Late 2007 iMac 20" Freezes completely random.

[sdfiain]

I recently acquired an IMac 8,1 and applied this fix, but video performance seems to suffer(visible refreshes).

Is there another step beyond replace kexts, enable dev kexts, reboot? Kextstat reports that they've been enabled, but as I said, video performance is off.

On a side note, kextstat initially reported that AMDX2000 was loaded... Could that be our culprit (or the enabler)?

 

[BlackSnow9]

Disappointing

Just received a message from Apple that my Bug Report about the GPU crash under Mavericks is closed.
QTE
Apple Developer Relations16-Dec-2014 10:56 PM

Engineering has determined that there are no plans to address this issue.

We are now closing this bug report.

If you have questions regarding the resolution of this issue, please update your bug report with that information.

Please be sure to regularly check new Apple releases for any updates that might affect this issue.
UNQTE

Disappointing!
I think this problem will never be solved by Apple.

 

[Intell]

I'm starting to think that Apple knows that it's a hardware problem and they're hoping it goes away when these iMacs are dropped from OS X upgrades.

 

[Count Blah]

They have been ignoring it for 7'years now, I don't expect them to change anytime soon. Though experimentation points to it being a software issue - THAT'S what really burns me.

 

[Gatson Teflon]

Hey guys. I've tried the next 10.6.2 fix. At least I think I have. When I test on the terminal I don't get the same message as the others

 

[johnny_b]

Guys, this can be fixed with a firmware update.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2383288?start=660&tstart=0

Read that, and force the firmware update onto your GPU with either FreeDOS or Linux.

No need to hack with old drivers.

 

[Poeton]

Freezing on 2007 Mac with Yosemite

Hello all,

Long time listener, first time caller, please go easy on me.

Can the freezing issue be solved whilst running Yosemite? I have been through this thread but am still unclear if the kext replacement would work with my OS.

I have the exact same random freezing problem as described by Intell. I can't remember when it started, but it was a good few years ago, and I have steadily upgraded my Mac as and when the new OSs have come out, each time hoping the freezes would go away. They haven't. Freezes aside, the Mac generally runs well, used daily since 2008.

I have the Mac detailed below, currently running OX X 10.10.1 Yosemite.

iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007)
2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128 MB

Kindest regards

 

[barryburek]

Hi Poeton,
I have the same specs as you except still running Mavericks. You can go back to Krystof, Intell and the others on this thread for solution, including my summary at #342 and a followup by pasarescu on #350. By no means an expert, I lived with it like you for years until I finally did the fix which I found on this thread, thanks to everyone! and it worked perfectly. For Yosemite see the notes to run the Terminal command sudo nvram boot-args=“kext-dev-mode=1” to get the unsigned kexts to run.

Hello all,


I have the Mac detailed below, currently running OX X 10.10.1 Yosemite.

iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007)
2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128 MB

Kindest regards

 

[Poeton]

Hi Poeton,
I have the same specs as you except still running Mavericks. You can go back to Krystof, Intell and the others on this thread for solution, including my summary at #342 and a followup by pasarescu on #350. By no means an expert, I lived with it like you for years until I finally did the fix which I found on this thread, thanks to everyone! and it worked perfectly. For Yosemite see the notes to run the Terminal command sudo nvram boot-args=“kext-dev-mode=1” to get the unsigned kexts to run.

Thank you barryburek! Have no idea how I missed those posts. Think I was distracted by that epic argument earlier in the thread. I just about muddled my way through, and 1 hour in no freezes, everything working perfectly. Fingers crossed! There might be life left in the old dog yet! Cheers all, great work.

 

[rastriffler]

Finally, a fix!

Guys, this can be fixed with a firmware update.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2383288?start=660&tstart=0

Read that, and force the firmware update onto your GPU with either FreeDOS or Linux.

No need to hack with old drivers.

After years of kext replacements with each update (Thanks again, all!), I tried the firmware update described at the link above. It was very easy, and I'm now at two weeks of flawless performance - no freezes - on Yosemite!

The directions were very clear and simple to follow. (Similar to the, "measure twice, cut once" rule, I recommend reading through it a couple of times to make sure you understand what you're going to do ;o)

Strongly encourage peeps to at least consider the firmware fix.

 

[AdZd]

Testing kext replacement with iMac 7,1 running Yosemite (OS X 10.10.1)

A-MA-ZING !!!
Thanks to barryburek & pasarescu.
For years, I went through Leopard, Snow Leo, Lion and Yosemite with these freezes on my 2007 imac.
I use exactly the same imac & configuration as pasarescu, so after a fresh reinstall of yosemite I followed his post, had the same graphic issues and fixed them with kextstat. And everything worked perfectly !!! until I got the 10.10.2 update and the freezes came back... I did all of it again, and everything's working for 2 weeks now. You can't imagine how grateful i am, thank you so much guys.

 

[iheartbeer]

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256

Guys, this can be fixed with a firmware update.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2383288?start=660&tstart=0

Read that, and force the firmware update onto your GPU with either FreeDOS or Linux.

