyman View Post


    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.



    Update:

    later that day

    I ran the Quake 4 Demo at native resolution with all the bells and whistles turned on. It locked up in about 10 seconds. The mac is now on its way to Apple and I'm getting a new one.
  • Reply 102 of 128
    I have a new iMac and it works fine. No freezes or other bad stuff.
  • Reply 103 of 128
    must resist purchasing. until freezing is acknowledged and fixed. Must resist urge. Must stop. Must stop talking like Capt. Kirk.
  • Reply 104 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by polar315 View Post


    must resist purchasing. until freezing is acknowledged and fixed. Must resist urge. Must stop. Must stop talking like Capt. Kirk.



    We are in the same boat. I think I'm purchasing this week though. There IS a problem, but I am knowingly buying the machine anyway. Damn marketing.
  • Reply 105 of 128
    I would wait until someone acknowledges the problem and comes up with a fix. It happens about 6 times a day to me regardless of what I am running. I am hearing of many others besides what is on appleinsider.
  • Reply 106 of 128
    Called again was offered to either bring it to a service center or to have on site (since I purchase the extended waranty) opted for on site. The second level two tech was very nice said yep sounds like a hadrware problem. Told her I did not want to put her on the spot and that I was not going to ask if Apple Has admitted to the Techs wether there is a problem. But insead asked if she has heard from large number of people with this problem she said no more then usual. When I asked what she thought it was she said a bad mother board or video card.



    The service tech called today and said they ordered the parts and will call once they were in.





    If you are tinking of a purchase buy the extended warranty I usually do not but in this case with on site service it paid for it self already.



    Oh it seems to be worse woke the computer up after not using it today and the desktop pattern was a crazy black background the icons were there and visable had to do a restart to get the factory blue background back.
  • Reply 107 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by roehlstation View Post


    No one has determined it is a heat issue at all, open one of these up and you'll see the Heat pipes and heat sinks are as large as the ones on the CPU.



    I'm wondering if its something stupid like forgetting to put the thermal grease between the chip and the heat sink?



    I was scared to death when I got my new iMac a week or so back, but so far not a single lockup under Tiger or Leopard. Its tough to troubleshoot a problem that affects some machines but not others. A hardware design issue or a software malfunction will usually become manifest sooner or later in a reproducible fashion.
  • Reply 108 of 128
    My new 2.8GHz iMac (4GB RAM/750GB HD) arrived on Friday Nov 9th. It worked well over the weekend, even running a SereneSaver QT Desktop video, iTunes, iPhoto, shared volumes on the local network, Safari, Mail, MacKiev's 3D Atlas screen saver, Indigo 2, iChat, iCal, Meteorologist, Hardware Monitor, MenuMeters, Apple Remote Desktop Client, and Activity Monitor constantly. Then, yesterday evening, I noticed my Library lights hadn't come on as expected, so I checked the iMac, and sure enough, nothing I could do would light up the display. The iMac is set to NEVER go to sleep, since it's also our home server (the shared volumes, iTunes, iPhotos), although I let the 3D Atlas screen saver activate after 5 minutes of user inactivity, and the screen backlight turn off 5 minutes after that.



    So, after the cold boot, and checking the logs, I found some old Virtual PC stuff that needed to be trashed, but no ASIC Hardware Error messages, so I did that and rebooted again. This morning I found that it wouldn't allow access again, either from the iMac itself, or over the network via Apple Remote Desktop, so I cold booted again.



    This afternoon, when I get home, I will be resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) by pulling the power cord for 30 seconds, disconnecting all devices, then rebooting again. I'm also leaving disconnected my old USB 1.1 devices, and using only my USB 2.0 hub for the attached scanner and media card reader.



    So, we'll see tomorrow if anything is better. No video anomalies (beyond the screen not waking up), so I have no reasons yet to suspect the video card. Still nothing in the logs to indicate hardware issues.
  • Reply 109 of 128
    I have the 20" 2.0ghz with the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory and it only froze on me once. since than it has not happened again. Is this only happening with the higher end ATI video cards? I also noticed that most of the people with the basic config do not seem to be having problems. Maybe I should run a program that is graphic or video intense and see what happens. Any suggestions on how I can test to see if i also have this problem.
  • Reply 110 of 128
    Well, a day after resetting my iMac's System Management Controller (unplug all devices & power cord for 30 seconds, then reconnecting), disconnecting my old USB 1.1 hub and reconnecting those devices I still need to my USB 2.0 hub, and reconnecting my keyboard/mouse directly to the back of the iMac, I've had no further problems. I checked the Console logs this morning and see no untoward issues, so I'm hopeful this issue is behind me. Fingers crossed...
  • Reply 111 of 128
    It seems to be a hardware problem? And AMD's drivers aren't the best according to Barefeats.



    If they gave us at least another choice of GPU vendor we could at least hone in on the problem.



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 112 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Vagrant Pistol View Post


    I have the 20" 2.0ghz with the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory and it only froze on me once. since than it has not happened again. Is this only happening with the higher end ATI video cards? I also noticed that most of the people with the basic config do not seem to be having problems. Maybe I should run a program that is graphic or video intense and see what happens. Any suggestions on how I can test to see if i also have this problem.





