Apple finally admits Imac freeze ups
Repair still in the pipe
THE MAKER of entertainment gear and bricked phones, Apple has finally admitted that there is a wee problem with its Imac range.
Apple has not said a dickey bird about screen freezes and has been Stalinistically deleting all references to the problem from its forums.
According to Techworld, The problem is connected to the ATI Radeon HD graphics cards and its drivers. Apparently everything was working OK until Apple decided to release its 1.1 update which tiggered up a lot of Imacs.
Apple has a huge psychological problem with admitting any faults on its machines. In this case it has said nothing official about the cause of the screen freeze other than a repair for the problem is coming sometime.
It only harms a "small number of users" a SpokesApple claimed in the face of Internet evidence which seems to suggest that it affects quite a large number.
In the meantime some users think that the best way to deal with the problem is to uninstall the graphics drivers and reinstall the old ones.
More here. µ
Comments
Hmm
It's about time someone wrote something about this... The only thing I'm wondering is WHEN exactly are NVIDIA and AMD gonna start put drivers for OS X on their respective websites? There are quite a lot of people who'd be willing to "cross" to OS X, I'm sure of that...Typically Sensationalised Junk Article
This article is based on another article that clearly states:"An Apple spokesman acknowledged the problem, and said it may have been caused by a September software update. "A small number of iMac users have made us aware that a recent software update issued by Apple can sometimes cause their iMacs to freeze, requiring them to restart their iMac," the spokesman said. "We are tracking down the root cause of this bug, and will issue a software update which corrects it as soon as we can - most likely later this month."
This hardly justifies the following:
"Apple has a huge psychological problem with admitting any faults on its machines. In this case it has said nothing official about the cause of the screen freeze other than a repair for the problem is coming sometime"
Old news....
"Apple has not said a dickey bird about screen freezes"Wrong!
Other sites had this news on Friday, and they also reported Apple's statement.
In fact, here's one:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/mac/news/index.cfm?newsid=19295&pagtype=allchandate
@ Chris
If I had the time, I could dig up the dozens of articles here and elsewhere about Apple's pathological need to obfuscate and deflect claims regarding any possible flaw in hardware or software. To name a few: Nano screens scratching easier than lotto scratch tickets, iBook screen problem, and iBook battery issues. Did they eventually admit to these? Yes, they did. They also had suit brought against them in various parts of the globe for failure to admit and compensate design flaws. The mere fact that Apple will lock and delete any and all posts relating to possible hardware or software issues on their forums indicates just how deep this sickness runs. Unless there is a complete and total turnover of Sr Management at Apple, this will continue, as they have obviously all have drank the Kool-Aid and will deny even with the truth pissing in their face.Hardly Justified?
Hardly Justified you say? GIVE ME A BREAK! Apple has been doing this sort of BS for ages. They have NO RIGHT to delete forum posts requesting help for what is obviously a problem on their end. They must have some massive problem with admitting when they've screwed up and it's only THROUGH "sensationalizing" as you put it that users who go to the forums try to find help and are left out the cold can find out they truly are not alone. Customer Support is supposed to support people who have purchased gear from a company, not treat them like the enemy.@ Chris Beach
Sorry, but that's tat, and it's hardly sensationalised. Written in true INQ tongue-firmly-living-in-cheek-and-picking-out-curtains style, yes, but not sensationalised. Look at Apple's form to date would you? They truly do have a history of not ponying up to faults on their kit even in the face of Watergate-level evidence. Eventually they turn around and coyly admit to a 'few, isolated incidents' of failure and say that a fix is coming 'soon'. It's almost a template.Admittedly in this case, by Apple standards, they reacted in lightning-quick fashion, only requiring several thousand sets of gnashing teeth instead of a 6-digit number of complaints.
Junk Comment
Chris, it's all well and good to disagree with the journalist, but disagreeing with a summary of past Apple behaviour with a single recent example isn't exactly good form...On an entirely different point, the Inq is designed/intended to be entertaining, so complaining about "sensationalism" is akin to complaining that Apple devices are "too stylish".
"Sensationalism", is, after all, why we are all here reading the Inq.
Cheers!
ATI drivers...
Why am I not surprised that it's yet another bout of driver problems for ATI?I've lost respect for them a long time ago after trying to tinker to get their Linux drivers working. Apple should just go straight for nVidia for less headache.
mojo
Mac heads are a bunch of babies. A little dose of driver hell will get you computer mojo working again, its made us PC users a much stronger breed.How's it feel?
"WHEN exactly are NVIDIA and AMD gonna start put drivers for OS X on their respective websites?"....As soon as Dell updates their drivers for OSX then AMD likely will :-)
In a way I feel sympathy for iMac users dealing with this problem, but in another respect I don't. Windows users have been taking abuse from Apple users for over a decade claiming crash free machines that magically don't need driver updates. So, not only does Apple expend a lot of resources trying to hide these issues (which in all fairness are likely not a fault of their's anyway) Apple users like to be in denial about it. I was under the impression from hardcore Apple users than OSX didn't need patching anyways because that's only a fault of Windows. At the least, Apple users will learn that ATI writes wretched drivers anyways.
Flame
I would just flame the author, but it goes so much deeper, and no one else could enjoy it. Besides I don't buy the adage, "Fight fire with fire."This is an article? I don't think so looks like a hatchet job. "maker of bricked phones" ?? Have you read anything about this story? Did you know that the few phones that actually are "bricked" were bricked by the users themselves? Or that Apple has been helping said idiots to un-brick their phones (Which I find beyond the call of duty. No other company would do that.) Apple takes care of their customers better than any other company I've worked with. Admittedly I'm not *always perfectly happy* but then my expectations for them are so much higher.
Anyway, the Inquirer is clearly a total rag (as its name implies) and this article appears to be another steaming pile of feces Nick Farrell can add to his growing collection.
Finally, some fresh air!
Apple has seemed off the ball lately. I've experienced several freeze ups and I'm used to not getting any on a Mac. Furthermore, I've had to do maintenance on my machine, where again, I got Apple to avoid that and that used to be the case. Finally, I've actually LOST INFORMATION! This is just the end right?! No, Apple doesn't seem to care; particularly in that regard, this article seems to reflect the reality. I've had Windows machines and decided that the premium was worth avoiding the blizzard of headaches. However, Apple seems to be headed towards "leveling the playing field."What do we gotta do to get a machine and operating system that will function properly, you know, like a calculator, microwave oven, air conditioner, without breaking down every other day!
We put a man on the Moon, but we can't build a decent p.c.; BOLOGNA!