iMAC keeps crashing

PoleStar

Hi people!

I am more of a PC person, and have an iMAC just as a home entertainment computer.

Thus when it started to crash, I have no idea what to do.

If it was my laptop, I would know to do a full virus and spyware scan, followed by a memory clean, defrag of hard-drive, look at which software to un-install and clean the registry!

Havent got a clue with MAC.

Basically, it freezes ever so often in mid flow, not with any particular software, could be any program. When I hold down the power button to switch off and then restart, it wont start and I have to do a start holding down cmd-shift-v to get it up and running.

The only software that I have added in the last few months is VLC player, the computer aint really used to look at any dodgy sites!

Any help how to clean it up?

hi polestar,

i had kinda similar thing a while ago.
you're saying you use it as entertainment system so presumably its full of music and films.

i had 1TB hard drive filled with all sorts of rubbish, music, films, tv programmes etc taking up about 600gbs,
(total drive usage was about 850gbs out of the 1TB)
and everything used run dead slow, got that bloody spinning ball A LOT!
Usen't crash but was often waiting around for a while.

Moved all the movies and stuff i wasn't using to an external drive and things went pretty much back to normal.
might be worth considering if you are pushing close to you harddrive limit.

also, i use Onyx every now and again to clear out caches and do a bit of cleanup, this seems to help also.

other than that, i'm sure the brains on here will be able to help out....

Sad Professor

Boot from the install disc (hold c on startup). Don't reinstall, just go to the Utilities menu and open Disk Utility. Select your hdd and click repair disk. See if it reports anything wrong. You should also repair disk permissions while you are here.

Also using the install disc boot into the hardware test feature by holding d on startup.

A few questions:

- Is this a complete freeze you are experiencing? i.e. mouse stops moving, etc?

- When you say it won't start, what exactly happens? Does the grey screen appear, anything? Describe it.

- Have you installed any RAM?

And it's iMac btw, not iMAC.

PoleStar

Ok so! Thanks for the replies!

I will clarify a few things.

Firstly, my hard drive ain't close to capacity.

Secondly, have run OnyX and done the usual clean outs there.

Havent installed any ram.

What happens is that its a complete freeze, mouse, nothing will work. Have to power off with the power button. When restarting it gets stuck either on a blank screen or white screen with the dark apple in the middle.

I note, having run OnyX and disk utility to repair the disk and repair permissions, that it still froze once, and when it does start up, the start up time is much longer than normal, so slow in fact that I almost feel it has crashed but I just leave it and eventually it starts up (I am referring to start up time after logging in at the accounts intro).

Thanks for any help!

I hoping I dont have to do a reinstall

Sad Professor

During the disk repair, did it report any errors?

Did you try running a hardware test?

Have you been making tweaks using OnyX? How often do you run it?

OnyX had always been a bit dodgy. It can be useful but I would never recommend it to new users. Unless you understand exactly what it is doing you shouldn't be using it at all. Use a straight-forward maintenance app instead that won't potentially cause harm to your system. But even that isn't necessary. OS X doesn't require the constant maintenance Windows does.

PoleStar

Hi.

I only ran OnyX AFTER the I had started having problems.

Havent done a hardware check, will try that!

Thanks for all the input!

BrookieD

check ram, my imac started crashing and was traced to faulty kingston ram module,
in fact just remove the ram and boot to see if that helps

PoleStar

Ok!

So here is my update, have used OnyX, have tried to repair permissions, done a hardware test, remove software, disk repair from the startup disks etc.

It seems I have to do an OS reinstall at this stage, no?

If so, couple of questions. Firstly, it relates to a slight problem of mine. I have been doing safe boots and trying to copy files to an external hard drive to back them up, but it keeps crashing during this.

So, if I do a reinstall with "archive and install", will this keep all my files on the hard drive? If not, is there any other way to boot so I can back up my files to an external hard drive before doing a reinstall: I have years of itunes and photos and videos on the hard drive which I dont want to lose!

Sad Professor

So Disk Utility didn't show any errors when when your repaired the disk (not permissions)? I keep asking this because there's a possibility the hard drive is failing. Any unusual noises coming from the Mac?

Also, how old is the iMac? What version of OS X are you running?

Yeah, a reinstall is the best bet now. An archive and install will preserve your files.

Greentree_uk

what model of imac is it?

PoleStar

Hi guys. Thanks for all the tips.

There were a few permission problems which were fixed but this didnt solve the issue. There were no disk problems or hardware problems detected. The iMac itself is not the newest current model but the one just before, about a year old.

Anyway, just to keep you posted, did an archive and reinstall and all is well now! It was a nervous moment as although I know it says it archives all the files into an old folder, was still a moment of suspense waiting to check if my stuff was still there! (computer was crashing when I tried to back up prior to doing this so couldnt even back up all my photos/music etc)!

Anyway thanks for the tips to all!

Sad Professor

Glad to hear you got it fixed it.

Big bit of advise though: get a backup drive up and running. Use Time Machine. It's so easy to use and is a lifesaver when stuff goes wrong. As bad as the possibility of your machine failing is, loosing all your data is far worse.

muggyog

Dont forget that you can use the UNIX core of OS X to track problems. Because the Mac OS is UNIX under the hood there are plenty of log files to aid faultfinding. They are all time stamped and can be accessed through the Console application in the Utilities folder. If you click on the Logs icon and expand the column that appears you can look for Crashreporter. The logs are very cryptic (its UNIX after all!) but may give indication of what is going on.