What Causes your iMac to Freeze?

[Italchef]

The first 2 weeks that I had my new iMac I had a few freezes. I had been fooling around in Front Row and using iPhoto at the time. I wasn't really aware that there was an issue at that point, but now that I am I'd like to know if my iMac is a victim or not. What happens on your iMac that makes it freeze? Sometimes in the finder if I highlight a vid file(could be .wmv or a .avi file) I'll get the beachball, but is that a "hang" as opposed to a "freeze"? If I re-launch the finder it fixes the problem. I have 4GB RAM installed and at times the system appears slightly sluggish and I don't think I'm running all that much.
I'd like to know if I have a problem before my grace period runs out. I hope you can decipher what I'm trying to ask.

Thanks as always,

Mick

 

[gvg45]

Leopard makes my iMac freeze randomly and often. The one thing that was pretty consistent to make it freeze was to try to put it to sleep. I would say 5-10 times it would freeze. That and when I tried to wake it up. I was lucky to get a few hours of uptime before having to reboot.

I have re-installed Tiger and my uptime since reloading is at 5 days, 20 hrs, 13 mins (iStat).


I have heard others stating that running your mouse pointer across your dock back and forth several times real fast would cause freezing, however I have not had that problem.

 

[Bolteh]

What you're describing is just hanging. Freezing = you have to shut down your computer by holding the power button for 5 seconds.

 

[Italchef]

What you're describing is just hanging. Freezing = you have to shut down your computer by holding the power button for 5 seconds.

That's what I thought but I did have a few freezes during the first week or two. Is hanging something that could be related to this? 4GB RAM that passes all tests should be enough to prevent hangs, yes?