ashleyracano

Q: Retina iMac Freezing and Restarting

Hi,

 

So I bought the 5k Retina iMac the other day, on November 5th. When I brought it home it was constantly freezing and restarting. There's no signs of panic in the diagnostics, apple couldn't figure it out over the phone when they had me resetting it. It happened during simple things, making a music playlist on spotify or when I had photoshop or autodesk maya opened. Nothing popped up when it froze in any signs of error it simply just froze and then restarted the computer by itself. After this happened about 8 times I brought it back yesterday and the apple genius said it was probably hardware issues and then promptly gave me another computer.

 

Now I'm home with a new retina iMac and now the same problem is happening. It's frozen and restarted 3 times when I'm doing simple things. I don't even have much installed on this computer yet, I haven't really transferred over my files. I have Skype, photoshop, illustrator, maya, spotify, etc on here so I don't understand what is causing these issues. Is there just a problem with this iMac that no one has reported yet? Has anyone else bought the 5k iMac sharing the same problems? I'm at a loss of what to do here if I should just return for a full refund at this point and deal with my ever dying 2011 iMac. It's frustrating getting a new computer and it not working and it's kind of disheartening. All the specs of the computer are the standard purchase from the website I just don't know what to do. Any advice? Thank you.

iMac with Retina 5K display, iOS 8.1

Posted on Nov 9, 2014 8:02 AM

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Q: Retina iMac Freezing and Restarting

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  • by CKMYST,

    CKMYST CKMYST Jun 8, 2016 9:47 AM in response to ashleyracano
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 8, 2016 9:47 AM in response to ashleyracano

    So, I bought the 27" iMac Retina 11 months ago for a music project with my daughter. The unit suffered a failed video component within 30 days and they (Boca Raton Apple Store) exchanged the entire unit cheerfully. The 2nd unit sat boxed for several months while we purchased more gear for the project. About a month ago we finally began using this for recording (Logic Pro). There is nothing else added to the software and the computer is used for no other purpose. From early on (before adding software, RAM, audio interface or thunderbolt hard drive) the computer began restarting randomly and alerting us that it had "been shutdown improperly". It also began freezing from time to time.

     

    Eventually, after studying the Support Forum I tried the suggested disk repairs and OS update. It crashed/froze during both repair attempts and the OS update ultimately causing the computer to no longer boot. Back to the Apple Store (in Boca). They re-imaged the drive, ran hardware tests and said "you're all set!". I asked them to try staring and running the computer just to confirm and, after a couple minutes of web-surfing he says "yep, all set!" Hits "Shut Down" and the computer froze. After observing the problem he checked it in for "further triage". Yesterday (5 days later) I am told that they "finally" got the computer to misbehave. The first tech I spoke with confided that there were known issues with the Fusion Drive and he was pretty sure replacing that would solve the problem. Today I received an official call from them saying they suspected my 32G of aftermarket (non-Apple) RAM. They have ordered a stick of 4G Apple RAM to try. Surprised that a very large and busy Apple store would not have RAM in stock for a current computer model and, that they would dismiss the fact that the problem existed before the RAM upgrade. Now, changing 2 parameters at the same time, brand and capacity?

     

    After purchasing dozens upon dozens of Macs from as far back as 1987 this is my first real problem ever. My main concern is that this seems to be a common, known and possibly resolvable problem yet the store has told me more about my ability to buy extended Apple Care than how they will resolve this. Shame on me for letting this computer sit for several months (expecting it to work like all of it's predecessors) but, does anyone know definitively what has been causing these identical problems for so many users?

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