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Strange Freezing on iMac i7 8gb

T

tarakul

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2009
4
0
Hi Everyone

Got a strange problem, Snow Leopard freezes. It is a strange freezing that occurs at any time when I am doing anything - the only constant seems to be when I am heavily multi tasking.

When it occurs I can move the mouse but the UI does not respond to any clicks, be it to click on a hyperlink on a web page on the frozen screen, or to minimise/close a window that happened to be open when it froze.

The strange thing is the dock appears from hiding and the icons magnify when I hover over them but again no response when I click, the mac menu bar along the top is also unresponsive.

The only thing to do is press and hold power and restart.

It has happened two three times each time I use the machine since I got it.
 
Have you tried repairing the permissions via Disk Utility?

Have you taken a look at Activity Monitor or iStat Menus and seen what process might hog up the CPU?
 
I have downloaded the latest updates. I have repaired the disk and permissions.

When it crashes I can not open activity monitor or iStat - the only thing that responds is the dock icon magnification - other than that no single element on screen responds to clicks.
 
tarakul said:
I have downloaded the latest updates. I have repaired the disk and permissions.

When it crashes I can not open activity monitor or iStat - the only thing that responds is the dock icon magnification - other than that no single element on screen responds to clicks.
Click to expand...

I have the same symptoms on my i7, happened 3-4 times a day. Called Applecare and they told me to do PRAM reset. The problem went away for a month and then came back. Called Applecare again and was told to bring it in for repair , the problem could be the graphics card
 
Hi, I have the same problem today... Music still playing but everthing is completly frozen...

Any idea or just a hardware problem... i have applecare until 2012, I can wait a little more...
 
hey guys - i have the SAME problem! i just upgraded my iMac from 4GB to 8GB (2x2 stock + 1x4). now the entire computer will freeze up whenever it wants to. i cannot use it as i fear i will loose work.

i just upgraded to 10.6.4 hopefully that might fix it - did you guys ever find a fix?
 
DoFoT9 said:
hey guys - i have the SAME problem! i just upgraded my iMac from 4GB to 8GB (2x2 stock + 1x4). now the entire computer will freeze up whenever it wants to. i cannot use it as i fear i will loose work.

i just upgraded to 10.6.4 hopefully that might fix it - did you guys ever find a fix?
Click to expand...

Have you checked if it is not the RAM by pulling the 4GB stick out again?
 
Mac Snow Leopard 27" Freeze after 8gb Upgrade

I am seeing the same thing. I added four more GB for a total of 8GB and now my Mac freezes randomly. It was rock solid. I pulled out the 4GB and no more freezing. I wonder if there is a 64 bit addressing bug???
 
I have been doing some research and it says with the quad core i5, i7 you must run with both ram modules full, or one ram module full.
 
spinnerlys said:
Have you checked if it is not the RAM by pulling the 4GB stick out again?
Click to expand...
certainly did

teksmith said:
I am seeing the same thing. I added four more GB for a total of 8GB and now my Mac freezes randomly. It was rock solid. I pulled out the 4GB and no more freezing. I wonder if there is a 64 bit addressing bug???

skcrane said:
I have been doing some research and it says with the quad core i5, i7 you must run with both ram modules full, or one ram module full.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

you know, i followed this up, and APPARENTLY you need to run the "odd" stick in slot 1. i sure hope that this work around doesnt work, because i purchased 2x4GB sticks and i still have my 1x4GB stick lol.
 
No Odd Sticks

DoFoT9 said:
certainly did



you know, i followed this up, and APPARENTLY you need to run the "odd" stick in slot 1. i sure hope that this work around doesnt work, because i purchased 2x4GB sticks and i still have my 1x4GB stick lol.
Click to expand...

I have 4x2GB so no odd sticks. I did a pram reset mentioned above and I have not frozen since but I also haven't really done a lot of multitasking either. If I have not had a freeze by next week, I will claim victory.
 
teksmith said:
I have 4x2GB so no odd sticks. I did a pram reset mentioned above and I have not frozen since but I also haven't really done a lot of multitasking either. If I have not had a freeze by next week, I will claim victory.
Click to expand...

good information, thanks. i never did a PRAM reset from what i can remember. the freezes happened whenever i addressed more then the original 4GB RAM, i still have the stick lying around but have ordered 2x4GB sticks anyway :D
 
DoFoT9 said:
good information, thanks. i never did a PRAM reset from what i can remember. the freezes happened whenever i addressed more then the original 4GB RAM, i still have the stick lying around but have ordered 2x4GB sticks anyway :D
Click to expand...

Just froze up again. I hope I don't have to go with 4GB to ensure reliability. I will be so disappointed with my mac. This is my first one and I like it, but this sucks. My last few PC's were actually pretty reliable. I will let you know what I find out.
 
Guys

Bad ram stick?

Here's how mine is set up:

Original 2 GB ram sticks in slot A and B closest to the front of the machine (screen side).

I have installed two 4-GB chips on slots A and B of the slot closest to the back of the machine.

Remember ram MUST be installed in matched pairs for it to work so nothing like this:

2 GB + 2 GB
4 GB

Or:

2 GB + 4 GB
4 GB + 4 GB

It would have to be matched sets of whatever it is you're running:

i.e.

2 GB + 2 GB
4 GB + 4 GB

And you can't run just one chip in the second set of slots and leave one empty and have it work.
 
teksmith said:
Just froze up again. I hope I don't have to go with 4GB to ensure reliability. I will be so disappointed with my mac. This is my first one and I like it, but this sucks. My last few PC's were actually pretty reliable. I will let you know what I find out.

aliensporebomb said:
The way it works is this:

You can do:

2 GB 2 GB
4 GB 4 GB
for 12 gig.

But you can't do:

2 GB 4 GB
2 GB 4 GB

That won't work.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
aliens is right - i had a freeze this morning using 3x4GBs + 1x2GB sticks. bit annoying that you cant do that, what is the justifications behind such a thing?
 
aliensporebomb said:
Multichannel RAM basically. The best way I can explain it is that each set works together as a single unit in some respects.
Click to expand...

which doesnt really make much sense - because on a BIOS based system it should work, right?

so therefore its the way that OSX (EFI) handles it - which is a bit odd because all it has to do is give memory associations, i cant imagine it being that hard :p
 
DoFoT9 said:
which doesnt really make much sense - because on a BIOS based system it should work, right?

so therefore its the way that OSX (EFI) handles it - which is a bit odd because all it has to do is give memory associations, i cant imagine it being that hard :p
Click to expand...

I believe it's the same for BIOS based systems. I've experienced similar results on a friends i7 PC that was solved by moving around the RAM.
 
As an aside...

This is going to sound really weird but just moving ram sticks around can have a noticeble effect on performance.

My G5 tower has 8 one gigabyte PC3200 sticks in it.

In ONE particular order I can get the machine to geekbench the fastest a G5 2.5 can which is 2312 - as far as the G5 2.7 machines.

In no other order can it get close to that.

So I wonder if sometimes positioning is everything..
 
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