My experiences & solutions to new overheating iMac

I know there are many threads concerning these overheating problem with some new aluminum iMacs but it's kind of hard to decide which one to post my experience to so I'm just posting a new thread. This is not a question because I think I fixed the problem with mine. I just wanted to share this with people in hopes that it might correct your problem as well instead having to take it back to the store.
Well, I bought a new 20" 2.4 aluminum iMac on August 24th. I connected my previous iMac to it and started migrating my user account & files to it. During this process is when the new iMac completely shut off on me! I thought it was just a glitch or something. So I turned it back on and it started the migration again. Everything went well this time. But since then it has turned off on me at least 3-4 times. When I was backing up files to an external drive. And a few times while working in Photoshop and Aperture it would start freezing up & the graphics would become distorted and blocks all over the screen. And from my days of overclocking PCs I knew this was a heat related problem more than likely with the video card.
So I installed a program called smcfancontrol and was able to up the speed of the fans. This corrected the problem and I didn't get lock ups or freezes after that. But I knew you shouldn't have to do this so I was looking for a solution so I wouldn't have to take the iMac back to the local Apple Store. Because that would be a pain having to backup files and start over again.
I reset the fans back to normal speed and quit the smcfancontrol program. I installed iStat Menus so I could monitor the fans & temp. It would seem that when the GPU would reach 150 deg F then it would start having problems. Well, I reset the SMC, PRAM, and NVRAM to see if this would solve the problem. Because what it seemed like what was happening was that the part of the system that controls the fans & temp was not responding correctly when it got hot.
Since I did the reset to those areas of the system I have not had any shut downs or freezes. I ran the system through a number of tests. I worked in Photoshop & Aperture at the same time doing a number of different processes while playing music in iTunes. I did the Hardware Test a couple of times. Xbench. And I also ran an pretty intensive test called CPUTest where it got the whole computer pretty hot through repetition. The fan for the CPU was speeding up over the normal 1200 rpm like it should and it never shut off or gave any more errors.
So I'm crossing my fingers now that the issue with my new iMac was resolved with resetting the SMC, PRAM, and NVRAM. And it saves me a trip back to the Apple Store!
I hope this information is helpful to someone.
Following these links on how to reset the SMC, PRAM, & NVRAM:
Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini: How to reset the System Management Controller
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
-Kevin
*I have owned quite a few Macs over the past six years and have technician certifications in both Macs & PCs.*

Well, I've been wrestling with my iMac for the past week in trying to solve my freeze & shutdown problem so I wouldn't have to take it back to the Apple Store and also if I did then I would like to know what the problem is first so I can tell them if it is definitely a hardware problem. The freezes & shutdowns would happen at random times and I don't think it is a overheating problem now because of this. It did seem like it would happen more often when I would work in Aperture & Photoshop. I would get through editing 3 or 4 photos and it would lock up completing. Then I would have to do a hard reset.
Anyway, yesterday morning I reinstalled the OS via Archive & Install. It seemed to be running better. So I started working on some projects but again after doing some work for about an hour, it froze on me. I took a break because I was fed up with it at the time and came back to it later.
I decided to reset the SMC and PRAM again since I had not done that after the OS reinstall. Then I removed all extra cables except the extra display, keyboard, mouse, & speakers. I skimmed through 2000 photos in Aperture and I monitored the temp & fan speeds. The whole computer got pretty hot especially the CPU and video card (GPU). The CPU fan sped up to 1500rpm at one point like it should. And after getting through all those photos, it did not freeze or shut down on me at all. Woohoo!
And this morning I noticed that the computer went to sleep like it was supposed to. It never did that before. So I'm thinking maybe the OS reinstall and the second time of resetting the SMC & PRAM might have solved my problem. I'm crossing my fingers! I will be gradually plugging in my extra devices to make sure one of those is not the problem.
Anyway, I hope sharing my experiences have helped. I definitely know the AppleCare & "Genius" Bar hasn't been much help to me. Seems like all they know how to do is turn it on! I hate having the feeling that I know more than the people who are supposed to be qualified to be in that position. And as for AppleCare I got some guy from another country who had bad English and was obviously reading through a step by step handbook and wasn't listening to what I was saying very much.
Side note: It's obvious that Apple moved the power supply from below the screen to the upper left corner of the iMac. That's the reason it is warmer in that area. I wouldn't be concerned about that. These power supplies have always run that warm in the flat iMacs. Easier to feel on these new models though because they are thinner.
-Kevin

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rcook349 wrote:
I just bought a new 27" iMac (woo hoo). As I understand it, the Mini DisplayPort can receive a signal "in" in addition to sending one "out".
I have a Wii that I would like to plug in and use the iMac for display (and hopefully sound). The Wii has 2 kinds of output... Red/White/Yellow RCA plugs, and Red/Green/Blue RCSA plugs. I think one is called "composite" and the other "component" but I'm not sure which is which.
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