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

Benjamin,

Contributors to this thread have contacted Apple about this.  Calling AppleCare seems to be a waste of time as they will always deny they have ever heard of this problem.  The Geniuses at the Stores are no better.  Some users, however, have been in touch with higher level Apple people.  Let's hope something comes of that.

Keep checking this thread to find out if Apple is making progress on fixing this bug.  If an update is released for LION, people will be writing in talking about it.

Or you can Google "OS X 10.7.3" periodically to find out if they've released an update.

Studio K,

If I do everything you said about making the new partition and installing Snow Leopard, will I be able to go back to my Lion partition if anything goes wrong or if the bug is fixed? And will I be able to erase the Snow Leopard partition when the problem is fixed?

Also, you said that once running the Snow Leopard partition I will have access to all my Lion partition files and Apps, so if I make a change on a random file, will it change on both partitions?

Does the bug this thread is about affect all Lion users because I also have a MacBook running on Lion but it works just fine so I don't think I should go back to Snow Leopard in that computer too, or should I?

Thanks for all the help

Studio K,

If I do everything you said about making the new partition and installing Snow Leopard, will I be able to go back to my Lion partition if anything goes wrong or if the bug is fixed? And will I be able to erase the Snow Leopard partition when the problem is fixed?

Also, you said that once running the Snow Leopard partition I will have access to all my Lion partition files and Apps, so if I make a change on a random file, will it change on both partitions?

Does the bug this thread is about affect all Lion users because I also have a MacBook running on Lion but it works just fine so I don't think I should go back to Snow Leopard in that computer too, or should I?

Thanks for all the help

PS: Everyone, sorry about writing the message twice, I didn't know how to delete the first one which was an answer to the first post. What I wanted to do was reply to Studio K. Thanks!

Benjamin,

If you add a Snow Leopard partition to your HD, you WILL have the ability to boot into whichever OS you choose.  When starting your iMac, hold down the 'option' key as soon as you hear the chime.  Hold it down until you see a menu of HD icons appear.  One will be LION, one Snow Leopard, and the third is the LION Recovery partition.  Ignore the recovery one and choose which of the other 2 to go to by clicking its HD icon.

AS soon as Apple issues any sort of update, boot into LION abd run Software Update.  Otherwise, avoid LION completely and use SL.  If you don't hold down 'option' at startup, you will boot into SL by default.

You will have the ability to edit or delete files that are stored on the LION partition while using Snow Leopard.  You just have to navigate to them.  Your desktop will have 2 HD icons (1 for SL and 1 for LION).  Double-click on the LION HD to get to its contents.

Your Snow Leopard partition will be mostly empty (except for whatever Apple software comes with it) just after installation, so all of your personal stuff will still be stored on the LION side.  Therefore, changing a file that is stored on the LION side will not change anything in Snow leopard because your files aren't stored there.  You really just need Snow Leopard to use your machine safely.  It's partition does'nt need to be very large.  How much free disk space do you have on your iMac?

Benjamin,

When you no longer need the Snow Leopard partition, you should be able to erase it using Disk Utility within the LION part.  You will be using Disk Utility in LION to CREATE the SL partition to begin with.

By the way, the format for the SL part should be 'Mac OS Extended Jounaled' (probably the default choice anyway).  25 to 30 GB is a good minimum size to start with.

If your laptop has no trouble with LION, then it may not be worth changing anything on it.  Of course, just because it doesn't freeze doesn't mean that other sinister things aren't happening (such as excessive temperatures).  LION appears to be putting the hardware under a needlessly heavy load.

Studio K,

I have about 130 GB free space on my iMac hard drive which should be enough to create the new partition. When I boot the computer with the SL partition, will the Lion OS be working in the background at the same time?

If your laptop has no trouble with LION, then it may not be worth changing anything on it.  Of course, just because it doesn't freeze doesn't mean that other sinister things aren't happening (such as excessive temperatures).  LION appears to be putting the hardware under a needlessly heavy load.

You're completely right about the macbook's situation. It works perfectly with Lion (it never freezes) but I've noticed that ever since I installed Lion on it, the bottom part of the laptop gets really warm when working for about an hour on any application. I'm not sure if this is common with any laptop after having it for a few years (I've had mine since 2009) or if it is a problem related to the Lion update. What should I do? 

