Latest iMacs Suffer From Graphics Freeze

Polaris573 · Oct 4, 2007

Apple's latest iMacs suffer seem to suffer from a graphics card problem that causes the computer screens to lock up. Numerous discussion threads on Apple's support forums report that, while the iMac display becomes unresponsive, the Mac itself appears to work normally. Apparently indicating the fault relates to the iMac's ATI Radeon HD card. iMac users suffering the screen freeze can get their Mac working again with a hard restart. Some users claim the fault appeared after they had installed recent software drivers (v1.1) for the Radeon HD card -- others claim that restoring the iMac to factory settings fixes the machine. While Apple is alleged to be aware of the issue, no fix for the flaw has yet been made available.

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WarEagleAU · Oct 4, 2007

I would point to the mac drivers personally. Im not familiar with macs or ATI cards and their drivers with macs, but it seems like a driver conflict or miscall to me.

Fuse-Wire · Oct 4, 2007

i would have to say it must be the mac drivers too, ive never had a problem with any ATI card i have came across especially drivers, almost all my friends have got ATI cards at never heard a problem, mind you none of them have one in a mac so i cant pinpoint any problems. one way or another it seems to only be on macs

newtekie1 · Oct 4, 2007

Definitely sounds like a driver issue.

Ravenas · Oct 4, 2007

Apple has offically said this problem is caused by the ATI Raedon HD. This is apparent from the fact that the OS still runs, but the display is frozen. Sounds to me like this is a graphics driver problem conflicting with UNIX OS X drivers.

TheMailMan78 · Oct 4, 2007

I use a G5 everyday for work. Iv been using Macs for well over ten years and I can tell you the drivers have ALWAYS sucked. Nothing beats OSX for stability but if you want to do anything other than Photoshop and Freehand you better get a PC.

DMSMac_Consult · Oct 4, 2007

Wouldn't be the first time an embedded Radeon chip had a problem in a Mac though ... tons of dual-USB iBooks had problems with the Radeon graphics chip that caused a massive motherboard recall.

And I have a Radeon 2400PRO from MSI in my PC, and occassionally I get screen freezes and activating the VPU recovery feature is the only thing that brings it back. So it could be inherent to the 2400 chipset. It'd be interesting to know whether the both the 2400 and 2600 equipped iMacs are having problems, or just one or the other.

kwchang007 · Oct 4, 2007

Oh man that sucks for people that happens to. Also considering they have to use special drivers.

3991vhtes · Oct 5, 2007

That's why I would rather use a PC

xylomn · Oct 5, 2007

so much for the so called 'it just works' computer lol

Ravenas · Oct 5, 2007

3991vhtes said:
That's why I would rather use a PC

It's no better on a PC; people experience the same problems frequently just not necessarily with their OS, but rather a software based app.

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Latest iMacs Suffer From Graphics Freeze

Polaris573

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