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Random Restarts

I just got a macmini intel coreduo, and it has randomly restarted on me twice. first time i was in front row, and the second, i was importing music to itunes. i upgraded my ram to 1.25gb.

g44 ibook, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Sep 11, 2007 7:45 PM

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39 replies

Sep 12, 2007 4:16 AM in response to birthtae

Of all the things Macs generally don't do, is a spontaneous restart! Like any other type of system they can be prone to hang or crash, but usually not go through restart. Were there any symptoms onscreen to indicate it was shutting down, restarting etc, or did it simply and suddenly do this with no warning?

Sep 12, 2007 11:31 AM in response to birthtae

Well the sudden shutdowns wouldn't be difficult to comprehend, but the fact the system restarts might be!

In the options panel of the energy saver preference pane, if you have 'restart automatically after a power failure' checked it would explain the reboot after an unexpected shutdown, in which case the issue would be what is causing the shutdown.

I assume that since you mention no other item is affected, that there is nothing to indicate a power failure on the outlet to which the mini is connected? If you have no other way to tell if that might be happening, an old digital alarm clock (one with no battery backup) could be plugged into the outlet and set to show the time. A power outage of sufficient length to cause the mini to shutdown would result in the clock defaulting to it's reset mode, usually showing flashing digits.

Sep 14, 2007 3:42 AM in response to birthtae

Well of course the speakers, lamp and monitor wouldn't show any signs of a power outage after the event and once the power was restored - but of course since you know that it would seem clear that indeed the mini is failing independently of power source. Just to be sure, however, I would take the system elsewhere, and using a different power strip try and replicate the problem when connected to a different power source.

If it continues to show the same behavior, I would then suggest you revert the system to the original RAM configuration and test it that way. Should it continue to fail, I think it may be time to call Apple (or visit a local Apple store if you have one in reasonable reach) and discuss the problem with them.

Sep 14, 2007 9:16 AM in response to AndyO

Yup... just adding my comments here. I also have a brand new Core 2 Duo with RAM upgraded to 2GB. And I'm getting random restarts. Whether I "load" the system with test software (running the dual core at full tilt), applications (InDesign, Photoshop, Word) or just login and let the thing idle (Finder...), it restarts.

Just to explain. I've bought SEVEN new Mac minis. One runs its fans at full speed all the time (sent back to the Apple dealer), two are randomly restarting, four are still in their boxes. Not a great experience!

Is it the extra memory? Or is the C2D Mac mini a duff Mac?

Pw

Sep 14, 2007 9:50 AM in response to Paul Williams2

I've only handled a couple of C2D minis and both work fine, so I doubt the design itself is duff. Additionally, though it's a new model it's been out long enough now that if this were a common issue, we'd have seen a significant number of posts here on the subject. The absence of such doesn't preclude a widespread issue, but suggests this is a question of a fault local to a specific batch or production quota.

I've also done no RAM upgrades on either, just unpacked, setup, installed software, configured for user and then moved to the users' offices, so it's possible it's an issue related to the RAM upgrades, though it's not clear exactly how. As I said at the outset, while Macs can and do crash, sometimes shutdown unexpectedly etc, they don't, at all commonly, randomly reboot !

It's possible that the fan issue could be related to the fan control cable which is easy to miss in reassembly, whereby the fan defaults to running full all the time, but that's a common enough problem that I'd imagine you'd have been aware of it and checked.

Clearly though the rebooting issue is not related to CPU load.

At the very least, you and anyone else with this issue should contact Apple and let them know about it. They may not be aware of it or may be aware and be in the process of trying to collect information to help work out how prevalent it is, and/or wether it relates to specific units. And of course to ensure you get service and support sufficient to have the problem resolved!

