24" iMac 2009 Crashing Randomly

Question

martinwinlow Author

Level 1

20 points

24" iMac 2009 Crashing Randomly

Hi,

I have a 24" iMac from 'early 2009' with the following spec:

Processor 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 256 MB

In the last week it has started crashing apparently randomly although it seems to it only when I am using the mouse - if left to its own devices it appears to continue to work normally. I normally use a bluetooth mouse but have tried the original mac mouse that came with the iMac and the crashes still happen. The crash completely and immediately shuts down the iMac requiring a press of the main power button to bring it back on where it reboots to the login screen. Initially, when the problem first started, when I got to the login screen it would often crash as soon as I tried to enter my password.

If I run in safe mode the iMac works without any issues.

I have tried installing iStat to monitor the systems temps but nothing is any higher than 76C (north bridge die).

I have run the AHT diagnostics off my original installation disk (Snow Leopard) and it found nothing.

I did upgrade my memory to 8G from the original 4 about 6 weeks ago but until last week I have had no problems. I cannot think of any software I have added recently that might be the problem.

There are no entries under System Diagnostic Reports

I have prepared an excerpt of my console log with the last few dozen lines prior to the last crash which seems to have a flavour of what is in all the hundreds of preceding lines since the last (normal) boot:-

12/08/2014 11:31:17.895 loginwindow: resume called when there was already a timer

12/08/2014 11:31:24.002 mobilemesyncclient: POST /Info.woa/wa/XMLRPC/accountInfo?username=Johnsmith (FAILED), httpStatusCode:-1, errorType:103 (domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code=60), transactionState:5, txnId:0D1460F4-7ECE-40FC-B3C4-F05335EF7A1E, auto-retries=2, manual-retries=0

12/08/2014 11:31:24.002 mobilemesyncclient: (null) (null) (FAILED), httpStatusCode:-1, errorType:103 (domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code=60), transactionState:5, txnId:9DE1E451-2CAE-4698-B739-A7B12EDAB6E6, auto-retries=0, manual-retries=0

12/08/2014 11:31:50.862 loginwindow: resume called when there was already a timer

12/08/2014 11:32:09.478 Firewall: Allow Skype connecting from 41.111.92.15:17282 to port 55039 proto=6

12/08/2014 11:32:13.881 Firewall: Allow Skype connecting from 41.111.92.15:17298 to port 55039 proto=6

12/08/2014 11:32:23.860 loginwindow: resume called when there was already a timer

12/08/2014 11:32:56.859 loginwindow: resume called when there was already a timer

12/08/2014 11:33:29.858 loginwindow: resume called when there was already a timer

12/08/2014 11:33:30.116 ntpd: bind(29) AF_INET6 fe80::224:36ff:feb7:7e36%5#123 flags 0x11 failed: Can't assign requested address

12/08/2014 11:33:30.116 ntpd: unable to create socket on en1 (14) for fe80::224:36ff:feb7:7e36#123

12/08/2014 11:34:02.855 loginwindow: resume called when there was already a timer

12/08/2014 11:34:35.856 loginwindow: resume called when there was already a timer

12/08/2014 11:34:51.538 witchdaemon: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 2ccd0001, actual seed is 4db127f8

12/08/2014 11:34:51.803 witchdaemon: ISGetIconFamilyFromStorage: seed mismatch for 2ccd0001, actual seed is 4db127f8

12/08/2014 11:35:36.708 Mail: Using V2 Layout

12/08/2014 11:35:40.937 mobilemesyncclient: POST /Info.woa/wa/XMLRPC/accountInfo?username=Johnsmith (FAILED), httpStatusCode:-1, errorType:103 (domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code=60), transactionState:5, txnId:2569717B-5DB1-4368-805E-A074E199439D, auto-retries=2, manual-retries=0

12/08/2014 11:36:01.920 SyncServer: [0x104916fa0] |DataManager|Warning| Client com.apple.DotMacSync image file path /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Mac.prefPane/Contents/Resources/Internet.tiff does not exist.

