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New 4850 3.06ghz iMac freezing multiple times a day.

I read a french benchmark test with call of duty 4.

The Imac 3,06 + GT 130 runs around 70 fps
One Imac 3,06 + ATI 4850 (one that works) runs around 120 fps
 
Hi everyone, this is my first post on macrumors and I have to tell you it's nothing going to be pleasant. So I got my Imac ( like everyone else waited for over a month) and guess what ... 2 minutes after I turn it on and go through all the set up procedures it locks up. :(

So I installed WoW, changed all the settings to max ( I did get the ATI HD4850 card right? I mean it should work on max) played for half an hour ... wow great quality, awesome fps... except one little problem, I get a lock up. So I installed a Temperature monitor, started WoW in windowed mode and checked my TempMonitor.

This is what I get before it crashes all the time:

GPU - 60 C
Heatsink - 75 C
Power Supply - 70 C

Everything else is stable at around 40 C max.

Honestly my iMac feels so hot, that I could brobably cook some breakfast on it. Reading from the reviews and other comments I don't think that 10.5.7 will be able to solve this problem, neither will a firmware update. Seems like it's a hardware issue in my case, should I bring it to Apple store and run through my scenario? or should I just swap it for GT130 model?

Does anyone else have overheating issues? it might be that once a certain temperature is reached OS X automatically drops the switch in order to prevent hardware failure.
 
alkahalin said:
Hi everyone, this is my first post on macrumors and I have to tell you it's nothing going to be pleasant. So I got my Imac ( like everyone else waited for over a month) and guess what ... 2 minutes after I turn it on and go through all the set up procedures it locks up. :(

So I installed WoW, changed all the settings to max ( I did get the ATI HD4850 card right? I mean it should work on max) played for half an hour ... wow great quality, awesome fps... except one little problem, I get a lock up. So I installed a Temperature monitor, started WoW in windowed mode and checked my TempMonitor.

This is what I get before it crashes all the time:

GPU - 60 C
Heatsink - 75 C
Power Supply - 70 C

Everything else is stable at around 40 C max.

Honestly my iMac feels so hot, that I could brobably cook some breakfast on it. Reading from the reviews and other comments I don't think that 10.5.7 will be able to solve this problem, neither will a firmware update. Seems like it's a hardware issue in my case, should I bring it to Apple store and run through my scenario? or should I just swap it for GT130 model?

Does anyone else have overheating issues? it might be that once a certain temperature is reached OS X automatically drops the switch in order to prevent hardware failure.
Click to expand...

I would suggest bringing it to the Apple Store if you are so inclined and it may point to the cause of the problem and alert Apple to the problem (if they are not already )

Mi iMac 4850 went back for a new one before all this started. I am waiting on Monday delivery but now am getting a bit concerned that there is a real problem with the configuration we all waited so long for.
 
If heat was the problem then it really shouldn't be that people are having lockups in low usage tasks like web browsing or even just a few minutes after power on while doing owner registration.

Honestly this could be as stupid as a large number of these that were incorrectly assembled during a single week, all of which shipped around the same time. Something like a slightly different latching mechanism for the graphics card, etc, could account for this, if installation was incorrectly performed.

A truly brave individual could disassemble the iMac and see if there's something in the way final assembly was done that accounts for this.

What we do know so far is that;

1. It affects the machine regardless of what OS is being used.

2. It affects machines that have identical hardware identifiers to machines not affected.

3. It affects machines right after start up when temperature shouldn't be a problem.

This leads me to be suspicious of a bad batch of the ATI cards, or incorrect installation. Apple has been testing the 4850 configuration since at least February when the initial benchmarks were generated. If heat or other major stability issues were present at that time it's hard to believe they would have shipped this configuration.
 
Bad Batch

Do all Mac come from the same place? If not we can maybe see if the origin of the Bad cards come from the same place. My order tracking says mine started out from SHANGHAI.
 
Second batch?

I don't see this thread getting anywhere (as far as narrowing down what the problem is) if we can't find SOMEONE that doesn't have lock-up issues. If anyone out there has a fully functional iMac, please post your info from Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > Graphics/Displays, the output from this terminal command:

ioreg -l | grep ATY | grep Mem

and the date that you ordered and you were given a tracking number, or your shipping method and the date that you received it.
 
open0source said:
I don't see this thread getting anywhere (as far as narrowing down what the problem is) if we can't find SOMEONE that doesn't have lock-up issues. If anyone out there has a fully functional iMac, please post your info from Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Info > Graphics/Displays, the output from this terminal command:

ioreg -l | grep ATY | grep Mem

and the date that you ordered and you were given a tracking number, or your shipping method and the date that you received it.
Click to expand...

I already did that in a different thread here, but here you go again:

http://pastebin.com/f5bb5a720

I ordered on March 3, it was dispatched on April 9 and I received it on April 14. So far no crashes, freezes or lock-ups.
 
jmpage2 said:
1. It affects the machine regardless of what OS is being used.
Click to expand...

