iMac 21.5" late 2013 freezing

[langl3y]

Hi Guys,

Just want some advise on a problem I am getting with my Late 2013 21.5" iMac, when I am playing a games everything will be running fine for about 30 mins or longer until all of a sudden the screen will lock up and freeze.

This only happens when i'm playing a games, I am unable to quit the application and I have to resort to turning the mac off on the switch.

This is becoming a real frustration, and it would be nice to try and work out what is going wrong, any opinions etc would be great.

Thanks

[doublepost=1469966362][/doublepost]Does anybody have any possible reasons why this could be??

 

[azentropy]

Sounds like an overheating issue. First step is to run Apple Diagnostics to see if that revels the issue.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

If it does, then you know for sure it is an hardware issue.

If it doesn't and it is a more intermittent issue, it still might be hardware issue but you could also try some other steps. Like using smcFanControl, Macs Fan Control (or others) to max out the fan before you start playing. Also improve the environment you are in, is it getting enough air flow? Can you improve it? etc. Both might increase the time before it happens. Also take breaks to allow it to cool back down!

 

[langl3y]

Sounds like an overheating issue. First step is to run Apple Diagnostics to see if that revels the issue.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

If it does, then you know for sure it is an hardware issue.

If it doesn't and it is a more intermittent issue, it still might be hardware issue but you could also try some other steps. Like using smcFanControl, Macs Fan Control (or others) to max out the fan before you start playing. Also improve the environment you are in, is it getting enough air flow? Can you improve it? etc. Both might increase the time before it happens. Also take breaks to allow it to cool back down!

So things with my iMac has possibly got worse, please see the attached video of what started to happen yesterday. I am fairly sure this is a hardware problem, I can try and run hardware tests tonight if the system decides to startup.

Sounds like an overheating issue. First step is to run Apple Diagnostics to see if that revels the issue.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

If it does, then you know for sure it is an hardware issue.

If it doesn't and it is a more intermittent issue, it still might be hardware issue but you could also try some other steps. Like using smcFanControl, Macs Fan Control (or others) to max out the fan before you start playing. Also improve the environment you are in, is it getting enough air flow? Can you improve it? etc. Both might increase the time before it happens. Also take breaks to allow it to cool back down!

So things with my Mac have possibly got worse, the screen started to flicker and flash with blue lines and dots all over it. I am fairly sure this is a hardware issue but I will try and run tests tonight.

Just for info, the machine was left for a while and when I came back to it, it had decided to restart itself but got stuck on the loading screen.

 

[Willo34]

Videocard/motherboard issue?

 

[maflynn]

Sounds like a hardware failure to me. I'd take it to apple to have them run some more indepth diagnostics, something that the AHT may not uncover.

 

[tubeexperience]

Have you tried opening it up, cleaning out dust and applying new thermal paste?