New iMacs plagued by interface freezing issues

Vikingod

Source: AppleInsider
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Customers participating in Apple's official support discussions (one, two) have reported that the new iMac will technically continue to run when the freeze occurs, but that it becomes impossible to control or switch to programs without a hard reset.

"Whatever was going on at the time continues, so if you were listening to music it continues to play," one user wrote. "The mouse pointer moves but you cannot select anything. Tabbing through apps doesn't work."

Significantly, some can still control basic functions from the keyboard, such as pausing music or activating the Caps Lock key.

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BlueMak

LOL, sounds like Windows to me.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Iria

I was just about to say that!

WaltC

Yes, quite possibly Windows circa 1998.... I haven't experienced a similar issue in years, but I can remember them well.

This kind of problem could be software, of course, or it could be hardware--as in overheating cpus, graphics chips, or several other chips on the motherboards that I can think of. Hopefully, Apple will discover a software fix and it won't be related to something like inadequate case cooling, which would be a lot more inconvenient for users and expensive for Apple to solve.

In reading the comments affixed to the article I note that other Mac users are having similar problems but with different Mac hardware, notably Mac laptops. It's possible therefore that insufficient cooling of one kind or another could well be to blame.

Mac users are often shocked to learn that simply because Apple hides the guts of the Mac hardware and software away from them that it doesn't mean they are apt to experience fewer problems than users of other platforms, including Windows, where such guts are exposed and open to the user. It just means that when such problems occur, rank and file Mac users have no clue as to what to do about them except to inform Apple and wait with bated breath and white knuckles for the next Apple software update, and hope the problem they're having is resolved.

The Mac mythology is odd. Note that even in this article the term "interface freezing issue" is used instead of the more accurate phrase "My Mac is crashing!"... There seems to be some sort of unwritten taboo in the psychic depths of Mac culture that forbids widespread use of the word "crash," and so other, more sanitary and sterile terms like "issues" are used instead. An "issue" to me means that when a software program you are running does something it isn't supposed to do that your machine doesn't lock up, and you close the misbehaving software and go about your business without having to reboot. When a system "freezes" or otherwise locks up as described here, your system has *crashed*, and you can only regain control through a reboot.

I've personally in the past witnessed people running Macs crash several times during a Photoshop session, for instance, having to reboot several times in the process to complete their work. Afterwards, I've had occasion to ask them how their sessions went, to which I would routinely be provided responses such as "It was great!," or "There's nothing like a Mac, man!" or "Too cool to describe!", etc. ad infinitum. The fact that they had ever crashed had been wiped from their memories, apparently, replaced by the psychic credo that "Macs just work." These days Mac users are getting a glimmer of the fact that Macs do indeed work, but that they work only as well, if as well, as just about anything else available. I think that's a good sign as it denotes a chipping away of the vaunted Mac RDF. Knowing the facts is always preferable to believing in a myth, imo.

BlueMak

Not if you want to be happy.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.