I just installed Windows 7 last night, spent all night trying to figure out how to make my wireless keyboard work on it, but it never did. I am forced to use on-screen keyboard all the time. :( Anyways, my point is that almost 8 hours that I spent on Windows 7, freeze never happened. I'd like to know who experience the same lock-up on any OS other than OS X. I will try to use Windows more to see if the problem is really OS-independent. (This is not what I bought iMac for though...)

By the way, Windows 7 is really cool. Much better using experience than Vista. :cool: However, I notice that the iMac is getting considerably hotter on Windows 7 for some reason.
 
Hows your iMac working as of April 19/09??????

Tom Dahl said:
I've had my 3.06 / 4850 iMac since Friday mid-day. It hasn't frozen yet. I've played WoW (on all-max settings, 2x multi-sampling, 1920x1200) for ten or so hours so far. No battlegrounds (I'm not a PvP'er), but a moderate amount of time in Dalaran (which is very lovely, even with a high population of players -- 25 FPS at worst, 35-40 more typical).

I've also run Capture NX (an image-editing application from Nikon and Nik Software) a lot; no problems there.
Click to expand...


Hi, Just wondering if your having any problems with your iMac??
I ordered the same as yours.

Thanks for any feedback.
 
GamaFu said:
I just installed Windows 7 last night, spent all night trying to figure out how to make my wireless keyboard work on it, but it never did. I am forced to use on-screen keyboard all the time. :( Anyways, my point is that almost 8 hours that I spent on Windows 7, freeze never happened. I'd like to know who experience the same lock-up on any OS other than OS X. I will try to use Windows more to see if the problem is really OS-independent. (This is not what I bought iMac for though...)

By the way, Windows 7 is really cool. Much better using experience than Vista. :cool: However, I notice that the iMac is getting considerably hotter on Windows 7 for some reason.
Click to expand...

Others have reported the same freezes under various Windows flavors.
 
jmpage2 said:
This leads me to be suspicious of a bad batch of the ATI cards, or incorrect installation. Apple has been testing the 4850 configuration since at least February when the initial benchmarks were generated. If heat or other major stability issues were present at that time it's hard to believe they would have shipped this configuration.
Click to expand...

People were screaming the same things about the mid-2007 Radeon HD2600 iMac's locking up, but it turned out it needed a graphics card (software) update (which didn't come for a long time).
 
i just get a call from the danish service apple shop and he was saying

hello there
we need to ask more info about you problem
ok
we have been testing it and done alot of stuff ( techntalk )
ok
and we can see to find any problem so we.need to know more
ok
what do when you mac frezz
will i am use itunes and the net and iweb and apple apps and it frezz one time with me going noting at all
ok
will tech guy i. been on the furoms and i am sure as a apple guy you go there as well most the time it is the users that are allmost knowing more on apple and you will find alot of ppl haveing problems
ok i will call later and try to force the prolem thanks sir have a nice day
bye

thats what happy to me today
 
jmpage2 said:
Others have reported the same freezes under various Windows flavors.
Click to expand...

Which drivers where they using for Windows?. It would be interesting to know if they were the provided by the Leopard installation disk.
 
Topo-kun said:
Which drivers where they using for Windows?. It would be interesting to know if they were the provided by the Leopard installation disk.
Click to expand...

I actually tried both, the one Windows 7 installed automatically (newer version), and the one comes with installation disk(older), both works fine. I also download driver from Ati's website, but they don't work, mobility version or not. I haven't used Windows 7 64-bit that much since I've been studying for the final exam tomorrow morning... :(

Odd enough, the iMac didn't crash/freeze the whole day yesterday, and I did all I do before. Well, I doubt the problem will magically disappear, but I truly hope it does. lol Anyways, I will report back if it gets lock-up again.
 
Another thing we could add to the multiple infos running around.

Use of wifi yes or no?

The two times i crashed was when using wifi heavly.
 
Im almost tempted to return my 3.06 ATI iMac and get a GT130 as a replacement.

I doubt I will ever play games on it.. I just wanted the ATI as it was the top of the range one

what do you reckon!?
 
Topo-kun said:
Which drivers where they using for Windows?. It would be interesting to know if they were the provided by the Leopard installation disk.
Click to expand...

I used the drivers provided on the Leopard disk on XP - froze after 10 minutes of GPU stress test...

I called apple today and told them this, they're sending out a replacement. If they provide a fix before it arrives I'll call up and cancel.

If my replacement also freezes, im going to be pretty annoyed! :)
 
It seems to me that Apple would not be so fast to offer replacements if engineers are telling them that 10.5.7 will fix it. It must be a hardware problem IMO.

Also, if it is software, why wouldn't EVERY machine lock up?

I get mine today and hope I am lucky.
 
Freeze during network request?

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" ?
 
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