iMac started to freeze too often!

[lurcher]

Ok so I have had from new a 3Ghz Intel Core i3 iMac (mid 2010) and it has been great. Unfortunately over the last year or so it has had the odd moment of freezing, whereby I've had to hold down the power button the shut it down.

Not sure if this has begun since adding more RAM (I'm on 12GB now) but I got it from Crucial so it should be ok(?).

It gets quite hot on the top left, not sure if it's overheating or if that's normal? Just about able to keep my hand on it.

Running the latest OS.

Seems to be freezing more frequently, twice today which made me visit here to see if you guys can offer any theories?

Thanks

 

[MrMJS]

Are you still able to move the mouse after it freezes? I had a 2009 27" iMac that started freezing like this about a year ago. It finally died last week.

 

[lurcher]

Hey MrMJS

The only thing that works is the mouse. I can move the cursor across the screen but everything else is frozen. I can't even tab through the open apps.

 

[MrMJS]

Yep, that's what mine did. I never figured it out completely. I even took it into apple, but of course they never found anything.

 

[JustMartin]

have you tried running activity monitor all the time on a spare patch of screen so that you can see whether anything's taking 100% of CPU when it hangs? Suspect it's not a practical solution if the problem's really intermittent, but it might provide a clue.

 

[lurcher]

Great idea. I'm also monitoring the temperature via smcFanControl although I'm not sure what a dangerous temperature would be?! Started on 39º this morning and is now at 46º

 

[MrMJS]

I wrote down all the apps I was using at the time of the crash. Over time I was able to narrow it down to a few things that seemed to help, but in the end it never went completely away. Like you though, I had also upgraded my memory.

 

[DeltaMac]

Is your hard drive a 1 TB?
You could still be having problems with that:
https://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

 

[MrMJS]

I thought it was the drive too, so I replaced it with a WD 2tb drive. It froze within a hour

 

[macthefork]

What does the log show (all messages) in Console, (in your Utilities Folder) after you reboot after a freeze. It should show you what process was hanging and causing the problem just prior to reboot.

 

[lurcher]

Hey folks sorry I didn't realise there had been more messages. It froze again last night, just as I was about to pack up and go home. Fan was 55º and the largest CPU hog was only 6%.

@Deltamac I only have a 500GB drive.

@macthefork I have opened the console up but it means nothing to me to be honest, I can't figure out anything from the report! Up until it crashed it just has loads of kernel zero numbers. Then when I switched it back on this morning there are tons of stuff I don't understand, what should I be looking for?

Thanks