jojoSour

Q: Why is my imac shutting down by itself?

I have a late 2010 27in iMac and it has shut down randomly by itself 4 times in the last month or so, including twice in the last couple of days. I have 16G of RAM and am only using up to 8G ever. Just to be clear, it shuts down and does not restart automatically. I never have the screen brightness higher than half so I don't believe I am overheating it? I really want to know why this keeps happening.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 10, 2012 5:15 PM

Close

Q: Why is my imac shutting down by itself?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 14 of 16 last Next
  • by Sroh,

    Sroh Sroh Feb 2, 2016 5:49 AM in response to BusinessProf
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2016 5:49 AM in response to BusinessProf

    Awesome, this fixed my problem - thank you so much.

  • by Yukka21,

    Yukka21 Yukka21 Feb 3, 2016 7:18 PM in response to Sroh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2016 7:18 PM in response to Sroh

    Glad to hear. Unfortunately, my imac continued having issues. Ended up buying a monitor and using my macpro as my main computer. Boomer.

  • by digitalkl,

    digitalkl digitalkl Feb 6, 2016 8:35 AM in response to jojoSour
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Feb 6, 2016 8:35 AM in response to jojoSour

    Am I glad to have found this thread. I'm not alone!

     

    I have a 15.1 model (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) with 8gb of stock RAM. Im running 10.11.3 El Capitan. I do not have anything plug into it.

    The first time it powered off, I had selected a bunch (over 1k) photos on my ext. HDD and I was "Heart"ing them. My ext HDD lights went off. To get it to power on again, I had to unplug the power cord to get it to turn on again. I also suspected it could be my extension so I moved it to a different socket (didnt help. Eventually I used a totally different wall socket with no changes). After rebooting, I continue again to do the same work. It powered off again after a short while. I thought maybe it was the memory.

     

    Normally I use the iMac to just surf using Safari. So for one week after the initial episode, nothing happens. But now it is powering off while it is in sleep mode. Its is also powering off once while I was surfing uisng Safari. So far it had happened to my iMac for about 7-8 times and the interval in between failures is getting more frequent

     

    My warranty is about to expire in 10 days. Im wondering if I should quickly get the ACPP but looking at some of you that had got power supply, logic board, etc replaced and still with no changes to the problem, I dont know what to do. I have only read till page 9 of this and its late here so I will continue tomorrow. I just want to chime in to report my machine.

  • by Bella Joey,

    Bella Joey Bella Joey Feb 7, 2016 10:18 PM in response to jojoSour
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 7, 2016 10:18 PM in response to jojoSour

    Hi everyone,

    I got the news that Mac Pro had the same issue, it was related to the graphic card, causing those computers had video distortion, system instability, restart and shut down for no reason, or affect to system boot. The affected models meet the requirements, Apple will provide a maintenance service for free. I think our iMac had the same issue in same reason, hope Apple will provide something to fix that problem.

  • by Bella Joey,

    Bella Joey Bella Joey Feb 12, 2016 1:20 AM in response to Bella Joey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 12, 2016 1:20 AM in response to Bella Joey

    Oh, how about static electricity? Did you guys heard about that?

    I've read something for discharging the static electricity, said to unplug all connection of computer, press and hold the power button for more than 10 seconds, that's it!

    I'm just trying this way, hope it works!!!

  • by arroe,

    arroe arroe Feb 19, 2016 7:13 AM in response to BGreg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2016 7:13 AM in response to BGreg

    I tried this and it works but it keeps happening

  • by Leej ,

    Leej Leej Mar 11, 2016 3:10 PM in response to digitalkl
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2016 3:10 PM in response to digitalkl

    Same thing happens to mine IMAC (RETINA 5K, 27-INCH, LATE 2014) only 7 months old

    Had the power supply uint change ,last week .

    got it back, after 6 hrs the mac shuts off . back too the same problem .

    its like having a power cut .

    only way to start the dam thing is to pull the main plug out of the socket

     

    Its back with apply authorise dealer. still they cannot find anything wrong , i told them to play 4k videos .

    the diagnostic test they run does not pick up errors, as i did with over the phone with apple , but when i was on the phone with apple support he mention to press Command + g to run safari and to play a video .

    so i went on youtube and play a 4K video , and thats when it shut down again in front of the Apple support Guy on the phone ...  its hardware problem

  • by Imbyll Design,

    Imbyll Design Imbyll Design Mar 18, 2016 9:00 AM in response to Leej
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 18, 2016 9:00 AM in response to Leej

    I am another who's been affected by this dreaded curse.

    My late 2012 imac 27" has been repaired with and both the power board and logic board have been replaced over the past few months. Yet still, the imac switches itself off.

