What to do when new iMac freezes up?

Hi. Sometimes when I'm online my iMac freezes up and I can't surf to a new site All I see is a small multi-colored "pinwheel" wherever I point my mouse.

I think this is an AOL feature but anyway, I can't sign off AOL, my command Q does not respond, and I can't put the iMac to sleep or shut it off from the apple icon.

What is the best thing to do under these circumstances? What I have been doing is shutting off the machine from the back. Any advice would be very helpful.

im guessing its AOL, did that bck in the day when i had it on win2k

Is there any way you can dial the AOL access number via network prefs and then use safari/mozilla to surf?

Thats assuming your dialup..i beleive its a bit easier to use PPOE to have DSL connected at all times an use a different browser, which would solve your problems

is AOL what you use as your isp?

If it isn't and your AOL i what is causing problems/freezing click on the Apple icon in your menu bar and do a "force quit" and select the app thats not working. This should hopefully help you form having to have to shut down your computer all the time.

btw, i'm not sure if the AOL software is Universal Binary yet.

Mattlike said:

is AOL what you use as your isp?

If it isn't and your AOL i what is causing problems/freezing click on the Apple icon in your menu bar and do a "force quit" and select the app thats not working. This should hopefully help you form having to have to shut down your computer all the time.

btw, i'm not sure if the AOL software is Universal Binary yet.

Click to expand...

Yes, AOL is my ISP. The Apple icon does not respond when this happens. What is the best thing to do?

Do you have the latest version in the software? Like Mattlike says, did you make sure you were using the Universal Binary version (if it exists)? Other than that, maybe you should look into a good ISP instead, I dunno...

Yes, I have the latest version of AOL. I short, what is the best thing to do when the internet freezes up and the Apple icon will not respond? Is it ok to just turn off the computer from the back?

I wouldn't do this for too long. These types of shut downs are pretty rough on the system and hardware.

If you can't get the da*m AOL to respond with a Command (or Apple key) + Option + Esc, then uninstall the software (I do hope they offer an Uninstaller? I've heard they put stuff all over the system) ASAP and sign on with a stable and capable ISP.

MacHeadCase said:

I wouldn't do this for too long. These types of shut downs are pretty rough on the system and hardware.

If you can't get the da*m AOL to respond with a Command (or Apple key) + Option + Esc, then uninstall the software (I do hope they offer an Uninstaller? I've heard they put stuff all over the system) ASAP and sign on with a stable and capable ISP.

Click to expand...

In addition to this, if you are able to afford an isp (cable/dsl) you can keep your AOL account and it will be free as you won't be signing on through their networks.

Can you start and use other applications while this is occurring? If so, my guess is something is keeping the browswer busy or hanging it up. Just kill the browser using the Command-Option-Escape keys to bring up the kill dialog window.

I would open the browser again to see if it can connect again. If not, then I'd susspect your network connection is getting messed up and that is more difficult to figure out from this side of the picture.

xstep said:

Can you start and use other applications while this is occurring? If so, my guess is something is keeping the browswer busy or hanging it up. Just kill the browser using the Command-Option-Escape keys to bring up the kill dialog window.

I would open the browser again to see if it can connect again. If not, then I'd susspect your network connection is getting messed up and that is more difficult to figure out from this side of the picture.

Click to expand...

Yes, I can use other applications while this is occurring. I'll see if the command option escape keys work while this freeze occurs, i doubt that they will.

I had that problem its AOL. you dont have the universal version because the universal one is not on AOL's site yet.

look at my thread on it.
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48558