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

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.

I've never had one freeze with Leopard (since 2008)  I was trying to get to Lion.. but as you know, you have to have Snow Leopard installed.  Did that, and I have all the same symptoms of "active mouse, no dock, no way to shut down except for the power button."  This is happenining on the iMac every 15 minutes or less. 

I just happened to pop over to this Lion thread to see if someone could help me figure out a better way to shut down the iMac (Snow Leopard) thru either my MacBook Pro (Leopard) or my iPad (who knows.)

Thank you in advance

Helen

I too have to add my name to this problem...

early 2009 imac 24"... upgraded to Lion and have experienced freezing and strange graphic hic cups. Only way to gain control of the mac to power off/on.

spoke to apple care who had me do a new install of Lion... see what happens.. (the idea was to rule out the graphic card failing)... went 5 days no problem then tonight it went AWOL.

The top of the mac is very hot.. greater than I ever noticed with Snow Leopard/Leopard. I am leaning towards the idea that Lion is causing great strain on the graphic chip and/or causing it to get very hot ... and it just stops!

It would be nice to get some "offical" feed back from Apple that they are working on this problem but they always seem to keep quiet ... I must admit it's the one thing that really bugs me about them... they almost act as if they are afraid to admit that they make mistakes!

Will contact apple care but judging from what has been said here not expecting much in response.

Mark,

Go back to Leopard.  LION is hopeless for the time being (until the Apple engineers deliver a solution. You risk damaging your hardware if you continue with LION.

To minimize hassle (and have LION ready to be updated), I used Disk Utility to add a partition to my HD and installed Leopard onto that.  LION is still installed, but I operate with Leopard and still have access to all files and most applications stored on the LION side.

Whenever LION updates are delivered, I boot into LION and run software update.  Then check the forum to see if people are still freezing.

When is the next Lion update supposed to be released? Will it solve the problem we're all having?

When mine freezes, I have been able to ssh in from another (macMini with Lion) and execute  

shutdown -r now

takes a few minutes but works.

does not matter if I use the power button or the ssh shutdown method the log files alway indicate that the GPU dumped to debug mode and it does not recover -- the mouse will continue to move, but you can not click or type anything after. 

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3366876?start=0&tstart=0

OK... DISK WARRIOR CD arrived this afternoon.  Followed the instructions... so far, so good!!!!!

Inserted the CD, held down the C button, and it repaired the HD.

40 minutes and it hasn't crashed.  That's a small miracle..  THANK YOU DISK WARRIOR!!!

Will keep ya'll posted!  (CROSS POST)

iMac - problems started with PROFESSIONAL installation of SL (2008)

MacBook Pro - still running Leopard (2009)

just an fyi..

2rodee,

Are you still using LION or Snow Leopard on your iMac?  If so, your problems will likely continue. 

IT might be safer to go back to Leopard and wait until Apple's engineers provide a solution.

I got tired of troubleshooting and constantly holding my breath waiting to see if it would crash again (it always did).

I also use a 2008 iMac and experienced freezing in Snow Leopard, and the LION.

thanks for the advice...

because of the way I have everthing set up it would not be good for me to re install leopard... but must admit if people who are having this problem can its a good suggestion.

I have had another freeze/lock up... and this time the mac was not running hot but I did get "flickering" screen just before it happened.. and then every couple of mintues it "flickered" again. Not doing any thing heavy on the graphic front... just Safari and itunes.. but it seems as if the GPU runs out of memory.. unable to refresh screen.. so locks.

(must stop guessing... do wish Apple would let us all know that they are working on this)

M

Just as an FYI...  I received the Disk Warrier CD yesterday in the mail.  I followed the instructions and LO and BEHOLD...  I haven't had a crash since last night!!

Thank you to whoever for developing that!!  A BIGGER THANK YOU to the folks on this forum that told me to get it!!!!    Best $100 I've spent in 3 weeks!

