06-21-2008, 05:08 AM

I'm not sure if this is a hardware, software or driver problem, so sorry if it's in the wrong place.

I have a 3.06GHz 24" iMac, running 10.5.3. When I set it up, I used Migration Assistant to copy data & apps from my old Powerbook. This worked fine and I've been using it with few problems since.

Just in the last couple of days, the computer has developed an odd lock-up behaviour. Whilst doing nothing particularly taxing, the computer will stop responding to mouse clicks and keyboard events; all screen updates stop (including Activity Monitor), but NOT the mouse pointer, which carries on moving responsively with a normal arrow (no beachball). iTunes will carry on playing audio without glitches, but for about 120 seconds or so I can do nothing whatsoever with the computer except move the mouse pointer around.

I've been running Activity Monitor to see if something is hogging all the CPU cycles, but (a) it's hard to see because AM stops updating when it freezes, and (b) ambient CPU usage is about 10% or less on both cores. Neither does this seem to be characterised by frantic disk or network activity. It just freezes. Eliminating other concurrent user logins makes no difference.

When it resumes, everything is absolutely back to normal, although it seems any input events from the freeze (keyboard / mouse clicks) are stacked and play through all of a sudden, with predictably odd results.

I've read about past iMac freezing problems but nothing seems to match these symptoms in what I've found on the web. Apologies in advance if this is a well-known problem I've missed.

12-12-2008, 05:59 PM

I have the same problem: iMac 20" -intel -10.5.5 -wireless mouse and keyboard...I guess if I can't find an answer soon I will be calling Apple.