I have an iMac that freezes up on me irregularly. Sometimes I can work for two weeks and everything is fine. Other times I experience 3 or more freezes a day. On average my iMac (bought in June 2010) freezes about once every other day, so the problem is persistant enough to really, really bother me. And when I say freeze, I mean it locks up. No reaction to input, mouse cursor isn't moving, the screen is completely frozen - so all I can do is shut off power and restart.
I've already uninstalled a few apps that I thought might be the cause but to no avail. In my desperation I even hooked up my iMac to a different power outlet not used by all the other equipment. Haven't had a freeze since but I've just done that 10 minutes ago, so... :)
On Windows, you could download the debug symbols and then debug the crash dump to at least get an idea what might be causing a bluescreen. On Mac OS X, all I learned so far is that there's a "last" command which shows me a history of shutdowns and crashes.
Is there any other way I can get more information about the freezes, or more info out of the last command? Can I put my OS into debug mode somehow and could that help me nail down the cause?
What are some diagnostic tools you would recommend to check if it's a hardware related problem?
I'm desperate and thankful for any tips!