iMac Core Duo Problems?

[tivoboy]

do you mean

So *no one* has an iMac Core Duo with satisfactory AE performance? I so would've returned mine if I had this issue. I am so not stringing a wire from my iMac to my AEBS.

do you mean, works with AE well, or the internal AE connecting to networks, because my 20" seems to connect just fine with netgear router and I get great throughput.

only problem I have is waking up from sleep, the browser needs about five seconds to reconnect, and some possible ping delays. No packet loss, no cannot find base stations, nothing like that.

 

[mkrishnan]

only problem I have is waking up from sleep, the browser needs about five seconds to reconnect, and some possible ping delays. No packet loss, no cannot find base stations, nothing like that.

This has always happened with my iBook. My iMac seems slightly faster.

 

[MRU]

do you mean, works with AE well, or the internal AE connecting to networks, because my 20" seems to connect just fine with netgear router and I get great throughput.

only problem I have is waking up from sleep, the browser needs about five seconds to reconnect, and some possible ping delays. No packet loss, no cannot find base stations, nothing like that.

To re-iterate. Not having drop out problems with Ariport. What i'm having is a slower connection through it.

Ibook, Powermac g5, Mac Mini, iMac g4 all report faster throughput and connection speed than the imac. By a large amount too.

It has no problem seeing my AE basestation and networking is ok. Just internet speed really sucks ass through it.

I plugged in a Ralink 54g USB into the imac and speed is same as on my other mac's with their airport connections, which means it is the airport in the imac which has the problem.

Bluetooth on or off makes no difference either, so it's not a conflict with that.


Using the site http://performance.toast.net and the nearest host I get

Your Results: 1469 Kb (1st Attempt) on the Shuttle & Text test with the Ralink USB 54G Adapter
Your Results: 1680 Kb (2nd Attempt)

Now with the Airport on my imac

Your Results: 617 Kb (1st Attempt)
Your Results: 817 Kb (2nd Attempt)


That's a big difference.

 

[NeuronBasher]

Do you get the same poor performance if you're transferring a file from one machine on your network to the new iMac, or is it just if you go out to the Internet?

 

[tivoboy]

how

To re-iterate. Not having drop out problems with Ariport. What i'm having is a slower connection through it.

how exactly are you measuring throughput?
And, as the next poster ask, is that internet or within a LAN? WAN?


lemme know how you are measuring TP and i'll do the same here and report back.

anyone else getting this wierd highly varied ping times? Try pinging http://www.yahoo.com and see what the results are.

 

[munkees]

Problem is with the software in the base station

I have no problem using my Airport base station with my imac 20" duo, it the fastest connecting mac in my house. But one difference is I am running version 5.5.1 on my base station. I have to backwards regress due to a PPP fault in the 5.6, that kill my DSL when they change the backend of the service. My guess If mine works just fine, look for a prior version of 5.5.1.

I have not tried the newer 5.7,

here is the link

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airportextremefirmware551formacosx.html

 

[MRU]

how exactly are you measuring throughput?
And, as the next poster ask, is that internet or within a LAN? WAN?


lemme know how you are measuring TP and i'll do the same here and report back.

anyone else getting this wierd highly varied ping times? Try pinging http://www.yahoo.com and see what the results are.

I'm measuring airport throughput simply. I have my mac mini and iMac sat next to each other. I connect via WAN to my G5 in another room and copy a file onto both computers and see how long it takes via my stopwatch.

The mac mini finishes longtime before the imac duo despite slower harddrive & less ram..

Now I put my iMac computer to sleep as I went to have a bit of supper, and when I returned it refused to wake and I had to reset/power off to re-start it.

So I guess I'm suffering from two problems now

 

[friedymeister69]

I've had my iMac 17" core duo w/ 512mb ram for about 4 days now and I had tremendous issues at first. The thing would sleep and then would wake up and tell me to hold the power button. Things would freeze, it wasn't pretty. I did a format and reinstalled from the cds and everything is running smoothly, even with only 512mb.

