iMac is becoming iHell..

[M3G4]

This iMac 20" has been nothing but trouble pretty much since I got it.

It's had insane problems with booting up to the point that it now takes over a minute just to get to the login screen - if it manages to do that at all. It's had various other silly problems, including not working well at all with boot camp, and now it's opening random folder Windows every time Finder is relaunched. Oh, and it ignores mouse clicks every so often, so I have to turn off the mighty mouse and then switch it back on, and wait for the iMac to re-pair with it.

Today it's decided it's going to kill the "Sharing" control panel, so that freezes every time I try to access it.

I am so tempted to give this back to apple and tell them to stick it, it's really bugging me now. I rang tech support about the booting issue, and they came to the conclusion it's everything but the mac - my USB device drivers are causing issues with the computer. But that can't be right, otherwise my macbook would suffer with the same issues (which it doesn't... well, it does, but not to the tune of over a minute's worth of bootup time)

And for those interested, here are the bootup times?

iMac Bootup time:
1m 10s without anything plugged in.
1m 12s with USB devices.

Macbook Bootup time:
0m 22s without anything plugged in.
0m 43s with USB devices.

Anyone got any words to console/help me before I do something silly?

 

[hologram]

Did you try re-installing the OS? Maybe something got corrupted.

 

[~Shard~]

Did you zap the pram? How about fsck?

 

[M3G4]

Did you zap the pram? How about fsck?

Apple people walked me through zapping PRAM and that thing where you unplug the mac lol I'm not familiar with the terms, but all the stuff I'm meant to try I have. It works for like... one boot, it makes it quicker, but then it slows back down again!

Haven't reformatted. Not really keen on doing it until I have the money to get a firewire drive, because backing up onto my USB drive would take a damn AGE!

 

[Consultant]

Well what you are experiencing does not sound like the typical experience. Something was probably corrupted. Sounds like you probably tried Disk utility, fix permissions.

You should transfer imac files to macbook, erase imac, and do a clean install.

 

[OceanView]

Take it back and get a new one.

 

[26139]

You could also stop turning off your computer all the time.

 

[mac000]

You could also stop turning off your computer all the time.

leave the computer to sleep and dont power down, just hit the apple and sleep when you dont want it to be on.

Try downoading MainMenu, a maintenance app.

 

[pcorajr]

Did you reinstall the OS?

Ever since I started using computers I alwasy took it up to make sure that i would reinstall th OS. I DO NOT any new computer with it factory installation of what ever OS.

This mainly applied to Windows, and many told me it does not apply to OSX because its Apple and they are better at attention to detail ETC.

In the end 2 days after I purchased my first Mac i was already wiping the computer clean and reinstalling the OS. There where a few bugs that where clear after i did this and now the computer is running like a champ.

 

[panzer06]

You could also stop turning off your computer all the time.

I don't think that is an acceptable solution.

I prefer to shutdown my Mac instead of putting it to sleep. OP should have a choice and it definately should not take that long to boot.

I wish him good fortune in his search for a solution.

Cheers,

 

[HLdan]

I'll bet all of your issues would be resolved if you do a complete reformat and install. Sometime the image from the factory is bad and needs to be completely erased in Disk Utility and reinstalled. My iMac is being shipped this week and within 20 minutes of taking it out of the box I am completely erasing and reformatting.
None of your issues seem hardware related, it sounds like it's all software.
Get a cheap back up drive if you need to save files but until you have erased and reformatted it's not going to do any good to rant.

 

[swordfish5736]

Just get a firewire cable and boot it as a drive on your MacBook then copy your files and erase the drive in disk utility. Pop in your reinstall disk and start from scratch

 

[jamesarm97]

I had a similar problem, only with long boot times when I installed bootcamp. Had to do with setting the startup device / partition. If it is not set to your OS X startup disk it takes a long time scanning or something like that before it times out and boots OS X.

 

[AlexisV]

I don't know why you're having problems, but be assured that your Mac will have arrived with a completely clean, fresh and perfect installation of OS X.

Therefore the problems must have occurred afterwards. I'm not saying it's in any way your fault, but that's a fact.

Remember Bootcamp is Beta software and not the finished article. Perhaps something with Windows or Bootcamp has caused problems to the hard disk.

Run disk utility and tell us what it says

My iMac is being shipped this week and within 20 minutes of taking it out of the box I am completely erasing and reformatting.
None of your issues seem hardware related, it sounds like it's all software

On a separate note, why would you do that? The OS X on the machine is no different from the OS X on the discs.

