iMac 24" freezing

[GlynJones]

Hello All,
I'm having the odd glitch on my (relatively) new iMac 24" Core Duo in that every now and then it locks up. One time when it locked up it would not reboot until the pram was reset. Speaking to Apple Support they stated that this was a software problem. I have run full hardware tests and everything passes.

When I have bought new machines I’ve always used Migration Assistant to copy over from my old machines so I’ve been from Powerbook G4 (Panther), Powerbook G4 (Tiger Upgrade, not clean install), Powermac G5, back to Powerbook after selling the G5 and then onto the Intel iMac. Front Row as never worked on my iMac and I have assumed that it has got corrupted somehow. Apple Support thinks that something is no longer compatible or needs upgrading software wise is causing the problem. I did have a lot of old software that I no longer used. Time for a clean install.

Well that did not work. About once a week it will just freeze, no kernel panics just locked up. Sometimes I get the spinning beach ball but the solution is still the same in that I have to reboot to fix the problem.

The problem is this is beginning to really annoy me now. I have eyeTV installed and recently went away for 5 days and the Mac crashed on day one losing all planned recordings during the rest of my holiday.

Well I’m looking for advice on how I can identify the cause of the problem so I can get Apple to fix it. I'm edging towards a memory problem but all diagnosis on it have passed.

Please help. Thanks.

Glyn.

 

[swiftaw]

I need a bit of advice. I can copy most stuff from my backup drive no problem i.e. iTunes, Parallels, eyetv etc. I'm just worried about iPhoto (06), iCal, Mail, Address Book, as I don't want to loose these settings etc. Are these in a standard location and is it just a case of dropping from the backup to the correct locations?. If so can anyone tell me what they are?

Thanks for any help. Looks like tonight is the night for the rebuild.

I think if you just backup your entire home folder, then copy it back after you reinstall the system, you will get everything back as it was (without the problems).

 

[GlynJones]

I think if you just backup your entire home folder, then copy it back after you reinstall the system, you will get everything back as it was (without the problems).

Oops that was from the original e-mail. I've rebuilt since and get the same problem.

Thanks for your help though.

Glyn.

 

[GlynJones]

Anyone?

Please help

 

[AlexisV]

Have you updated to 10.4.9?

 

[GlynJones]

iMac still has the same problem but I've managed to reproduce it on a regular basis.

When I use Handbrake (latest version) with deinterlace set to slowest which can take upwards of 12 hours to run it quite often "beachballs" when I move the mouse to wake the screen up.

Could it be a heat issue? memory?

It's not a kernel panic but is there a log to check to see what it was doing prior to the "beachball"?

Thanks for any help as it's really getting me down now.

Glyn.

 

[lamina]

If you've reinstalled OS X clean, and reinstalled the program, and stillg et the issue, it's clearly a hardware issue, maybe related to heat, as you've suggested.

If possible, bring it to a local service center or call AppleCare and be firm but polite. The fact is your computer is crashing. Everyone else who uses handbrake doesn't have this issue, so it's clearly tied to hardware, especially after you've done a system restore.

 

[Bigtree]

My iMac 24' does this too. It always does it when I'm running Foxfire. My permissions always get corrupted. I have all the latest downloads.
I'm just waiting for leopard.

 

[GlynJones]

Got home and "beachballed" again. Held the power button to reboot.

Checked all the log directories under /library/log. Nothing in the CrashReporter or of any relevance in Console

It actually looks like it "beachballed " at around 2am but the time was moving and I could swap around all the open windows they just didn't do anything.

This is weird as I'd expect everything to freeze but it doesn't judging by the limited accessibility.

Anyone had similar?

 

[intelliot]

Yup.. actually when my iMac freezes, I can still log in from a different Windows PC on the same network over SSH. This allows me to do "reboot" which I believe is a clean restart, instead of cutting the power by holding down the power button.