GaBeech

Q: Late 2006 iMac, Lines, Kernel Panic, Freeze, Reboot, Restart, Serial W8 ?

Hello,

Let me start by explaining the method I am initially going to adopt in my search for answers;

•All of the keywords and more that would not fit in the title space, relate to my problem.
•I think the *iMac Serial* holds the key to mine and possibly a lot of other peoples search for answers.
•My second post will explain what I know about the Serial and the information it provides.
•I have a strong feeling that a lot of people who have the same or similar problems to me will have a Serial that begins with at least W8.
•I believe that a lot of affected machines will of been produced between 2006 & 2008, yet not confined to that window in time.
•So, to round up, I am looking for people who have had/are having the same/similar problems to the ones listed below.

•Small graphical glitches; Thin lines in random areas on the desktop, growing in number and intensity over time.
•Graphical glitches on, in and around Finder windows. Again, growing in number and intensity over time.
•Horizontal lines across entire screen. Again, growing in number and intensity over time.
•The odd Software Crash/System Freeze. (Which does not happen very often on the iMac we've grown to love)
•More frequent Software Crashes/System Freeze's. (Maybe it's all that freeware and plugins I've been playing with)
•Kernel Panic's, never had one before... it was a new one on me.
•Frequent Kernel Panics.
•System Freeze, recovering after being put to sleep and then woken.
•System Freeze, unrecoverable. Hard reset required.
•Exactly the same behavior after a full reinstall of OSX.
•Exactly the same behavior after wiping system drive with zero's, then a full reinstall of OSX.
•Exactly the same behavior after wiping system drive with zero's, then a full reinstall with a previous version of OSX.
•System Freeze requiring hard reset on nearly every occasion Time Machine was accessed.
•Shut iMac down completely, never to respond to Power Button being pressed again, even after trying to reset the SMC.


The above is a simplified list of key events on a relatively short journey from Perfect Machine to, 'will not power up'.


If you or anyone you know has gone through anything similar, I would love you to join this topic.

Yours,
GaBeech

iMac (20-inch Late 2006) 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ~ x1600 Graphics, Mac OS X (10.6.3), Serial Number: W87070ACVUV (Check My Biography To See What A Serial Means)

Posted on May 26, 2010 8:36 PM

Close

Q: Late 2006 iMac, Lines, Kernel Panic, Freeze, Reboot, Restart, Serial W8 ?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 18 of 27 last Next
  • by pbcubed,

    pbcubed pbcubed Oct 29, 2010 6:54 AM in response to Derick Clack
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Oct 29, 2010 6:54 AM in response to Derick Clack
    Lots of posts around about this. Seems best to let apple (cust serv rep?) know your disappointment directly e.g. how this may influence your future purchases & recommendations to others. And consider 3rd-party fan control... If not as a potential preventative of trouble at least @ the first signs of it (any graphics anomaly/artifact no matter how slight or infrequent).

    But have to say our 2009 Mac Mini & 2006 iMac (w/replaced PS) are a joy to use and have displaced the Windows boxes in our home. And the 2006 iMac I gave to a friend's family is now their primary/favorite machine, even tho it has slight/infrequent GPU issues (tempered through Fan Control).
  • by Derick Clack,

    Derick Clack Derick Clack Oct 29, 2010 6:27 PM in response to Derick Clack
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2010 6:27 PM in response to Derick Clack
    My Computer info is
    Model Name: iMac
    Model Identifier: iMac5,1
    Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
    Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
    Number Of Processors: 1
    Total Number Of Cores: 2
    L2 Cache: 4 MB
    Memory: 4 GB
    Bus Speed: 667 MHz
    Boot ROM Version: IM51.0090.B09
    SMC Version (system): 1.9f4
    Serial Number (system): QP63**VUV
    Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CB99F9F1

    <Edited by Host>
  • by the doner,

    the doner the doner Oct 29, 2010 5:01 PM in response to GaBeech
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2010 5:01 PM in response to GaBeech
    there's a petition on a site that I can't write because of "You have included content in your post that is not permitted. "


    check this out... more than 4000 signatures. now that's serious stuff.
  • by elice82@,

    elice82@ elice82@ Oct 30, 2010 12:45 PM in response to the doner
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Oct 30, 2010 12:45 PM in response to the doner
    You can do that by saying 'google for' then the words of the site.
  • by panchoavila,

    panchoavila panchoavila Nov 1, 2010 4:43 PM in response to GaBeech
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2010 4:43 PM in response to GaBeech
    Nombre del modelo: iMac
    Identificador del modelo: iMac5,1
    Nombre del procesador: Intel Core 2 Duo
    Velocidad del procesador: 2,16 GHz
    Número de procesadores: 1
    Número total de núcleos: 2
    Caché de nivel 2: 4 MB
    Memoria: 4 GB
    Velocidad del bus: 667 MHz
    Versión de la ROM de arranque: IM51.0090.B09
    Versión SMC (sistema): 1.9f4
    Número de serie (sistema): W8637B***
    UUID de hardware: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CB9F3296

    I always keep my cpu & gpu temperature at 45C, but anyway the damage is irreversible. Great work Apple.

    http://grab.by/7aTf
  • by kellypea,

    kellypea kellypea Nov 3, 2010 2:22 PM in response to GaBeech
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 3, 2010 2:22 PM in response to GaBeech
    I have an iMac with the W8 serial number purchased in December 2006.

