My discussion with Apple regarding my Lockups

[WizardHunt]

I thought I would give everyone a heads up on what went on with my support call. I called on a Sunday so the sales support was not there but tech support was. I told them my problem, and basically gave me 3 choices. We went through the basic troubleshooting stuff and they concluded that is not my set up. Duh I knew that. I explained to them that I feel it could be WiFi related first, so here are the choices that I thought may help others out there in my same situation.

Choice One: Unhook my Airport Extreme and hook my ethernet cable direct to my cable modem. They said do not just turn it off but take it out of the picture totally. That way if it still locks up then we know it is not the WiFi that could be affecting the iMac lockups.

Choice Two: If it still locks up then they recommend that I do a fresh install by doing a Erase and Install and do not transfer my files yet and do the tests or things that cause my lockups, in my case playing iTunes with visualizer full screen usually does it without fail. Then if it locks up again then they know there is a Hardware problem with the machine. I can then send it back to them for replacement.

Choice Three: This is the final choice and that is it is ok for me just to send it back to them as is, and they will issue a replacement to me immediately upon receiving the iMac back to them. Idid ask if there is a way they can send the replacement first and use a credit card for back up in case i did not return the iMac and they said maybe not. I need to ask Sales Support about that on Monday.

So there you have it. I will start with Choice 1 and see what happens then choice two, as I don't like the idea of sending a iMac back full of my personal information and photos. So I will complete choices 1 and 2 then if problem still exists I will send it back for replacement.

They did tell me I have only 14 days to do this from time of purchase. Also if they send another machine out do I get another 14 days for that machine as well? They could not answer that for me. I have to contact Sales Support on that issue. I will update this as I can. I will be off line for 1 day at least for testing unless it fails immediately. Ok wish me good luck.

 

[Tymbo]

I'm pretty sure people more knowledgeable than the support guy you spoke with (an actual engineer) knows what the precise issue is, but just isn't allowed to tell the lower levels... so for you to do testing for them is redundant, imo.

So with that said, I think you should go for the replacement tomorrow, and let me know if the back-up CC plan works with sales support.

 

[WizardHunt]

I'm pretty sure people more knowledgeable than the support guy you spoke with (an actual engineer) knows what the precise issue is, but just isn't allowed to tell the lower levels... so for you to do testing for them is redundant, imo.

So with that said, I think you should go for the replacement tomorrow, and let me know if the back-up CC plan works with sales support.

Well my thinking is this. If by some miracle that is it my airport causing the problem and not the iMac then I don't have to go to the trouble of sending the iMac back and waiting for the replacement. I could be just spinning my wheels of course but I am willing to try. Then if I find out that it is option 2 then I know in my own mind that it is for sure 100% sure without a doubt that it is a hardware problem. I will let you guys know if the CC backup option is workable or not.

Also I will do this so I do not have to send the imac back with my personal stuff on it. Photos documents etc. I don't like that. Either way I will be done testing by tomorrow or next day at the latest. Then I will have the answer that I am looking for. But you are right they at Tech Support are sometimes clueless for everything. One may be good at one thing but not at other problems.

Ok I am ready to begin the test starting now. I will keep everyone informed.

I will do updates through my iPhone so I will still be available on here.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I can understand the privacy issue. I wonder if they would violate my privacy rights. I have a bad hard drive.

 

[Sponsi]

Also if they send another machine out do I get another 14 days for that machine as well? They could not answer that for me. I have to contact Sales Support on that issue. I will update this as I can. I will be off line for 1 day at least for testing unless it fails immediately. Ok wish me good luck.

Yes, you have 14 days to return your replacement iMac if you choose to do so.

 

[WizardHunt]

Ok here is what i found out. I ended up doing a erase and install fresh. There is no loss here as I can use my time machine to restore my files just like they were if I choose to do so. Well so far it has not locked up but I expect it to any moment. So I called support again. I asked for a supervisor. Here is what I found out.

I just now got off the phone with a very nice Lady on one of the highest tiers in their tech support department. She told me that they are aware of this problem with the ATI 4850 chip iMac and that a fix is in the works. She estimated that maybe we will see something in 2 weeks but don't hold her to that. She did say once they are on top of this, they act fast on it. She did suggest that I don't return the iMac though she said I could if I wanted no problem, but that I may get the same problem back again. She said 10.5.7 is almost ready for release and the fix might or might not be with that software update but it should follow soon afterwards if 10.5.7 does not fix the problem.

I felt like she was being honest with me and on the up and up with me. She did offer to exchange it if nothing happens with 14 days even if I am out of my 14 day return period. She gave me her contact information (email and direct line phone number) which I will not display here Sorry... I don't want her getting bombarded with calls about this. She did not say if it was hardware or software related but that they will get on this asap. Not to worry so I will see how my imac runs for the next 14 days and hope that 10.5.7 will help it or that the fix is out by then otherwise I will return it at that time if I think it will benefit me at that time. So at this time I will wait to send mine back to Apple for now. I will give it another 14 days.