I'm on it now and it's been up for 2 days, it's using 1gb virtual ram and 270mb active with safari, itunes, and ichat open, but it's smooth and fast.
I ordered another 1gb but other than that, after formatting and reinstalling there hasn't been a glitch.

As for the wireless, I have been using wired but I see that it picks up 3 networks here, I only have one, and i'm living in a house, so that's pretty good.

 

[tivoboy]

toast.net

so, I really don't think the toast perf test is the best. the results are so varied, regardless of system.

I get 800, then 1800 (impossible) then 1200, then 800 again.
on the ibm laptop, I get the same.

on the speakeasy.net test, I get 1100 on the mac and 1180 on the ibm. Sometimes on the speakeasy, I see some performannce variance on the intelimac, but still 900. could be location.

I would run the speakeasy or the dslreports.com test first.

 

[MRU]

As for the wireless, I have been using wired but I see that it picks up 3 networks here, I only have one, and i'm living in a house, so that's pretty good.

Seeing the connections isn't a problem. It's the speed through it compared to other macs that's the issue.

If its your only mac and have nothing to compare it to, then it will seem ok, but when you have macs all over the house that are much faster on the internet then it becomes a big issue..

Wired connections are ok and dont suffer...

If you have an Intel iMac using WAN via Airport stream a movie trailer via FrontRow.. In my experience it can get choppy and stop up.

Try the same thing with Wired Ethernet and its perfect, with no stop up or buffering.



Tried the SpeakEasy test..

iMac Duo with RALINK USB2 54G

Download Speed: 1560 kbps (195 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 234 kbps (29.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

IMac Duo with Airport

Download Speed: 637 kbps (79.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 225 kbps (28.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

IMac Duo with Ethernet Cable

Download Speed: 1637 kbps (199.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 248 kbps (31.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

 

[Artful Dodger]

MacRumorUser
Tried the SpeakEasy test..

iMac Duo with RALINK USB2 54G

Download Speed: 1560 kbps (195 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 234 kbps (29.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

IMac Duo with Airport

Download Speed: 637 kbps (79.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 225 kbps (28.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

IMac Duo with Ethernet Cable

Download Speed: 1637 kbps (199.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 248 kbps (31.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

That's just s@#$ man what a difference, maybe a faulty card? The worst part is some of use really need to have our iMacs and a week without is like a month

 

[MRU]

Tell me about it mate. If I don't see an software update/fix for this within the next month It will be a replacement I'll be demanding...

 

[tivoboy]

so,

A bit more testing here.

rock solid ibm thinkpad with 802.11g wireless.
imac core due 20" with 802.11g AE wireless.

both accessing the same network.

The imac DOES take a bit more time to get a filetransfer over the same network, but it doesn't lose anything or fail to connect.

It just seems to STALL at certain points during the transfer. The transfer dialogue on the thinkpad just keeps going at the right pace, same pace for the whole transfer. 50MB file, single file transfers in about 15 seconds over the wifi network.

On the imac, it comes out of the gates fast, but then stalls about half way through, then starts up again. Ultimatly transferring everything fine but DANG if it doesn't take 23 seconds or so. I know this is because of the stall.

If I run the speakeasy.net test, what I see if 800, then 1250, then 800 then 1250, it fluctuates. Don't know why, but it IS some sort of issue regardless.

 

[jeffy.dee-lux]

I've got a 17inch hooked with a linksys router and i haven't had any problems at all. This is the first time i've run a computer on a wireless network, so i didn't get to compare directly to another computer i had on that router previously. But i never have problems connecting, and my transfer rate has gone up past 300KB/s. Is there any reason this problem would exist with Airport routers and not others?

(By the way, what is the difference between kbps and the actual transfer rate? why are they different? I feel like i've seen the same thing for compression rates in mp3s, like the actual kbps didn't match up with the number of seconds and the number of megs in the song.)

 

[MRU]

A bit more testing here.

rock solid ibm thinkpad with 802.11g wireless.
imac core due 20" with 802.11g AE wireless.

both accessing the same network.

The imac DOES take a bit more time to get a filetransfer over the same network, but it doesn't lose anything or fail to connect.

