It's not at all clear what the root cause of the problem is, but we've noticed a big uptick in people complaining about performance issues on new 27-inch iMacs on Apple's support boards. The most common symptom seems to be incredibly slow Flash video playback, but people are also claiming that there's a bug forcing the hard drive to spin down, that there's a corrupted Snow Leopard build preinstalled, and even that the problem is bad permissions, which is basically how an OS X user gives up trying to figure things out. Apple hasn't said anything yet, but neither of the 27-inchers we have here are having problems, so we're keeping our fingers crossed while we wait for an official resolution. Video of the issue after the break.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read - First Apple Discussions thread
Read - Second Apple Discussions thread
posted Oct 29th 2009 7:17PM
I have slow Flash 10 movie playback on a 24" iMac with Snow Leopard, how could you even think that a software issue like this is related to the hardware?
BLASPHEMY! What is this shit?! You know Macs never have ANY problems!
/s
Well Apple makes the hardware and OS, so either way it's their fault. I have no problems with Flash playback on my home built Windows 7 PC. I really have no problems with anything, it's works great.
Flash is horrible no matter what the specs of a Mac are. Who ever was in charge of coding Flash for OS X was a complete boob. Not only does it ineffeciently manage memory and processor power, but it is also slow and crashes Safari like crazy mad.
It's no wonder Apple doesn't want Flash on the iPhone/iPod Touch, they just can't code it worth a damn.
Holy shit, did that guy up there just BLAME FLASH when the iMac couldn't play it back properly?
...WOW.
Well, considering that Adobe makes the Flash and it runs perfectly fine under Boot Camp Windows (And even VTed Windows), yes, blaming FLASH is justified.
I can't believe a 2.4ghz C2D would have problem with Flash. Adobe needs to get their act together.
What a load of crap...I have OS X installed on a Dell Mini 9 and have no flash problems.
Flash is pretty buggy on anything but Windows. It is really picky on my Ubuntu install. Sometimes I can control videos (play/pause/stop) but most of the time I have to keep refreshing the page until it starts working.
You know on my Windows PC, I had consistently horrible Flash performance, especially when full screen. This happened on multiple computers and to some of my friends. I ended up switching from an ATI card to low end NVIDIA, and it immediately fixed the problem. Did the same on all my PCs, and my one friend has done the same and it has resolved the issue. Something about ATI GPUs and full screen Flash just don't mesh well.
I would suggest you switch your iMac over to an Nvidia card...... :)
the internet sucks on a mac.. microsoft office sucks on a mac.. games suck on a mac.. glossy screens suck on a mac.. I know I'm missing a lot, so I'll just say everything else either sucks or is a bag of hurt
Support for 64 bit Linux installation sucks. They don't even have a non-beta version of it.
It seems like every time Apple releases a "new" product, there's always something wrong. Graphics issues. Hard drive issues, all your Information deleted issues, etc - and now this. It seems they are rushing out products and skimping on quality control - which is driving away customers and damaging the reputation of a company which charges a significant premium for "quality".
because it's all MAC. Which means no matter what the cause is, the cause happened because of something MAC did... EEEPPPIICCCC FAAAIIIILLLL
Apple will blame it all on Adobe and users saying that they are not using it right and Adobe having this software issues...
@Shukero
MAC and Mac are two very different things, any Nerd/Geek knows this. Please refrain from making the same mistake, or be chastized by a thousand Media Access Controllers.
Just get Chrome for Mac... I had 3 flash things open, Youtube, Hulu, and a Flash website, 21%.
Don't blame it on FLASH. Admit it guys, Apple is not perfect. How come they can't create a bug free software they're only supporting their own hardware. How can they even say that "it just works". I suppose naive, dumb users would know much and care about this.
@ Brown
How can you think that it is Apple's problem. Just because it happens on their hardware and OS? The Flash software that is running on that hardware is Adobe's creation. I do own a Mac, but an not dumb think Apple does no wrong, but apparently you are more that willing to blame everything on them.
The Mac... It just works... Sometimes.
It's all FUD. Probably vengeance-bent Windows 7 users trying to undermine the Apple/Mac experience. I knew there had to be a reason Apple is trying to get rid of Flash. I'm a diehard ClickToFlash user.
Finally got Windows 7 Ultimate N running in a Parallels virtual machine. Not bad. It sure doesn't suck like Vista, but it isn't as fast as Windows XP Pro, but my machine is running low on memory, so that may be the problem. Windows 7 looks nice and works well. I'm getting a more powerful Mac this week with much more memory so I'll be anxious to see how it performs.
It is becoming more and more obvious that Apple only tests their new hardware and software with a very narrow focus. This was fine in the past when you had very little software available for the Mac, but now that they are growing there are more and more problems like this popping up.
If you have an isolated situation where this happens, then you can notch it up to a defective unit, a user who did something to cause it to happen, etc. But when you have this type of thing happening over and over, Apple is not doing their job in testing this stuff. People like to critize MS for rushing the 360 to market before doing the work to make sure it does not overheat, but this here, is the same, it seems as if Apple is worried too much about rusing their products to market to appear like they are innovative, ahead of the curve, but they are only going to harm themselves and the customers.
If you are having problems like this, there can be multiple causes - a driver that does not function as well at the higher resolution, a bit of OSX that has a bottle neck with special hardware built in. Luckily, those types of problems can be fixed with software. But they need to make sure it works first. We have heard of MS' compatibility testing labs where they test various software combinations for perf and compatibility. I, personally, have been to a MS developer lab where they bring in customers to test their applications before Windows shipps. Windows is available to developers and general users months before. But except for a few betas put out and accessible by a select few, Apple does not do any real compatibility. And in the end, it is going to bite them.
all other bullshit aside, i agree with you, Mystic.
