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

This may not be a video issue and in fact it's possible that treating it as one is preventing Apple from correctly diagnosing and resolving the problem.

I have experienced one freeze since upgrading to OS X Lion a few days ago.  I hadn't been watching video but had, however, logged into my iMac using SSH from another machine on my home network.  My iMac went to sleep and the Ethernet connection dropped with the result that, of course, the SSH connection dropped also.

When I tried to wake the iMac some time later it froze necessitating a hard reset (power-down) using the power button.

It may be, perhaps, that if a Mac running OS X Lion goes to sleep and finds on trying to re-awaken that something has changed (e.g. a process or program that was previously running no longer is, whatever that process or program might be) that causes the machine to freeze.

Lion is a little different to Snow Leopard in certain respects.  An SSH connection from a remote machine to a Mac running Snow Leopard, providing the SSH session remained active and didn't drop out due to inactivity, prevented the Mac from sleeping to the best of my knowledge however this is not so in respect of a Mac running OS X Lion which appears to need actual interaction using its own keyboard, mouse or trackpad to prevent it from sleeping.

No further freezes since however I am of course now taking care not to SSH into my iMac running OS X Lion without also operating the iMac using its keyboard, mouse or trackpad during the 15 minute period that I have configured as the iMac's sleep delay period.

What about the fact that I experience the issue on my Mac Pro and I have it set to NEVER SLEEP?

1. I can reproduce the problem after just freshly starting up my machine... So before the display even sleeps.

2. I've tried 2 different video cards (ATI Radeon HD 4870 and Nvidia GeForce 8800GT).

I've also noticed that when I get the freeze (sound keeps playing on a black screen)... I just sit and wait a minute or so and the video comes on and fast-forwards for a while until it catches up to the audio. It's very weird.

I don't know if I have the same EXACT issue as people here, but videos are not playing nicely on my computer. I get a black screen with only audio and sometimes I can wait for it to come back, or sometimes it never comes back and I have to restart.

My suggestion is... play a couple of videos in a row. That's what usually makes my machine freak out.

I am having the same issue. I am using a 2011 21.5" imac ( iMac12,1 ).

So far i have not noticed the problem playing any downloaded media content on vlc or anything.

The problem only happens with flash. Usually it freezes as the browser begins parsing through the flash content.

What would be helpful till Apple solves this issue:

1. Remove flash (if installed)

2. For chrome browsers either install Flash Block or/and type "chrome://plugins/" in your address bar and disable flash.

For now this will avoid running flash.

Also if you want to watch a youtube video go to "youtube.com/html5" and join the html5 trial.

AnthonyEdwards wrote:

 

perhaps, that if a Mac running OS X Lion goes to sleep and finds on trying to re-awaken that something has changed (e.g. a process or program that was previously running no longer is, whatever that process or program might be) that causes the machine to freeze.

Mac OS X is not that fragile. If it were, it would lock up all the time because lots of things change between sleeping and waking (IP addresses, network connections, software login sessions, etc.). Complete system crashes would likely occur with hardware-level changes (for example, putting the system in hibernation mode and then adding RAM), but not for general operation.

My experience is that SSH connections are hit or miss with whether they keep the computer awake or not; however, I generally find they do not keep the computer active.

Incidentally, if you want to keep your computer awake without changing sleep settings, try an application like Caffeine. I have no connection to the developer, but it is a great, free utility.

let me just say that

this is ******* me off royally

it really is

if apple want to make users happy, then just let me put my mutherfuking computer to sleep whenever i want.....

sigh.........

SAY THAT THERE IS A FIX COMING

I WIILL NOT LET THIS POST DIE

UNTIL

THERE

IS

A FIX

COMING

if the discussion is censored, i will just start another discussion

Just-a-Spaz wrote:

 

...

I don't know if I have the same EXACT issue as people here, but videos are not playing nicely on my computer.

 

Yeah I have noticed it too... after updating to Lion video playback of video (especially of hd content) is not as smooth as it used to be with SL.

Sachit.R1 wrote:

 

I am having the same issue. I am using a 2011 21.5" imac ( iMac12,1 ).

So far i have not noticed the problem playing any downloaded media content on vlc or anything.

 

The problem only happens with flash. Usually it freezes as the browser begins parsing through the flash content.

 

What would be helpful till Apple solves this issue:

1. Remove flash (if installed)

2. For chrome browsers either install Flash Block or/and type "chrome://plugins/" in your address bar and disable flash.

 

For now this will avoid running flash.

