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

What surprises me is that this thread has been started on July 21st and has 61 pages of responses (52750 Views, 900 Replies) and still Apple has not fixed this issue or even formally knowledge the issue.

Another recent iMac 27" purchaser (July 2011) very frustrated with frequent reboots to deal with this freezing issue.  I also called AppleCare - they had me clear the safari plist, install Flash beta and update Java but it has made no difference for me either.  Its hard to understand why Apple can't just acknowledge the problem and tell us they are working on a solution.  Hope it comes soon!  Oh, by the way, my iMac is one of those with the Seagate disk recall but I haven't brought it in for that yet.  Any chance its a related problem?

It doesn't have to do with the HD recall.  I have a WD HD in mine (not in the recall) and it does the same thing.

I was just on the phone with Apple Support, and I was able to replicate the problem.  Since the problem can be replicated (put the computer to sleep, then try to play a video, in my case in iTunes, to get it to freeze), she had me run their Data Capture program during the entire process.  Hopefully it capture what the computer did so they know how to fix it.  She forwarded the data capture on to engineering, along with a link to these postings so Apple can see they have a major problem with Lion.   It is clearly something in Lion with the GPU (either firmware or driver related).

They need to get this fixed ASAP.

20+ year Windows user - First time Mac owner, very, very VERY disappointed!!!  iMac 27" mid 2011, paid a nice chunk of change for this?  Apple, WOW...Please tell me this is a VERY RARE situation and will be fixed RIGHT AWAY!!!???  C'mon!!!  It's obvious from the number of posts this is a problem for MANY Lion upgraders.  Guess "Wait until SP1" (or whatever the Apple equivalent is) applies in the Apple world too...Guess this is proof I bought way too far into the "it just works" theme...very disheartening...I feel duped.

Feel ya. Always built Linux and Windows boxes and finally made the plunge. My XP Pro crashed maybe once per month and now I am feeling around for that hard reset button a few times per day. Kinda pits.

Um...just got an update from Adobe for their FlashPlayer...installed it and all videos are playing without freeze. Yes, this iMac came out of sleep, not a fresh restart...could it be that this was related to Flash after all?? Get the Flash upgrade and report back to see if this resolved the issue; would like to hear..

Nope.  Still freezes.  Does it in iTunes.  It's not a Flash issue.

Also, that Adobe Flash upgrade wasn't Mac specific.  There's one also for Windows that was just released.

Try to be patient, jamar325 -- I made the big switch from Windows to Mac about a year ago so I'm still somewhat of a newbie and definitely in shock that they let Lion out of the cage with such a major bug. In the year that I was using Snow Leopard on my Macbook Pro, I had absolutely no problems whatsoever. I was so confident that Lion would be no different in that respect- I can only assume that this is as you say a VERY RARE situation. For now, if you haven't, disable the sleep function in Energy Saver (slide the Computer Sleep bar over to "Never"), and turn off your Mac when you won't be using it for awhile. To help save more power you can make sure  "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" is checked and have the display put to sleep after just a few minutes. Once I disabled Sleep, I no longer have the big Freeze problem. Obviously we need to have the Sleep function available, but for now, this will have to do.

I also registered as a developer and sent a formal bug report that way. I suggest EVERYONE here do the same!

Everyone here should also at least read a couple of pages of this thread before posting the same things over and over. I'm not referring to your post, Mattsileo.

Strange. just came out of sleep again, and it's still working, no freeze. both youtube & iTunes. The only thing that changes on my system is the Flash update... :]

Nup, still the same freeze problem for me.  Initially it seemed to have gone away after the flash update but after being asleep for most of the day while I was at work, the problem is back.

Baseline iMac 27" same problem. SUPERANNOYING Apple!!!!

hmm yea...new 21.5 imac (mid 2011), never had any problem in snow leopard...upgraded to lion and start to haveing freeze problem when loading videos...hope apple can fix this soon!

Hi Elfer,

Can you give us version numbers of your flash update please?

Which browser?

Facing the same problem !!

When you planning to fix this annoying bug apple !!!?

iMac 27-inch, Mid 2011