iMac crashing

[lonnie]

My newest iMac is crashing on me in a very bizarre way. It's freezing but for a good 3-5 minutes the mouse is still able to move. No key commands or clicks of any kind effect anything, command-tab does nothing, right clicking does nothing. Then the cursor disappears and it's a full on crash. I have to hard restart it to get it back up. There are also these little bitmapped blocks that are now happening. They appear in random places and sometimes come and go for no reason. I'm attaching an image of one of the little blocks that are showing up.

Anyone have any experience with this happening?



Thanks!

[GeoffShac]

I'm having the same exact problem. About ready to take it back since it's happening once every few days.

[houltmac]

This could be one of many things, but historically it's similar to an old iMac RAM issue.

Your best bet is to get it into an Apple Store or AASP as soon as possible.

[lonnie]

I'm going to try and find some time to call applecare about the issue sometime this week. I did some searching for any iMac RAM issues and didn't really find anything. Could you elaborate some more? My repair tools are not showing anything being wrong and the apple hardware test says the RAM is fine. Arg.

Just 5 minutes ago it did something I haven't seen before (ever) on any of my macs. My screen went black, sorta. I could tell the monitor was still on but everything went to this dark blue color - almost black but not exactly. I couldn't get any response and had to hard restart after a while of waiting to see what was going on.

Here's a "better" example of the bitmapping.

[lonnie]

Talked to Apple Support this morning. Nothing like this has been reported before and they had no way to troubleshoot it over the phone looks like I'm making a trip to the Applestore at the Domain (Austin) - I've got a case number and an iMac aching to be fixed! Let's hope it doesn't take too long.

[Luap]

Originally Posted by lonnie

Talked to Apple Support this morning. Nothing like this has been reported before

They all say this.. Really.
And damn, I just typed up a huge detailed reply, submitted it, and it said I wasnt logged in and lost it all.. AArrgghhh!!
Anyway, that is essentially BS from AppleCare staff. It IS a known problem. They just don't know what causes it or how to fix it. So it sounds better to say "We've not heard of that problem before" instead of saying "Yes we know all about that, but dont have a clue how to fix it. Will there be anything else??"

Check the Apple discussion forums. Theres lots of similar reports spread out between a few different posts. The biggest of which is 17 pages now. That post is mainly aboout the iMac software update V1.1 being to blame, but im not so sure.

Anyway, take a look.. You cant miss the posts.. Apple - Support - Discussions - Using your Intel-based iMac

Apple are basically keeping quiet on the issue which is becoming more and more widespread now. This makes the problems even more frustrating as users are left wondering if their brand new mac has a hardware fault, or if it is software and some update will fix it.
Whatever the problem is, it goes beyond the OS itself. I know this because my new iMac will freeze in 10.4 regardless of updates applied. Its known to happen in Leopard (Dont ask me how I know). And more worryingly, It also does it in XP. Go figure...

Apple blunders of this nature are not common, but it really needs some (bad) press from the 3rd party Mac forums and technical journalists to kick Apples behind and make them get it fixed. Or at least admit there is a problem and that they are working on it.

While im here.. I moaned at Apple severely about this. And I got a replacement iMac. It still freezes in exactly the same way as the first one did

[lonnie]

check it!

[Ginamos]

Good, they've admitted the problem! (well not good really, for those suffering from the problem). Hopefully you'll get a resolution.

I can't help but think that Apple need to rethink their "secrecy", and be a bit quicker admitting mistakes. They're getting hit with a lot of criticism at the moment, possibly opening the "curtains" would help.

[drdave25]

It sounds as though I ought to put off the plan to move from a Mini G4 to the 2008 iMac...the Mini has crashed five times in 2 1/2 years of hard use! And since the new iMovie doesn't allow chapters, that is another reason to hold off.

[houltmac]

I guess someone has to play devils advocate here... so it looks like I'm it.

Apple, like many other hardware/software vendors work hard to eliminate bugs before any new hardware or software launches; eliminating them all isn't impossible. Some things manifest over time, due to circumstances unreasonable to test or simply slip through the long and arduous testing regime. There are a few factors to consider when making points about this kind of thing in an Apple forum however:

1. It's Apple; they are scrutinized like no other and people like to jump on the band wagon.
2. Much as it's said, people still don't consider the thousands, even millions of units shipped when they call things "wide-spread", point to 10 posts on a forum or the like. Any issue which seems to be a big deal almost certainly isn't in the great scheme of things.
3. Apple are making hardware and software of their own; they don't have the ability to fall back and call a graphics card un-supported or the like. It's not difficult to find people with similar configurations on Mac hardware and band together like it is in the PC space. There people don't or can't find each other when they have 30 parts from 30 manufacturers.
4. Apple are the only hardware company today with a support forum as popular as discussions.apple.com. For this reason they are the only ones who have (or will allow) disparaging comments to be made on their own website for people to anchor to.

Now, with all that in mind, I am not saying Apple is perfect, nor am I saying that anything specifically is or isn't a big deal. All I am saying is that a little perspective helps. I know that doesn't make you feel better, and I know it doesn't fix your machine, but trust me when I tell you that techs all over the world scramble for answers to every minor, tiny, miniscule fault found in any Macintosh. You want your experience to be faultless, and so does Apple; sometimes it just takes a little time to find an answer.

Finally, with respect to the AppleCare help-line staff: They don't know everything, they can't. They can't spend 15 hours a day scouring forums and rumor mills and reading abstract, un-supported claims of issues and resolutions. They take in all they can, they help as best they can and they know enough to solve 99% of issues. Sometimes however they simply couldn't know. If they guys that designed and built something don't know what's up, how could they, or you, or me? Cut them a little slack is all I am saying, or expect everyone you meet to ask you about things you couldn't possibly know the answer to.

I hope this issue gets resolved soon, and I hope that everyone comes out of it happy, but for the time being there is nothing that Apple can tell you; so do as they ask and let them help you.