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

I think I figured out one of the main problems with this GPU freeze. I installed iStats Menu last night after I was getting some strange video artifacts (like purple static over icons and during video playback). I've also been having my machine freeze at least twice a day, with the same symptoms as everyone else. You can move the mouse, but that is it.

So here is my theory, I watched the GPU Diode temp sitting at 168 degrees, and it wasn't doing anything (like rendering OpenGL or decoding video to warrant that high temp), but the strange artifacts were popping up. I remember seeing this on an old PC I built with an NVIDIA AGP card, only to open up the chasis and see the fan was frozen and the GPU was overheating. I think something about the Lion driver is causing the GPU to do several things:

1. Run out of VRAM without flushing before coming in and out of sleep
2. A loop or bug is causing the GPU to become more active when it should be idle, raising the temp.
3. Lion isn't turning the fan speed up when these temps are reached. Some bug with ACPI in Lion?

So there you have it. Now I'm even more worried, because I think these Lion bugs are much worse then just having to hard-reset your machine. It may be ruining your hardware too! That's right, Apple released a buggy OS that is burning out our hardware. Install iStats Menu and watch the temps. My GPU is at 122 degrees right now and the CPU is 90 degrees. Normal. I've probably been letting my machine sit with the 160-170 temp on the GPU these last couple of weeks with Lion and I didn't even realize it.

APPLE YOU NEED TO FIX THIS! STOP PUSHING iOS 5 BETAS AND HP DRIVERS, AND XCODE UPDATES AND WORK ON THE LION PATCH. YOU ALREADY PUSHED A SECOND BETA OF 10.7.2 TO DEVS AND WE'RE ALL STILL WAITING FOR 10.7.1 TO FIX THIS HARDWARE CRASHING BUG!!!

@Steve Self ....instead of being an Apple apologist, realize this bug goes much deeper then having to hard reset your machine everyday, or being forced to never let your machine sleep. This could be ruining Apple hardware too. I love how much hard core Apple fanboys will put up with, and tell everyone else is acceptable. I'm an Apple fan boy too, but this IS NOT ACCEPTABLE, and I'm not afraid to say so. Read my post:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15869237#15869237

I completely solved the problem on my iMac by eliminating Flash, which I know others have tried unsuccessfully. For me, though, it's been a week without Flash and without the problem.  I reinstalled Flash today to listen to NPR and the whole computer slowed down in a warning way. I removed it and everything is fine. Moreover, Adobe's website mentions this as a known problem that they are working on. I suspect this won't work for everyone, but for me it was the perfect solution.

Too bad I still have the issue even though I also have my computer set to never sleep.

So basically your "workaround" doesn't help everyone.

I'm still upset that I can't watch videos anymore.

By the way... flash is working fine for me. It's QuickTime and iTunes that are giving me problems.

moebis wrote:

 

...

APPLE YOU NEED TO FIX THIS! STOP PUSHING iOS 5 BETAS AND HP DRIVERS, AND XCODE UPDATES AND WORK ON THE LION PATCH. YOU ALREADY PUSHED A SECOND BETA OF 10.7.2 TO DEVS AND WE'RE ALL STILL WAITING FOR 10.7.1 TO FIX THIS HARDWARE CRASHING BUG!!!

I completely agree. What is apple doing these days they keep pushing these stupid driver updates and ios updates instead of fixing the most critical issue affecting mac users. Apple needs to pick up their game this version of mac is not up to the usual standard quality which they deliver. I understand that all operating systems have issues (I frequently use alpha linux builds) however apple just sitting around and not patching this issue immediately is unacceptable. It seems to me that apple cares much more about their ios platform than the mac these days.

The problem is not Flash or sleep etc. I'm not sure what it is, but it's been resolved with update 10.7.2 (beta). My iMac 27" with Lion stopped freezing up after I've applied this update.

Afraid I got graphical corruption in 10.7.2 today. I. In the middle of a fresh Lion install just for the **** of it. if it's an overheating issue might I suggest someone try smc fan control?

@Sachit.R1 ....I agree. I can run "apt-get update" then "apt-get upgrade" on my Linux box and get several updates, several times a day. Why is the OSS community so quick to patch and update stuff, but Apple just sits there and pretends to not know what's going on. The tech support is horrible. They put these kids in front of a knowledge base doc and go through scripts on the phone. Most of them are afraid of the terminal and have no idea how to debug kernel logs. And then on top of that, they all think they know more then everyone else and refuse to accept that the Apple engineers screwed up. To them, we're all just "users" and have no idea what we're talking about. Every time I call someone different says they've never heard of this issue.

@OverHaze, I'm using the "Medium" profile in iStat Menus to speed the fans up a little bit. This is just one part of the problem, overheating, the other is the video memory not being flushed. This bug appears when going in and out of sleep mode. VRAM is filled, not reset and then when the GPU tries to decode a video in part of the video memory it thinks is empty is crashes the screen buffer. That is why the mouse still works, the mouse is drawn in a different buffer that is actually protected from this kind of faulty driver coding.

@moebis Theoretically, maybe. But if you're using the stable branch of your distro, it'll take longer. Sometime a very long time, as I'm sure you know.

I don't think thats a software problem... apple care told me to bring back my new 27  imac... they change it

moebis wrote:

 

@Sachit.R1 ....I agree. I can run "apt-get update" then "apt-get upgrade" on my Linux box and get several updates, several times a day. Why is the OSS community so quick to patch and update stuff, but Apple just sits there and pretends to not know what's going on. The tech support is horrible. They put these kids in front of a knowledge base doc and go through scripts on the phone. Most of them are afraid of the terminal and have no idea how to debug kernel logs. And then on top of that, they all think they know more then everyone else and refuse to accept that the Apple engineers screwed up. To them, we're all just "users" and have no idea what we're talking about. Every time I call someone different says they've never heard of this issue.

I know what you mean. The thing that annoys me the most is that the Apple engineers think we are all stupid and don't know a thing about a computer (hardware & software).  Also these "genius" bar employees don't know what the **** they are doing. With my last mac they had no idea what was wrong with it and eventually after 3 weeks they just replaced it with a new mac.

How apple technical support solves issues:

1. Restart the machine

2. Delete cache and preference files

3. Create a new user

4. speak to the apple engineer

....

^ In these steps there is no looking at the kernel logs or anything. They expect these steps to be the magic solution to all your problems.

Don't get me wrong I love the mac, but for my next laptop which I am buying this month I am gonna get a regular pc and run linux.

This is my first and last mac.

@Uri S - For some stable distros it takes a bit longer but usually if it is a serious issue they attend to it within a day or two. Also with linux you can just get in there are and debug it yourself. The nice thing about linux is that it is "open", you don't have to sit and wait for apple to solve the problem.

Sachit.R1 Not as a user, not even as a power user, you (should) patch crtical parts of your kernel. We don't know what the problem is (for me it was resolved with 10.7.2, like I said), but it's clear it's not effecting all of the users, on the iMac, maybe none on other hardwars. I have Lion on my Mac Book Air, which I use alot for video, and never had this problem... So what should a company do ? It's unfortunate, sure, but I think someone said here he got his computer replaced. I think that's fair and might indicate that it's hardware problem with specific units. But it can be fixed with a software update, apprently.

@Uri S I understand what you are saying but what I mean is that so far it has been 18 days since this post has started and apple has not even released an acknowledgment of the issue. It doesn't seem as if they are paying as much attention to it as they should. Also in terms of patching the kernel, what i meant was that for linux because it is open source anyone is able to get in there and try to fix it. Even though some users shouldn't patch critical parts of it, it is still open as a possibility if they know what they are doing.