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

I've been your fan since Mac Plus(around 1994). Now my iMac 24" 3.06Ghz is crashed!!! I cannot reinstall the orig OS and I cannot reinstall my Snow Leopard now matter what i do in the disk utility.

Do i have to change my hard drive?

<Edited by Host>

appleimac24 wrote:
I've been your fan since Mac Plus(around 1994).

As a new Discussions user you may not be aware that these are user to user forums, not user to Apple ones. IOW, you are just talking to other users like yourself, not to Apple.

I respect your point brother but apple has deleted one of my post and edited one.

This problem with the 10.6.3 cost me a hard drive($$$100.00).

I replaced my hard drive myself and install my Snow 10.6 and never update. Now it works like a Macintosh.

Even the 10.6.2 have some issues. Check the reviews before installing update. That's the lesson I learned. Peace!!!! I hope this will not be edited or removed because I think this post can help my fellow MacUsers.

appleimac24 wrote:
I respect your point brother but apple has deleted one of my post and edited one.

Please read the Discussions Terms of Use. (You agreed to them when you registered.) Among other things, they explain acceptable topics & the role of the moderators. If you have any questions about these rules, you can post them to Apple - Support - Discussions - Feedback about Discussions, but a key point is that rants are not allowed, in large part because these forums are for constructive discussion of technical issues among users.

It isn't that we don't care that the problem cost you money, it is that we can't do anything about that, especially after the fact. In the future, you might want to consider posting before you spend money -- no guarantees but collectively, we might be able to help you avoid having to do that.

I'm sorry about the rants. I was just not in the mood because I was trouble shooting for 5 days already. I've done everything. I reset the PRAM, formatted with zero out data, cleared the cache. Not one time but a lot of times. I can't sleep.

I can't install the original OS that came with my machine. I can't install the Snow Leopard 10.6.

I was asking if it's time for me to replace the hard drive, no one respond. I was asking because I still doubt maybe it's not a hardware problem so I don't have to spend a hard drive. No one respond.

Now it's ok though. As I said, i gambled and replaced my hard drive. It's my first time to replaced an iMac 24" hard drive myself, alone. Installed only 10.6. no more updating this time and it works like a charm.

Again, sorry.

Has anybody figured out what is going on with this? Has Apple actually confirmed to anyone that they are even aware of this clearly existing problem? I just don't see how it can be anything but a software bug since the iMacs run perfectly fine on 10.5 through 10.6.2, unless 10.6.3 introduces drivers that for the first time push the video cards to a point that reveals underlying faulty hardware. But in that case, Apple has a batch of faulty video cards to deal with.

DanShilstone wrote:
Has anybody figured out what is going on with this? Has Apple actually confirmed to anyone that they are even aware of this clearly existing problem? I just don't see how it can be anything but a software bug since the iMacs run perfectly fine on 10.5 through 10.6.2, *unless 10.6.3 introduces drivers that for the first time push the video cards to a point that reveals underlying faulty hardware*. But in that case, Apple has a batch of faulty video cards to deal with.

Hello,

The part of your post which I've highlighted ,in bold, gets me thinking...
I am very sure that the problem/s I am suffering are hardware related, could these hardware issues of come to a head after running 10.6.3...?

Take a look at my thread...

I'm experiencing this problem lately.

*Please Apple, get going!*

Another data point:
I have a aluminum 20inch iMac7,1 (2GHz Core2Duo, ATI RadeonHD2400).
This iMac has been absolute rock solid, use for months-at-a-time, no crash machine, WHILE it was running 10.5.8. About 3 weeks ago I bought a retail package of Snow Leopard: 10.6.3 was on the media. It installed without a hitch and my machine is fully patched. I haven't installed any additional utilities or application since moving to 10.6.3.

However, since moving to 10.6.3, I have had several freezes. The screen just locks up - can't switch apps or Command-Option-Esc. Seems to happen randomly, maybe a few times a week. Really hoping a Combo update of 10.6.4 restores my machine to its previous reliability level.

I also have an i7Mac with 10.6.3 and basically the same set of apps. That machine is rock solid. My guess is something with the graphics card drivers in 10.6.3 don't agree with my 20inch iMac (but I really have no idea).

It is worth noting that only the screen is frozen. You can ssh over to the computer from another one and do a reboot which at least doesn't force you to do a power off. The reboot takes a few minutes, but the screen finally clears and the machine comes back up fine. I am convinced that the problem is 10.6.3. iMac never froze before that ugrade.

Yes. "reboot" from ssh works for me too. While I was sshed-in I noticed the WindowServer process was listed as "stuck" when running the top command.

So, who's going to be the first brave soul to try 10.6.4 and report back?

+"So, who's going to be the first brave soul to try 10.6.4 and report back?"+

Already on it! Can't be worse than what I've got now. List of fixes does not look promising for this issue.

W87xxx here

Brian Bentley1 wrote:
W87xxx here

Note that the first five characters are required to determine the manufacturing location & date info. The first two are the location code (here W8), the next one is the year (here 2007), & the next two are the week of manufacture.