It just seems to STALL at certain points during the transfer. The transfer dialogue on the thinkpad just keeps going at the right pace, same pace for the whole transfer. 50MB file, single file transfers in about 15 seconds over the wifi network.

On the imac, it comes out of the gates fast, but then stalls about half way through, then starts up again. Ultimatly transferring everything fine but DANG if it doesn't take 23 seconds or so. I know this is because of the stall.

If I run the speakeasy.net test, what I see if 800, then 1250, then 800 then 1250, it fluctuates. Don't know why, but it IS some sort of issue regardless.

Yep thats totally my experience too.

 

[generik]

Tell me about it mate. If I don't see an software update/fix for this within the next month It will be a replacement I'll be demanding...

By then they will be pointing to their "no returns after 14 days" policy. You don't argue with a policy do you

 

[tivoboy]

so, just another twist

So, just another twist.
put my intel imac onto direct ether, albeit via a homeplug pna that I KNOW works fine, transfering over the network internally, is about uh, 10x slower than the WIFI network, and as well same stalls.

But, when I run a speed test with it, it pegs the meter. Could this be an internal conflict issue, or what?

Is there ALSO a problem with the ethernet port on these units?

 

[MRU]

By then they will be pointing to their "no returns after 14 days" policy. You don't argue with a policy do you

It's not a return. That usually onlu applies to REFUNDS. I'll be wanting a replacement and after sales suppprt in Ireland are fairly flexible when I've had any issues before

TIVOBOY - oh god I hope therre isn't more issues to be found. If ethernet is crippled too then were seriously fecked..

 

[TBi]

I'm thankful i didn't impulse buy the iMac when it first came out now. Think i'll wait until they iron out these problems (and until i can afford one) to get one. Although i'm leaning more towards a MBP at the moment.

 

[MRU]

I'm thankful i didn't impulse buy the iMac when it first came out now. Think i'll wait until they iron out these problems (and until i can afford one) to get one. Although i'm leaning more towards a MBP at the moment.

Well we knew there would be a few bugs & glitches, there always is. Though I expect macbookpro to share some of the same problems seeing as though it's near enough exactly the same on the inside as the imac....

Just let us hope all these issues are software related and can be fixed by updates. Though I remember people saying the same thing with the last rev E 15" powerbook and it's liney screen.... That turned out to be hardware...

 

[TBi]

Well we knew there would be a few bugs & glitches, there always is. Though I expect macbookpro to share some of the same problems seeing as though it's near enough exactly the same on the inside as the imac....

Just let us hope all these issues are software related and can be fixed by updates. Though I remember people saying the same thing with the last rev E 15" powerbook and it's liney screen.... That turned out to be hardware...

At least now when i buy all the problems will be fixed (i hope) .

 

[MRU]

UPDATE! 10.4.5 ? Any Improvement?

Well 10.4.5 has come and gone and my Airport is still not working correctly.
Speeds are still no where near what they should be.

Still have problems with my Wacom Tablet drivers causing Painter IX to crash out on me.

Had the waking problem twice since the 10.4.5 update...

Any one else?

 

[plinden]

Well 10.4.5 has come and gone and my Airport is still not working correctly.
Speeds are still no where near what they should be.

Still have problems with my Wacom Tablet drivers causing Painter IX to crash out on me.

Had the waking problem twice since the 10.4.5 update...

Any one else?

I've had the same wireless problems as you, with a Netgear WGR614v4 router, but only with WPA encryption enabled. No encryption or WEP has full network speed.

I measure connection speed not internally across the network, but by using the speed test on dslreports.com. I was getting 1/4-1/3 the download speed compared to my Dell laptop over wireless or the iMac with wired ethernet.The 10.4.5 update didn't fix anything. If anything it's slower, maybe 1/8 the download speed last time I checked.

The slow speed is noticeable when connecting to the admin console (i.e. across the LAN) on the router using wireless compared to using an ethernet cable, so it's definitely the iMac->router wireless link that's slow. I've updated the firmware on the router, more in hope than anything else - it hadn't been updated for over a year anyway - and made no difference.