Sep 14, 2007 7:28 PM in response to AndyO

think is, i got my mac from amazon, so i'm not sure if im covered under their 90 day warrranty. i had mismatched ram sticks, one was 1gb, the other was 256mb, and i took out the 256 and it seemed to be working fine, but started randomly restarting again. now my audio doesnt work, but the restart problem seems to have stopped for now.
fyi, my CPU heat is at 52 and 48 degrees. anyone know if thats normal?

Sep 17, 2007 4:56 AM in response to birthtae

The temperatures you give don't look unusual, but heat-related shutdown doesn't lead to rebooting, so I doubt that's the issue. I also doubt that mismatched RAM would cause this.

Your mini is covered by warranty, whether bought from Apple or Amazon, so you can call Apple and/or visit an Apple store, or take the system to an Apple authorized service provider to have it looked at.

Sep 21, 2007 3:42 AM in response to AndyO

{quote:title=AndyO wrote:}while Macs can and do crash, sometimes shutdown unexpectedly etc, they don't, at all commonly, randomly reboot !{quote}

Okay... well, these Mac minis continue to randomly reboot. We're shipping the ones we've opened back to our dealer to replace with iMacs. The remainder of boxed product will also be returned. We're also asking for a stock Mac mini to test with our build. If it's memory... then we're good for paying more for Apple RAM, if it's not that, then we have to understand more about why our build is causing these Macs to restart (it's a pretty standard image; ADmitMac 3.22, MS Office 2004 and Creative Suite are the extras).
Or it could be duff hardware.
I've seen a few threads where people talk about random restarts and it seems that these are fixed by logic board replacements. Hope that's not going to be the case here!

Pw

Sep 21, 2007 4:19 AM in response to Paul Williams2

It's probably not surprising that the issues were resolved via a logic board replacement - pretty much everything in these systems is on the logic board, so not only is it the easiest target to pick, but also replacing it would end up replacing the vast majority of the active components in the system, including not just such things as processor but power control, interface components, bus controllers etc.

Whatever is causing this is an usual problem - if you are able to identify the culprit, I'd be very interested to know what it was!

Sep 26, 2007 4:53 AM in response to AndyO

Okay, just updating the thread here.

Early indications -and it's only been three days of testing- are that the after-market Kingston memory is the problem. Once we'd switched the RAM from 2 x 1GB Kingston to the Apple-supplied memory, these Macs (three are running burn-ins) have not shown any inclination to restart, randomly.

That could be a fix. I'll update when we've pushed one of these back into production and let our users have at it!

Pw

Sep 28, 2007 10:59 PM in response to birthtae

I'm getting this problem too. Intel Core Duo, 2 GB of RAM. It's from the first production run, and has APP.

Basically it suddenly restarts, and keeps on doing this.

The latest stunt is that it will restart, chime, restart, chime, restart, chime, restart, chime, over and over again until you unplug it.

I took it to the local Apple Store. They checked over for a week, found nothing wrong. When I got it back, it worked with unintertupted uptime for 23 days, then started doing the random restart cycle again.

Crash logs in console show nothing.

I'm about ready to bring it back to the Apple Store. Anything I should have them check out?? Or should I suggest replacing the logic board??

Oct 1, 2007 7:51 AM in response to birthtae

I'm getting the same problem too. I got my new mac mini core 2 duo (2gh, super drive) a couple of weeks ago.

Upgraded the memory to 2 GB from Crucial:

Module Size: 2GB kit (1GBx2)
Package: 200-pin SODIMM
Feature: DDR2 PC2-5300
Specs: DDR2 PC2-5300 • CL=5 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-667 • 1.8V • 128Meg x 64.

The sudden reboot occurs when I attempt to wake my make mini from its sleep. my mac mini is connected to my Sony lcd tv through DVI > HDMI.

The other thing i found strange is when i boot up my mac mini, the verbose booting is always enabled Instead of showing the apple logo. This has been the case since its very first boot.

What should be done and is apple aware of this problem.

I'm loading my mac mini with all my data and I'd hate to take it for service and eventually have to re-load all data over again.

Regards

KR

Random Restarts

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