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New 4850 3.06ghz iMac freezing multiple times a day.

I don't own an iMac but have wanted to buy but have decided to wait due to the graphics card (?) issue. I don't know if the answer has been reached by the multiple threads on this forum altho many good possibilities raised. As someone mentioned it should not really be the responsibility of the buyer to find and fix the problem. Further, if as one thread suggests, this is affecting over 1/2 of the iMacs then it is a big deal.
Apple should be responsive and media attention might just do that. I have enclosed the email page to ABC news. As a non owner it is not my place to send an email about this problem, but wonder if someone else would be so inclined. Just a suggestion and take it for what you want. Thanks.



http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=World News with Charles Gibson
 
For starters you should watch it with the personal attacks. They tend to do suspensions around here when you do that.

Secondly, you don't know jack about me, jack.

I have over a dozen PCs running various flavors of Windows in my house at this moment in time and I'm an MCSE.

I'd still take a Mac in the current state than a Windows box for my general day to day work.

Also, plenty of us don't have problems with our 4850 iMacs, which would lead to suspicion that there are simply a bad lot of the cards being put in some of these machines.
 
jmpage2 said:
For starters you should watch it with the personal attacks.

They tend to do suspensions around here when you do that.

Secondly, you don't know jack about me, jack. <--- Personal Attack.. :apple:
Click to expand...

You really shouldn't've responded so snotty in your prior post to me;
doncha think? :cool:

You think Apple's above criticism? Guess again, iMac... :mad:

Maybe the powers that be
should put the both of us in the penalty box together.. :eek:
so we can cool off.. with a freezing iMac.. ;)

+++
 
WATCHDOG said:
You really shouldn't've responded so snotty in your prior post to me;
doncha think? :cool:

You think Apple's above criticism? Guess again, iMac... :mad:

Maybe the powers that be
should put the both of us in the penalty box together.. :eek:
so we can cool off.. with a freezing iMac.. ;)

+++
Click to expand...

You'll have to find someone else to cool off with, seeing as my 4850 iMac isn't freezing ever. :apple:
 
I posted a similar response in a different MacRumors thread this afternoon..but can't seem to locate it at the moment.

My new 3.06 iMac with the 4850 froze right out of the box while playing the "welcome" message. After three tries, I called the help line. The tech guy had me restart the machine while holding the shift key the entire time. This was the only way for me to even get to the typical start screen on the OS. Holding shift apparently puts you in safe mode.

From there I was told to go to applications/utilities and run a disk utility. I can't remember the name offhand but one of the options had it check the current software installation against a database of files/values. The program ran for 5-8 minutes or so. At the end it said that some file from iLife wasn't as it should have been and it replaced it. I restarted the machine and all has been fine so far with my machine - no more freezing (though it has only been a day).

The tech guy made a comment that in mass installs sometimes a file gets corrupted and this process corrects for that. I don't quite understand how/why an iLife file would cause my machine to freeze on startup, but it happened.

Afterwards I ran migration assistant (2.5 hours), surfed the web a while, watched about a dozen HD movie previews from the Apple site and logged in and played WoW on Ultra mode (all video settings on high) and haven't yet experienced any issues. I'm still knocking on wood since it hasn't been all that long, but I'm hopeful whatever this cleanup did works permanently.

I did all of the above actions while using a wireless connection rather than an ethernet connection (my "old" iMac is still connected to my network cable and sitting on the same desk).
 
SiliBear said:
I posted a similar response in a different MacRumors thread this afternoon..but can't seem to locate it at the moment.

My new 3.06 iMac with the 4850 froze right out of the box while playing the "welcome" message. After three tries, I called the help line. The tech guy had me restart the machine while holding the shift key the entire time. This was the only way for me to even get to the typical start screen on the OS. Holding shift apparently puts you in safe mode.

From there I was told to go to applications/utilities and run a disk utility. I can't remember the name offhand but one of the options had it check the current software installation against a database of files/values. The program ran for 5-8 minutes or so. At the end it said that some file from iLife wasn't as it should have been and it replaced it. I restarted the machine and all has been fine so far with my machine - no more freezing (though it has only been a day).

The tech guy made a comment that in mass installs sometimes a file gets corrupted and this process corrects for that. I don't quite understand how/why an iLife file would cause my machine to freeze on startup, but it happened.

Afterwards I ran migration assistant (2.5 hours), surfed the web a while, watched about a dozen HD movie previews from the Apple site and logged in and played WoW on Ultra mode (all video settings on high) and haven't yet experienced any issues. I'm still knocking on wood since it hasn't been all that long, but I'm hopeful whatever this cleanup did works permanently.

I did all of the above actions while using a wireless connection rather than an ethernet connection (my "old" iMac is still connected to my network cable and sitting on the same desk).
Click to expand...

