24" iMac Screen Freezes since 10.6.3 update - pls help!

Below I copied my report I sent to Apple:

As you probably know already (we hope) the first Intel iMacs suffer from bad design/bad components resulting in freezing, crashing and "special effects" overall.

Like thousands, I am a 24" 6,1 Model iMac owner (running 10.6.5), and like them, I had the same problems... (I thought this was something wrong I was doing!!) but later I identified that the problem as being a bad design issue - the GPU was too close to the CPU, what made the GPU too hot, resulting the issues described.

After some research I found MANY people around the world share the same problem. And not only with the same model iMac!! I found also that controlling the fans by software I could reduce or in my case, solve the problem. It happened though that after one of the last System Updates, my iMac is freezing again... I guess the Apple engineers are not doing there homework (trying to be polite now).... wouldn't the extensive use of the GPU in OS tasks make the problem even worse for us??

I'm a 11 year Apple devotee and I am deeply FRUSTRATED.

Not only.... I really cannot trust if a new iMac would solve my problem...! How could I trust Apple again? You people don't even recall this machines!?!!

If all this is so new for any of you in Apple (I hope not), please read this tread ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12680036#12680036 ) and many others that got archived.... they are just a fraction of the users... many are now thinking they installed a bad RAM, got some new virus or just weren't lucky.

Please Apple, be honest with the people that gave you so much... Now it is time to pay back what you owe.

*Everyone who has a problem with the freezing on Mac should send a report to Apple:*

* http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html*

*Everyone who has a problem with the freezing on Mac should send a report to Apple:*

* http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html*

Thanks for the input everyone. This issue had been driving me mad for months until I stumbled across this forum.

I've got one of the first 20" C2D Aluminium iMacs (Aug 2007). I've upped the fan speeds with SMCfancontrol and it seems a bit more stable (On my worst day I had 7 screen freezes in a day). So far I'm only on one freeze a day (fingers crossed)

I installed Snow Leopard from a clean install last year and since then I've done incremental software updates to 10.6.5. My question is, if I were to clean install and combo update to 10.6.2 how would I restore all my files from my Time Machine backup? (I assume that restoring from a TM backup would take me right back to 10.6.5) Is it just a case of dragging whole user accounts over from the external drive.

Sorry for the daft question. It's just that I've got a couple of big iWeb projects I'm working on. Losing those (as I've done in the past) would be an enormous pain in the backside.

(PS. I've submitted a bug report to Apple, for what it's worth)

Thanks!
vurey

Instead of doing a full restore from Time Machine, you can just do a fresh install of the OS alone, and then use Migration Assistant to selectively restore documents, settings, applications etc. This is the path I took and worked perfectly. Migration Assistant should pop up automatically when you log in for the first time after install, if not you can access it from the Utilities folder in the Application folder.

Great idea. Thanks for the tip. Sounds like a weekend project 😉

Fingers crossed for 10.6.6 eh?

I've been in this thread, and its sister thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2383288&start=0&tstart=0
for a long time. I've read every post in both, but now I'm leaving them behind as my problem is being left behind.

In my case, the problem was definitely hardware, but also, it was absolutely only triggered when using OS versions newer than 10.6.2 (i.e. .3, .4, or .5).

About a week before my AppleCare ran out, I called Apple. After discussing the symptoms (I also mentioned these two forum threads), and everything I had already tried to resolve the display freezes (see my many previous posts), they asked if I could bring it in. I said no problem (there's an Apple Store about 25 minutes away).

The Apple Store had the machine for a week and could not reproduce the problem. So, I picked it up and took it home and began reinstalling software. I started with an erase-install from a 10.6.3 retail DVD. While still booted from the DVD, and selecting which optional items to install, the display froze - exact same symptoms. This ruled out anything to do with my software or accounts. I called Apple and they said bring it back in.

They kept it for another week. I got a call that they think it might be a RAM problem. They saw a freeze or two (all week) during RAM tests, but with those tests disabled, no freeze. This, of course, is the same RAM that runs for months under 10.6.2 without any freezes. It's not RAM (more below). My guess is that since the RAM tests are very long, the display freeze is simply more likely to occur during that time. Based on all the symptoms and testing to date, the west coast AppleCare guy believed it was a logic board or video card problem and wanted the store to replace those parts, but the store said no - try replacing the RAM.