    Currently undergoing diagnostics but the engineer isn't experiencing any power outages with my system.

    This has to be one of the most frsutrating experiences of my life. Been withou the imac for over 2 months over the past 6 onths and my business i ssyffering as a result.

    Will never buy an Apple product again after this.

  • by katiex0x,

    katiex0x katiex0x Mar 19, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Imbyll Design
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 19, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Imbyll Design

    This happened to the last two iMacs I bought, starting in 2013.  What worked was cancelling or making very lengthy the period of time when it would reduce the power draw.    My iMac would go dead and I had to keep plugging it into different electrical outlets to turn it on again.  That was  what worked.  I have good, steady electriucal power, no surges, so it is a problem with the computer.

     

    John B.

  • by House On The Hill,

    House On The Hill House On The Hill Mar 27, 2016 7:10 PM in response to katiex0x
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 27, 2016 7:10 PM in response to katiex0x

    I have been following this thread for a while. I had a look at "About This Mac" then "System Report" then "Power"...... The graphic below shows what I found.

     

    Even though my iMac is not configured to auto power off or on in the Energy Saver preference I notice that it has an AutoPowerOff Delay of 14400. If that figure is minutes then that is 240 hours or 10 days. If it's seconds then it's 4 hours. I can't find any way to change these amounts. It's a long shot but given that no-one has mentioned it, it may be worth investigating.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-03-28 at 12.33.24 PM.png

  • by greg montemurro,

    greg montemurro greg montemurro Apr 27, 2016 10:41 AM in response to House On The Hill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 27, 2016 10:41 AM in response to House On The Hill

    Interesting find, but doubt that is it. Sometimes mine will shut down, start right back up and immediately shut back down.

     

    I have had the same problem with my iMac 2014. I have been dealing with Mac support for nearly 6 months. Hours of calls and countless hours of re-installs.
    I have tried cleaning my hard drive, re-installing OS and apps. I have tired different ram, I have tried different power outlets. I have brought it into the store now just recently for the third time. This time they replaced the processor and the power board. Freeze. Shut Down. Same thing. They are sending me a new iMac. I hope this resolves it. Not sure if there is a design flaw with thunderbolt connections? As an editor I do have an array of drives plugged in. Might try without anything plugged in, but then that is not the way it is intended to be used. EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING. Customer support always very helpful/kind but still,  come on. Something's not right if many others are having the same problems.

  • by munromunro,

    munromunro munromunro May 9, 2016 1:02 PM in response to jojoSour
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 9, 2016 1:02 PM in response to jojoSour

    Hello all, count me in, i also have an IMac thats shuts down of its own accord and also won't turn on unless the power chord is removed . I have read most of the posts and nothing suggested is working, i have come to think that it might have something to do with the mouse. I use TurboCad for technical, drawing at times when i get two or three fingers slightly on the mouse it can send the drawing spinning off into infinity, do you think that the static that builds up on the mouse have something to do with the problem?

     

    I have been through the genius route and also the experts who work for the company that sold me the IMac all with no success, i have a screenshot of the moment it last happened and this is being looked at by the company expert, i don't think anything will come of it. In the meantime this is very frustrating i lost hours of work and drawings last week. What can we all do? I have been told that even though my warranty has lapsed i am protected by consumer rights and could possibly get another computer to replace it, this only if the problem is found, and also a long way off i feel

  • by billy55555555,

    billy55555555 billy55555555 May 10, 2016 3:18 AM in response to munromunro
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    May 10, 2016 3:18 AM in response to munromunro

    Count my machine too... So frustrated.. Can't rely on Mac these days.

  • by munromunro,

    munromunro munromunro May 10, 2016 9:56 AM in response to billy55555555
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 10, 2016 9:56 AM in response to billy55555555

    Good news today my Mac has not closed down, thinking it maybe heat i have turned off a desk light that i have right next to it, so far so good, will keep you posted

  • by Joe Pyrdek,

    Joe Pyrdek Joe Pyrdek May 10, 2016 10:47 AM in response to munromunro
    Level 2 (155 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 10, 2016 10:47 AM in response to munromunro

    I am wondering if you perhaps stumbled onto the solution, or at least a part of the solution.  My thoughts are that is it possible that the infr-red pickup used for the remote control may be getting :jumbled" info that it sometimes interpets as a shut down command or something similar?  If so, turning off infra-red may give some people the cure.

     

    Here, from the Help files, is the way to turn the infra-red receiver on (or off).

     

     

    Turn on IR reception

    Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click General.

     

    Open the General pane for me

     

    Click the lock icon  to unlock it, then enter an administrator name and password.

     

    Click Advanced.

     

    In the window that appears, deselect “Disable remote control infrared receiver.”

first Previous Page 14 of 16 last Next