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

New MAC user here, in fact typing this reply from my Windows 7 Macine. I have a brand new, 27 in imac, i5 3.1ghz, upgraded to 1 gb video Ram..

OK so i gotta say this is frustrating. Fix the problem and let us know the answer...When is what we all want to know. What is happening would be nice and HOW to work around this without a hard restart would be amazing.

Come on Apple....where is that world class customer service that got me to drop a ton of Cash on this new MAC?

After some tests, I can say - just like others have report - that it happens after a sleep... It froze this morning and since the reboot I have been streaming nfl gamepass for two hours without any problems.

My problem seem to have gone after the following steps:

1. Fresh reinstall of Lion

2. Restore my personal stuff from time Machine

3. Un install Flash and reinstall Flash beta for Lion.

And thus, my iMac stopped freezing, in all scenarios it used to freeze before.

The current work around is to set your computer to NEVER sleep from the Energy Saver System Preference.

Letting the display and disk sleep are ok.

This is the best I can offer until Apple come out with a software fix.

Have Apple even acknowledged this exists yet? Adding another the pile, if you need it - 21.5 2011 iMac, all the same issues.

They'll be getting prematurely damaged machines at this rate, with hard reboots, never sleeping etc.

LOL! He appears everywhere trying to "help" people!

If it turns out this isn't related the freeze issue I'll start a thread elsewhere about it but it but I'm betting it stems from the same driver issue. Basically itunes is killing my macs OpenGL performance. Right after startup OpenGL it scores a 410-420 on xbench but the second I open itunes that goes down to 310-320. I wish I could say this was just an irrelevant benchmark anomaly but unfortunately its having a very real impact on game performance. Also quitting  iTunes does fix the issue, I have to restart.

Could I ask people do a quick xbench benchmark to see if this is something unique to my machine or endemic to the line running Lion?

Yes, it's a video driver issue. If you look at gpu temp, with itunes in background, it reaches 80°c!!! In SL was 55-60°c... Please Apple, give us an update!

Thank-you for the update, schihei

I reported this bug back on July 5 during the Lion beta and Apple responded the next day asking how to reproduce the problem.  Pretty simple... sleep the machine, wake from sleep, play a quicktime or youtube video.  Apple knows about it and I'm sure they're working hard to fix it.  I'm surprised it's taking this long though.  Being a graphics driver issue, I'm sure it takes longer to fix since they have to work with AMD as well.

I uninstalled and reinstalled itunes (not an easy task in Lion) and it hasn't helped. I have no idea why simply launching iTunes is hammering OpenGL performance.

OverHaze wrote:

 

If it turns out this isn't related the freeze issue I'll start a thread elsewhere about it but it but I'm betting it stems from the same driver issue. Basically itunes is killing my macs OpenGL performance. Right after startup OpenGL it scores a 410-420 on xbench but the second I open itunes that goes down to 310-320. I wish I could say this was just an irrelevant benchmark anomaly but unfortunately its having a very real impact on game performance. Also quitting  iTunes does fix the issue, I have to restart.

 

 

Could I ask people do a quick xbench benchmark to see if this is something unique to my machine or endemic to the line running Lion?

I can confirm that the same thing happens for an OpenCL-based application i wrote. After starting (and even quitting) iTunes i have only 1/2 to 3/4 the performance.

Me too!

i5 27"

I bought a Mac for the first time ever.  I was thinking rock solid.  Now I'm just thinking my Windows hasn't crashed or froze in months.  Come on is a fix for such a widespread problem so difficult?  Can we at least acknowledge a problem?  Anyone happen to ask what system they are running for tech support?

How many ppl on this thread are using SSD's?? I have just found out today at the apple store that mine is corrupt and needs to be replaced. Its only 4 days old too

I have the OS installed on the Hard disk now and no crashes yet...

I am using a HDD. I do not believe that drive is the issue. Makes more sense that it is a video driver problem.