12/08/2014 11:36:04.964 Firewall: Stealth Mode connection attempt to UDP 192.168.0.26:51020 from 62.24.134.1:53

12/08/2014 11:36:23.219 [0x0-0x2b02b].com.apple.mail: com.apple.Dataclass.DeviceLocator

12/08/2014 11:36:23.219 [0x0-0x2b02b].com.apple.mail: com.apple.Dataclass.Mail

12/08/2014 11:36:23.219 [0x0-0x2b02b].com.apple.mail: com.apple.Dataclass.Ubiquity

12/08/2014 11:36:23.219 [0x0-0x2b02b].com.apple.mail: com.apple.Dataclass.MediaStream

12/08/2014 11:36:23.219 [0x0-0x2b02b].com.apple.mail: com.apple.Dataclass.BackToMyMac

12/08/2014 11:36:23.219 [0x0-0x2b02b].com.apple.mail: com.apple.Dataclass.Contacts

12/08/2014 11:36:23.219 [0x0-0x2b02b].com.apple.mail: com.apple.Dataclass.Bookmarks

12/08/2014 11:36:23.219 [0x0-0x2b02b].com.apple.mail: com.apple.Dataclass.Calendars

12/08/2014 11:38:30.103 ntpd: bind(29) AF_INET6 fe80::224:36ff:feb7:7e36%5#123 flags 0x11 failed: Can't assign requested address

12/08/2014 11:38:30.103 ntpd: unable to create socket on en1 (15) for fe80::224:36ff:feb7:7e36#123

12/08/2014 11:38:36.145 Firewall: Stealth Mode connection attempt to TCP 192.168.0.26:49319 from 192.168.0.3:139

12/08/2014 11:38:39.112 Firewall: Stealth Mode connection attempt to TCP 192.168.0.26:49319 from 192.168.0.3:139

12/08/2014 11:38:45.051 Firewall: Stealth Mode connection attempt to TCP 192.168.0.26:49319 from 192.168.0.3:139

12/08/2014 11:40:04.104 Firewall: Allow Skype connecting from 92.11.133.225:58121 to port 55039 proto=6

12/08/2014 11:40:17.539 mobilemesyncclient: POST /Info.woa/wa/XMLRPC/accountInfo?username=Johnsmith (FAILED), httpStatusCode:-1, errorType:103 (domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code=60), transactionState:5, txnId:2C65DFB4-005C-4EE1-B310-BADFA5264890, auto-retries=2, manual-retries=0

12/08/2014 11:40:17.539 mobilemesyncclient: (null) (null) (FAILED), httpStatusCode:-1, errorType:103 (domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code=60), transactionState:5, txnId:2293191C-D33A-4FA6-A3F1-2EEC5D24FB1F, auto-retries=0, manual-retries=0

12/08/2014 11:41:34.319 Firewall: Allow Skype connecting from 89.148.37.70:3439 to port 55039 proto=6

12/08/2014 11:41:45.553 Firewall: Allow Skype connecting from 89.148.37.70:3461 to port 55039 proto=6

12/08/2014 11:43:30.091 ntpd: bind(29) AF_INET6 fe80::224:36ff:feb7:7e36%5#123 flags 0x11 failed: Can't assign requested address

12/08/2014 11:43:30.091 ntpd: unable to create socket on en1 (16) for fe80::224:36ff:feb7:7e36#123

12/08/2014 11:43:46.676 EvernoteHelper: No result from Safari loading plugins.

12/08/2014 11:44:01.372 com.apple.SecurityServer: Session 100012 created

(ditto x 27 - 4 different end addresses)

12/08/2014 11:44:34.288 Firewall: Stealth Mode connection attempt to TCP 192.168.0.26:49413 from 62.24.201.194:80

12/08/2014 11:44:34.912 mobilemesyncclient: POST /Info.woa/wa/XMLRPC/accountInfo?username=Johnsmith (FAILED), httpStatusCode:-1, errorType:103 (domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain, code=60), transactionState:5, txnId:CE7E17E7-516A-4433-BABF-E888346DE28D, auto-retries=2, manual-retries=0

(ditto x 18 - different end addresses)

12/08/2014 11:44:58.301 Firewall: Stealth Mode connection attempt to TCP 192.168.0.26:49413 from 62.24.201.194:80

12/08/2014 11:45:32.503 Firewall: Allow Skype connecting from 217.118.64.57:33489 to port 55039 proto=6

12/08/2014 11:45:32.503 Firewall: Allow Skype connecting from 217.118.64.57:33488 to port 55039 proto=6

12/08/2014 11:50:42.169 com.apple.kextd: Safe boot mode detected; invalidating system extensions caches.

