Q: OSX Lion + 2011 iMac 27'' + Video = Freeze

BanchoryJohn,

I would recommend going back to Snow Leopard or Leopard for the time being.  Continually cutting the power to the machine is obviously not going to lead to good things, and there does not appear to be any way to make LION behave until Apple gives us a fix.

To minimize the hassle, I left LION installed on my 2008 20" iMac and, using Disk Utility, created a separate partition on my HD onto which I installed Leopard.  I boot into the Leopard partition, but still have full read/write access to the files, data, and even most applications on the LION partition.

BanchoryJohn

"since 'upgrading' to Lion in September regular and unpredictable freezes of the screen. Incrementally apps become unresponsive until eventually Finder is no longer with you, beachballing for everything and everything still on the screen (i.e. no kernel panic screen). Only option has seemed to be the power button - which I don't like doing, but now hapens 2 or 3 times a day."

I'm having the exact same problem with my mid 2007 20" iMac running on 4GB of RAM, Dual core.

Since I updated to Lion in July the computer freezes randomly about 2 times every day. The mouse cursor can be moved but nothing else works. I'm being forced to use to power button to "force shut down" the computer.

Does anybody know what's wrong???

BanchoryJohn

"since 'upgrading' to Lion in September regular and unpredictable freezes of the screen. Incrementally apps become unresponsive until eventually Finder is no longer with you, beachballing for everything and everything still on the screen (i.e. no kernel panic screen). Only option has seemed to be the power button - which I don't like doing, but now hapens 2 or 3 times a day."

I'm having the exact same problem with my mid 2007 20" iMac running on 4GB of RAM, Dual core.

Since I updated to Lion in July the computer freezes randomly about 2 times every day. The mouse cursor can be moved but nothing else works. I'm being forced to use to power button to "force shut down" the computer.

Does anybody know what's wrong???

Benjamin, if your curser still works, are you able to "force quit" open applications and windows?

I can't force quit anything, CMD + OPT+ ESC doesn't work and I can't click on anything. I can only move the cursor but nothing else works....

Marjean,

The problem that most of us are having (including the individual that started this thread) is that the display freezes completely.  When this happens, keyboard and mouse are unresponsive (except the mouse cursor is movable, but clicking doesn't work).

Force Quit is not an option.  All control of the machine is lost.  All one can do is hold down the power button to turn the machine off.

I've read your posts, and you appear to have a different set of problems.  Is it just individual applications that are freezing on you?  I really wish that's all I had to deal with.  Irritating as that is, I'd prefer that to a complete OS freeze.

Benjamin,

I don't know if anyone knows what is wrong.  This has been happening to an unknown number of users since LION was made available last July.  For some of us, the symptoms began in Snow Leopard (Leopard is not affected by these bugs).

Some suggest it's a graphics driver bug.  Others think it's a power management issue.  No one has found a solution (though some users claim 10.7.1 update cured it).

If you can, get back to snow leopard as fast as you can.  Otherwise, LION may ruin your hardware.

I hope that this is not our first taste of the post-Jobs Apple.

You are absolutely right, Studio.  I have a 21.5-inch, Mid 2010, 3.2GHz i3, 4 GB memory.  The only problem I had since installing Lion was constant hanging of open applications.  However, I could use "force quit".  Even opening that window would stop the hanging.  I unchecked all mouse preferences and haven't had a problem since.

Sorry that you all are having problems.  I know how disgusting it can be.  Hope Apple comes through for you soon, and hope their fix doesn't screw the rest of us up!

Ok, so this might be a dumb question, but can I purchase Snow Leopard and install it an uninstall Lion and have it work?  This might be at least a temporary solution.  It is $44 on Amazon.

Dawn

Hi All,

I'm back to post the results of my video card replacement... and the verdict is...

MY IMAC SEEMS TO BE FIXED! NO MORE FROZEN SCREENS!

It's been five days since Apple replaced my video card (AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB) in my mid-2011 27" iMac and it seems to have fixed the screen freezing problem that everyone is having and I was also having since installing Lion (frozen screen, mouse moves, no way to access force quit, etc.).

I've been using it for five days now and it hasn't locked up once. So, I don't know if I can give you a real technical explanation as to why that worked with my machine but not with some others based on what I've read here, but there you have it. Hope that helps some of you.

Best,
MIck

Dawn, are you under AppleCare? If so, call them or go into the store and demand they put Snow Leopard on your machine until the issue is fixed.

If you don't, it may be worth purchasing. But as I understand there's no real way to roll back your OS. You'd have to get a fresh drive (or format your existing) and reinstall from scratch.

No matter what you do, back up your data first.

Some have installed an older system in boot camp.  I believe you could keep Lion installed that way, waiting for a fix.

I am under Applecare still, but I didn't realize you couldn't go back with your OS.

I found that my internet based phone was causing glitches.  I have unplugged it as Lion doesn't seem to play nicely with it at all!  But I am reading that Lion doesn't play nicely with some other software I would like to get.

I guess I will just wait it out at this point.

Thank you.

Dawn

Does anyone know if Apple has been notified about this issue since it's affecting many users? If it hasn't, is there any way to contact and speak directly to Apple about this?

Studio K,

How can I get back to Snow Leopard? And if I do, how will I know when the OS error will have been fixed (if it is an OS error) to upgrade to Lion once again?

Benjamin,

To revert back to a previous version of OS X, you must first insert the installation DVD into the optical drive.  Your 2007 iMac should have come with a LEOPARD dvd.  If you purchased Snow Leopard later on, you can use that one.  Either will do.

If you have free disk space, it would be easiest to create an empty partition on your HD and install the older OS X onto that (that way, you don't have to wipe your entire hard drive and LION will still be in place ready to be updated when the time comes).  Use DIsk Utility to create the partition.  It's not difficult to do, and there are many tutorials out in the Webosphere-internet-scape.

With the DVD in the drive, restart your iMac.  At the startup chime, press & hold the "C" key.  This will boot you into the installation DVD.

Follow along with the process. Early on, you will be prompted to choose which partition to install the OS on to.  LION's part will be grayed out so you will only be able to choose the new empty partition.  Then, the installation begins.

When operating out of the partition with the older OS X, you will have full access to all of your files and most applications that are stored on the LION part.  You will need to use the iTunes, Quicktime, and Safari that come with the older OS X however.  The LION versions won't run on Snow Leopard.  Many 3rd party programs will run on both OS's.