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

Same here... 21.5" iMac mid 2011. This problem is sooooooo irritating. Now I need to constantly remind myself not to open youtube or any flash video...

Called AppleCare and they said this might be (well I'm sure it is) a bug of OS X Lion and they suggested to disable the "Sleep" function until new updates are available.

Apple please fix this soon!!!!!!!!!

Thx Mattsileo, I am a pretty patient person, but you must understand that this is really my first experience with Macs, and I must say I have not been impressed thus far.  I am an IT professional that has worked with Windows computers for many years, and they've had their share of troubles too, believe me (everyone), but Windows 7 has been a big improvement overall I must say.  I bought this iMac 27 with Snow Leopard on it, and have experienced all along issues with wifi connection dropping out of the blue, while all other connections to same WAP have been solid, including my iPad and iPhone (which are the devices that lead me to buy a Mac, BTW).  I have heard "Macs just work" for years and years and thought I'd finally give it a go since I was due to upgrade anyhow and wanted to see what all the hype was about, as well as learn some new computer stuff.  Well, so far, I can say I had fewer issues with my Windows 7 box than I have with this new iMac.  I WANT it to be the great experience I have heard so long about Macs, but so far it has not been, and I am very disappointed.  I realize software has many places to go south, but I expected better than this, especially since Apple tightly controls the whole environment (or so I've heard)!  Like I said, my hope is this is a VERY RARE occurrence and that Apple will fix it very soon!  I have of course turned sleep off and rebooted for the time being, as that seems to relate to my wifi drops as well.  Time will tell if that helps, but seems to be a stop gap for many.  I'd like to be as impressed of the iMac as I have been with the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 - but so far, I can't say that I have - far from it in fact...Shame on me for jumping on the Lion bandwagon so soon, but I was hoping I could do that in Apple-ville - it's been proven I can't.  I'm always cautious when Windows comes out with a new OS, guess the same rule applies here.  Apple, please fix this issue and make me happy I dropped a couple grand on this slick hardware.

Same Problem here... New imac... and freezes when I play a video.  Years and years of mac use and I've had to force restart more times in the last week than I did all those years.  A fix will come soon... always does.

Jamar325

I have not had any wi-fi problems but there some tips here which may help

http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/22/wifi-dropping-in-os-x-lion-fixes/

Thx mvaug - I've actually done all those, and only thing that seems to help so far (fingers crossed) is keeping the iMac awake and constantly pinging my WAP, which I think is totally absurd to have to do, and Apple needs to fix that too.  I was having same wifi issue in Snow Leopard, which is killing my waning confidence in Lion/Apple even more.  Again, my iPad 2 and iPhone 4 connect to the same WAP, no issues.  I also connect to the same WAP with 2 or 3 different Windows 7 boxes, no issues there either.  I even switched to another WAP in the house, same problem, only with the iMac.  So, I can say with complete confidence, the wireless issue is only with the iMac.  The wifi issue has certainly been annoying, but the freezing in Lion is complete nuts!!!  So, now we have a freezing problem causing global warming...(cuz we're keeping Macs awake - ha ha...ok, so it's not that funny...).  Apple, if this is the "just works" part, then I guess I'd like to try the "just doesn't work" option...please fix.

Here's further proof that this is definitely a Lion software problem and NOT any type of hardware problem - video works completely fine in Windows 7 running on Parallels.  You can sleep the computer to your heart's content, and all video codex play completely fine within the Windows 7 VM.  But, as soon as you go back to Mac OS to play a video after sleeping - FREEZE!  This seems to me to be a problem with the video driver not being 100% compatible with Lion. AMD and Apple need to get this fixed soon.  It also appears to mainly affect the 2011 iMacs (with the NEW AMD GPUs).

Also, the fact that when it does freeze, there's no reliable crash data in the Console logs is a further indication that, somehow, the AMD video driver "captures control" of the Mac OS and doesn't let it go.  Hence the perpetual freeze without a crash log and inability to do a Force Quit.  If it was something within Mac OS, you should still be able to do a Force Quit - that's how UNIX is based - these things should (for the most part) be running in a Unix sandbox so they don't affect the OS.

Same problem, but just to give some clue : the problem only occurs when the software uses the hardware acceleration. There are some "artifacts" when playing with Flash Player and QuickTime, which use the GPU acceleration, but none with VLC, for the same video file (I downloaded the FLV file played with Flash to play it with VLC). VLC doesn't use hardware acceleration, and the freeze doesn't occur with.

In the first times, the problems occured when the system wake from sleep, but now it occurs every time.

I think it's a problem with the last ATI graphics processors family, Radeons HD 6XXX, mounted on the 2011 iMacs, but's it's only my opinion.

I boot on my Windows partition, no problem on W7.

Good luck every one !

smskoning,

It shows Plug-in version 10.3.183.5 is installed. The plug-in installs for all browsers. My iMac was sleeping all night, just woke it up and still no video freeze. I have not had a freeze since I received this Flash update. Not saying that it is the final answer, but at least for me, it is a 100% difference so far from before the update.

elfer

Freeze is not only with Lion.  Early 24" iMac; ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics.

Model Name:    iMac

  Model Identifier:    iMac7,1

  Processor Name:    Intel Core 2 Duo

  Processor Speed:    2.8 GHz

  Number Of Processors:    1

  Total Number Of Cores:    2

  L2 Cache:    4 MB

  Memory:    6 GB

  Bus Speed:    800 MHz

  Boot ROM Version:    IM71.007A.B03

  SMC Version (system):    1.21f4

Running Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.8

Since I loaded OS X 10.6.8 I've had freeze problems.  machine would not show login screen following wake from sleep; nothing to do with YouTube or Flash.  Always have to do poweroff reset to restart machine.  Will ALWAYS have this entry from Console Log as last entry  com.apple.WindowServer[90]   <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.

Can't find reference in Developers forum or Google.  Always the spinning pizza wheel, can't do Force Quit.  alt-tab would show apps that are running, but you can't change to any of them.

Have run Tech Tool Deluxe 10's of times - only once did I show an error with VRAM.  Ran Hardware Test from startup disk 10's of times, no problems.  Have run Verify Disk and Repair permissions many times.  Have done a clean install of Snow Leopard and recovery of userid with Migration Assistant. 

Have been a Unix Systems Analyst for many years, so no stranger to terminal and commands. 

I feel this is a coding issue in 10.6.8 that started to use some of the features of Lion, and it wasn't tested very good.  Sometimes I just have to wait 15 minutes or so for whatever to timeout.  Not sure it is fixed in Lion, so not sure I want to try and upgrade.

Doubt it will be released on the weekend, hopefully early next week.

Gareth97 - you doubt what will be released on the weekend?  There isn't any patch that is scheduled to be released yet (at least that I'm aware of).  Have you heard differently?

I have the same problem with my new iMac 27" after upgrading to OSX Lion.

Does Apple read this discussions? If yes, please fix this problem!

same problem for me... I hope Apple is reading these...

I'm having the same problem with my new iMac 27" after upgrading to OSX Lion.  I've been in contact with Apple, and they just told me to bring it in to replace the Video Card.  Has anybody had the video card replaced yet?  And if so, has it fixed the problem?  I will be bringing in mine this