Also if you want to watch a youtube video go to "youtube.com/html5" and join the html5 trial.

It is not related to Flash only since it happens also on sites without Flash video's like Apple Movie trailers.

jbakker wrote:

 

Sachit.R1 wrote:

 

I am having the same issue. I am using a 2011 21.5" imac ( iMac12,1 ).

So far i have not noticed the problem playing any downloaded media content on vlc or anything.

 

The problem only happens with flash. Usually it freezes as the browser begins parsing through the flash content.

 

What would be helpful till Apple solves this issue:

1. Remove flash (if installed)

2. For chrome browsers either install Flash Block or/and type "chrome://plugins/" in your address bar and disable flash.

 

For now this will avoid running flash.

Also if you want to watch a youtube video go to "youtube.com/html5" and join the html5 trial.

It is not related to Flash only since it happens also on sites without Flash video's like Apple Movie trailers.

That is interesting with me so far i have not had it freeze when playing any apple trailers.

I have a 13 day old 27 inch i7 iMac... and I am getting the freezes too.  I have an escalated case no. with Apple Support.  As far aas I can tell she does not know this is an emerging new issue.

It mostly happend with video playing, as described, but I have had the freeze without playing video... Not sure about the "after sleep" thing or not.  Now that I think, I have had freezes 2-3 times a day, wo sleeping.

Sure hope there is a fix. Otherwise I take the i7 back to Apple...

This issue afflicts *all* mid-2011 iMacs running Lion.  It is easily reproducible by allowing the computer to sleep, waking, and watching a video on vimeo.com.  This has *nothing* to do with flash, so please stop spreading that falsehood.  I was able to reproduce this issue at the Apple stores and the staff there brushed this off as something that must be due to something done by one of the customers and not a structural issue with Lion.

sahilt wrote:

 

This issue afflicts *all* mid-2011 iMacs running Lion.  It is easily reproducible by allowing the computer to sleep, waking, and watching a video on vimeo.com.  This has *nothing* to do with flash, so please stop spreading that falsehood.  I was able to reproduce this issue at the Apple stores and the staff there brushed this off as something that must be due to something done by one of the customers and not a structural issue with Lion.

People aren't spreading "falsehood" by talking about flash causing it for them. Flash is just as involved in this issue as other formats, it is because most people watch videos online with flash which ends up freezing their mac. The issue boils down to the accelerated video processing and the swichable graphics in the mac --- and flash does use accelerated video processing. **They aren't spreading false hood they are simply stating how their computer froze, no one is generalizing the issue and blaming it on flash.

Ok, instead of jumping into a semantic debate, let me appease/clarify by rephrasing to others who may stumble upon this thread: do NOT be misled by people who talk about uninstalling flash in an attempt to fix this problem, or how a flash video caused the freeze.  That is all *tangential* to the point -- merely symptoms of the wider issue which afflicts all mid-2011 iMacs with Lion during video playback following wake from sleep, whether that video be via Flash or *elsewhere*.

Ugh! This is driving me insane. This is my very first mac. It is a brand new MacBook Pro that I got at the end of June. I installed Lion and I get these random restart messages. TOTALLY RANDOM! Only after installing LION! What the heck is going on?

NVIDIA users are having driver issues too. They seem to be getting more Blog support then we are. W T F is wrong with Apple, so now 2 out of the 3 GPU providers they use have faulty drivers. Looks like Intel integrated graphics is the only one spared thus-far:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/08/buggy-nvidia-drivers-giving-2010-macbo ok-pro-owners-lion-upgrade-headaches.ars

Removing Flash was not any help - wait a while you will notice videos freezing without flash Cheers!

jbakker wrote:

 

Sachit.R1 wrote:

 

I am having the same issue. I am using a 2011 21.5" imac ( iMac12,1 ).

So far i have not noticed the problem playing any downloaded media content on vlc or anything.

 

The problem only happens with flash. Usually it freezes as the browser begins parsing through the flash content.

 

What would be helpful till Apple solves this issue:

1. Remove flash (if installed)

2. For chrome browsers either install Flash Block or/and type "chrome://plugins/" in your address bar and disable flash.

 

For now this will avoid running flash.

Also if you want to watch a youtube video go to "youtube.com/html5" and join the html5 trial.

It is not related to Flash only since it happens also on sites without Flash video's like Apple Movie trailers.