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Freezing iMacs

I was thinking of buying a new iMac in October when they have Leopard out, but I'm reading a lot of posts where some of the iMacs are freezing up, and the only way to "unfreeze" them is to use the power button and turn it off. I was just wondering if there are a lot of iMacs users that are still experiencing this, or has this been resolved?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 30, 2007 2:50 PM

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694 replies

Aug 30, 2007 6:48 PM in response to autiger

Hi, there are probably many thousands of the Ali"macs with the big HD being used..I would think that not all are giving issues!!! The forum is like a medical clinic -> sadly mostly sicky's (macs I mean) ..
I would rather a smaller internal HD and a stack of externals...I don't like all my eggs in one basket..L

Aug 30, 2007 8:32 PM in response to Dave Stowe

Thanks so much for your responses!! Have you all had any trouble with your iMac? I'm just being very cautious because I would hate to get a new iMac, and then experience problems with it right out of the box. I'm basically just trying to get a "feel" for how many are having trouble with their new iMacs, and then also for those who haven't had any trouble. Again, thanks so much for responding to my posts.

Aug 31, 2007 5:37 AM in response to autiger

I have also been experiencing a lot of freezes on my new Imac. It seems to occur mostly when iTunes is running. If I go into the ITMS and browse TV shows it almost guaranty a freeze. Whatever was going on at the time continues so if you were listening to music it continues to play. The mouse pointer moves but you cannot select anything. Tabbing through apps doesnt work. Volume keys and brightness are also unresponsive. The cap locks button turns on and off. This also happened while listening to iTunes and playing a game at the same time. It only seems to be happening in iTunes the only fix is to power your machine off and reboot. I feel like I am back on my Windows box. If iTunes is not running it seems to work fine. I wish I had not updated to 7.3 when I first setup my new Mac 😟 . I also have a 17 inch core duo that does not seem to have the problem with iTunes. However, since I bought my new iMac I haven't been using it as much.

Aug 31, 2007 8:58 AM in response to tekn0ph1sh

Thanks so much for your responses!!! This is stuff like I'm looking for.....this and also some postings of people that aren't having issues with their new iMacs. I'm just trying to get a "feel" for how reliable the new iMacs are. Let me kind of give you a background as to why I'm doing this.

I had previously purchased an iMac, but had to send it back because I don't have DSL where I live, and was still trying to use dial-up. Well, the updates that have to be downloaded are way too large to try to download with dial-up. My computer would run for about 13-14 hours, and then would just disconnect, and I would have to start over. Well, I sent it back. I still don't have DSL where I live, but have since found out that Verizon's Wireless Broadband works really well where I live, and that is currently what I'm using for my internet service. I had thought about getting another iMac, and saw the new ones, so I have been checking the board to see if there were any issues with the new ones, and had come across some postings about them freezing up and having to use the power button to turn them off. I'm just basically trying to see if it is just a few of them that are freezing up or if there are a lot of the new aluminum ones that are doing it. That's why I want people to post about issues that they are having, but I also want people to post if they're not having any issues, just so I can see the normal problems with them. Just keep the posts coming, and again, I do thank you all for your posts.

Aug 31, 2007 9:50 AM in response to autiger

autiger,

I purchased a 24 in. iMac in early March of this year. About every 4-6 weeks I have experienced freezes which required a power button reboot. You will find a comlete thread of my experiences with this iMac posted in this Forum. The problem seems to be with 24 in. iMacs having the Seagate 500 GB HD and an Apple Technician responded in my thread and confirmed that he has seen the problem. How prevalent this issue is with iMacs is not clear and I doubt that you will ever be able to ascertain that information. Perhaps the more important question is how timely does Apple address the issue of freezing iMacs. There are some posts that indicate delays of a week or more in getting their internal HD replaced by Apple. I have not yet taken my iMac into Apple since it is presently working and I do not wish to take it into Apple until it fails again and is not useable without a complete reinstall of OS X and a restoration form my backup.

Here is one suggestion. If you are able to purchase an iMac from a local Apple Store, talk with the store manager and point out that there are a number of reports of freezing iMacs apparently associated with a flaw in the Seagate 500 GB HD installed in these iMacs and ask how long it would take to get any iMac that you purchased repaired should you experience that problem. Hopefully, the answer you are given will be an honest one.

