Q: System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update

Additional information

*Display Information*
Manufacturer - 00000610
Model - 00009C8E
Manufacture date - C1B4C500

Comments
There is something not right with the display brightness / refresh rate or sometime under 10.6.x

Hi R C-R,

You obviously have a very stable experience with 10.6.3 on 8,1 hardware. There may be some value here for all 8,1 users to compare hardware details.

What are the exact details of your hardware please.
1. Hardware overview (about this Mac > more info > hardware) *don't post Serial Number and Hardware UUID*
2. Graphics Display (about this Mac > more info > Graphics/Displays)
3. Display information from ICC profile. (System Preferences > Displays > color > select ICC profile for monitor > click open profile > scroll down to "Apple display make and model information" , select and read information)

1.
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.30f1

2.
Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9583
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.259
Displays:
iMac:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Built-In: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

3.
Display Information
Manufacturer - 00000610
Model - 00009C8E
Manufacture date - C1B4C500

R C-R wrote:

Believe what you want but if you make the effort to check a larger, more representative sample of all 10.6.3 users, all the 'widespread problems' theories fall apart.

R C-R,

really, we get it. It's not happening on all macs of that make and model.
Your missing the point yourself here IMHO

I, for one, am trying to get to the bottom of the problem I am having and you're just repeating that it can't be so for all people. Great, fascinating fact, however not contributing to the possible solution. I think it's great personally you are so involved in the discussion boards, however, most of your messages are about trying to convince people that they should consider it's them and not Apple. Did you already apply at Apple? They would be crazy to not hire you

Now, even though you are not wrong, doesn't mean you are contributing here by stating the obvious.
I would suggest we stay on topic from now on.

Could you maybe post your SysProfile from your imac 8,1, preferably containing the following:
-Hardware overview
-Graphics/Displays

It may or may not be EFI/firmware/graphics/kext related, but I would love to see a difference in yours compared to mine, although I doubt we will be so lucky as to encounter that.

Mine was bought in Holland on a sidenote, possibly manufactured in a different facility than yours.
I have no idea whether that would make a difference, if it does, it may explain why some are having the problem and others not.

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.30f1
Serial Number (system): VM913*ZE4
Hardware UUID: 1C05C44B-*-ADC7CEDDE0A2

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9583
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.259
Displays:
iMac:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

rgds
Charles


<Edited by Host>

whyisitsohard wrote:
You obviously have a very stable experience with 10.6.3 on 8,1 hardware. There may be some value here for all 8,1 users to compare hardware details.

Hear, hear

Our hardware specs are identical.

What are your display details pls?

Message was edited by: whyisitsohard

Message was edited by: whyisitsohard

Going to bit off topic myself. It seems to happen more when word is running. Although it has also happened when I didn't have office 2008 with all subsequent patches installed. I can't find anyone having a problem with office 2008 in relation to this issue.

My system doesn't have Office installed.

Hmmm.. new trap to set. I'm having trouble finding anything in the console building up to the freeze. I have now set the time to display with seconds. As the last image before the freeze will display the time in seconds, I can note that down before the hard-reset (powerbutton).

Will check in logs to see if anything is going on that should.
-fingers crossed

whyisitsohard wrote:
Our hardware specs are identical.

What are your display details pls?

Where do I find them?
I don't see them in SysProfiler..

Display information from ICC profile.
(System Preferences > Displays > color > select ICC profile for monitor > click open profile > scroll down to "Apple display make and model information" , select and read information)

whyisitsohard wrote:
Display information from ICC profile.
(System Preferences > Displays > color > select ICC profile for monitor > click open profile > scroll down to "Apple display make and model information" , select and read information)

Ok, same as yours, except for the manufacture date.
C1B4BB84
Doesn't tell us anything more than what we knew already.
Our 2 computers definitely show this problem.

I have two "8,1" iMacs & occasional "hands on" access to several others, in various combinations of screen size, installed memory, graphics systems, etc. I also keep in touch with quite a few other users of the same basic model. AFAIK, this covers all the standard hardware variations, although there might be some BTO models not represented. I can assure you that none of us has found any correlation between the model & 10.6.3 problems.

Sure, there have been some post-update things to sort out, but none that weren't typical of any update: some apps that were a few versions behind & also needed an update, a hack that quit working, an (I suspect) botched Terminal command that deleted some OS files, a HD with some file system problems, & maybe a few other things like that that nobody thought was significant enough to mention.

I think you will find much the same is true for all the other suspect models -- if anything there seem to be far more reports of laptops with random freezes than anything else. But there isn't anything that correlates closely with the info you are asking for, which detailed as it seems won't show things like if the memory modules are up to spec, the GPU or some other component is from a bad batch, or -- obviously I hope -- any non-hardware related issues.

I've spent what is probably a ridiculous amount of time & effort looking at everything I could find about this & every other other post-10.6.3 issue. Time after time I keep coming back to the same conclusion: while there may be some issues directly attributable to this specific update, there are no widespread ones, nor any that can be correlated with anything obvious.

That conclusion leads to the same advice I keep offering in all the topics about 10.6.3 issues: *send this info to Apple!* Inevitably, only a few users are going to post comprehensive info here & they will largely be users with problems instead of a representative sample of those both with & without them. That's normal -- most users without problems don't follow these topics & far too many that have problems are so firmly convinced they must be caused by the update that they find correlations with other reports even when they aren't there.

I don't object to anyone posting whatever info here they think might help, but to be blunt about it, that isn't going to happen until affected users accept that there are no widespread problems or conspiracies to cover them up or any of the rest of it.

1. Problem started happening after 10.6.3 update? Yes
2. Did you get any errors during 10.6.3 update process? No
3. Mouse cursor moves? No
4. Mouse clicking does nothing? Yes
5. Keyboard key presses do nothing? Yes
6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes
7. Mouse/Keyboard Model? Apple Keyboard aluminium / USB Mouse A4Tech

Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 GB
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.30f1
Serial Number (system): VM842*ZE4
Hardware UUID: E666B410-**-47E65DDB03A7

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9583
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.259
Displays:
iMac:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected


<Edited by Host>

however, most of your messages are about trying to convince people that they should consider it's them and not Apple.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is exactly that kind of grossly oversimplified statement that is what's wrong with this topic. People are not paying attention to anything except what that want to see, not even the bolded statement in the request for info from "whyisitsohard" that says

*don't post Serial Number and Hardware UUID*

NEVER POST YOUR SERIAL NUMBER IN AN OPEN FORUM!

Is not even that much clear?

whyisitsohard wrote:
Display information from ICC profile.
(System Preferences > Displays > color > select ICC profile for monitor > click open profile > scroll down to "Apple display make and model information" , select and read information)

FWIW, some users will have more than one monitor profile & some of them may have all zeros in the Manufacture Date field. If you are intent on posting this info, do it for the non-zero one. However, be advised that for iMacs this info refers to the display panel, not to the iMac itself, & "Manufacture Date" is a code that tracks factory batch info. It is not a coded form of the date your iMac was manufactured.