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iMac stability issue

I have the following iMac: 24", late 2006, 2,33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM running Mac OS Lion 10.7.3. (new HD fitted 1 year ago)

For some timeI I have endured 'frozen' applications, particularly the native applications Mail and Safari. I re-installed Lion recently but there has been no improvement. At prresent I am lucky if I can run Mail for more than 3 minutes without the system freezing (quitting the application doesn't really help, but a re-start will briefly).

My question is this: is my iMac just too old; is this a software or hardware issue; should I consider erasing the disk and starting again...?

iMac Intel 24", Mac OS X (10.6.6), iPad, MacBook Air, iPhone 4

Posted on Apr 16, 2012 11:59 PM

20 replies

Apr 20, 2012 8:07 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks guys, sounds like we are getting somewhere. Is AHT or Rember the place to check/test the RAM?

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,682 points

Apr 20, 2012 8:18 AM in response to Edward Staines1

Rember (available from www.macupdates.com) test RAM but it nor AHT are 100% reliable as testing tools.

a brody

Level 10

82,991 points

Apr 20, 2012 8:27 AM in response to Edward Staines1

Do NOT install MacKeeper, which frequently gets advertised on Macupdate. It can cause more harm than good.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,345 points

Apr 20, 2012 11:17 AM in response to Edward Staines1

The Memory test can really only be trusted if it finds a problem, not if it doesn't find a problem. 😟

Memtest OS X...

http://www.memtestosx.org/joomla/index.php

Rember is a freeware GUI for the memtest ...

http://tech.kateva.org/2005/10/rember-freeware-memory-test-utility.html

May 1, 2012 6:55 AM in response to BDAqua

I have ran all the suggested tests several times: no issues found.

I have come to realise that the issue I have reported are only with native Apple applications (Mail, Safari etc.). This leads me to conclude that it is the OS that is triggering the problem of applications 'not responding', and namely because my iMac is several years old and just can't support the current version of OS.

If anyone disagrees with this and has some constructive suggestions to resolve the issues, please do add them here.

iMac stability issue