Thanks

Benjamin,

If you boot into Snow Leopard, only SL will be operating.  LION will still be installed but will NOT be running when you are in SL.  Whichever OS you boot into is the only one that will be going.

Again, all files that are stored on the partition containing LION will still be accessible.  Partitioning aside, it's still a single HD, after all.

Most 3rd-party programs stored in LION's applications folder will also be available to use in SL (Spotlight is a convenient way to get to your LION apps and files from SL).  Apple programs such as iTunes will required you to use the one included with SL (the LION version doesn't work in older OS's).

If you do install SL, run Software Update straight away.  I would even recommend reverting back to Leopard, because some (including me) have had freezing symptoms using SL.  Leopard has no issues at all.

Benjamin,

I don't know what to say about the laptop.  It's quite possible that LION is overworking it (and overheating it).  See how smoothly things go with installing SL on your iMac.  If it does not turn out to be too much of a hassle, then it may be worth doing the same with your MacBook.

Here another one: iMac 27'' mid-2011 running lion: recently scrolling windows became unresponsive, I had to switch through applications to update window content...

I have had a success now, after having faced multiple crashes every day (including the frozen screen, with moving mouse pointer, etc.).

Originally, I have upgrade my iMac's memory from 4GB to 12GB with mushkin Essentials (PC3-10666, SODIMM 9-9-9-24 1.5V) and after having removed these, there were no more crashes. :-)

>  9:06  up 8 days, 15:44, 2 users, load averages: 0,59 0,51 0,58

Neither the Geniuses, nor several hardware tests found any problems with the memory, which is what astonishes me...

Add me to the list of very unsatisfied customers, Ive owned many a mac but Ive never been this frustrated with apple.

I shelled out almost $3,000 for a top of the range imac 27" i7 to use for work (Professional retouching & illustration) and this thing is crash city, it actually freezes more than my 2008 imac when running photoshop.

I have 16GB of Ram, 150GB SSD partition as a scratch disk, and another 2TB free as a scratch disk.

I wake up this morning and bam, again, another problem, Im frozen on the log in screen and cannot click to enter my password, cannot boot from my macbookpro and am seriously not happy with the poor quality of Lion, this is a piece of junk of an OS.

Last week I spent a good chunk of time doing harware tests, wiping both HDD and SSD and installing Lion... again.

Yet this morning freeze city!

Trying to get a customer rep (1/2 hour wait time) when I should be working.

I never had this issue with Leopard which was running on my new Imac for about 2 months flawlessly before my downgrade to Lion

As Apple consumers we choose to pay premium for a premium product, but if the premium product  has the same issues as the cheaper alternatives then what are we paying the premium for?

Rob,

Apple can't help you with this.  They will deny they have ever heard of this problem.  There are no proven work-arounds, either.

The Solution:  Wipe the hard drive, and re-install Leopard or Snow Leopard.  And do it soon, because LION is very tough on the hardware (overworking & overheating it).

Keep an eye on this forum to find out when the next LION upadate is available, but there is no guarentee they will fix this soon.  Neither 10.7.1 or 10.7.2 fixed the problem for everyone.

Yeah, you've just described exactly what Im now doing, this really puts a mark against Apple for me as far as quality is concerned not to mention the poor customer service.

Rob has stuff wrote:

 

I have 16GB of Ram, 150GB SSD partition as a scratch disk, and another 2TB free as a scratch disk.

Even though you probably have run all kind of hardware tests, try to remove the extra memory from the system, even if only temporary. I had the same situation, and after removing the extra modules everything went fine, even though there were no apparent hardware failures even with the so-called intensive hardware test that Apple has done for me.

Rob, I have the same 27" iMac with i7 chip and 16GB of RAM (8GB I installed myself). Had all the same issues but kept at it with AppleCare. They eventually replaced my video card which has solved the problem for me. I know there are probably multiple issues at work with Lion since results seem to vary with different people, but be sure to keep calling AppleCare until they exhaust options and get to the video card replacement. If it fixed my machine, it may fix yours (until they fix Lion, that is).

Hope that helps.