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iMac stability question

E

ezinn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 22, 2009
10
0
I am considering buying an iMac, after coming from windows. Lately I've noticed many threads dealing with crashes, or loosing apps, or kernel crashes, which the response has been "just re-start". This sounds like windows all over again.

Is this common, or rare
 
It's a computer, there is no way to tell if it's going to be a lemon or just peachy keen. As with all computers, sometimes the first thing to do is reboot. What's the big deal?
 
That's comforting

It's a computer that costs 2 to 3 times as much as a windows pc.
 
Well I nor anyone else here can accurately predict your outcome. I will say with confidence that your odds are likely better with a mac. iMacs especially seem to be pretty stable. The operating system is a breeze and often times there are a few simple things one can do to sort out any problems. Things such as restarting and repairing permissions and refreshing preference files. I'm a content switcher. :)
 
I was hoping to get reliability, and performance

I know that iMac's generally are not concerned with viruses, and performance.
Two big issues with PC's. I was hoping to get reliability and longevity, along with the benefit of how seamless everything works together.
 
ezinn said:
I know that iMac's generally are not concerned with viruses, and performance.
Two big issues with PC's. I was hoping to get reliability and longevity, along with the benefit of how seamless everything works together.
Click to expand...

You do have pretty decent odds that it will be fine but no one here can give you that sort of guarantee.

If it makes you feel better, loads of people here have old machines that are still running brilliantly, myself included. It's a computer, just get what suits you best and cross your fingers. If something does go wrong, fortunately there are a lot of people here who know their stuff and can help you out. Fret not.
 
Crashes are usually software related. My Safari crashes by time to time but that's because of plug-ins. It's much more stable than any Windows what I've used
 
ezinn said:
It's a computer that costs 2 to 3 times as much as a windows pc.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but that is not true.

Regarding your question:
If you have enough RAM your computer is less prone to hang up or something like that.

I haven't had a Kernel Panic since the beginning of this year in any of my Macs, just some with older PowerMacs at work, but they get stressed as hell.

If your new purchase is a so-called lemon you always have the right to return within 14 days of your purchase and get a new one.
 
ezinn said:
I know that iMac's generally are not concerned with viruses, and performance.
Two big issues with PC's. I was hoping to get reliability and longevity, along with the benefit of how seamless everything works together.
Click to expand...


There are mac viruses and botnets. From my experience apple support is better. I've dealt with HP and Dell consumer support ans it's not very good.
 
Over the last few years I have purchased 4 iMacs, 1 MacBook, 1 MacBook Pro and a mac mini. The only problem I have had is 1 iMac came with a faulty mouse which apple replaced.

So in my experience those problems are rare. The majority of people don't have these problems and hence don't post on MR.

Unfortunately some do experience problems and come here seeking (and hopefully finding) help but they are a small minority of all mac purchasers.
 
I used to buy the top of the line graphics cards for my pc builds. Last o e was five or six years ago. I paid $400 for an nvidia card from visiontek. Died a year later but visiontek had gone belly up and I was sol. Now I buy low to mid range cards since the high end is $600 now and only crappy games make use of it right away. And these days they require super power supplies as well, it's insane.

Wife and I have 2 iPhones and we might buy a mac mini soon. Price is about the same as pc's in that class so it's a no brainer. And she likes small stuff and less wires. I'm still looking at configs and going to compare it to another custom pc build. But the mini will probably win. Even though my legit copies of windows are Msdn copies and totally free
 
I've never had a kernel panic on my iMac G4 nor my 2009 iMac. Apps do crash from time to time, but that's up to the third party developers and is no different on any OS. My Safari used to crash fairly frequently but I've noticed that after 4.0.1 or 4.0.2 it's been fairly stable.
 
I haven't had one problem (that was my iMacs fault) with my iMac or even my iBook or the original iMac G3! Not one kernal panic, so in my experience they are very stable. :)
 
I done drunked the kool aid....:apple:



Three years of ownership of a macbook and an iMac. I have never had kernel panic and have had to use "force quit" on a cranky third party program twice.


Compared to the lone PC in my house, which has constant BSOD problems and has had to have pretty damn nasty viruses/spyware cleaned off it 3 times (once by me, 2x by a pro) in the same period. I like the macs, thank you. :)
 
One thing I have learned in 35 years of my existence, is that what happens (or what problem comes up) is relatively less important (eventually, anyways) than what happens 'after' the problem happened.

For example, I have my iPhone, iPod and my Bose SoundDock all given me troubles. However, with their great customer service, both Apple and Bose were able to address my concerns, and give me a replacement within about 10 minutes of talking to them. I had my iMac kernel panic within a week of my switching to a Mac (from a PC), but I had confidence that if something was truely wrong, that Apple will take care of it.

