Why does my Screen Black out during Netflix?

Question

Why does my Screen Black out during Netflix?

I have noticed that my iMac blacks out for some random reason whenever I am watching a video in Full Screen mode. The display goes out after about 30 minutes of playback, but the audio continues to play. I can not stop, pause, mute, or cancel the audio playback as the system becomes unresponsive. The only way I am able to fix it is to do a hard restart. Usually once I restart, it does not give me any more problems for several hours. Does anyone else experience this or know of a solution??

A bit about my mac...

iMac 27 inch Mid 2011 Model

3.4GHz Interl Core i7 Processor

16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024MB Graphics

Running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jan 10, 2013 4:33 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 14, 2013 9:03 AM in response to a brody

When I say the term "crash", I am referring to my description in the original post where the screen turns black, but the audio continues to play on. The system is unresponsive to keyboard commands and the only way I can fix it is to do a hard restart by holding in the power button for 5 seconds.

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Answer 2

a brody

Level 10

85,372 points

Jan 12, 2013 1:55 PM in response to radioactivehead

When you say crash, does the browser simply quit, does the machine say in four languages you must restart?

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Answer 3

a brody

Level 10

85,372 points

Jan 10, 2013 6:54 PM in response to radioactivehead

Energy Saver is not compatible with all third party devices, and some applications like to interrupt Energy Saver. Netflix may not be doing it right depending on the version of Silverlight you have installed, and/or other tasks trying to speak to your USB devices.

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Answer 4

Jan 12, 2013 1:53 PM in response to a brody

After turning off energy saver so that my iMac essentialy never shuts turns the display off or enters sleep mode, I still recieved a crash while watching arrested development. I also made sure to reinstall and update my Microsoft Silverlight.

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Answer 5

a brody

Level 10

85,372 points

Jan 10, 2013 4:53 PM in response to radioactivehead

Turn off Energy Saver in the System Preferences.

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Answer 6

Jan 10, 2013 6:41 PM in response to a brody

I don't feel that this could be the cause for the problem as on the restart, there is no future problems.

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