Fix Your Stuff Community Store

Model A1174 with 2 GHz Core Duo or Model A1207 with 2.16 or 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo

212 Questions View all

Options

iMac freeze then spinning wheel

My problem seems to be heat related. It all started several months ago. I discovered the vents at the bottom and rear were clogged with dust. Since then it has progressively got to the point all I can do is one app at a time and won't run bigger apps like iMovie and iTunes etc. I have to use smcFanControl with the settings at full speed to do anything. I upped the ram to 2 gig and updated to Lion. I am capable of disassembly but don't have an idea what is wrong. Power supply, Mainboard itself, or hard drive going bad. It will random freeze then I get the spinning wheel and its over.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score -1
3 Comments

What are the last 3 characters of your serial number, so we can determine your exact machine and advise you better?

by

VUV is the last 3 letters

by

Also I should add the video distorts and has lines at random

by

Add a comment

1 Answer

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Chosen Solution

Options

As you noted the vents had become clogged. Did you get some canned air and blow it out? You may need to go deeper into your system to clean it out.

Forcing the fans is not the best idea as over time you'll cook things (shortening the systems life)

You may also have software issue with something running in background.

Checkout Apples Utility 'Activity Monitor' for anything consuming a lot of your CPU. You may have some older software that needs upgrading to run under Lion or have some malware running.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

3 Comments:

I disassembled it to make sure all was clean, it was. I never did a clean install since Tiger, I have looked at the Monitor but don't see anything out of place, although I not sure I would know.

by

With the new info it sounds like the GPU is going on you

Try running Apple Hardware Test (AHT)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509?viewl...

FYI - When using Active Monitor check the %CPU column (click on header to sort). Anything running all of the time using the most cycles is what you want to look for.

by

GPU, is that the video? I try to find my disk with AHT and run it.

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

Bobby Abbott will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 0

Past 30 Days: 1

All Time: 508