Filed under: iMac, Troubleshooting
Apple acknowledges iMac freeze problem
We've had several folks let us know about an apparent problem with the new iMacs, both in post comments and by email tips. There has been an Apple Discussions thread about the issue, which involves random freezes in the new iMac. It apparently causes the interface to completely lock up and requires the user to perform a hard restart to recover. Macworld is reporting that Apple has now admitted that there is a problem. An Apple spokesman told Macworld that they are "tracking down the root cause of this bug, and will issue a software update which corrects it as soon as we can - most likely later this month."
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
john said 12:13PM on 10-07-2007
And the software update will be called "Leopard".
:-)
Reply
5cents said 12:36PM on 10-07-2007
hahaha, clever.
Reply
Jeffrey Bergier said 1:21PM on 10-07-2007
my new imac had done this a couple of times... only with VMWare and with Omnidazzle. Since I have upgraded it to 4GB of ram though it has not happened. Would still be nice to know that if I fill my 4gb of ram that it will not crash when i push it.
Reply
Nick Savage said 1:22PM on 10-07-2007
This isn't just the new iMacs that there is a problem with. I have a September 2006 C2D iMac (17", 2.0Ghz), and it randomly locks up, and requires a restart to fix.
Reply
Mo said 1:44PM on 10-07-2007
I occasionally get UI freezes on my MacBook; it usually happens not long after plugging in an external display, and the only thing that actually shows anything resembling activity is the mouse cursor—the clock stops updating, no clicks do anything, etc, etc. If I SSH in and kill WindowServer and LoginWindow, launchd dumps me back at a login screen and everything's back to normal (albeit losing any unsaved data).
I've always put it down to either a bug in the window server, or an InputManager hack going awry.
Whether any of this is related to the iMac issue, I don't know.
Reply
Luigi193 said 2:43PM on 10-07-2007
Happened to be also while in parrells.
Reply
Chimera said 3:57PM on 10-07-2007
my new iMac is fine, never had any freezing problems with it.. I'm not touching that 1.1 update though just in case. :P
Reply
alpayerturkmen said 4:22PM on 10-07-2007
Can this be similar to "MBP freezing when projector is plugged" in issue?
Reply
Keno.White said 8:11PM on 10-07-2007
I've updated my 24" iMac, and I've had no problems whatsoever.
Well, that's not true-- In Windows XP I get the occasional freeze-up, but I chalked that up to it being Windows. When I'm in the OS X partition everything is hunky dory.
Reply
rob said 7:07PM on 12-18-2007
I'm having the same issue. I spent 3 weeks on the phone with Microsoft, they couldn't figure it out. Now I'm waiting for Apple Care's top technicians to respond. My 24" iMac freezes 5-6 times a day in Windows for no apparent reason, whether I'm working or not. I'm running Windows XP SP2. The Leopard side runs fine without ever freezing.
subcell said 11:00AM on 10-08-2007
Every time I reboot on my PC "bootcamp" partition on my 20" Alu iMac.... I have to shutdown all my USB2 HDD chain except my PC-NTFS external HDD that seems OK with the rebooting.
Am I the only one?
Reply
Brandon said 11:21AM on 10-08-2007
Almost every time I switch to fullscreen mode in Aperture our new iMac 24" freezes...extremely frustrating and disappointing.
Reply
Bruce Harlan said 7:02PM on 10-09-2007
My 24" iMac freezes 2- 4 times a day. Most offen in Safari, but it does it in other apps as well. It seems mostly random, but often close to waking from sleep.
Reply
Sam Gross said 4:29PM on 10-11-2007
for some reason my 24" locked up B/c iTunes stopped responding. It usually happens when 3 or more programs are running but don't have any windows open. I agree that the update will be built into leopard, but it'll also be released for those who don't want to upgrade
Reply
Felix Wehrli said 7:26AM on 10-12-2007
I have a 2005 IMc, great machine but a few months ago it began to freeze up randomly but with increasing frequency (perhaps the result of one of those software updates?). The phenomenon is just as described by other. Sometimes its accompanied by a clicking sound which made me think that it is a disc problem. Has anyone else come across this particular symptom?
Reply
Andy said 2:39PM on 12-10-2007
Yes I have had the exact same symptom. A loud clicking noise occurs whenever my Imac freezes. It's very irritating.
Grace Tam said 3:45AM on 10-19-2007
My 24" iMac freezes as soon as I startup iTunes. All other programs run fine. Tried removing the entire library and re-adding the songs into the library, still get stuck with the same problem. Hope Leopard is going to fix that.
Reply
Keith Ellison said 8:47PM on 10-21-2007
Yes, this happens all the time with my two-week old 20" iMac. I'm not running VMWare, Bootcamp, Parallels or anything out of th ordinary. I have done all the updates.
I just switched to a Mac for the first time because I was tired of having these problems in Windows . I bought into all the "Macs are wonderful & NEVER crash" stuff. Sorry for the vent, but I'm not happy about this.
Reply
Connie said 6:05PM on 10-22-2007
I bought my 20" last January and had to take it in for repairs two months later because a CD was stuck and froze up everything. There was no way to eject it. Now iPhoto won't open. The icon just bounces when we try to open it. AND, frequently the computer stops recognizing things that are plugged into USB ports. They simply disappear off the desktop and out of finder. Sometimes unplugging and replugging works. But we never know when we'll lose access to our external hard drive (Which I bought for backups because I was having so many "issues" with the iMac.)
Reply
Scott Jandrain said 4:36PM on 10-23-2007
I just purchased a new IMac and I have this problem also.This is my first Apple so yes I am a little up set but I have had the same problems with my new Dell had to send it back to get it running ok. Since I ordered my Leapord Disc I will wait to see if this will fix my problem. I will give Mac a chance because I really like the way it works when it works plus it looks so nice on my desk very eye appealing
Reply