27 inch iMac (Late 2009) Freezes

Question

Level 1

4 points

27 inch iMac (Late 2009) Freezes

My 27 inch iMac (late 2009) freezes after I put my screen to sleep. I can still bring my screen back on but the image is frozen and I can still move my mouse. I can also hear things going on in background, for example emptying the trash. Just wondering if somebody with a similar problems has found a solution. Any suggestions will help because I have tried all I know what to do like hardware test, clean install, reset pram, unplugging usb devices, etc. Also I am running Lion 10.7.4. and the problems has been going on for a year or so. It mostly freezes every few days but every now and then it will happen multiple times a day. It's highly annoying and I'm about to take it to the Apple Store even thought it's out of warranty and I do not have Apple care (Won't be making that mistake again).

Thanks,

Justin

Forgot to mention this seemed to start happening around the time I installed Lion on it and also upgraded the memory with Kingston branded memory.

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 3, 2012 5:40 PM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jun 3, 2012 11:15 PM in response to jc21711

Contact Apple Service, iMac Service or Apple's Express Lane. Do note that if you have AppleCare's protection plan and you're within 50 miles (80 KM) of an Apple repair station, you're eligible for onsite repair since yours is a desktop machine.

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Answer 2

Jsh1971

Level 1

8 points

Jun 13, 2012 5:59 PM in response to jc21711

Let me know how this pans out for you. I've been in the same boat since last July/August.

Same model, 27-inch late 2009. Upgraded memory (Kingston) and OS X Lion. Freezes aren't just attributed to sleep though. I get them randomly - today about 4 times so far. Once while watching a video, once wouldn't wake from sleep, twice I think attributed to wireless iTunes syncing with my iPad/iPhones.

Apple store replaced my logic board and CPU - still didn't help. Other threads suggest it's a video driver issue that may never be corrected. I'm resigned to working with a broken machine.

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Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jun 13, 2012 8:48 PM in response to Jsh1971

Never had the freeze w/my late '09 iMac. Still should be covered under the AppleCare warranty. Take it back.

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Answer 4

jc21711 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 14, 2012 1:30 PM in response to Jsh1971

The problem still exists but this is what I did as a work around even though its not a great solution since I wanted to leave my iMac on all day long to kinda act like a server. My iMac only freezes after I put the screen to sleep and it does it randomly. So I just turned the screensaver on (I had it off previsouly) so my screen wouldn't go to sleep. I did this for when my iMac is powered up. When I'm not using it and I'm going to be away for a little while, I just put my iMac to sleep and use wake for network access when I need to access a file or let it perform various server duties.

As long as I can avoid the screen going to sleep my iMac won't freeze and so far the above has worked for me.

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Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jun 14, 2012 11:07 PM in response to jc21711

Interesting, since I never sleep my machines or their HDs, just their displays, but then, I never run any server things, either.

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Answer 6

jc21711 Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 5, 2012 6:36 PM in response to jc21711

Mountain Lion seemed to fix whatever the problem was for me. 9 days so far with out my iMac freezing.

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Answer 7

cjb134

Level 1

5 points

Oct 9, 2012 11:03 AM in response to jc21711

I have been experiencing the same problem. Upgrading to Mountain Lion did not fix anything for me. My iMac still crashes at least once every few days, and often multiple times in a single day. Exactly the issue described in the original post.

I'm hoping someone has further suggestions?

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Answer 8

CMN82

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2012 12:00 PM in response to jc21711

I have the same problem on my iMac 09 running 10.7 Lion but not only connected to sleep mode. It freezes randomly, the mouse can still be moved but clicking doesn't work, the keyboard is completely dead. Sound continues to work for a while, usually the current song on iTunes can finish but then it stops working also. Only way to get the computer working again is forced restart. Actually I'm suspecting iTunes could be causing the problem. I will not start iTunes for a while and see if it still freezes. Earlier I thought it was connected to my browser and switched from Firefox to Chrome but it did not help at all. Any other suggestions or fixes are highly appreciated. This is a really annoying problem!

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Answer 9

Goody64

Level 1

28 points

Jun 23, 2015 12:19 PM in response to CMN82

Did you ever get this problem resolved. I never did. My late 09 27" iMac freezes up seemingly randomly. I can move the mouse but can't click anything. Or if the screen is asleep I'm stuck on the dark screen. I have to restart. Then everything runs fine for anywhere between a couple of hours and a couple of weeks.

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