12/08/2014 11:50:42.415 com.apple.kextd: Cache file /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Directories/System/Library/Extensi ons/KextIdentifiers.plist.gz is out of date; not using.

12/08/2014 11:47:02.000 bootlog: BOOT_TIME 1407840422 0

12/08/2014 11:50:42.000 kernel: Darwin Kernel Version 11.4.2: Thu Aug 23 16:25:48 PDT 2012; root:xnu-1699.32.7~1/RELEASE_X86_64

12/08/2014 11:50:42.000 kernel: vm_page_bootstrap: 759002 free pages and 1338150 wired pages

12/08/2014 11:50:42.000 kernel: kext submap [0xffffff7f80736000 - 0xffffff8000000000], kernel text [0xffffff8000200000 - 0xffffff8000736000]

Thanks for your help.

Regards, Martin Winlow

Posted on Aug 13, 2014 2:04 AM

Reply

Answer 1

martinwinlow Author

Level 1

20 points

Aug 13, 2014 4:08 AM in response to martinwinlow

I have read up a bit more and found someone else with similar crashes and similar console log entries, specifically this type...

13/08/2014 11:43:36.048 sandboxd: ([2290]) WebProcess(2290) deny file-read-data /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/iMac-00000610-0000-9C96-0000-000004272580. icc

has recommended running the following in the Terminal app...

… and its output is...

Aug 9 15:38:27 martin-winlows-imac kernel[0] <Debug>: PM notification timeout (pid 97, SRStreamerDaemon)

Aug 10 08:45:15 martin-winlows-imac kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

Aug 10 11:09:00 localhost kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

Aug 10 11:17:50 martin-winlows-imac kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

Aug 10 14:29:07 localhost kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

--- last message repeated 1 time ---

Aug 11 10:30:02 martin-winlows-imac kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

Aug 12 11:07:35 localhost kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

Aug 12 11:51:10 martin-winlows-imac kernel[0] <Debug>: MacAuthEvent en1 Auth result for: 00:1c:10:fb:77:10 Auth timed out

Aug 12 11:51:41 martin-winlows-imac kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

Does this help? I am beginning to get the impression there is something adrift with the display or its software as the monitor keeps blinking occasionally when I am interacting with the display e.g. typing this for example, or moving windows about etc. I am also getting issues with inadvertant double presses of my mouse (wireless or USB Apple - makes no difference)… I have changed the double press rate in settings but it has made no difference! MW

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Answer 2

martinwinlow Author

Level 1

20 points

Dec 13, 2014 3:22 AM in response to martinwinlow

For the benefit of future viewers of this thread, I eventually obtained a new graphics card off ebay (from the US - NEW 661-4990 Video Card MXM III M76XT 256MB for iMac 24" Early 2009 A1225 - from seller 'macpremiumparts') for about £300 and installed it myself using the excellent guide at iMac Intel 24" EMC 2267 Graphics Card Replacement - iFixit and it has been working like new (well, nearly) since - 2 months or so. MW

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Answer 3

martinwinlow Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 19, 2016 1:56 AM in response to martinwinlow

Nearly 2 years later and the iMac is running fine. But it is getting a bit long in the tooth, now. Can't bring myself to chuck it though - it really is a timeless design (looks-wise, at least!).

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Answer 4

BobHarris

Level 9

53,309 points

Oct 19, 2016 6:28 AM in response to martinwinlow

El Capitan is the end of the line for OS X upgrades. According to the Sierra system requirements, your iMac is not supported.

If you want more zing from your iMac, consider replacing the internal disk with an SSD, or replace the DVD with an SSD and keep the internal disk for bulk storage/backup. OWC <http://macsales.com> will have DVD conversion kits.

Otherwise, start to consider a replacement Mac sometime before El Capitan stops being supported with security updates.

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