All those iMacs that seemingly freeze for no reason may have a much more serious problem than faulty drivers and updates from Apple may not fix the issue.

Indeed that’s what some have been reporting as discovered by Apple Insider.  Some iMacs were fixed with the updates and some weren’t, those that weren’t might have a faulty ATi AMD Radeon chip in them.

The iMacs in question crash randomly, freeze up or freeze up and then crash and on occasion exhibit graphical artifacts that can “be associated with overclocking the GPU.”  If that’s the case then it is a hardware issue and a call to AppleCare or a visit to your local Apple Store is in order.

One user reports that since the ATi/AMD HD2400/2600 was replaced, the iMac has operated flawlessly.

Some even experience the issue when using Windows with BootCamp and Windows will restart which is most certainly an indication of a hardware problem and not software.

Whether it be simply a faulty chip or a matter of overheating, it’s up to Apple to fix the issue, there isn’t much users can do themselves, unless you want to operate your iMac from inside a refrigerated compartment.

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Related:

New iMacs face random freezing and lock up issues

Rumors circulate again of Apple prepping to use Penryn chips

Reports Say Apple is Hoarding Intel Penryn Chips

Danish group rules against Apple in faulty iBook case

Outfit your iMac with a touchscreen

Stumble It!

Entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 11:22 am under Apple, Mac.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.