SiliBear, I have run disk utility from the Applications/Utility but I cannot find the option near the bottom of the opening menu to do the scan of current software you are mentioning. Can you give more details, please?
 
celicanegrita said:
SiliBear, I have run disk utility from the Applications/Utility but I cannot find the option near the bottom of the opening menu to do the scan of current software you are mentioning. Can you give more details, please?
Click to expand...
He's referring to the "Repair Disk Permissions" option.
 
Touchy said:
I don't own an iMac but have wanted to buy but have decided to wait due to the graphics card (?) issue. I don't know if the answer has been reached by the multiple threads on this forum altho many good possibilities raised. As someone mentioned it should not really be the responsibility of the buyer to find and fix the problem. Further, if as one thread suggests, this is affecting over 1/2 of the iMacs then it is a big deal.
Apple should be responsive and media attention might just do that. I have enclosed the email page to ABC news. As a non owner it is not my place to send an email about this problem, but wonder if someone else would be so inclined. Just a suggestion and take it for what you want. Thanks.



http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=World News with Charles Gibson
Click to expand...
I think this is a fantastic idea, but who has the testicular fortitude to do it? ^_^
 
Bill Gates said:
He's referring to the "Repair Disk Permissions" option.
Click to expand...

OK. Thanx for the explanation...I becaming crazy trying to find the hidden menu that can solve the freeze problem on my iMac...

Anyway, I have repaired disk permissions this morning and I got no special message about it...all ok. But I have no freezes so far...
 
it's not a "mac osx installation" issue. I repaired the permissions twice and re-initialized the machine once. It will crash again.
 
Possible Fix????

I am not an IT professional and I have no idea if this will actually work for a long period of time it is just what worked for me so far.

So I got a brand new iMac 3.06/4850/1TB and on the first day I had 4 freezes 2 with Wi-Fi on and 2 after I turned it off.

I was pretty mad and figured well I have to send it back. I decided that if I was going to send it back I want to wipe the drives to get rid of personal info (I’m a jumpy person) I wiped the drive with a zero write and then re-installed the OS.

Then once the OS started up I immediately installed temperature monitor and smcFan Control I then changed fan speeds to ODD 2023rpm HDD 2862rpm CPU 2013rpm (no reason for the numbers it was just the half way point of the slider)

The fans are now always on (as they were with my rock solid G4 iMac without smcFan control) and guess what my GPU temp went from an average of 56 – 62 Celsius (crashes around 62 for me) to an average of 45 -50 Celsius (40 Celsius while not in use) and low and behold it has not freezed

I was doing iTunes visualize Photoshop and watching TV shows at the same time. I want to push it harder because obviously I should not have to install a 3rd party app to make my computer work (plus it will shorten the fans life, good thing I got apple care)

But if this works for a month or two while apple works on a fix (they better) then I am ok with it.

Now please anyone with more knowledge then me please tell me if anything I did is bad or if pushing the fans that hard is not smart because I really have no idea.

I just figured well it crashes because it’s hot why not just make it cooler (my PC fans are always on cooling it off)

Cheers
 
Received my 24" 2.93 4850 about three days ago, first time using it today (been on a business trip). I'm on Wifi right now, played a few HD Apple trailers, streamed some YouTube stuff, no freezing. Wired keyboard and mouse.

Think I'm one of the relatively late orders, having ordered about 3 weeks ago at the beginning of April.

I'll try some games out tomorrow, but so far so good. I live in California. Not 100% sure of where my iMac originated from, but my shipping info says it started in Sacramento and the slip that came with it gave the description "Jonestown." Take that as you will.

EDIT: Well, I suppose there's some misfortune after all. No freezing yet, but I did notice 4 dead pixels around the border of my screen. Blah.
 
Hey guys, I got my iMac on tuesday and got 4 freezes since then - so I called the danish support. They told me that its a known problem and there is no solution at this point! :mad: So no use in sending my iMac back and gettin a new one. The problem, he told me, is with the gfx card - sorry got no more detail on it...

Apple got it as top priority to fix and the support guys said (no promises) that hopefully they will have a fix in a week or so...

Just wanted to let you guys know about this, and maybe help out some folks. But all this is just what one support guys said to me - but he did call around to try to get an answer so he did try to help me.

Hope u all are well.

- Jacob
 
Having the same crashing issues. Had this one less than a week and every few hours it freezes up. I have to start keeping better track of what I am working on at the time. Seems like the Northbridge is running way hot ~80°C. Even with all the restarting the iMac is a nice change from the crawling Powerbook.
At least they are 'working' on a fix. I'll try the fan bump trick who knows?
 
Hello forumers!

I Live in the South Coast of Norway. I've been working on PC's forever, and purchased my first Mac ever. The 24" Imac was purchased on mars 25, but it don't arrived before april 22. (that was a long wait *phew!*)

specs are:

24" Imac
3.06 MHZ Dual processor
4GB DDR3 memory
1TB Harddrive
ATI HD 4850 GPU.

