iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Sporadic blue screen freezes; fixes
iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Sporadic blue screen freezes; fixes
Some iMac Core Duo users report an issue where the Mac OS X blue screen (symptomatic of a logout) occurs at random intervals, returning the user to the normal working environment after each incident.
"I recently got the 20" Intel iMac, which is a beautiful machine. But I'm experiencing an odd problem. Intermittently, the screen will momentarily freeze, with no input possible. Then it goes completely blank blue. Then, in anywhere from a second, to several seconds comes back, with everything as it was. Weird. I'm not sure if it's an incompatibility. The only 3rd party Preference Pane I'm running is USB Overdrive (which I'd hate to turn off 'cause my Logitech mouse needs the buttons). Intermittently is rather unpredictable. It tends to happen over and over when it begins, but then it stops and everything's peachy for long periods.
"It could be something with the Energy Saver Preferences. I allowed transfer of preferences from my older eMac, which was a mixed blessing; lots to throw away. And the Energy Saver preferences were weird, very short time intervals. So I changed all that. Anyway, obviously I haven't tried hard to solve the problem, hoping that someone smarter has it, and has solved it (or not)."
In some cases, these issues can be resolved by starting up in Safe Mode and clearing specific system caches.
MacFixIt reader Spike Radway writes:
"I've seen the blue screen problem happen on a 17 inch Intel iMac with 512 MB of RAM. When the blue screen happened, it was permanent and not intermittent as described in MacFixIt's article.
"The system boots up from the System CD fine. A clean install preserving the user settings didn?t help and neither did resetting the PRAM.
"I ended up calling Apple tech support and had success by starting up in Safe Mode and deleting cache folders at the Library and User levels.
"This fix worked for just over a week and has just happened for the second time. I haven't had a chance to tackle it again. This time, I'll try one section at a time to see if a specific set of folders is the cause.
"For what it's worth, this system was migrated from a G4 iMac that was running Panther. I wouldn't expect Energy Saver settings since the machine was being used and not asleep when the blue screen occurred.
You can clear system caches with the use of a tool like Tiger Cache Cleaner or AppleJack.
Index:
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Keyboard volume/eject keys fail
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Installing RAM in matched pairs
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: AirPort network disconnects after
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Problems with flash memory devices
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Problems with iSub -- potential cause
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Release Notes
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Safe sleep available
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Sporadic blue screen freezes; fixes
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: USB Issues
- iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Special Report: Video distortion: "Tearing" and other anomalies (mostly fixed in Mac OS X 10.4.5)
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