 

[VulnoX]

Is there a reason that those with issues cant just buy a $20 NewEgg WiFi USB adapter, or get one from BB and return in within 30 days if the problem is fixed (not the most honest method, just saying).

Why send the iMac back when it hasnt worked for anyone I have seen, are there no USB WiFi adapters for the short term?

 

[WizardHunt]

Is there a reason that those with issues cant just buy a $20 NewEgg WiFi USB adapter, or get one from BB and return in within 30 days if the problem is fixed (not the most honest method, just saying).

Why send the iMac back when it hasnt worked for anyone I have seen, are there no USB WiFi adapters for the short term?

Ok to catch you up to date. I emailed Tim Cook, the acting CEO of Apple while Steve Jobs is taking some time off. I got a phone call from his team. They had a High Level Tech Support Specialist contact me today and they gave me a program to capture my logs to trace why my freezes have been happening. They are putting a High Priority on it and I should know something within 24-48 hours. I will relay the findings here.

I did ask her a few questions regarding fan control, I see on this site that some of you are installing smc and other software and making your fans go faster to cool down the temperatures. She told me that it is not recommended that you do this, and that is because it will make your fan not last as long as it should for one thing. That alone is good enough for me. I did install istat to monitor some readings. She said that is ok, but they are not 100% accurate. But they will give you some idea of what is going on.

Also did you know that on your 2nd DVD install disk where applications is on there is a Hardware Test program. The instructions on how to use it is on the disk. You can try that if you like. Mine passed ok.

According to this Tech Support Specialist, the Apple Engineers do not have enough data yet and needs to collect as much as they can to figure out the program. So from that I think this will not be a quick fix. We are probably looking at least a month at the earliest to see a fix on this and maybe longer.

This of course is only my opinion and I could be way off. If you get a chance, call your Apple Tech support and tell them that you want to discuss with a High Level Tech Support Agent and give them your logs for the engineers to look over. The more logs they have to review the faster this fix will come. The program they use to capture the logs is called CaptureData81. It will capture only the crash logs and make a DMG file in which you will upload to send by email back to the Support Agent. If you want a faster fix, then do this today. Contact Apple Support and tell them that you want the CaptureData81 program and that you want to give them your logs for the Apple Engineers to review. The more logs they have the faster we will get rid of these lockups. Hope this helps.

 

[WizardHunt]

ok, here is what happened today. This was particularly for my iMac and my situation. However it may include a lot of you out there. So listen up if you want. They reviewed my logs and told me this. They verified that I do have a lockup problem, and the fix that they are working on will fix my problem but they noticed some other things.

They said a HP Trap Monitor file was contributing to my lockups. (not the main reason I was locking up but it was not helping) So I removed that out of my files. Also they said Photoshop was leaking memory for some reason. So I removed it for now and will reinstall it later. Then they had me remove some unnecessary startup files my start up folder. Also in the login section of user accounts they had me pull them out to free up memory. I do have 4 GB so not sure how much all that was taken up. But after i did all those things. I did a stress test, using iTunes with visualizer at full screen. And did it freeze on me after I removed those things they asked me to?

Of course it did twice. So much for that huh? My next step is to turn off my wireless and go straight ethernet until the fix comes out. The one good thing, is my lockups are only been in iTunes , iPhoto and email once. My surfing on the internet has not been bothered. So tonight I will change things to Ethernet cable and run my iMac for the weekend and see how things goes. I will try to lock it up and see if it will lock up. I will keep you posted.

 

[WizardHunt]

ok I switched over to wired now. I am using a ethernet cable and turned airport off. I played my playlist that is quite long and never once got thru it without crashing. Tonight on my 1st initial test after going wired...

Results are good!!! I got thru my playlist twice. No crashes. Amazing. So I am off to a great start. I will keep testing throughout the weekend and report my findings on Monday. Keep watch for it. Ok, back to testing . Chow.

 

[WizardHunt]

ok with connected to Wired, my lock ups stopped. However I see they came out with the firmware update this morning. That was a lot faster than I thought.

The firmware fix is now available as a software update for those of you who do not know about it. Just go up to your icon in your menu on your desktop and click Software Update. It will find it if you have a 4850 chip in your iMac. Run the update and follow the instructions and then you will get this message after the update is done.

I am now doing some testing to see if it actually did fix the problem for my iMac. Will keep you posted.

 

[WizardHunt]

I am writing this to close out this thread. As everyone must know by now the long awaited fix for the lockups came out at 11 am PST from the Apple Engineers. This happened on a weekend no least. This is rare. But they knew that this update was important. Actually they did the update or fix in record time compared to the similar problem in iMacs years ago.

Anyway to make a long story short, the fix did the job for most everyone. Including me. I no longer have lockups and I am back on WiFi. Apple is awesome on taking care of their customers and deserve the credit of jumping onto a problem that affects their customers. Sure it should not have happened but not all companys are error free. Apple is human like we all are.

3 Cheers to Apple. Job Well Done for taking care of this fast. Thank You. Thank You Very Much. . . as Elvis would say