    I would also like to know if this problem is specific to the 3 models with the better card. I need to get an iMac, and the low end model would be fine with me if I know it will work.
  • Reply 113 of 128
    Hi all,



    Just registered to post so I could add to the comments here. I have a late 2006 white iMac, 2.16GHz Intel C2D, 20" with 256MB video card. We had the EXACT same freezing issues over several months, particularly when running graphics-intensive programs or games. We were sure to have at least one freeze each time we played Wow on this iMac. Usually during some critical phase of a raid! Tried updating video drivers, tried using SmcFanControl to regulate fan speed. Used settings recommended by Blizzard "Blues" to reduce the load on the video card. We even resorted to placing a fan behind the iMac to help keep it cool! Ultimately it came down to one thing: the logic board. Maybe there is a problem with the video chipset on some of these. Anyway, after the replacement of our iMac's logic board, EVERYTHING has been fine. No freezes at all. So, before anymore agonizing over your iMacs freezing, have the logic board looked at. Though not inconceivable that other factors are causing the freezes--especially with these new Aluminum iMacs, the suspect is a faulty logic board.



    I hope that this is helpful to many of you experiencing problems with your iMacs!
  • Reply 114 of 128
    Hi, I just posted this on the Apple.com forum, then realized it might be a waste of time, I thought other people with the freezing problem might find this interesting:



    So, like many people I had been considering a new iMac, but these forums put me off, with their tales of woe, but finally I took the risk, thinking it was very unlikely I would get a freezer.



    So, once everything was set up, I started up, set up my network, put a cd in iTunes, and pulled up Safari. All was good until I tried to move the Safari window, which froze the system, leaving the music going and the mouse working, but I couldn't click anything, or force quit. I also noticed that the remote control still works to adjust volume, skip track etc.The only was to restart was to hard reboot. This happened 5 times on the first day. Ever day after it happened about 2 times a day. It is particularly bad when you try to view pictures or use the camera.



    A couple of days ago I finally relented and installed the 1.21 update for Tiger. Now the freezes still occur, but now the screen will go completely black (itunes etc still going). This is preceded by large amounts of artifacting.



    I noticed something yesterday though. After a freeze it hit the off button, but didn't hold for 5 seconds, just tapped, and the display came back to life. itunes was still going, all my progs were open. After this I tested with cover flow, screen savers, a bunch of games, the camera, picture browser. I can't make it freeze.



    Could it be that the video card is going to sleep, and when i quickly hit the off button it work it?



    I will reboot the system when I get home a do more testing.
  • Reply 115 of 128
    I bought my iMac in August. Like many others, after installing update 1.2, the freezing started. I repealed 1.2 back to 1.1 with Pacifist and, like many others, the problems went away. I installed Leopard and it came back.



    I worked with Applecare from the beginning and pretty much exhausted their algorithm. Took it to the Apple Store on their advice and within a few minutes the "genius" told me he'd replace the card.



    What's weird is that the tech denied knowing anything about freezing iMacs (which REALLY irritated me) but was quick in deciding to change the graphics card and even the logic board if neccesary. This despite not being able to recreate the problem in the store.



    So either the guy I worked with was extremely cool about it, or he (and Apple) know that these things have defective graphics cards and are replacing them without question. I really hope it's the former, b/c if it's the latter, and Apple is not formally recalling the iMac, then I would be quite disappointed.



    Getting my imac back in a couple of days and will report whether the fix works. The sad thing is that, without the glitch, this was without a doubt the best computer I've ever used.
  • Reply 116 of 128
    macflymacfly Posts: 256member
    jesus people.

    there is a thread here asking those of you who have had freezing problems to post your info on your graphics cards so people can see if there is a pattern in the mem IDs .

    get off your ass and stop just complaining and post your info so others might have som info to take to their apple stores to get replacements.

    its amazing the apathy on this board. maybe im being a little harsh but there has been a thread for almost a week and no one is posting their info.
  • Reply 117 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macfly View Post


    jesus people.

    there is a thread here asking those of you who have had freezing problems to post your info on your graphics cards so people can see if there is a pattern in the mem IDs .

    get off your ass and stop just complaining and post your info so others might have som info to take to their apple stores to get replacements.

    its amazing the apathy on this board. maybe im being a little harsh but there has been a thread for almost a week and no one is posting their info.



    I have read that thread and the evidence is totally inconclusive, plus I am at work on a PC at the moment.



    No need to act such a douche!
  • Reply 118 of 128
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jaysfan View Post


    I called my local apple store where I ordered the mac ( which is a ....



    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 ?



    Jaysfan



    I'm in Canada too and I think (hope not) I have since one week a new iMac with alive cursor

    and dead screen, mostly of the time when I'm doing back up. I turned Time Machine off because I thought it was a software problem .

    After then I had- only today - 4 restart and 2 kernel panic



    Tomorrow I'm going to call Apple and see what are they going to

    do, but I'm afraid of staying without computer



    BTW my iMac arrived from Shanghai: I was so happy to have the new Leopard with the iMac 24" :-(
  • Reply 119 of 128
    It's shocking this.



    Talked to a guy who bought one from PC World. Had two machines! Then had to take them back. Freezing/heat/gpu issues. He got this money back. And gave him the address of a Mac Vendor.



    I told him to wait for a Rev B machine. It's putting me off buying a rev A. That's for sure.



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 120 of 128
    I returned a 24" iMac due to the crashes in the first 2 weeks I had the unit. In the interim, Apple had replaced the hard drive, thinkig that the problem was there.

    I want to order a replacement, but I am waiting until the problem is resolved.

    I was curious, the 2600 Pro requires a 400 watt power supply, the 2400 on the base model does not indicate this need (on ATI web site). Also the 2400 had far fewer transistors etc. and should not create as much heat. I have seen no mention to date as to whether the Base Configuration with the 2400 in it is having the same problems.

    Any Information???
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