Honeywmoon with Intel iMac...Is Over..Need Help!

[wpwj40e]

Received my 20" 256 vram, 1 gig iMac about a week ago. As I have posted it has been fast and generally really enjoying it...But enough about the goodness...


After working with tech support - It appears I have a bad hard drive which was the cause of the majority of my issues. I have decided to get another one...glutton for punishment I know So hopefully a new machine that works will be here in a few days

Thanks For Everyone's help.



HELP!
Safari crashes alot. Specifically anytime I access AOL browser mail, when I access the widget download from the Apple site or use tab browsing for more than about 2 hours. It also crashes otherwise - but not in a repeatable fasion.

Word spins if I copy from a Safari browser and paste into word. Then attempt to force quit word (after 30 + minutes of spinning) and causes safari to crash.

VLC installed but will not run at all. Just crashes with the send report to Apple issues.

I contacted Apple support - did the repair/hardware test thingies and nothing worked. Then they had me do an archival restore - which by the way lost most of my stuff - and still same problems.

The memory usage seems bizarre to me as well. The "inactive" memory seems to climb to 400-500 mb and hang around there.

No, I am not running any input handlers and short of the base stuff from Apple I have the following on the iMac:
Little Snitch
Bookworm
www.ISC.RO (Scrabble game)
Handbrake

The archive pretty much trashed everything including most of my settings. Thanks apple support for not letting me know what this would do.

It of course did not fix anything and the problem seems to be growing worse.

Because I ordered from the apple store on line and had it "configured" does that mean I cannot retun or bring it to the apple store in town? Yes - I got the apple care - but quite frankly the 4 people I have dealt with over the last two days have been worthless. Not a one of them knew anything about the intel iMac and clearly were clueless. Essentially
the pc version of reboot" is waht I am getting.

Edit: To be a little more specific, the safari crashing is not every time - but intermittant - even within the problem area;s i spoke earlier about. 30% or so of the time.

I have repaired disk permission - nothing to repair and run the various utilities. Nothing changes. I have also uninstalled programs such as VLC that were crashing - and after the archive most of the other programs were gone as well.

Please help!!

Thanks
Therese

 

[mikeyredk]

The reality of tech support

Hope that cheers you up

 

[wpwj40e]

The reality of tech support

Hope that cheers you up

UGH! When the 2nd guy - who was going to help with the restore 'cause the email they sent for it was garbage mentioned that was the only way to clear it up - I went nuts. Bo so we did it...nothing got fixed. When the 3rd guy told me I requested a manger. When the manger told me - I was just wanting to get rid of the iMac. You have no idea how TRUE your link is. That seems to be the Apple answer.

Well guess what - IT DOES NOT WORK!

Working in IT myself - appreciate the issues. And I dread calling any tech support - 'cause I just know - but this has been a real treat. I am not doing another archive or clean install. There is soemthing wrong here...

Therese

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Download Firefox and see if that has the same issues...

 

[~Shard~]

Although it's the probably the least of your worries, I can possibly fix your VLC issue - do you have the universal binary version of it? Because the current version will not work with the Intel machines. Grab the x86 version and it should work. But I realize you have bigger problems to deal with as well...

 

[wpwj40e]

Download Firefox and see if that has the same issues...

Nope - just different issues. Played with firefox for about 5-6 hours - but runs really quirky on the intel iMac. Oh and it crashes as well - but could be for completely different reasons.

And it's not just Safari - just so happens that crashes the most and ussually when I least want it to!

But think it is a base software/hardware problem. And I really think it appears to be some sort of gigantic memory leak.. But I have no apple expereince - so I dod not know what is normal - or even what "inactive" memory means in apple terms. It just appears that this is way high...and the apps crashing seem to be related. But who knows...certainly not I


Therese

 

[BornAgainMac]

Or create a new user account and see if you have the same issue with Safari. If it still happens then I would have your Mac's memory checked next. Versiontracker.com has one memory checker program.