A second suggesion would be to purchase an iMac witheither a 250 GB HD or a 750 GB HD. A friend of mine purchased his iMac at almost exaclty the same time I did and the only difference was that he purchased the 750 GB Seagate HD in his imac. He has had no problems at all with his iMac.

Tom

Aug 31, 2007 12:43 PM in response to TomWheel

Thanks Tom!! I had been reading about some of your woes with your iMac. I think that I may do that, as far as getting either a bigger HD, or a smaller one. I really do like the iMacs and have heard some great things about them. When I got on the board and I saw where some people were having trouble with theirs, it kind of made me think twice about them. I hope you get yours fixed. Thanks again!!

Sep 3, 2007 7:44 PM in response to autiger

My iMac freezes with any game program it tries. I decided to switch to Mac after seeing the pretty new package and now have buyers remorse. I bought the extended AppleCare product and cannot figure out how the heck to get help with my freezing iMac. Although I mostly want to work on my computer, occasionally I want to plop the kids in front of a game and not have to trouble shoot a freeze and have to use the "Hold the power button 6 seconds" trick that I just junked my old PC for forcing me to do. This *****.

Sep 4, 2007 1:12 AM in response to autiger

Last month I moved to Japan. I shipped my 24 inch imac with no problems. I used it for several weeks. Last Friday evening I put it to sleep. On Saturday I went to wake it up and it would not wake up. I turned off the power button and turned it back on to no avail. I have the white light in the front constantly on. I do hear the hard drive spinning and then stopping. The fan doesn't come on then. I have tried to reset the PRAM but I don't know if I did because it stays asleep. I unplugged the computer, plugged it back in with the power button depressed and then let go of the power button. I then pushed the power button, but only get the fan which blows quite loudly. I attached a seperate USB keyboard hoping that would do something but nothing happened. I am really at a loss. It stays in perputual sleep. I am referring to it as my Rip Van Winkle Mac.

Sep 4, 2007 2:21 AM in response to autiger

Hi autiger

I'm on my 14th replacement 24" iMac. Most of them had bad colour uniformity across the screen, 2 of them had 500gb drives that *totally failed* (booting to a '?', all data lost), and my present hard drive (a Seagate 500gb) continues to worry me as lock-ups are still happening despite me thinking I'd fixed it after unplugging my empty iPod dock (which did give some relief to the symptoms for a couple of weeks).

I wouldn't buy another. Tarting up the case with glass and aluminium doesn't go any way to resolving the critical flaws many are experiencing. Apple R&D has focused on the wrong issues!

Good luck with your decision either way. If you are smitten with the machines, go with the smallest internal drive and keep your work on externals (plus a clone of your start-up volume) - then should the internal drive start playing up (or even fail), you can be back up & running without any loss of data.

Scott

Sep 4, 2007 2:44 AM in response to autiger

I can assure autiger that I have the Aluminum Imac. 24" 2.8 Ghz with 2 Gigs of ram with the 500 Gb hard disk. Up to now I haven't had any freezing or overheating issues. It's now 2 weeks old.
I can't speak for others of course but in my case, no problemo.
BTW, it's on most of time and I use intensive programs such as Photoshop CS3, Final cut studio 2 (As I work from home) but do not play any games.

Sep 4, 2007 7:32 AM in response to autiger

I AM SOOOOOO FRUSTRATED!!! I have always been a PC guy, then recently bought an IMac because I was so sick of frequent crashing. After a few weeks of my computer working perfectly.. it crashed. Just stopped right in the middle of a word document i was editing. Now it only boots to a gray screen. I tried all the tricks listed in the manual, boot with option, boot with option, apple, p and r held down. nothing... so i took it to best buy where i bought it. since i am past the 14 day return policy for them and for apple, they or apple are going to try and fix it. I'VE OWNED THE COMPUTER FOR 6 WEEKS AND IT ALREADY FAILED. Good customer service would give me a new one. No questions asked. I'll let them fix my computer, but I am never buying from apple again.

Freezing iMacs

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