Q: iMac: graphics freeze, mouse moves
iMac early 2009
iMac9,1
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB 1067MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
OS X 10.10
Seemingly without pattern, my iMac will freeze but the mouse pointer will still freely move. I have to hold the power button to force a shut down. Sometimes it will start up fine after this, sometimes it will not. When booted in Safe Mode I have not experienced the issue. The first occurrence happened on El Capitan. I have erased the hard drive via Disk Utility from a bootable Yosemite USB (then partitioned it in 3 sections) and installed OS X 10.10 from the App Store via USB. I then updated via the App Store to 10.10.5. I cannot seem to force the error. There is NO software installed other then what is included with Yosemite.
I suspect the graphics card fans/vents are clogged with dust.
What should I try to pinpoint the issue?
iMac (24-inch Early 2009), OS X Yosemite (10.10)
Posted on May 23, 2016 8:38 AM