New Fall 2009 iMacs proving troublesome for many, Flash fingered
What’s up with Apple’s new prosumer all-in-one desktops? Some users report the problems experienced are intermittent while others say nothing has helped them overcome persistent and vexing performance issues.
According to an Apple support forum thread and confirmed by News.com, Apple’s newest and most desirable ever prosumer all-in-one computers have an amplified version of a common enough problem — crappy Flash video playback in Safari and Firefox. As relates to the new iMacs, however, in addition to choppy audio and video, users are also experiencing 100-plus percent spikes in CPU usage, effectively bringing these otherwise powerful desktops to their knees.
“We visited several sites with heavy streaming video content like Hulu, YouTube, and the Break Media Network, and experienced similar issues: popping sounds and jerky video rendering the content unwatchable on several accounts,” writes News.com’s Justin Yu. “Like many of the users in the Apple thread, we called up the Activity Monitor and saw that the Flash Player demanded a surprising 114.4 percent of the iMac’s CPU processes.”
Some speculate that the problem is related to the new iMacs’ graphics hardware and there’s also the assumption that Flash itself is at the heart of the issue. Further, there still other users say their new iMacs exhibit slowdowns in other applications, such as GarageBand, in addition to the paralysis experienced when using Flash in a browser.
More puzzling is that fact the Flash CPU spikes and general system malaise have been intermittent for some users with no discernible reason to explain the appearance or disappearance of these issues.
Getting around the problem
Users report that pressing an affected iMac’s power button to put it to sleep and then waking it will revive a Flash crippled machine. This is just a short-term work around that doesn’t prevent the problem from recurring.
Other forum posters report that running Safari in 32-bit — at the suggestion of AppleCare phone reps — results in stable Flash performance without unusual spikes in CPU utilization.
“I’ve been running Safari with my Flash Game up in 32 bit and have not had the spike yet. Only time will tell… sometimes it doesn’t happen for a couple of hours,” writes forum poster Tuxtor.
At least one person reports that turning off Airport and using ethernet solves the problem
Lastly, just for the conspiratorial types, it’s reported that Windows 7 runs perfectly on the new iMacs without any of the above issues, Flash or otherwise, appearing.
Do you have a new iMac how are things going? Found any causes or work arounds?
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November 1st, 2009
I just purchased a new Imac 27″ a week ago and just for fun Googled it to see any current news about them. I found this site talking about Flash problems when using Youtube. Went and tried it and yup..jittery video when watching Youtube.
Well I saw that somebody posted that turning off Airport fixed the problem. Gave that a shot and yup…problem gone!
Thanks for keeping me up to date!
November 2nd, 2009
This is what happens when Apple is dependent on Adobe for Flash.
It is well known that Adobe Flash runs TEN TIMES SLOWER on Mac OS X than it does on Windows – even when using the same hardware.
Flash is THE CAUSE of web browser crashes on Mac OS X.
If there IS A CONSPIRACY, it is Adobe’s. Adobe must be trying to CRIPPLE Mac OS X.
One solution block Flash from automatically running with ClickToFlash and BashFlash. Get them and your life will instantly be quieter and more serene and faster.