Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!

⏺ Press release

⏺ Learn more

⏺ Watch the video

📢 Newsroom Update

Apple unveils the new iMac with M4, supercharged by Apple Intelligence and available in fresh colors. Learn more >

📢 Newsroom Update

Apple introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

apple0ne Author

Level 1

8 points

iMac freezes at password request

I have an older 27” imac running Majouve 10.14.6.

It has 32 MB of memory.

It has run flawlessly since new.

A few days ago, whenever I moved the pointer, I got the Beachball for a few minutes. This only got worse. Then when I restarted it, It gets to the password request – when I enter (and I know that I am entering the correct one) it freezes. But it doesn’t shake , like it does when a wrong password is entered.

Are there any suggestions as to the cause ?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Sep 28, 2022 10:08 AM

Top-ranking reply

Jack-19

Level 8

46,008 points

Posted on Sep 28, 2022 2:56 PM

Hello!

If Safe Mode doesn't help, it sounds like your internal disk may be failing. This is the main clue:

A few days ago, whenever I moved the pointer, I got the Beachball for a few minutes.

If you can, try to startup into Recovery (or Internet Recovery) Mode and run First Aid on your internal disk:

Running Apple Diagnostics may also be beneficial: Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support.

Jack

View in context

iMac freezes at password request

Similar questions