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

Thanks for the update. But I would like to point out that the kext fix is NOT working for a lot of us. I don't want apple thinking it is no longer a problem!

Thanks. Great idea I did just that. My screen froze while I typed this and I had to start again after reboot!

Just a follow up. I investigated updating to 10.6.8 and switching to 64-bit mode with the kext fix. Unfortunately, I have an iMac 7,1 which cannot boot into 64-bit mode, even though it reports EFI64. So, at this point, I'm stuck on the 1.6.7 combo update with the kext fix. Unfortunate, but hopefully it will keep my machine from locking up.

My specs:

20" iMac8,1 2.66 Ghz (early 2008)

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259

First time posting to this thread, but THANKS for the thread. I'll share my experience for those taking notes about particular configurations...

I experienced the same frequent freezing problem after 10.6.3 update

The kext fixed worked (incl. the 64 bit advice for the 10.6.7 upgrade)

I upgraded to Lion on 7/23

I have not applied kext fix in Lion

I have not experienced any of the type of the freezes I had previously since upgrading to Lion w/o the kext fix. I do occasionally experience the apparent freeze with moving cursor issue (usually when I have a Web browser open w/ many tabs) BUT if I wait a minute or so it resolves and I do not need to reboot so it seems different from the type of freeze I had before. It seems like more like "spinning beachball" behavior only w/o the visual cue of the spinning beachball.

I also have a similar spec iMac

24" iMac8,1 2.66 Ghz (Aug 2008)

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259

I am currently running at 10.6.2! I did get up to 10.6.6 and suffered no end of freezes which resulted in a hard reset each time. I was convinced I had a hardware problem and played around with the memory and fan settings in order to attempt to fix the issue. I bought into Apple as I thought all their platform was pretty resilient and pretty much ruled out an OS problem.

I did see the messages about GPU in the log files and eventually I stumbled upon this thread. Since going back to 10.6.2 my iMac has been solid as a rock. It means I can't use my iLife11 let alone upgrade to Lion but am happy just to have a stable system.

Of course I have read about the 'kext' fix but am reluctant to change anything until Apple bring out a permanent fix, I somehow think though as time goes on, it is less and less likely a fix will be available for this range of iMac's.

Message was edited by: goskip40

So glad I found this thread. What a hellish 24 hours I have had. Upgraded to snow leopard in order to gain access to the app store, in order to get lion. Just as soon as snow leopard was loaded the problems started. Screen freezes constantly! I immediately upgraded to lion hoping it would solve the problem and everything seemed to get worse. After many hours of talking to apple care on the phone, doing two clean installs of snow leopard (yes two, because my mac froze 22% into restoring my files from my back up HD the first time which sent things into an even deeper spiral of badness) I am back to square one with a totally ruined computer thanks to the snow leopard virus (really, what else can you call it when it does what it is doing to our computers?). I am now in the middle of reinstalling leopard with the hopes that I can regain some functionality from my machine. I hate the fact that I have a 4 year old mac (almost to the day) that can't run anything nicer than leopard. I have no access to the app store and have pretty much consigned myself to knowing that I won't be upgrading software of any kind until I buy a new mac in 4-5 more years.

And regarding the kext fix. Sounds too risky to me as I am rather computer illiterate by your guys' standards. I just don't think I can risk it. Hope Apple fixes something in the near future. I guess I'll just have to keep checking back : (

No, man. Don't be worried about the kext fix. If you can do all that you wrote about here, you can easily install the kext fix. From reports, it works in Lion too, if you want that. Much better than waiting 5 years for an upgrade. Mr. Jobs will have us all wired with computers that fit in our ears by then.

Do this, though. Make a bootable backup of your latest working system with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!, which I use. (This makes restoring much easier).

Then get the instructions from this thread. There is one page, don't remember which, that explains it very clearly and has links to download the kext helper and the kext files. Follow them exactly! It's really quite simple and you'll have a justifiable feeling of satisfaction plus a working computer afterwards.

Does NOT work on lion for us. Still get screen freezes within 30 min during OS animations

Here again we run into specifics. It appears, at least somewhat, to depend on what version iMac, what GPU, etc.

johnckendall wrote:

Does NOT work on lion for us. Still get screen freezes within 30 min during OS animations

Looks like your computer has "something" more than the normal freezes of the imacs with ATI cards.

My 2 computers are running without any freezes since I patched them (the same day of Lion realease).

Harkaitz wrote:

johnckendall wrote:

Does NOT work on lion for us. Still get screen freezes within 30 min during OS animations

Looks like your computer has "something" more than the normal freezes of the imacs with ATI cards.

My 2 computers are running without any freezes since I patched them (the same day of Lion realease).

Nope. It sounds like he upgraded past 10.6.2 and got freezes. He probably has a 7,1 ATI-2400 imac like me. Like me he got freezes once 10.6.3 was installed and like me lion did not fix it. The kext fix in lion will make things worse if his system is the same and his system won't boot. He is stuck running 10.6.2 and he wasted $30 on an OS that he can't use (like me).

Bumina,

I believe your assessment is correct. Mine is a 7,1 with the ati2400 and we have been having the freezes since 10.6.3. Very sad. :-(

Nope. It sounds like he upgraded past 10.6.2 and got freezes. He probably has a 7,1 ATI-2400 imac like me. Like me he got freezes once 10.6.3 was installed and like me lion did not fix it. The kext fix in lion will make things worse if his system is the same and his system won't boot. He is stuck running 10.6.2 and he wasted $30 on an OS that he can't use (like me).

😟

My both machines (7.1 and 8.1) have radeon 2600. Is there anyone with a 2600 that doesnt fix the problem with the 10.6.2 kexts?

Harkaitz,

We installed a 2600 and it made no difference...

It´s really strange that on some machines work and on others there is no efffect!