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

10.6.2 ATI kexts working for quite a time now in lion.

crowley:ATI swm$ w

11:00 up 5 days, 9:25, 5 users,

Mine has been working a week with no problems at all. I have put this iMac through the ringer and have not gotten one freeze, hang up or glitch. Glad we have reached point of happiness with Lion, even though it was something we all did on our own and without the help of Apple. I will say, I love Lion!

Newcomer to this thread, but I have followed most of the dialogue from around page 26 or so, where the kext solution was first introduced.

My wife's iMac is experiencing the same issues (ie graphics intensive apps like iphoto, imovie and aperture, as well as the ubiquitous game (WoW in our case) suddenly freezing, beachball, and graphics break-up, requiring a hard reset).

Recently upgraded to 10.7 (before discovering this thread) and problem seems to have been exacerbated.

Running a iMac 24" 9.1 with Nvidia GT 130 graphics. Whilst I appreciate the bulk of the discussion has revolved around the ATI 2600 and 7.1 / 8.1 iMacs, there have been the odd postings regarding the GT 130. Does anyone who has been actively monitoring this know is there is a kext file solution for Nvidia, and if so which files are involved ?

Thanks !

I have a 9,1 and have all the same freeze/crash issues with Lion. 😟 Not lovin' my mac at the moment..

This is like a nightmare. Apple gives me the run around when I try to get them to fix this problem. I also have the NVIDIA GT 130 and cannot find the graphics drivers needed for the kext fix which I am very nervous about trying anyway. I am so ******.

After 6 months of random screen freezes that rendered my 24" iMac useless as a work computer, multiple calls to Apple, and 2 trips to the Apple Store, I decided to give the discussion forums one more shot. The original problem described in this post (50 pages ago) is exactly the same as mine. Up until now I was convinced that it was a graphics card problem, but since the Apple techs couldn't duplicate it after a week of stress tests -- no help from them and I have been stuck. I would love to sell my iMac and upgrade as I typicaly do after 3-4 years, but how can I sell a broken machine?

After reading through all these posts, it is apparent that people with similar early 2008 24" iMacs (8,1 & ATI2600) are downgrading to old drivers from 10.6.2 (my problem started around 10.6.6) and finding a solution. My jaw dropped as I remembered the good old days of Window updates, crashes, and missing .dll's, which drove me back to Apple with the introduction of OS X. Now maybe we've come full circle? Are Macs older than 2 years not supported anymore?

Anyway, I've downgraded from 10.6.8 to 10.6.7 using the ComboUpdater after reinstalling from my Snow Leopard disc and followed the excellent procedure demonstrated by KrzysiuTurek and others to replace the 10.6.7 ATI kexts with those from 10.6.2. Fingers crossed that it works for my machine and I'll be able to get back to work. Hopefully, the same procedure will work for Lion, or perhaps 10.7.1 will have a permanent fix and I'll be able to sell my computer with a clear conscience. Unless that happens, no new Apple computer for me.

First of all let me tell you a "hi" and that i am glad being here...

moreover.............................i am shocked!

I am shocked because i believed that it was me only that i had this problem and now...i see so many. The good fact is that i start to understand what really the problem is...

You can read my story here

http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/59912/iMac+presents+symptomatology+of+HDD+fai lure+%26+Graphics+Card+failure%21

As you have faced the problem by yourselves my history would look familiar to you...

I will try the solution of page 21. Do we know if we can apply this solution if we run Lion?

well a little bit of explanation...

read my post on ifixit. I have an NVIDIA GeForce 8800GS. Seems the problem appeared with the installation of Lion.

Since it is 64bit kernel and i have NVIDIA (no ATI) i dont know what the "hack" is in my case...

yes, it was reported that the 10.6.2 KEXT fix works with Lion in 64bit mode. So go ahead and try.

But, there is another freezing issue going around which appeared around Lion release. People with Lion reported the fix works, but they now suffer freezes where they are still able to move the mouse cursor. I don't believe it's a pure Lion issue tho, since i am still on 10.6.7 and after i updated everything -but 10.6.8- a couple days ago (java, airport, itunes) i now suffer the same symptoms. Haven't checked the logs yet cause i have work to do..

I am also shocked about the lack of response from Apple. I am not a frequent poster on this board. In fact i only signed up to join this discussion, yet viewing at the forum index this thread seems to be one of the largest (50 pages, 700+ replies, 160.000+ views). I wonder what it takes to get noticed by Apple... Are they even reading the forums? I am so disappointed.

m2c, back to work. good luck with patching lion!

the problem is that i have the 8800GS card.

there are no reports of many errors like ATI et en plus there are not any indications that the "hack" works in the case of NVIDIA.

So, I have a 20” iMac 7.1, circa 2007, ATI Radeon 2400, same problems as most when I moved on 10.6.3. curser freezing after a couple of hours on demand. I managed to get the patched drivers working up to 10.6.6. and never had the guts to go up 10.6.7 . I recently bought Lion thinking this would be resolved by now, to my horror it wasn’t. As I want the sell the iMac I couldn’t sell it with an older OS and patched kernel, that would be unfair.

I wrote to the local apple store manager and he was helpful and said £112 worst case for a new graphics card if it was that.

So, I took it in, they ran it for a week under stress and could find no fault. The Genius jokingly said maybe the car journey shook something back in to place. He also said he’d never heard of the problem so I gave him a sample page rintout of this forum. Oh, and there is no charge if they don't find a fault BTW.. I'd advise others to bite the bullet and drop your machine in your local apple store, I'd rather pay £112 to repair a machine that wil lprobably raise about £300+ on eBay rather than using it as a boat anchor.

I put it on soak test myself when i got in expecting the mouse to freeze within 2 hours… and I waited.. and waited, an 24 hours on the cursor has not frozen.

This is weird, I’ve had this problem just after my AppleCare expired, yet Apple say they did not replace anything and could find no fault. Read into this what you will ….

confused but relieved of Southampton (UK)

I have identified three programs so far that caused my 24 in. iMac to freeze up. The first being Skype. Two other apps purchased from the app store also causes my screen to flicker, then lock up. As long as I do NOT run these programs, I have had no issues. Replacing kext files is too risky for me and I have not been able to find the problem kext files associated with my INVIDIA Ge Force GT 130 anyway. I am running Lion without problems for a few days. Others may want to experiment with their systems to see if it is also caused by a particular app.

I spoke too soon, Decided to switch it off and move it . bam,, it froze as before. so I made video ..

http://youtu.be/dZJJ89crl54

Now do beleive me Apple?

i am terribly sorry for your iMac pal. i can understand your problem perfectly!

I'm sorry for the bad news, Phil.

As I understand it, the kext files won't work on your iMac in Lion, right? That's a shame.

I'm running the fix on my iMac 8,1 (2.8 GHz, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro) in Lion for 5 days now, without any crashes. It's absurd why Apple can't fix this, when users have already spent their time to work out a patch (thank you very much for that, guys!).