Worst Apple Machine Ever

I have been an Apple user exclusively for nearly a decade. I have used iMacs, PowerMac G5s, a MacPro, G4 Towers, a Cube, iBook, PowerBook and a MacBook. I have not had any real hardware problems until my business bought me a 27" iMac.

I am on my second computer. The first one locked up so many times and even made a horrible electrical sound when it locked. Apple couldn't figure out what was wrong so they gave me another computer. The second computer has already killed a hard drive and is now starting to lock up at random as well. It is so unreliable that I hesitate every time I start a time consuming project and I have to remember to save often because there is no reason why or when it locks up.

This computer is the 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5 (quad core)....has anyone else had issues with this model? Is there something inherently screwed up with it?

Have you run any sort of maintenance apps on it ever. How much free space does the hard drive have?

And what version of OSX is it running

I haven't run any maintenance because it is so new and I just keep taking it back to the Apple Store since it is under warranty.

The hard drive has 960+GB available and it has OSX version 10.6.5.

Is it Adobe software that is locking up. I find that if just one Adobe app starts to lock up, it brings all the others down with it.

I would run a permissions repair from disk utility as well as a disk check.

Also, sometimes running the combo update can refresh a system, even if you already have 10.6.5

Mac OS X v10.6.5 Update (Combo)

Letter10 said:

I haven't run any maintenance because it is so new and I just keep taking it back to the Apple Store since it is under warranty.

The hard drive has 960+GB available and it has OSX version 10.6.5.

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Computers aren't perfect, that applies to computers made by Apple too.

My brand new iMac had a HDD failure after two days. No big deal since it's still under warranty. I get your frustration though.

louishen....it locks up completely at random. safari, tweetdeck, adobe, equal opportunity lock ups for sure.

crimsonrequiem....i understand that they aren't perfect, i just have never had these issues before and i have been a geek for a long time the other part that is curious is that they even gave me a brand new computer and it is acting up as well. makes me think there is some combination of hardware that just isn't getting along.

1. Does anything improve if you unplug every peripheral except the keyboard and mouse?

2. Do you have this machine plugged into an uninterruptible power supply?

chas_m...nothing seems to improve the situation and no i do not have it plugged into a battery back up.

does anyone else have one of these machines?

Sounds like a possibly faulty batch line.

Yeah well I returned 2 faulty iMacs and the third one was the charm. Not bitter just didn't like the 2 hr round trip drive to the apple store twice.

tgolden82 said:

Yeah well I returned 2 faulty iMacs and the third one was the charm. Not bitter just didn't like the 2 hr round trip drive to the apple store twice.

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Well at least you finally got a working machine. Too bad they don't compensate for lost time, and commute right?

HA! Right! Honestly, I love this computer. I have the 2.93 i7 8gb ram and 1tb hard drive. Best computer I have ever had, and yes I definitely got Apple Care. No computer is perfect.

thanks for the hope tgolden82...maybe i will just try and get them to swap out again given the problems and i will have the third try charm as well.

Hi. On Monday last week I ordered a refurb 27 inch iMac i3. Stock spec, £200 off list price.

Within an hour of opening it and migrating my stuff the screen went white while trying out new X-Plane settings and I had to reboot. Then I had two kernel panics. I put it down to maybe being a new OS instal. Maybe it was updating itself or something...

Next day it had two more. Then it wouldn't wake from sleep, forcing me to hard re-boot. This happened twice. I closed the machine down and left it.

The next morning I booted the machine and it immediately had a kernel panic. Later when I booted the machine the screen flickered. I ran tech tool deluxe: it showed up a VRAM problem.

I phoned Apple and told them I wanted to replace it but they said that their policy is only to give refunds on refurb units.

I have since read lots of threads about kernel panics on newer Macs following use of migration assistant, and of 27-inchers refusing to wake.

I tried reinstalling OS X just to see if it was something I'd migrated. It seemed stable for a while and I thought I might just have to migrate my stuff manually. I ran Tech Tool Deluxe again out of curiosity and it showed up a directory failure. Then it had another kernel panic.

So back it's going.

They offered me a goodwill gesture, but I'm disappointed, and the things I've read about 27-inchers make me wary of buying another one. (X-Plane looked fantastic when it was running, though...!)

For the time being I think I'll leave it and buy again when some of the issues have been addressed, probably from my local Apple store.

MartinS said:

I tried reinstalling OS X just to see if it was something I'd migrated. It seemed stable for a while and I thought I might just have to migrate my stuff manually. I ran Tech Tool Deluxe again out of curiosity and it showed up a directory failure. Then it had another kernel panic.

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Did you do a Clean Install and reformat the drive first...not just a reinstall. Right after you migrate anything or do a system up date repair permissions.

I downloaded all the updates. When things weren't working I put in the OS X disk and reinsalled. I didn't use Disk Utility or anything to reformat the drive.

But, really, I shouldn't have had to do any of that, should I?

Sorry to hear about your ordeal with the refurbished 27" iMac. I can only assume from your posts that you may have gotten one of those rare "lemons" that occasionally show up.

Perhaps it's a good time to take that refund and hold on to it for awhile until you decide to buy again. But certainly don't condemn the 27" iMac based on your experience or what you read on the net. It's a good machine which is being used and enjoyed by many.