In another thread, someone got better performance using WPA-AES encryption over WPA-TKIP, but unfortunately my router doesn't allow you to specify this, and I'm pretty sure it's using TKIP.

I was thinking of getting an AE base station in the hope that all-Apple hardware would help, but you seem to be having the same problems as me. I guess I'm just hoping I can pass the buck on this to anything other than the iMac but it's almost certainly an iMac problem.

At least a wireless ethernet card is (or should be) easier to swap out than a laptop's LCD screen, if this is a hardware problem. I haven't heard a lot of reports about this, so maybe it's just a bad batch.

 

[MRU]

I've had the same wireless problems as you, with a Netgear WGR614v4 router, but only with WPA encryption enabled. No encryption or WEP has full network speed.

I measure connection speed not internally across the network, but by using the speed test on dslreports.com. I was getting 1/4-1/3 the download speed compared to my Dell laptop over wireless or the iMac with wired ethernet.The 10.4.5 update didn't fix anything. If anything it's slower, maybe 1/8 the download speed last time I checked.

The slow speed is noticeable when connecting to the admin console (i.e. across the LAN) on the router using wireless compared to using an ethernet cable, so it's definitely the iMac->router wireless link that's slow. I've updated the firmware on the router, more in hope than anything else - it hadn't been updated for over a year anyway - and made no difference.

In another thread, someone got better performance using WPA-AES encryption over WPA-TKIP, but unfortunately my router doesn't allow you to specify this, and I'm pretty sure it's using TKIP.

I was thinking of getting an AE base station in the hope that all-Apple hardware would help, but you seem to be having the same problems as me. I guess I'm just hoping I can pass the buck on this to anything other than the iMac but it's almost certainly an iMac problem.

At least a wireless ethernet card is (or should be) easier to swap out than a laptop's LCD screen, if this is a hardware problem. I haven't heard a lot of reports about this, so maybe it's just a bad batch.

I'll give it a couple more weeks and if no solution becomes available I'll be in touch with apple to get a replacement.

 

[wpwj40e]

The network problems are definetely a known issue...Between apple support boards/macfixit/macintouch - there are numerous problems.

Anyways - Thought I finally was in the clear with the 3rd(yep - glutton for punishment!) box. Did the 10.4.5 and my network problems became worse...

To be specific - internet is slow, dropped downloads, hiccups in streaming(usually not possible)

After spending 4 hours on the phone with apple support (and hoping the next calls are with someone knowledgeable - the first - well never mind)...which to date they refuse to think it is "their" problem...

I did some more checking - apparently there is a known set of issues going back a couple of OS X releases - that apperently rear up here and again..

One is regarding IPv6 - If you have not already done so - configure this to be off - it may help.

Check your console system logs - I am seeing a message that there is a 5 second delay in resolving the mDNS set somewhere in the OS X(still trying to locate where - UGH). This can be validated with pinging etc. Any web page that needs to load from several sources will be severely impacted by the latency invoked here.

Doing a google search on this - leads to prior known issues with the resolution of the DNS - etc - creating slow internet.

Between this and the IPv6 issue - you will see dropped responses - variable pings and significant latency - leading to the symptons many have described.

I have everyhting else finally working but the darn 5 second delay and am hesitant to do anything invasive. Am hoping to get a tech on the phone who can undersatnd more than restore the box from the install disks. As of right now that is the only remedy being offered.

Please don't flame me stating live with the 5 sec's - that translates into 10 sec's for a basic google splash screen, 30-45 secs for the Apple site and close to a minute for the Ebay site to resolve. These are just examples. Causes drops in downloading/uploading and is impossible to stream. Am already taking a hit on the overall network performance because of the chipset used in the network(airport) card.

Outside of this issue - I love my iMac - but this has to get resolved. I am going back to 10.4.4 - this weekend to see if I can live with it's issues and undo the current network issues. But I want to work with Apple tech to see if they can nail this so that yet another release doesn't have it!(I believe it will and the 10.4.4. network issues were more liveable than the current state)

Not sure another machine is actually gonna address this set of issues....

Therese