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

Tech support just reads off of a script. Everyone who called in about this just got their PRAM reset.

If there was an easy way to call up and not have to be on the phone for an hour while they ran through a bunch of crap that I know is not going to fix the issue I might do it.

Better yet, would it not make sense for apple to watch their support forums?

As it stand, beta testers were reporting this issue before the OS release. They know about the issue, and chances are you wont see a fix until Apple is ready to release 10.7.2

@celshader - You are 100% correct, and I knew this going into it, which is why I avoided calling for the last week. They made me create a new user in the OS, reset PRAM, they wanted me to boot into Safe Mode and try to get it to crash. After a lot of persistance on my part, we went through all of that, and I was escalated to a Sr. Tech, he did a screen session where I proceeded to open up the kernel.log to find the GPU debug, at this point he was also reading this discussion forum and quickly understood I knew what I was talking about and that this was a real issue. He promised me he will work over the weekend to get it resolved and has escalated it yet again. So this is the price you have to pay. I complained that I wished they would pay more attention to these OS crushing bugs, but unfortunately they get inundated with idiots calling all day about why their machine won't turn on when it's unplugged. So they are jaded, and you have to quickly prove your credentials to get them to listen.

I have the same issue. My new 2011 iMac 27 with 12GB ram with Lion upgrade freezes from time to time while playing youtube or even videos on Apple website. Before upgrade to Lion, it works perfectly on Snow Leopard.

Same **** problem for me too!!  I've had my iMac 27" for 2 months and it worked perfectly until I installed Lion.

I did manage to discover one thing about the freezing -- if I click on a video link and the iMac freezes, iTunes and the Mail app were launched when I clicked the link.  Found this out by sheer accident.  And I know I didn't have them running because I NEVER use the mail app and I only open iTunes if I'm actually using it.

I'm also a Mac newbie so this is very frustrating.  Nothing works but to turn off the computer and turn it back on.  I'm ready to bring out the old PC and blow off the Mac.  At least I know how PCs work.

I'm taking it to the store and making them remove Lion -- or make Lion work properly.  AARRGGHH!  Thanks Apple, for making my expensive new user experience so unpleasant -- and more expensive.

Yes, I've noticed slowness too.  Not terrible...  yet...  But I'm sure it will escalate. Unless I get Snow Leopard reinstalled.

I've been freezing, as well.  Has anyone noticed sluggish performance in LION?  After 3 or 4 hours of use, Lion's 'special effects' (the rapid movement of Finder windows in Mission Control, for example) begin to drag.  The quick, smooth graphics become jerky.  Entering and exiting Full-screen mode looks particularly bad.  Even screen savers become jerky.

Please test this out.  I'd love to know if anyone else experiences this.  Is it the graphics card that's responsible for rendering these effects?  They don't seem to make a dent in my regular system RAM or CPU.

In the defense of Apple Support. I was actually contacted by Apple because of an entry in this thread on behalf of Apple Engineering. They requested me to gather data using their Capture Data tool. So I'm sure Apple Engineering is following this thread / working on this issue.

Hopefully they will release a fix soon.

Funny thing is that I can't reproduce this issue anymore. I even did a fresh installation in a seperate partition to get this issue to show up again. Until now no luck doing so.

Not sure if it has been stated in this thread, but I have an external monitor hooked to my imac. I have been having the same issue, but if the browser window with youtube is on the external monitor the computer is fine. As soon as I drag the window back onto my imac's screen the computer becomes sluggish and unresponsive.

Yeah I didn't have any doubt that they wouldn't be looking at this thread (as well as others) and I talked to someone at an apple store and they said it usually takes 1 to 2 weeks before an update is released to fix all the bugs. And I just reinstalled lion and the bug won't appear anymore. Strange, but I'm sure it will come back based on other comments.

Already done that.. and experienced the same "oh really, I've never heard of such a thing".. from the Tech. They know about it. I also pointed it this thread to the tech as well.

I just can't believe that haven't fixed this yet. It's going on 2 weeks.

One more here. I'm having the same problem with my brand new iMac 27'' i7 8GB 1TB HD .

I am running some proof-of-work calculations to generate Bitcoins. The java tool uses a OpenCL library to calculate using the GPU. This slows down the whole system significantly and very rapidly reproduces the kind of freezing I experience. Maybe there are other tools using OpenCL which can help to reproduce this bug?

Angisoft wrote:

 

I have the same problem.

 

Flash de-installation + PRAM-reset + safe-mode-Reboot did not help.

 

mattfromnewtown: you might be still in safe-mode (shift-key while rebooting). In this mode you don't have GPU-acceleration. Since it seems to be a GPU bug, it's no wonder you don't have problems. Running in safe-mode is no solution to the problem.

Normal boot up, Angisoft.I don't know why I have no more problems. Here is the exact sequence that solved my problem-

First,PRAM reset. On second beep I held down the shift key. Went into Safe Mode. Restarted computer normally. Uninstalled Flash. Went to Adobe's website-Installed Flash for Lion Beta. That's it! It's been 4 days so far with many times coming out of sleep mode.

Just thought I'd add my woes to the running list. I'm having the same issues with my 2011 27 inch imac. Keeps freezing to the point where I have to do a hard reset at least 4 times a day. And then yesterday wifi kept shutting down after 5 minutes of use.

Called 800 support and they had "never heard of such a thing." He ran through some standard diagnostic traps and couldn't find anything to help. I went to the Apple store and they had "never heard of anything". I offered to show them this thread, but they weren't interested and told me to bring in my computer.

I'm annoyed because they want me to lug in my desktop computer rather than tell me that is sounds like a software glitch and wait for an update. Its like Apple wants me to jump through hoops rather than acknowledge there is an issue with Lion.

So I am backing up my computer and I'll be off to Apple... and if they want to play this game with me and claim there is no fix, then I will play the game too and ask them to replace this computer.

In this day and age of social media and open communication, you'd think Apple would acknowledge when there are issues with their products rather than living in a bubble and ignoring it.

Sorry for the vent. Just wanted to make sure my issues were added to the public record. Perhaps this will help speed up a fix.

mattfromnewtown wrote:

 

Angisoft wrote:

 

I have the same problem.

 

Flash de-installation + PRAM-reset + safe-mode-Reboot did not help.

 

mattfromnewtown: you might be still in safe-mode (shift-key while rebooting). In this mode you don't have GPU-acceleration. Since it seems to be a GPU bug, it's no wonder you don't have problems. Running in safe-mode is no solution to the problem.

Normal boot up, Angisoft.I don't know why I have no more problems. Here is the exact sequence that solved my problem-

First,PRAM reset. On second beep I held down the shift key. Went into Safe Mode. Restarted computer normally. Uninstalled Flash. Went to Adobe's website-Installed Flash for Lion Beta. That's it! It's been 4 days so far with many times coming out of sleep mode.

Strange - maybe you were just lucky until now. Why should re-installing Flash fix a problem that is not isolated to Flash? Anyway, i wish you luck