Apple Acknowledges iMac Freeze Issue

Apple admits a problem is causing some iMac computers to freeze and require hard reboot

Apple launched updated iMac computers in August to lots of praise and fanfare. Recently some iMac owners tell Apple that their iMacs are freezing and require a hard reboot to resume normal operation.

AppleInsider reports that its iMac review unit from Apple operated as expected until the 1.1 update, and then began to experience the lockup issues reported by forum users. The problem appears to be related to the ATI Radeon HD graphics card and its required driver.

Apple has made no official statement on the cause of the freeze issue and has only stated that a repair for the issue is coming. AppleInsider also reports that some users of the new iMac have been able to fix the freeze issue by simply uninstalling the graphics drivers and reinstalling drivers of a previous version.

The report states that fix did not work as expected, and many users on Apple's official support forums also met the driver-swap procedure with mixed results.

Owners of affected units sometimes say they can initiate the freeze issue by launching a game or other application that taxes the graphics hardware.

Other users tell DailyTech the issue is random and doesn’t require a graphically intensive application to freeze the system. Some also sstate that when their system locks up, they can still move the mouse pointer and activate the num lock key, but they are unable to click any programs.

Neither ATI nor Apple responded to DailyTech for comment on the freeze-ups.