 

[wpwj40e]

Or create a new user account and see if you have the same issue with Safari. If it still happens then I would have your Mac's memory checked next. Versiontracker.com has one memory checker program.

Yup - Did the test user account - same thing happens. Have to spend a bit of time surfing - but eventually it happens. Also can get word to crash as well - that one is pretty repeatbale every time.

Therese

 

[wpwj40e]

Although it's the probably the least of your worries, I can possibly fix your VLC issue - do you have the universal binary version of it? Because the current version will not work with the Intel machines. Grab the x86 version and it should work. But I realize you have bigger problems to deal with as well...

Thanks Will take you up on your offer as soon as I can get the machine semi stable and not have to worry about blowing everything away every few hours.

Therese

 

[~Shard~]

Thanks Will take you up on your offer as soon as I can get the machine semi stable and not have to worry about blowing everything away every few hours.

Therese

Fair enough, completely understand. Just thought I'd ofer what little help I could. Unfortnately, in a case like that, I'd say a brute force solution might (unfortunately) be the best, i.e. wipe the system, zap the PRAM, etc. Then if it acts up again, perhaps you have reason to contact Apple. Regardless, it's a rough situation to be dealing with.

 

[BornAgainMac]

The program I used to find my bad memory is called memtest. I wish Apple just included a tool that could test memory in the Utilities folder.

 

[wpwj40e]

The program I used to find my bad memory is called memtest. I wish Apple just included a tool that could test memory in the Utilities folder.

Thanks I will find that and run it. Is it on versiontracker?

Ran the hardware test from the install disks from Apple but that did not show any probelms. Is this different?

Thanks again!
Therese

 

[~Shard~]

The program I used to find my bad memory is called memtest. I wish Apple just included a tool that could test memory in the Utilities folder.

Yeah, always a good idea to test the memory as well. Is all the RAM Apple RAM which shipped with your machine? Or did you add 3rd party RAM? If so, from who? That could be your problem as well....

 

[BornAgainMac]

Thanks I will find that and run it. Is it on versiontracker?

Ran the hardware test from the install disks from Apple but that did not show any probelms. Is this different?

Thanks again!
Therese

I forgot about the hardware test from the install disks. I don't know if it is different but it is on versiontracker. It found bad memory in my system. I just need to pull each one out in pairs and figure out which of the 8 is bad.

 

[wpwj40e]

Yeah, always a good idea to test the memory as well. Is all the RAM Apple RAM which shipped with your machine? Or did you add 3rd party RAM? If so, from who? That could be your problem as well....

Found the program - assuming I can download without crashing, will run it.

All my MEM came from Apple - as this was my first MAC - decided to go entirely the Apple way at the beginning - in case I had problems... As in I never buy a warranty - never buy 1st party yadayada - but being new...did it with this machine......

Guess now I'm glad I did...

Off to try something new - at least it does not involve my wiping the box again...GRRRRRRRRRRR...yet!

Therese

 

[~Shard~]

Found the program - assuming I can download without crashing, will run it.

All my MEM came from Apple - as this was my first MAC - decided to go entirely the Apple way at the beginning - in case I had problems... As in I never buy a warranty - never buy 1st party yadayada - but being new...did it with this machine......

Guess now I'm glad I did...

Off to try something new - at least it does not involve my wiping the box again...GRRRRRRRRRRR...yet!

Therese

Well, at least that elimantes a potential problem, i.e. bad/incompatible 3rd party RAM. At least if the problem does end up being your RAM, you can justifiably complain to Apple, as it came direct from them.

 

[wpwj40e]

Well. Ran Memtest and the memory passed. So good news is my memory appears to be okay.

Bad news - still dont have a fix or cause. I dread calling tech suppport again - formating seems to be the only answer.

WIll run the weekend and generate some more
logs" of all the issues...and maybe will have better luck with tech support with some definitive reports.