 

[chas0001]

On a separate note, why would you do that? The OS X on the machine is no different from the OS X on the discs.

I always reformat, mainly to remove any unnecessary applications (e.g. Microsoft Word Trial), Languages (other than English and Spanish) and printer drivers.

Why have things installed if you do not need them.

 

[HLdan]

On a separate note, why would you do that? The OS X on the machine is no different from the OS X on the discs.

The factory image on the computer has all of the languages I don't need and it eats up a nice chunk of the hard drive. Some of the apps like iWeb are useless as well as the MS office trial software and as much I love Garageband I want to pick and choose which loops to use for it as the ones that ship on the factory image eat up too much space.

Under normal circumstances I just use the computer right out of the box so I am not promoting the OP to erase and install just for the heck of it but based on the problems he is having it's the best solution.

I don't know why you're having problems, but be assured that your Mac will have arrived with a completely clean, fresh and perfect installation of OS X.

I'm sorry but I will have to disagree with you. You can't guarantee that as nothing is "perfect". It's very possible that one of the apps on the factory image is corrupted resulting in the computer running weird.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Why are you screwing with an obviously defective product? Get your personal files saved off it, and have Apple replace it.

Or, do a clean install of the OS and start from scratch and see where the problems arise.

Every time I see a thread title with some catastrophic problem, the words "boot" and "camp" always come up.

 

[oduinnin]

So far, I've not had a reason to install boot camp or windows on any Mac I own. So, I can't comment on that. However, I have owned several Macs and never had to...

"do a clean install of the OS and start from scratch and see where the problems arise."

On a Mac with OS X, most all system file problems can be fixed with either Disk Utility, a third party utility program such as Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro. To use Disk Utility or a third party utility program, you need to boot from the install disk or another bootable drive.

Another repair facility is a Unix command typed in from a Unix command line at startup. To do this, hold the "S" key down when you boot. This will bring you to a black screen with white text. At the command line prompt, type in: '/sbin/fsck -y hit return
You may need to do this several times until the returned message says something like: "Disk appears to be okay"

Also, you can easily delete applications that are unwanted as well as language files and Garageband loops without having to reinstall the OS X.

Normally these problems can be fixed using everyday tools, but, if that fails, send it back to Apple before your 14 day DOA clause runs out.

Oh, it helps to have patience and maintain a positive attitude.

 

[imacdaddy]

Fear not. If you don't want to troubleshoot on your own, then bring it back for a replacement. That's what Apple Care is for.

If you do want to troubleshoot. Doing a complete reinstall may not be such a bad idea but should be done as a last resort. Some questions to better understand your situation.

Question:

1) What is your iMac configuration?
2) How old is your iMac?
3) Did you upgrade your RAM?
4) If so, what brand is it and spec on the RAM?
5) Did you install it yourself?
6) Was it ever this slow the few time you booted it up?
7) Did this performace issue happen after installing something?
8) Hard disk making clicking noise while booting?
9) iMac's fan is loud while booting?
10) Installed the latest OS X updates?
11) After booting, how many black triangles do you see under the icons in your Dock without you opening up any applications on your own?
12) How many icons do you see at the top right of your screen?
13) How many Widgets do you have active?

Please take the time to answer these for us to help.

 

[M3G4]

Cheers guys

Fear not. If you don't want to troubleshoot on your own, then bring it back for a replacement. That's what Apple Care is for.

If you do want to troubleshoot. Doing a complete reinstall may not be such a bad idea but should be done as a last resort. Some questions to better understand your situation.

Please take the time to answer these for us to help.

Question:

1) What is your iMac configuration?
Specs as in sig; iMac 20" 2.16C2D, 2GB RAM, X1600, 250GB HDD
2) How old is your iMac?
A few months lol more than 90 days old is all I know really.
3) Did you upgrade your RAM?
Yes, from stock to 2GB
4) If so, what brand is it and spec on the RAM?
It was Crucial RAM, it was matched by the website - I told it I owned a C2D iMac and it picked the RAM for me.
5) Did you install it yourself?
Yes
6) Was it ever this slow the few time you booted it up?
Not the first few times, but a short while after, yes.
7) Did this performace issue happen after installing something?
I can't actually remember, but I know it happenned before bootcamp - bootcamp just made it worse when booting into Windows
8) Hard disk making clicking noise while booting?
No problems with HDD
9) iMac's fan is loud while booting?
No - never heard the iMac's fan.
10) Installed the latest OS X updates?
Yes, running 10.4.10
11) After booting, how many black triangles do you see under the icons in your Dock without you opening up any applications on your own?
Finder and Dashboard
12) How many icons do you see at the top right of your screen?
GMail checker, Audioscrobbler, Wireless, Audio, Time, Bluetooth, Spotlight
13) How many Widgets do you have active?
10.