I wouldn't have guessed that Microsoft or eMachines (my previous PC vendors) would have given me the same level of service.

So a seemingly frustrating experience of a broken product, turned into a wow because of what they did 'after' the problem occurred. I pick these companies for this reason - oh by the way, Costco is another one of these great customer service example.

This, combined with the level of integration of application, pleasing visuals of their hardware and furnished software makes up for any kernel panics or app mis-behaviors!

I would say go for it. You won't go wrong, and it's a small amount to pay for the pleasing experience you will get out of it.
 
The 4 pc's I use at home and work stay up for months. They all run vista sp2 or windows 7 and I install the os myself. No oem crapware either. My HP laptop had stability issues and they all went away when I reinstalled the os and left out most of the HP crap. Just installed the drivers.


Looking to get a mac mini just because the price is the same and less cables
 
Well think about how many people are very successful having an imac out of all imac owners. Most threads here are about troubleshooting problems and thats why people come here. Normally there aren't threads about how great the imac is or your success with it because that really isn't productive. Don't be disillusioned by how many problems iMac owners have here because that what this site is for, helping troubleshoot problems and talking about mac news. There is probably a very small fraction of iMac users that have very serious problems and if you have problems, you can always come here for help.
 
ezinn said:
I know that iMac's generally are not concerned with viruses, and performance.
Two big issues with PC's. I was hoping to get reliability and longevity, along with the benefit of how seamless everything works together.
Click to expand...

I just want to point out that an iMac is a computer. You mean Mac OS X, that is the OS that iMacs, and all modern Macs, run. Hardware, AFAIK, can't contract a "disease," if you know what I mean.
 
ezinn said:
It's a computer that costs 2 to 3 times as much as a windows pc.
Click to expand...

Not really when you compare equal specs. Most PC manufactures are still using DDR2 memory which is slower than the current iMacs DDR3. The processor also benefits from the faster memory.
 
As previously stated, macs that don't have problems dont get too many threads on macrumors. You will see problems for all computers, but less so with mac. Buy the apple care and you will have peace of mind for 3 years as well. I have had great success with my iMac as do most people.
 
My $0.02: Very stable

ezinn said:
I am considering buying an iMac, after coming from windows. Lately I've noticed many threads dealing with crashes, or loosing apps, or kernel crashes, which the response has been "just re-start". This sounds like windows all over again.

Is this common, or rare
Click to expand...

As a point of reference, I bought a refurbed 20" G5 iMac about 4.5 years ago
(when it had known power supply and graphics problems) - never had any
problems until about 2.5 years into my AppleCare. In the space of 2 weeks,
both the power supply and the 250GB hard drive were replaced. Kept this
system until it was 4 years old, then sold it. Never had any OS or app issues
except for some that I caused. And I kept the system on 24x7 (except for
putting it to sleep at night) for most of that 4 years. Plus, went through a
few major releases of OS X with no problems.

Then, 4 months ago, I bought a refurbed 24" 3.06GHz Intel iMac. Again,
no issues whatsoever, and again running 24x7. I will say I had some OS
and app difficulties in the early days, but they were caused by my
inexperience in migrating G5 apps to the new Intel environment. Once I did
a clean OS install and put on current Intel versions of my apps, there have
been no problems, even with the switch to Safari 4. I did have to replace an
Airport card about a month into it, but that's it.

My usage includes daily use of the usual Mail/iCal/AddressBook/Firefox, as
well as various Office things (MS, Neo, OpenOffice) and scanner and web
site tools. And 3-4 times a week, I fire up VMware with XP Pro and/or
Windows 7 RC. All of this running simultaneously in 4GB RAM.

Never a problem, and the only reboots are those required by installation of
new software or upgrades.

Compare this to my wife's PC: many viruses and stuff, general system
problems and instability - and she only used it for e-mail, web stuff, and
connecting to her office remotely.

Give me my refurbed iMacs any day . . .

Of course, YMMV . . . :)
 
My story is 10 years with various pc´s (incl. 5 laptops from Dell).
I got an Imac last autumn, and a Macbook this new year.
I counted 10 years of unhappiness, constant troubles, losses of files et ceterea. before Apple. Now? Well, I don´t even think of computers as trouble.
It´s pure and shear joy!
Get any Mac you want. The operating system is near flawless compared to Windows, but not only that: the progs and designs are joyfull, intuitive and more. On top of this you get the best design on the marked. That´s not too shabby, is it?

P
 
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