Monitor freezes

Question

Hello,
Hopefully someone can help me figure out this problem. I am operating an iMAC intel core duo v10.4.7. I have had it since March, but suddenly, if I leave my screen on, and go away for a while and return, the screen is lit, the mouse works, but when I go to click on anything, nothing opens. I have to re-start the system. I can't imagine restarting the computer open is good for the system.
Please help.
Jen

Answer 1

If that does not resolve your problem, and if I'm reading it correctly and this has only been recently occuring, there would be three other things I'd try, and I imagine that you're aware of all.
First, boot to your Install Disc 1, after choosing language on the first screen, at the second screen some pull-downs appear in the menu bar, choose Utilities and open Disk Utility, select your entire internal hard drive and the First Aid pane and click on the "Repair Disk" button (not repair permissions button). Allow it to run to completion, where it should show "No repairs necessary." Then quit Disk Utility, quit the installation sequence, choose your usual startup drive and restart. The purpose is to perform directory repair in case something got bumped out of place, or whatever else might have happened.
Second, try everything in this Apple article [note that it is about the SMC reset, but I think the other actions might pertain to your situation, as well]: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303446
Third, go to "Downloads," not to Software Update, and download the 10.4.7 Combo Update for Intel Macs to your iMac, then run it, the purpose being to see if your system can pick up whatever it is apparently missing that would get your system back to normal.
Best of luck. Out of all that, something ought to work for you, but since we don't know what exactly caused this, we can't know exactly what the fix will be - it's trial and error:)