    I've always kept up with all software updates and OS upgrades. For the past several months, I've been gingerly nursing my beloved Mac along, noticing slower performance, multiple lines slicing across the screen (I'm seeing them right now), odd looking boxes where thumbnails should be, sometimes in the dock and others, in open windows, and more recently -- specifically on warm/hot days, a strange message that shows up with a sort of grey curtain that drops from the upper portion of the screen telling me I need to shut down my Mac. Sometimes, pushing the cursor into the corner of the screen snaps things back into action, but that is less the case now.

    I've completely stopped using the iPhoto editor, and notice now that both Firefox and Chrome are not functioning well (I never use Safari). The spinning beachball of death as I lovingly (not) refer to it, even freezes now, so I have to shut down and restart.

    I think I should get more than 3.5 years out of my Mac, but now that I think about it, I purchased a first generation iBook which failed rather quickly, then replaced it with a MacBook which had a catastrophic hard drive failure after only a couple of years (the person at the certified Mac repair shop casually mentioned "that's technology for you!") so I guess they just don't last long. It's a crazy amount of money, so I just want to fix the thing!
  • by the doner,

    the doner the doner Nov 4, 2010 2:44 PM in response to the doner
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2010 2:44 PM in response to the doner
    ok so I went to the apple store and we were able to reproduce the problem. then I called the customer service to check my options for repair and the senior adviser said that I would have to pay for the repairs. I mentioned the legal waranty in Quebec that says that a product must be usable for reasonable amount of time considering the price paid. Well 3,5 years for a 1500$ computer is not reasonable. it should last 6 years at least like the G3-G4-G5 etc... so I'll call the Office de la Protection du Consommateur tomorow to hear what they have to say about that. will let you know...
  • by the doner,

    the doner the doner Nov 9, 2010 7:01 AM in response to the doner
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 9, 2010 7:01 AM in response to the doner
    going to Small Claims court...
  • by elice82@,

    elice82@ elice82@ Nov 9, 2010 7:43 AM in response to the doner
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Nov 9, 2010 7:43 AM in response to the doner
    Said that this is needed for Apple to do something about it.
    Wish we had a world court then we could unite all.
    Then we could prove this isn't just random failing.
  • by porioux,

    porioux porioux Nov 11, 2010 8:30 AM in response to GaBeech
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2010 8:30 AM in response to GaBeech
    Add me into this...

    iMac 20" 2.16GHz 20" Intel Core 2 duo...
  • by porioux,

    porioux porioux Nov 11, 2010 8:33 AM in response to the doner
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2010 8:33 AM in response to the doner
    against the builder? the store? tell me more about it.. please.
  • by the doner,

    the doner the doner Nov 11, 2010 2:10 PM in response to porioux
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2010 2:10 PM in response to porioux
    against apple canada since I'm in Montreal qc
  • by Ivan Robertovich,

    Ivan Robertovich Ivan Robertovich Nov 11, 2010 5:48 PM in response to GaBeech
    Level 1 (53 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 11, 2010 5:48 PM in response to GaBeech
    I know this is frustrating for everyone, and I've been lurking reading these threads because my iMac was having these problems for a while now

    It only got worse with 10.6.5. At first I was blaming iphoto11... it was having problems out the wazoo. But I had screen freezes, ghosting, anomalies, fonts problems in the system preferences, and other things

    so bad that I started the whole process of PRAM, cache cleaning, permissions, scouring the logs.

    Then, on one screen freeze, I noticed that the mouse cursor was acting weird and popping into the same location on the screen. On a hunch, I went to the wacom website and reinstalled the tablet driver set.

    BINGO.

    No more troubles here, None.

    see the first post here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12570261#12570261

    I've had eyetv 250+ playing HDtv for over an hour, typing on this, and have a bunch of stuff open.

    It's a smooth as butter and the snappiest I've seen in a long time.

    Serial number is W864XXXXX
    I have the 7300 GT with 128vram

    I'm suggesting that the rest of you with this problem probably have a clunky old preferences panel sitting around like I did. Reinstalling the wacom drivers fixed it for me.

    PHEW! I wasn't looking forward to my workhorse dying on me, but all is well now!

    The bonus is that iPhoto is really nice now!!
  • by knorven,

    knorven knorven Nov 26, 2010 5:10 PM in response to GaBeech
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iTunes
    Nov 26, 2010 5:10 PM in response to GaBeech
    Well, we finally seem to have found a fix for this problem! The GPU is most likely not dead and in most cases the issue can be rectified with a simple procedure by a technician. I have spoken to an Apple service guy in Sydney, Australia and he confirmed that the issue can be rectified.

    <Edited by Host>
  • by Zachnap,

    Zachnap Zachnap Nov 27, 2010 7:58 AM in response to knorven
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 27, 2010 7:58 AM in response to knorven
    So what exactly is the issue and how can it be rectified? Because that is the entire point of posting our problems on here - that we find out what the problem is and ho to fix it.
first Previous Page 18 of 27 last Next