Apple recent QuickTime update may not be all it's cracked up to be as various users are reporting a wide array of problems with the new software.

According to MacFixIt, the problems seem to include crashes, fans that won't stop spinning, distorted sound, computers that seem endlessly stuck in the Setup Assistant program and screens that have gone gray:

"I'm sending this message on behalf of my friend who runs Leopard on his G5. After installing the QuickTime 7.3.1 update his machine would only display a grey screen and the fans are spinning like crazy. Tried a couple of shutdowns and even tried letting the grey screen displays for more than an hour, still the G5 won't work."

In many cases, booting the computer in Safe Mode seemed to alleviate most of the problems, so the issue seems to boil down to how Mac OS X handles the new kernel extensions.

Stay tuned for more information on this as it becomes available and if you've seen issues with QuickTime 7.3.1 on your end, let us know in the comments or forums.