OS and Software > All Things Macintosh > iMac Problem

iMac Problem

Pull and re-seat the ram?

reply to bjf123
FWIW, I initially installed Lion right over Snow Leopard on 2 iMacs. Later on, after experiencing some issues, I did a fresh install of Lion, and the OS worked a lot better.

You could also try running OnyX. Don't know if it will help with your issue. It may also freeze up while running it. However, if you want to give it a shot:

»www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx
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Obama in 2012 - There's No Tea Left In The Bag.

I've installed OnyX and run a number of diagnostics and maintenance tasks and no problems were reported. I also cleaned all the caches. I'll try reseating the RAM later today when I've finished working.

I did upgrade to Lion right over Snow Leopard. While I know that a clean install is always better, I really don't want to spend a day reinstalling all my software assuming I can find the original media, restoring my music to iTunes, and photos to iPhoto.
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Golf is a relatively simple game, played by reasonably intelligent people, stupidly.

reply to bjf123
You now have the perfect excuse to buy a new Macbook Pro with retina display.
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

The thought had entered my mind, but being unemployed makes it unlikely.

reply to bjf123

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Nothin' left to do but smile smile smile

According to the specs, the max RAM for my iMac is 4GB. There are only two slots and each can only have a 2GB stick.
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Golf is a relatively simple game, played by reasonably intelligent people, stupidly.

You can also try starting up in Safe Mode. That resets a few things:

»support.apple.com/kb/HT1455
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Obama in 2012 - There's No Tea Left In The Bag.

reply to dellsweig

reply to bjf123
What graphics card does your iMac have?

I have a slightly older iMac that would randomly freeze up as well. Turns out some of the new ATI drivers Apple has been using in 10.6.x and 10.7.x really suck.

I reverted back to the older drivers - no more freezing.
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University of Southern California - Fight On!

According to the system info, it's an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256MB of VRAM.

Yep. That's the one.

You could give this a whirl and see if it works:
»discussions.apple.com/thread/238···tstart=0

The thread is quite long. People on 10.7.4 are reporting this fix still works, but it may need to be applied twice (with a restart in between) in order to full take effect.
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University of Southern California - Fight On!

I've installed the old drivers. We'll see what happens.

reply to bjf123
I have probably the same iMac. I bought it in January 2008. I had the hard drive replaced a few months ago at my local Apple Store, I have 4GB of ram in mine. Currently I have no problems whatsoever but who knows. I have Lion installed as an upgrade to Snow Leopard as well. I am very interested in you finding a solution.
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Well, I just had to hold down the power button to force a reboot on my iMac. The screen was again frozen. This is getting annoying.
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Golf is a relatively simple game, played by reasonably intelligent people, stupidly.

reply to bjf123
I had the same issue a while ago. I did a disk repair, and that fixed it.

»www.apple.com/osx/recovery/

EDIT: The link says Mountain Lion, but it is the same for Lion.
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"You can observe a lot by watching". Yogi Berra

reply to bjf123
A memory or video memory problem would give you the obnoxious black restart screen... lock up like this are IO related. I agree with folks who suggest its your hard drive.
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"You don't subject minority rights to a referendum." Justice Minister Irwin Cotler of Canada

reply to bjf123
Freezing is often hardware. RAM is the usual culprit, although bad Mobos and video cards can do the same. (that era iMacs weren't as we'll known for that)

It could be even something as simple as an old wired mouse with fraying wires-saw that cause a freeze on more than one Mac.