Q: OSX Lion + 2011 iMac 27'' + Video = Freeze

Wow. That's pretty bad. I've yet to experience anything like that. I think there is definitely a video driver issue and probably some underlying issues that are causing it in certain areas like listviews.

Anyone had a sign from Apple?

BTW, this is my first Mac (2011 27" iMac 3.4GHz/4GB/6970M 2GB/256SSD+1TBHDD) which came preinstalled with Lion.  This is the first time I've had any major issues with a computer I owned.  Maybe I should have stuck with building my own PCs and use Windows.

Same problem (generally) described here. New iMac 3.4 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, 2 TB HD, 2 GB AMD Radeon HD 6970M. Video from multiple sources (iTunes store preview. H.264 video in iPhoto from my Canon T3i, etc). As soon as the video starts to load, that section of the screen goes yellow and green static and the system is locked up. The system clock stops (I have always run the seconds as a long time Mac user and troubleshooter), mouse is responsive, any audio playing continues, but that's it. Command-Option-Escape does not bring up force quit and the system is otherwise completely unresposive. This is a less than a week old system. Very frustrating, hope Apple comes up with a fix soon, or at least acknowledges the problem.

I found this thread by searching Google for my problem... however, I have a Mac Pro and mine does the SAME THING! I am using the ATI Radeon HD 4870 video card, so it very well may be a video card problem.

Since my machine is a Mac Pro, I could pull the ATI card out and put in my old Nvidia 8800GT to see if the issue disappears. If the issue does go away, it would confirm a problem with the video card drivers for ATI (since the video cards were working fine before Lion).

I'll let you all know how it goes when I switch out my card.

Why would they preinstall this on the iMac if it is a known problem?  It really goes against their motto of "It Just Works".

Add me to the list — brand new 27" iMac (Sandy Bridge) with AMD Radeon 6970M 2GB video RAM Lion pre-installed.

After machine has come back from sleep — either manual or due to inactivity — and I play video machine crashes... hard. Only mouse cursor moves, no apps can be started or stopped, nothing works. Have to hold press power button to turn it off and then pull out and replace power lead. Only then will machine reboot.

This is the very first Mac (six machines) I have ever had any trouble with including ever crashing.

Ok, so I updated my Flash to the new Beta they have so far. Not a single problem since. But keep in mind, it says to "RESET" your safari. Since I did that two days ago, not one single freeze after waking. I am also going to start a thread on how to quite getting notified on these posts. I have all the boxes clicked no under settings, but I always wake up with 15 or more emails from this thread. lol

An update to my previous post. Last night, my iMac froze when I was editing with Final Cut Pro X. All I was doing was moving clips around.

Does anyone know if this is just a problem with new iMacs and Lion or does it affect other Macs? I've noticed that when the problem is described, it seems a lot (but not all) of those posting problems have SSDs and AMD Radeon 6970M graphics cards.

EVERYONE LOG INTO TUAW NOW! Post in the live chat feed about the iMac 2011 freeze on Lion:

http://www.ustream.tv/tuaw

New iMac, no SSD but AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB graphics card.

QUESTION FOR EVERYONE:

If you have iMac with AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics card, for the RAM on the card do you have either:

1. Original stock 1GB RAM or
2. RAM expanded to 2GB

I have 2GB RAM on AMD Radeon HD 6970M card on my iMac and it is crashing.

Also I installed Java.

New 27" imac w/ SSD and 2TB HD and AMD Radeon HD 6970M w/ 2GB (2048MB)

Java installed as well

Have had freezing issues

ditto to the problems everyone is describing.  I have a mid 2011 iMac with Lion pre-installed.  Freezes after waking up and trying to view a video.  Today, it froze when I tried to look at widgets.  Annoying.  Just uninstalled flash and installed beta flash 11, tried sleeping, waking, and starting video...it froze.  This beyond frustrating!!!

Some experimenting tonight.

27" iMac upgraded to Lion  (mid 2011, i7, 16GB, 3.4GHz, ATI 6970)

Opened Safari and started watching videos on my second monitor. Got to the third YouTube video link in Facebook and it locked up. I can watch the seconds on the Digital clock on the menu bar just stop counting, so that's my sure sign it's a cold reboot for the Silverado.

Upgraded to the Flash BETA and I have watched no less than 9 YouTube videos (thru Facebook links) with no issues at all. I am not sure if the problem is resolved, but I will keep surfing to see if I can get it to lock up.

I had absolutely no problems before the upgrade to Lion. So I would guess this is a serious software bug. Still, complaining that Apple isn't listening, I just can't find that to be true. I work in software development and QA and these things do take time. It would be nice if Apple said they are aware of the issue, and will get it resolved as soon as possible, but I just don't think that's going to happen since Lion is their latest pride and joy.

In the meantime, I will keep doing what I normally do. One thing is for sure, I won't be taking this bad boy in for the HD replacement email notice I got last week until this issue is resolved. May as well put the wear and tear on this bum HD instead of a brand new one they are gonna install.

My graphics card is the AMD Radeon 6970M with 2 GB RAM.