Any other ideas?
Thanks
Therese

 

[mikeyredk]

Make apple send you a new disk it could be a bad file(s) on the installer

 

[iMeowbot]

But I have no apple expereince - so I dod not know what is normal - or even what "inactive" memory means in apple terms.

Don't worry about that part, it's normal and harmless. "Inactive memory" is shorthand for "a program reserved this memory but hasn't done anything with it in a while, so if some other program needs the space, feel free to swap it out."

 

[BakedBeans]

This is a bit of a strange one, I'm really sorry to hear you're having problems. Safari hasn't cashed once on me and VLC (PPC version - where can i get the intel version!) is flawless - The only things (very annoying) that aint working properly for me are 1) plugins for QT, so that i can watch all avi's and wmv's with it, 2)flash in browser - no flash or anything seems to work at all.. 3) i cannot stream through WMP.

Only real problems ive had

 

[spinne1]

This may be completely unrelated, but I had a rock-solid OS X Panther setup that suddenly went crazy, with constant beach-balls and apps that would not quit even when force quit (especially iTunes, System Preferences, and QuickTime Player). The things I had installed and ran immediately before the trouble began were Handbrake, Handbrake Lite, and iSquint. I attempted to convert some internet movies over to iPod compatible versions (which generally failed because "ffmpeg crashed").

I do not know what caused the problem, but I used every utitility I could to repair things and it would not be repaired, so I had to reinstall OS X on a new hard drive and reset up my computer, which I am still doing. It is a major pain.

Maybe Handbrake is the culprit (if you have used it that is).

 

[wpwj40e]

This is a bit of a strange one, I'm really sorry to hear you're having problems. Safari hasn't cashed once on me and VLC (PPC version - where can i get the intel version!) is flawless - The only things (very annoying) that aint working properly for me are 1) plugins for QT, so that i can watch all avi's and wmv's with it, 2)flash in browser - no flash or anything seems to work at all.. 3) i cannot stream through WMP.

Only real problems ive had

The flash thing is strange. It appears that it is only certain intel iMac's that have this problem. I am able to see flash fine. Check your installed pulgins under Safari - I have shockwave flash 8.02 r22 - don't know if that is the difference. Also am playing QT movies fine - except for wmv's. There were several posts last nite reagrding the flash issue - it appears that they are different software configs on the new intel's...very strange...

Therese

 

[wpwj40e]

This may be completely unrelated, but I had a rock-solid OS X Panther setup that suddenly went crazy, with constant beach-balls and apps that would not quit even when force quit (especially iTunes, System Preferences, and QuickTime Player). The things I had installed and ran immediately before the trouble began were Handbrake, Handbrake Lite, and iSquint. I attempted to convert some internet movies over to iPod compatible versions (which generally failed because "ffmpeg crashed").

I do not know what caused the problem, but I used every utitility I could to repair things and it would not be repaired, so I had to reinstall OS X on a new hard drive and reset up my computer, which I am still doing. It is a major pain.

Maybe Handbrake is the culprit (if you have used it that is).

Hmmmm..I did install handbrake and isquint. Probably two of the first apps I downloaded (cane we tell my immediate interests)

I don't know - but that would be a major issue in my mind if two of my most used apps were the culprit!

Therese

 

[wpwj40e]

Don't worry about that part, it's normal and harmless. "Inactive memory" is shorthand for "a program reserved this memory but hasn't done anything with it in a while, so if some other program needs the space, feel free to swap it out."

Thanks for the info - I searched thenet and could not find the answer. Figured something like that - but wanted verification. Sets my mind at rest!

Thanks!
Therese

 

[wpwj40e]

Make apple send you a new disk it could be a bad file(s) on the installer

Do they use the disks when they build the image of the machine from the factory - or is there some sort of default image? Reason I ask is I had the problem before I did the archive/clean install and after. If they use the disks from the get go then that makes sense - otherwise....???

Therese