Imac 24" overheating and crashing

[thursdayscoming]

I have a 2.16 GHz 24" Imac that has been crashing lately, I suspect due to overheating. When I run a graphics intensive program (its happened in several different games), i check the temps in iStat and they start going up fast. The graphics quality degrades (lines, blocks, artifacts appear with increasing frequency), and the GPU Diode may hit 165 deg F (about 75 C). The computer then freezes and crashes. Force quit won't work, and I have to force restart by holding the power button down. I just tried installing smcFanControl, but i haven't gotten it to actually change the fan speeds yet.

Anyone know what might be causing this? Did i fry something or loose a heatsink or fan? iStat says all my fans are still operating, and they seem to be running at about the same speed i remember seeing before this started happening. I'm stumped, so if anyone has advice or info i'd love to hear it. thx

 

[trainguy77]

If its under applecare let them fix it. As its probably hardware. Could be a heat sink fallen off. But either way let them fix it.

 

[SaSaSushi]

Anyone know what might be causing this? Did i fry something or loose a heatsink or fan? iStat says all my fans are still operating, and they seem to be running at about the same speed i remember seeing before this started happening. I'm stumped, so if anyone has advice or info i'd love to hear it. thx

Dust buildup can also be a factor. You can try vacuuming the intake ports on the bottom of the machine and the exhaust port on top but in general I agree that if the machine is still under Applecare you should send it in so they can take it apart and check it.

 

[bongoman]

Imac 24" overheating

Had this Imac 24" since 2008 and numerous heat dissipating issues with it have caused it to crash, burning its hard drive, logic board and power supply. I think this product is poorly engineered and should be recalled to correct issues, such as better heat sensors (mine failed), stronger fans, built in heat widgets that alert you (on the monitor) to overheating before system crashes, bigger and better vents, etc. The Imac is having all these components replaced, but I don't know what else I can expect after this major failure. Should I push Apple to replace this machine with a new one? Really disappointed with this product's reliability. Definitely one should have Apple Care with a product like this, or you would be losing your substantial investment on this poorly engineered product.

Does anyone know the operating range temperatures of this Imac? Does Istat Nano work? Any other suggestions?

 

[AppleZwei]

Had this Imac 24" since 2008 and numerous heat dissipating issues with it have caused it to crash, burning its hard drive, logic board and power supply. I think this product is poorly engineered and should be recalled to correct issues, such as better heat sensors (mine failed), stronger fans, built in heat widgets that alert you (on the monitor) to overheating before system crashes, bigger and better vents, etc. The Imac is having all these components replaced, but I don't know what else I can expect after this major failure. Should I push Apple to replace this machine with a new one? Really disappointed with this product's reliability. Definitely one should have Apple Care with a product like this, or you would be losing your substantial investment on this poorly engineered product.

Does anyone know the operating range temperatures of this Imac? Does Istat Nano work? Any other suggestions?

Ah 2008 24" iMac? Nvidia 8800 GS by chance? Mine went through 4 GPUs this past year. In less than 90 days. They nvidia 8800s are a huge pile of crap.

 

[eelhead01]

Hi
I have a 24" iMac with 2,16 GHz duel core and GeForce 7300GT graphics card and ran into crashing issues when I started playing WoW again. I came to find out that the temp was getting up around 160F. The excessive heat would then crash my video card. I found that downloading smc Fan control helped big time. When I have to use any demanding apps on the video card I bump up the fan speed to keep the temp under 100. I can now play WoW with no crashing issues what so ever as long as I bump up the fan speed accordingly.

Here is the link, the download is free and you can set up different fan set ups for different tasks.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049/smcfancontrol

I hope this works for you. As for me as soon as I can save up and get the GeForce 7600 GT card for my machine I am going to upgrade it. Then I can also clean it out while I have it apart.