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

mert wrote:
+"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.

Strange that the [release notes|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4150] don't say a thing about iMac graphics updates, but some users over in the[ Aperture forum|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2462675] are reporting that iMac display bugs in that application seem to have been fixed with 10.6.4.

-Steve

I got the update in my machine, high hopes but after installed, it froze once while I was using it, not after sleep/wake as it was before. This happened within the first 30 minutes or so. I had to force reboot and now it's working fine. I will continue testing and will report any issues.

For the records, this is an iMac 7,1, ATI,RadeonHD2400. I have WD USB drive (was really buggy to mount before 10.6.3, ok after the "upgrade") and an iomega firewire drive for time machine.

Anybody else still getting the freeze?

I am experiencing the exact same problem, never turned off, problem free 17" intel imac starts freezing and wont boot after 10.6.3 Thought 10.6.4 would solve it, no dice; question mark folder icon and unable to fix this disk errors when running disk utility. Took it to the Apple store Manhattan Beach, and was told it would cost 360!!! dollars to replace the hard drive. Seems as if this situation is similar to http://www.apple.com/support/macbook/hd/repairextension/ Perhaps it is time to extend the same courtesy to Imac owners based on the volume of reports from users.

Chacao - Did you install the smaller update or the large "Combo" update? I used the 10.6.4 Combo update on the evening it was released, and so far, I have not seen a freeze.

aluminum 20inch iMac7,1
2GHz Core2Duo, ATI RadeonHD2400

Mert - we have the same iMac. Mine is just as unstable in 10.6.4 as it was 10.6.3, and I did use the combo update. I went back to 10.6.2 and now I am stable again.

Message was edited by: Jimmdean

My freezes on 10.6.4 are not identical to the freezes on 10.6.3. On 10.6.3 the freezes were often graphic-wise (w) the weird patterns like the picture. The 10.6.4 freezes were just spinning beachballs - no ability to do anything (although it seemed the mac was still working ok behind the scenes). 10.6.2 is rock solid again though...

Jimmdean wrote:
My freezes on 10.6.4 are not identical to the freezes on 10.6.3. On 10.6.3 the freezes were often graphic-wise (w) the weird patterns like the picture. The 10.6.4 freezes were just spinning beachballs - no ability to do anything (although it seemed the mac was still working ok behind the scenes). 10.6.2 is rock solid again though...

Sorry to hear 10.6.4 didn't help. I saw both of your described freezes on 10.6.3, although most were the beachball spinning kind where the screen picture stays the same, you can move the pointer with the mouse, but clicking on anything or trying the keyboard is useless (although several times, while it was in that state, I verified the machine was still running - I could ssh in and run command line stuff).

So far, no freezes on 10.6.4 (my hopes are not exactly high though). I never tried 10.6.2 on my machine, it went from 10.5.8 directly to 10.6.3 (the Apple retail DVD I purchased came with 10.6.3 on it).

Chacao wrote:
For the records, this is an iMac 7,1, ATI,RadeonHD2400. I have WD USB drive (was really buggy to mount before 10.6.3, ok after the "upgrade") and an iomega firewire drive for time machine.

BTW, make sure you reboot with those drives disconnected before you do OS updates...

-Steve

Jimmdean wrote:
My freezes on 10.6.4 are not identical to the freezes on 10.6.3. On 10.6.3 the freezes were often graphic-wise (w) the weird patterns like the picture. The 10.6.4 freezes were just spinning beachballs - no ability to do anything (although it seemed the mac was still working ok behind the scenes). 10.6.2 is rock solid again though…

Sometimes this kind of problem is caused by certain kinds of previously installed software that is incompatible with the later version(s) of the OS. The suspects are not regular applications like say PhotoShop but add-ons that install kernel extensions, startup or login items, or similar things that add to or alter the basic functionality of the OS. Tracking them down can be difficult but comparing the behavior of the system during a safe boot or when logged into a temporary new user account to a normal startup & log in is often useful in narrowing the list of suspects to one or another part of the system.

Sometimes it is simpler just to review what is installed on your system & check for any known incompatibilities or recent updates that might explain or even cure the behavior. The review itself is not always easy to do but System Profiler can be helpful with this, since the "Applications" & "Extensions" sections of the Software category produce comprehensive lists of all of those types of software installed on the system.

@Mert I installed straight from Software Update, I am not sure if that is the small install or the combo.

*Steve Hoge* Worth mentioning, after that one freeze/reboot the computer has been working fine. No freezes so far.

Good luck!

I, too, experienced the freeze-ups after upgrading to 10.6.3. I have an iMac8,1; Intel Core 2 Duo; 2.8 GHz; ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro. The system was rock solid on Leopard and Snow Leopard through 10.6.2. Five days after upgrading to 10.6.3 (in April), the system would freeze, mouse & keyboard unresponsive, sometimes the screen would go dark, sometimes the screen would go gray with thin vertical white lines, sometimes the screen would remain as-is. Power off/on was the only way to regain control. I re-installed 10.6.2 and haven't had any freezes in 7 weeks. I'm interested in hearing if 10.6.4 fixes this. On several freezes I ended up with corrupt files that I was working on at the time of the freeze, so I'm hesitant to move off of 10.6.2. Thanks to everyone that has posted their 10.6.4 results. Please keep us informed.

Same Problem but on a 2008 20" iMac. Anyone know if Apple owned up to this issue yet? I had a similar issue on a Macbook Pro and Apple didn't own up to the issue until 3 years later. =S

Chacao wrote:
@Mert I installed straight from Software Update, I am not sure if that is the small install or the combo.

That would be the "small install". I would try downloading and installing the 10.6.4 Combo update from Apple's Support:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1048

Well unlike you guys I haven't experienced this until tonight.

I posted this an hour ago:
"No idea, but just now I had to restart my 24" iMac 2.8GHz C2D running 10.6.4 by holding the power button just like you. The screen all of a sudden started flickering black horizontal lines like mad for about 4 minutes. I could move my mouse for about the first two minutes but clicks and the keyboard wouldn't register.

Then everything froze, the screen stopped flickering but showed the entire screen in tact, and connected devices like external hard drives and iPod Touch powered down as if the computer turned off. I used the power button to shutdown after 5 minutes of nothing happening.

I've noticed the screen flicker three times now while I've been typing this... =/ "

Since then I haven't had any flickers though.

I'm a first time poster as I've never really had a problem with any of my previous Macs before however since updating Snow Leopard on my iMac 3.06 with the Nvidia GeForce 8800 card I have had 48 hours of crashes and beach balls while trying to restore then eventually scrub my hard disk before being able to restore back to version 10.5.8 from an external drive through Time Machine.

I too thought this must be hardware however since going back to 10.5.8 I have my 'good' iMac back again and I can get on with my work! I have been crash free for the past 24 hours.

Can Apple please provide some advice around what to do as I do not want to take the risk again going back to 10.6....?