Flash video sucks on my 24" iMac on SL too. i don't know if it's a "new imac" problem.
It has to be SL or the the new iMac not really Flash (however it does suck). If things were this bad then it would have been reported awhile back. Also it has not been reported on any of the MacPros as far as I can tell.
@AverageWhiteBoy
Yes, it's not a hardware or software issue AT ALL.
It's actually the collective willpower of a million Windows users making the iMacs slow down.
Actually, Adobe did make a list of issues with their software(flash) running on Snow Leopard in 62 bit mode only. So this isn't anything new. I bet that the new 27 imacs are running purely on 62 bit mode and that's the problem.
I have a huge Apple rig running SL. But am running Rosetta. So am still using 32 bit apps with no problems.
Oh dear, it doesn't "just work"?
Flash performance on these new Macs is simply up because these people are now running Snow Leopard. Flash is a 32bit plugin that runs in 64bit Safari. The performance problems are that complication right there. Flash is fine in Firefox under Snow Leopard.
Flash performance -issues- that is. Jesus Engadget. Comment System Overhaul.
"Flash is horrible no matter what the specs of a Mac are. Who ever was in charge of coding Flash for OS X was a complete boob. Not only does it ineffeciently manage memory and processor power, but it is also slow and crashes Safari like crazy mad."
Sounds like iTunes on Windows:
iTunes is horrible no matter what the specs of a PC are. Who ever was in charge of coding iTunes for Windows was a complete boob. Not only does it ineffeciently manage memory and processor power, but it is also slow and crashes like crazy mad.
Engadget should post an update explaining WHY it's not working correctly:
Flash is 32bits, SL and its Safari are running in 64bit mode. Flash doesn't work correctly in 64bit mode. Running Firefox on that same machine and same OS version makes those Flash problems go away.
So... it's not Apple's fault, it's Adobe's for not making a 64bit version of its flash player.
End of discussion.
There was a similar problem with Windows under MacBook 2008 boot camp where the wifi driver was overpolling some resource and making realtime playback of video a mess.
Macs just work!
Hey Mac, did you hear? Windows 7 is out, and it's not gonna have any of the problems that the last operating system did. Trust me.
Hey PC, did you hear? The new iMacs are out, and they're not going to have problems they didn't have before. Trust me.
I think Mac fans shall not say that Again,
psst : i'm not any OS fan
ohhhh nooooooo...
I knoooooooow :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rks-Cr3Fr_k
LOL
"and even that the problem is bad permissions, which is basically how an OS X user gives up trying to figure things out"
Haha, so true. So very, very true.
I love that line. :-)
Windows 7/Ubuntu/RHEL user.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W8d7EyFSrs
Must be reverse psychology. Aholes.
It's a software issue probably.
Snow Leopard just has a few kinks to work out.
At least it has a lot less than Windows 7.
I dunno, Windows 7 has been out for what, a week now, and so far I haven't heard about it deleting users files by itself or having slow flash playback.
But hey you know, there's only already more people using Windows 7 than snow kitten.
Windows 7 has been gold for months now.
And what a clever name, did it take you all night with your slow ass Win 7 netbook to make it up?
Actually, Windows 7 has been out really since August, if not the RC in June and I've heard more complaints from friends and co-workers about snow leopard in its short life than I've heard about 7, which I've been using for almost a year now (Since Feb)
Snow leopard is shaping up to be apple's vista
@Miles
Nope, probably his Macbook overheating, locking up, or deleting his data...if he were using a Win7 netbook, he would have none of those problems!
The only thing I have heard people complain about windows 7 is some people are having issues with wireless USB keyboards when they do a new install on their old PC... but then again humans are pretty stupid so when you ask them when's the last time they changed their batteries on their keyboards and mice their like maybe a year or two ago?
Wow, you missed the point on your own reply. The fact that we can have Win7 on a $200 Netbook and have Flash work as well, if not better, than your $1500 machine is a Win for 7. The fact that you dont even have the option to own a Mac Netbook is a lose for you buddy.
*Goes back to his Win7 Dell X300 (yup, that old) that runs smooth as butter.
Actually I had windows 7 installed on machine since the release of beta. Then when RC came out I put it on my desktop and my brand new laptop, because I knew that Windows 7 was rock solid!
The only time I've ever had ANY issues with windows 7, was I got a blue screen of death. However this was caused because I was slowly overclocking my GPU and windows told me exactly when it was time "to stop" And guess what? No lost data during that crash! Amazing isn't it?
Remeber though Miles, all those ads say that "Macs just work" so that means we all ought to believe those ads eh?
A Windows 7 machine can't delete the files itself when the user can't get it to install on the computer in first place, or it goes into an endless reboot loop or the user doesn't understand and deletes their own data doing a clean install.
If your going to latch onto a story about something like the guest account thing that won't effect more than a small percentage of the people that went in and turned it on in the first place then you have to own up to all the problems that Windows 7 installs are having at the moment.
And before you say it, no I am not an Apple fan, I am have been using MS operating systems for 25+ years and just upgraded our homes two Vista desktops and an XP desktop to Windows 7 and I really think its a great operating system. Best Windows yet is really true in this case. But from every article I have read and every post from anyone that isn't an easily spotted Apple hater OS X is an amazing OS also.
Yeah, I've heard of the air.
The real question is: Do we care?