No need to hack with old drivers.

If you have a ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 like I do, I don't believe this will do anything. Unless I'm missing something, the ROM Revision #113-B2250L-259 (from the update they're using) was already applied to my iMac 2.66 Intel Core 2 Duo at some point (and didn't fix anything).

Back to the kexts for me.

 

[barryburek]

The 10.10.4 update (from 10.10.3) nuked my ATI kexts, and re-enabled AMD ones. Less than 5 minutes in everything froze. After a cold restart I quickly removed the AMD kexts and replaced them with Kext Drop, gave permission for unsigned kexts to run in Terminal, restarted, and everything is good again.
Wondering what the El Capitan policy will be about unsigned kexts...

 

[robcrouch]

Just wanted to say thanks as this also fixed my 2007 iMac with the same problem, and also has made it much faster. I am currently on 10.10.2 and wondered what effect upgrading to 10.10.4 would have. Am I right in assuming i would just need to replace the kexts again in the same way?


Thanks again!

 

[barryburek]

That worked for me when I went to 10.10.4.

 

[robcrouch]

Few days in and still no crashed and a much faster Mac! I'm amazed. Can anyone tell me if / how upgrading to to the
OSX el captain public beta will affect this... can I still replace the kexts the same? or is it risky?


Thanks

 

[barryburek]

I like this article:
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/just-say-no-thank-you-to-apples-public-betas

 

[saltsaint]

Spoiler Alert!
Same freeze, crashes and co. discussed here happen with El Capitan/candidate
Unfortunatelly, I wasn't able to install the kext following Pasarescu's indications – that were working perfectly with Yosemite
If someone has a solution/work around to prevent this evil behaviour when the final version of the OS X will be released, will spare manny of us from pain and nerves and, of course, will have our eternal blessings
Cheers

 

[barryburek]

Spoiler Alert!
Same freeze, crashes and co. discussed here happen with El Capitan/candidate
Unfortunatelly, I wasn't able to install the kext following Pasarescu's indications – that were working perfectly with Yosemite
If someone has a solution/work around to prevent this evil behaviour when the final version of the OS X will be released, will spare manny of us from pain and nerves and, of course, will have our eternal blessings
Cheers

I'm also following the thread on this subject at apple support communities. Check today's findings by swmaster:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/28929562?ac_cid=tw123456#28929562

rootless=0 and kext-dev-mode=1 are not working under El Capitan.
you have to boot your mac into recovery mode, and disable system integrity protection there.
otherwise no unsigned kexts may be loaded.
instructions: http://totalspaces.binaryage.com/elcapitan​

and later he says

let me turn it a bit around: w/o this you have no chance to load the old ATI kexts.
on the other hand, there may be some other issues that will keep you from using them
successfully. I will give a try sometimes next week, and report back my findings.
​

 

[deviant]

hey guys, i have a 2007 24" iMac with 2600 pro and i've been suffering these freezes since i installed mavericks. it freezes once a week, no escaping it! Gpu debug info start in console after hard rebooting it. Funny thing is when it freezes the music in iTunes goes on....

it's not a VERY important trouble, but it's a very annoying one.
I'd like to try this kext fix, but i can't download those kexts anymore. By any chance any of you still have the zip files? Thanks in advance.

 

[Intell]

I don't believe the kext replacement works with 10.9. The thing that ended up fixing it for me permanently was forcing the ATI ROM update onto my video card. I don't recall exactly how I did it, but it fixed it.

 

[rastriffler]

I don't believe the kext replacement works with 10.9. The thing that ended up fixing it for me permanently was forcing the ATI ROM update onto my video card. I don't recall exactly how I did it, but it fixed it.

I'll probalby jinx myself here, but I'm on El Capitan (10.11.6), and having applied the kext fix prior to upgrading, everything is running smooth as silk...for months. So it **seems** the kext fix is still working.

 

[Intell]

You did the kext replacement on an older version and upgraded to 10.11? Doing so replaces all of the system kexts with ones from 10.11 and in the process deletes the older kexts.

 

[rastriffler]

You did the kext replacement on an older version and upgraded to 10.11? Doing so replaces all of the system kexts with ones from 10.11 and in the process deletes the older kexts.

You know, I *might* have re-installed the kexts after upgrading to El Capitan...I honestly don't remember doing it, but after having to do it for every other release I may have just done it and not thought about it. But I can say that I have not had any problems with it freezing on El Capitan, so if I did replace the kexts, it worked.

I feel like I should be knocking on wood right now...

 

[JERKFACE_MAN]

So I’m a Little confused about this whole situation, I have a 2007 iMac 7,1 and it does all the things described since the 2011 posts it locks up but everything in the background is still going music ect, what do I need to do to fix this issue because there are so many contradicting opinions on how to fix it, I’m on 10.6.8 I know it’s a bit old but haven’t upgraded RAM so not going to go to higher os, CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO TO FIX IT, I heard about swapping kexts from 10.6.3 but that was in like 2012 so I’m lost could some plz help me...........