Resolved iMac freezes when connecting to WiFi (OS X 10.6.4)

[Kakihara]

Hello everyone, I was hoping that I could have some help with fixing a problem with an iMac. To give some background, it's a 27" 2010 iMac that just recently had a fresh install of OS X 10.6.4 which works fine until I get to the desktop and attempt to connect to WiFi. Here's what happens:

I see that the airport has detected my WiFi connection and click it before entering the password to connect. The moment I click connect the iMac immediately freezes and suddenly the screen starts to dim/darken, starting from the top and going downwards until the entire screen has dimmed. Following this, a dialog box appears in the center of the screen in multiple languages, with the English text stating that I should press and hold down the power button to turn off the computer.

I am able to replicate this problem 100% and as such, am unable to connect to the internet with this computer right now. This has never been a problem since the computer was purchased back in 2010, and I think I might know why? I'm not 100% sure however, and my attempt at remedying the problem has failed.

The computer was kept up-to-date with software updates since purchase but since it was recently wiped and the disk that came with it was used to reinstall OS X (10.6.4) it is currently on an old version of OS X, which I suspect might be encountering a lot of trouble when trying to connect to my WiFi which uses IPv6? I have searched Google and seen other people encountering the same problem, so I assume it must be that, which would explain why it could connect to the WiFi perfectly fine before, since it was running a more recent version of OS X.

I saw one proposed solution was to go into Network Settings and disable IPv6 for the Airport. I tried this and unfortunately it did not work, the computer still froze when attempting to connect to the WiFi so I'm feeling a bit stuck right now, and not 100% sure what to do. I have a feeling that if I could upgrade OS X somehow, it would fix the problem and enable internet access again, but I'm not sure how I would best go about doing that, or if there might perhaps be a simpler solution? I'm writing this post on a second computer that I have, but it's a PC running Windows 7.

Thank you for reading, any help is much appreciated!

 

[Bruno09]

Hi,

some ideas :

- launch Disk Utility, run a check/repair of your disk (Macintosh HD)
- repair the permissions
- reboot and see what happens.

If you can connect the Mac via Ethernet, download and install the 10.6.8 combo update.

 

[Kakihara]

Hello, thanks for the reply

I've already done the check/repair via Disk Utility and that came back fine. Could you explain to me how I would go about repairing permissions, please? I'm not sure how I go about doing so, but will definitely give it a try.

I'm also unable to connect the Mac via Ethernet since I have no access to a cable, but I was wondering if I could download the 10.6.8 combo update on this computer (a Windows 7 PC) and copy it onto a USB stick and install it that way perhaps? I'm not sure if/how that would work, but I found the combo update on the Apple site here: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?locale=en_US

Is this the correct update file? I'm hoping that I could download that onto USB and connect to the iMac and install it that way, but I'm not sure if there's any precautions I need to take beforehand or not?

 

[BrianBaughn]

Yes. You can download the 10.6.8 Combo Updater to a USB stick on a Windows computer and then transfer it to the iMac and run it.

You are describing a "kernel panic" with that crash. It is most often hardware related. Unplug everything (if anything) connected to the iMac and test.

You could also test to see if you have a bad RAM module in there by shutting down, removing one module, testing, then swapping the modules to test the second one.

 

[Bruno09]

Could you explain to me how I would go about repairing permissions, please? I'm not sure how I go about doing so, but will definitely give it a try.

To repair the permissions : Disk Utility ("Repair Disk Permissions")

Do this first, then test the wifi connexion.

If you have the install discs, run an AHT.

 

[Kakihara]

Hello everyone, thank you for the replies. I repaired the disk permissions, which made some adjustments but unfortunately did not remedy the problem. The problem I have been encountering was indeed a kernel panic as well, since I Googled the term following BrianBaughn's post and saw images identical to the message that appeared on the iMac screen when attempting to connect to WiFi.

I did however manage to solve the issue!

I found an old USB drive and connected it to my Windows 7 PC, formatted to NTFS and copied the 10.6.8 Combo Update .dmg file over to the drive, then connected it to the iMac and installed it. The installation went fine and upon the iMac rebooting, I was then able to connect to WiFi without any problems at all. Now that the iMac finally has internet access without crashes, I'm now using the software update feature to continue bringing the computer as up-to-date as possible.

Thank you for all the useful information and help everyone, I'm very grateful I'll try and edit this topic to "Resolved" so that anybody who encounters a similar problem in the future will know how to fix it.

 

[Nilson Lorenzato]

Hello guys
I'm not sure that the solution of the wifi issue is due to the upgrade of the OS 10.6.8 to Combo.
I had the same problem and just sorted it when I turned the IPv6 - Off.
System preference / Network / Wi-Fi / Advanced / TCP/IP/ Configure IPV6 = (instead Automatically, set it off)
Done !!!!
https://www.facebook.com/xtremepowerperformance/

Nilson Lorenzato