Read around the internet that there was Trouble with Freezing, but my iMac works like a charm. Totally loving it <3
 
well the smcFan control cooled everything down a little but I just had to restart... because it crashed, again. o well just have to wait it out and keep restarting.
 
+++[/QUOTE]

jmpage2 said:
For starters you should watch it with the personal attacks. They tend to do suspensions around here when you do that.

Secondly, you don't know jack about me, jack.

I have over a dozen PCs running various flavors of Windows in my house at this moment in time and I'm an MCSE.

I'd still take a Mac in the current state than a Windows box for my general day to day work.

Also, plenty of us don't have problems with our 4850 iMacs, which would lead to suspicion that there are simply a bad lot of the cards being put in some of these machines.
Click to expand...



WATCHDOG said:
You really shouldn't've responded so snotty in your prior post to me;
doncha think? :cool:

You think Apple's above criticism? Guess again, iMac... :mad:

Maybe the powers that be
should put the both of us in the penalty box together.. :eek:
so we can cool off.. with a freezing iMac.. ;)

If I don't hear something solid pretty soon like, "The iMac Prob is Fixed!",
I'm - going PC -

AND -> I'll go PC Freeware or Warez or Pirate
on any SoftWare that I need and want..

This msg has been brought to you, free of tacks, by Mr. Paranoid..


+++
Click to expand...

Watchdog, why do you complain about iMacs? Because some of them freeze up. Come on, get real. Not all the iMacs are freezing. Mine did freeze once but never again. I am extremely happy with my iMac and I am sure that Apple will take care of the customer if problems go to the point that we need any type of service.

I agree with jmpage2, where he said you don't know him, how can you criticize him or Apple. If you really are afraid of iMacs or of them freezing, then go get yourself a PC. I have used PC's all my life, I even built more than I can count, and now that I am a believer in Macs, I can tell you that Macs are a much higher quality machine 100 times over! No Brad Just Fact! I will never go back to a PC. I am tired of getting viruses and having to spend money on buying spyware, and antivirus software year after year. Well no more buddy. Not me.

Oh and by the way, you should not mention pirate stuff on this forum, the fact that you even consider pirate stuff tells us a lot about you. Be cool with that.
 
NiclasAdlertz said:
Have had it for 4 days now. It has froozen 6-7 times, all times when doing some type of network request. Most of the times using Mozilla and Firefox but also when getting data from the windows server in MSN.

Has anyone experienced freezing during "offline-mode" ?
Click to expand...

Hi guys, I got my new Imac now and it has not frozen yet! used it for 3 days now. my first imac froze after 1h of use.

This makes me think it might not be a software issue.
 
Mine too

I thought I would add my name to the list. I unpacked a 24inch, 3.06 GHz iMac with the ATI card today, and I have had two freezes so far. Since then I have run software update and fixed permissions. I will let you know if I have any more freezes.

Has anyone had luck returning theirs and getting an identical model that doesn't freeze?
 
I was just in the middle of writing a post to say I've been using wifi for several days, with my only freeze coming during a test with iTunes visualizer... when the darned thing froze. Is that performance art, or what?

Whether it's hardware, or, hopefully, firmware or software, I'm betting that there are NO fully-functioning 4850 iMacs out there, and that the ones that haven't frozen on wifi just haven't done so yet.

Logic really points to this being about some conflict between the 4850 and the wifi... and that the couple of people who've had freezes on ethernet are having an unfortunate, unrelated problem.

It's telling that the people who've received their replacements are still having problems. Makes me reluctant to return mine until I know what the cause is. I've got no stuck pixels, not too bad of a left/right gradient, and, since it's my first Mac, I'm totally enjoying getting to know the system.
 
straleno said:
I was just in the middle of writing a post to say I've been using wifi for several days, with my only freeze coming during a test with iTunes visualizer... when the darned thing froze. Is that performance art, or what?

Whether it's hardware, or, hopefully, firmware or software, I'm betting that there are NO fully-functioning 4850 iMacs out there, and that the ones that haven't frozen on wifi just haven't done so yet.

Logic really points to this being about some conflict between the 4850 and the wifi... and that the couple of people who've had freezes on ethernet are having an unfortunate, unrelated problem.

It's telling that the people who've received their replacements are still having problems. Makes me reluctant to return mine until I know what the cause is. I've got no dead pixels, not too bad of a left/right gradient, and, since it's my first Mac, I'm totally enjoying getting to know the system.
Click to expand...

I think you are right. However if you don't return it Apple will only repair it after 14 days and that will be 2 weeks with no computer.

The more that are returned the more likely Apple are going to pull their fingers out and do something about this problem.

The fact that they have had to ship me three iMacs and have two sent back, all at their cost should get them to do something. It has probably cost them £200 in shipping so far and if it goes on much longer the entire profit on my machine would have gone.
 
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