It might be worth noting that when I first got this machine, I copied the disk image from my laptop so I had all my uni files and personal settings copied over via the settings transfer thing that you get when you first switch on a new mac. Would this have made a difference?

 

[Nermal]

I don't know why you're having problems, but be assured that your Mac will have arrived with a completely clean, fresh and perfect installation of OS X.

The last Power Mac G4s, with 10.3 preinstalled, had an issue where they wouldn't mount any disk images (I don't know whether this affected all of them or just some). After running into that issue firsthand, I certainly don't put total faith into the preinstall.

 

[ale500]

Did you install any drivers for devices... ?

PowerPC drivers take a lot to "load", they don't, but make booting slower...

Have a look also at possible startup items that need Rosetta (i.e. PowerPC applications), using the activity monitor.

I hope it helps

 

[AlexisV]

I'm sorry but I will have to disagree with you. You can't guarantee that as nothing is "perfect". It's very possible that one of the apps on the factory image is corrupted resulting in the computer running weird.

It's all relative. The chance of a faulty memory module is slim, yet the chance of one hard drive not having just a few zeros and ones written wrongly to it are miniscule.

I always reformat, mainly to remove any unnecessary applications (e.g. Microsoft Word Trial), Languages (other than English and Spanish) and printer drivers.

Why have things installed if you do not need them.

That sounds a long winded way of doing things when you can just drag unwanted apps to the trash and remove languages with MonoLingual! http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7758

 

[imacdaddy]

Cheers guys
Question:

1) What is your iMac configuration?
Specs as in sig; iMac 20" 2.16C2D, 2GB RAM, X1600, 250GB HDD
2) How old is your iMac?
A few months lol more than 90 days old is all I know really.
3) Did you upgrade your RAM?
Yes, from stock to 2GB
4) If so, what brand is it and spec on the RAM?
It was Crucial RAM, it was matched by the website - I told it I owned a C2D iMac and it picked the RAM for me.
5) Did you install it yourself?
Yes
6) Was it ever this slow the few time you booted it up?
Not the first few times, but a short while after, yes.
7) Did this performace issue happen after installing something?
I can't actually remember, but I know it happenned before bootcamp - bootcamp just made it worse when booting into Windows
8) Hard disk making clicking noise while booting?
No problems with HDD
9) iMac's fan is loud while booting?
No - never heard the iMac's fan.
10) Installed the latest OS X updates?
Yes, running 10.4.10
11) After booting, how many black triangles do you see under the icons in your Dock without you opening up any applications on your own?
Finder and Dashboard
12) How many icons do you see at the top right of your screen?
GMail checker, Audioscrobbler, Wireless, Audio, Time, Bluetooth, Spotlight
13) How many Widgets do you have active?
10.

It might be worth noting that when I first got this machine, I copied the disk image from my laptop so I had all my uni files and personal settings copied over via the settings transfer thing that you get when you first switch on a new mac. Would this have made a difference?

Thanks for the info. I doesn't seem to be a memory problem. The amount of RAM you have is good enough. It might perhaps be your HD or what's left of it.

Would you mind answering the next set of questions?

1) I see you have 250GB HD. Under OS X, how much available space do you have left?
2) When you installed Bootcamp, what was the partition size you had set?
3) I have an iMac G5 so I've never played with bootcamp. Does it ask for filesystem type when installing Windows? If so, what did you choose, NTFS or FAT32?
4) Under Windows, what's the HD size available and how much available space you have left?

I think the above post from jamesarm97 may have the fix for you. I'm pretty confident it is how you set up bootcamp to install Windows. See how much time is wasted to get Windows up and running on both PCs and Macs...I couldn't be bothered with MS anymore! Let's get this fixed for you so your iMac will once again be iHeaven!!!

 

[AdeFowler]

I dream of having a mac that boots up in just over a minute

Do you have any software on the iMac that's not on the MacBook? Norton for example?