So I picked up the machine again. Using appropriate grounding, I took the RAM out - two sticks of 2GB from Crucial - which had been in there for years. I put the original Apple-supplied 1GB stick back in and proceeded to erase-install again. Started with the 10.6.3 retail DVD, migrated my accounts from backup, then Combo-updated to 10.6.5, plus all available Apple patches. I got two more display freezes within a couple hours of use. This was on completely different, Apple-supplied RAM. I called the store and they wanted me to bring it back in. I called the AppleCare guy and he said enough-is-enough. The AppleCare guy offered to replace a significant amount of hardware to help resolve the issue (sorry, I cannot define "significant"). AppleCare really paid off. Bottom line is, for me, it was a hardware problem (not RAM), but a problem that was only revealed with OS versions newer than 10.6.2. Best of luck to everyone still suffering with this issue. If you still have active AppleCare - be sure to use it.

I don't know if this will help others but this is what has just happened to me. I upgraded three computers to Snow Leopard a few weeks ago - 2 MacBooks and my 24" iMac (2.5 years old). Everything worked perfectly for a few weeks until suddenly my imac started freezing and would not restart. I left it off for a couple of days and then found it would start but soon crash again. After waiting a couple of more days I restarted it and completely reinstalled SL. I had to do this four times before I could get everything up and running again. My mail was damaged yet it would not let me reimport or repair my mail (the OK and Cancel buttons would not work). After the fourth reinstallation of SL and installing all the updates, my computer was running perfectly again. A week later I got an update alert to install Safari 5.0.3. I have no idea why this was not included in the updates I installed earlier in the week or why I was not told to install this every day since (as my updates are set to check daily). I downloaded it and installed it and my problems started all over again.

Leaving the computer off for a couple of days I was again able to restart it and used Time Machine to go back to 5.0.2. I have had no problems since and I have also not had any alerts to update to 5.0.3.

Certainly in my case the problem has been narrowed down to an incompatibility between 10.6.5 and Safari 5.0.3.

I hope this helps others. I only found this forum discussion AFTER I had worked all this out myself.

I does seem to only freeze when safari is running. This is odd.

I don't use safari and haven't updated to 5.0.3. I had three screen freezes yesterday.

I was putting off downgrading to 10.6.2 because it looked as if the freezes had stopped by ramping up the fan speed to 2000 rpm. Doesn't look like it's working, so I think I'll downgrade this weekend. I'll post my results here.

I have posted before on this forum, about my wife iMac and the problem of the screen going black, but I have some new info.

For a while it has been better, and my wife just figured out why. She has been using a WACOM tablet instead of her Magic Mouse, which has been powered down. And the whole time the black screen never happened. Now when she activated her magic mouse the problem returned. Could this be a bluetooth driver?

I wonder if the old bluetooth driver from 10.6.2 could solve the issue?

Message was edited by: Jonah Lee Walker

*Everyone who has a problem with the freezing on Mac should send a report to Apple:*

* http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html*

Already reported to Apple, but want to know if anyone else has tried using A non-Bluetooth mouse and see if the problem persists.

Hi, I have been suffering the same issue since i upgraded to 10.6.3, I have done a couple of clean install and still suffer it. I'm using Bjango iStat Menus 3 to control my fans and they are running at:
OD: 1022
HD: 2506
CPU: 2268
And I'll be trying tomorrow afternoon using only my Wacom mouse and pen and shut my magic mouse just to see if the problem repeats, if it does I'll try using wired mouse and keyboard just to make sure that it's a Bluetooh issue, or magic mouse - Bluetooh issue
Best regards,

same problem here.
imac 27 (2009) i7 freezes every couple of days during sleep with a black screen or during wake up (mac os 10.6.5).
only solution is to press the power button.
i have no other bluetooth device than apple trackpad, mouse an keyboard.
no usb hub just one canon printer connected via usb. nothing else.
this is really annoying.