I was trying to get to Lion.. but a simple install of Snow Leopard was crashing my iMac every 15 minutes.  Tried to run Disk Utility, but it said I had a corrupt HD.  STILL not sure how that happened...  (I had SL installed at an Apple Retail store.)   I thought perhaps SL was having "issues" with my printer and scanner... ?  Ended up with freezes, gray and white vertical lines, and major frustration.

So right this minute..  My iMac is running Snow Leopard.  It is running like a brand new machine, clean and fast.  The top of the computer feels quite warm, but honestly I don't think I checked that before while running Leopard.   I'm a little nervous about hooking up my Maxtor external drive and my ScanSnap scanner. 

I'm going to hold off on Lion until Apple can address the issues at hand.

I'll let you know if my freezes start up again using SL.  I would have tried to go back to Leopard, except making a partition and all that, is over my head. 

I would have gone out and bought a new machine - except, it would have come with LION! 

So for now, I have moved my Mobile Me account to the icloud, and I can't get to the icloud because I don't have LION.  So, nothing is syncing, iPad, iPhone, MacBook Pro or iMac. 

I am wondering if I can get to my icloud on my windoze computer...  I'll try that in a bit. 

Thank you,

Helen

You can go back to Leopard, I did as I had nothing but major issues with Lion, for now I will play the waiting game. But do youself a favor if you switch back make sure you do a total erase and then redoing the partitions as well. I didn't do this with my 27" iMac at first and I have hand nothing but major problems since. New SSD drive installed, new memory installed etc.. This machine is the most problematic machine I have had in the last 8 years of owning Macs.   Now I just did another clean install of Snow Leopard and re-partitioned my hard drives, so hopefully this fixes any major quirky problems, like freeze ups, shut downs etc.. This thing has been running like a Windows machine the last couple of months. LOL The biggest issue for a lot of people if they have a Time Machine back up and they do a re-install, some times this recreates the problem you just fixed. So doing a manual re-install, is a must but a huge pain in the (|)!

2011 27" iMac i7 3.4Ghz with 16gig memory

256 SSD and 2TB HD

Yeah Ive partioned all my Macs with 3 partitions, 1 for lion, 1 for SLeopard and one to house all my information and files (movies etc).

I gave each operating system a generous 100GB and left the rest for files.

I changed the home folder for both operating systems to a new one I created on the third larger partition.

This makes it a lot easier to get to your stuff when swithching between OSs

So far its working like a charm

Well, I think I'm going to go back to Leopard too.  I never had a problem until I upgraded to SL.  My brain is cooked trying to find solutions.

iMac - SL with freezes.  Ran Disk Warrior and it ran great for 24 hours.  I went to the application folder and it froze up again.  <..sigh..>  I ran DW again and it's back up, not sure how long tho.

At least I have my MBP to rely on for now...  I didn't install SL on it (thank goodness) until I saw that it was stable on the other machine.

The iMac is not partitioned at all, plenty memory (over half) so I just don't know. 

Thanks for your thoughts!

I was told by upper tech support via Apple to Erase and re-partition the drives, since I went from SL to Lion. I erased everything and I am just going off of scratch, all the stuff that came with computer along with a few other

3rd party software. So far everything has worked for a few days, although I am still getting a glitch when using Safari when switching web pages, slight flicker...  Funny thing is my iMac Time Machine back up works on my Mac Mini without any issues. No issues with my Macbook Pro using Lion, seems odd....

Garnet

I was put in touch a senior tech guy... checked logs and the finger was pointed at third party software ...(Lion not playing well with the kids on the block).. got me to boot up in safe mode to see if the problem carried on... unable to do much... making iMac a very pretty object of no worth.

when I wiped clean my hard drive and re installed Lion i created a user a/c with almost no software. played around with that a/c today and it went mental... graphic glitches.. freezing.. by far the worst I have had.

it looks like i will have to throw out the non roaring Lion ... or completely restart from scratch.. ie nistall Lion and then each bit of software that I use.. bit by bit to see if it goes down.

I still believe that its something to do with the way Lion uses the GPU memory..

(my daughters new mac book pro with Lion works perfectly...bah! Maybe buy new iMac and then return this one back to Leopard)

Go on Apple give us poor souls a clue!