iMac mysteriously turned off, won't power back up

I bought 5 new 20 in al imacs in december for my business, and slowly 4 out of the five have begun doing this... and of course I am almost 2 weeks outside my warranty.

On random days We will come into work and one or sometimes up to three of the imacs are either off or asleep, but will not come back on. I have to unplug them and let them sit then plug them back in. I first I thought it may be faulty surge protectors, but that is definitely not it. Apple, is there a hardware problem with these machines? 4 out of 5 bought on the same day? This does not look good in my boss' eyes (who I had to argue against that we would have more productivity with these machines over a PC)... Now its not looking like it is so... at least for the past 2 weeks. I just wish I figured out that it was the macs on day one... I might have gotten them fixed for free.

Message was edited by: bigj6360

of course I am almost 2 weeks outside my warranty

You most certainly are not. I don't mean to be argumentative, but what gives you that idea?

sometimes up to three of the imacs are either off or asleep

That's too much of a coincidence, and proof enough for me that the issue is not a hardware issue with your Macs. Still having more than 8 months left on the warranty won't be much help to you, as it sounds like a possible sabotage issue. Are they secure? Or can anyone install any software they wish?

myhighway wrote:

You most certainly are not. I don't mean to be argumentative, but what gives you that idea?

You're right. For some reason I had a brain fart. but I am outside my phone support, and the closest apple store is almost 100 miles away. Maybe I'll go up there on my day off one day.

That's too much of a coincidence, and proof enough for me that the issue is not a hardware issue with your Macs. Still having more than 8 months left on the warranty won't be much help to you, as it sounds like a possible sabotage issue. Are they secure? Or can anyone install any software they wish?

No sabotage. They are secure, all require passwords to login, and all users have limited accounts and cannot install software (at least in places, and for apps, that require authentication). Twice it happened to me (and no one here even has a clue where to begin to get my passwords, or how to guess them).

All the machines are basically stock from the factory (in terms of apps installed), with each machine having slightly different third party apps installed for what little are installed based on their needs.

Well, I was just in an office talking to a couple people, saw a machine go from screen saver to sleep... and before I left the person at the desk went back to work and the machine would not to on.

I attempted to turn it back on and it would not power up. I pushed the power button twice, held it down for 5 sec once, and then unplugged it and let it sit for about 10 sec pushed the power button and it powered back on.

We were able to go almost a week without one doing this. 🙂 and 😟.

I also re-imaged one machine, and did a clean install on another over the weekend just to make sure it wasn't a software issue. This was the clean install machine.

thanks

Message was edited by: bigj6360

If these aren't typical consumer machines, I don't know what your warranty arrangement is.

For the typical consumer, once the system has been erased and reinstalled, they will NOT be charged for phone support beyond 90 days, unless they're just plain installing the wrong software for the machine, which would be highly unlikely since it's almost impossible to do that.

So maybe my understanding of phone support is incorrect...

Are you saying (and feel free to correct me if I am wrong) that I can possibly get phone support up to the one year mark if I do a clean install before I call?

thanks.

Yes. Maybe I'm mistaken, and someone else can please chime in to correct me on this?

but when you call, they'll ask you for a credit card that can cover a $75 help charge if it turns out that they're helping you with a software issue that you could otherwise resolve on your own (by reinstalling OS X). I consider that CC request as just being a formality that gets you past the gatekeeper, but I know others hear that sort of thing and just hang up.

Usually, if you've already reinstalled OS X and an issue remains, you do not have a software issue but a hardware issue for which you're covered under warranty. It's certainly possible you have a machine that needs its SMC unit replaced, although I don't know the odds of that occurring in multiple machines - that concept bothers me a bit.

I'm not sure how an "SMC reset" fits into that hardware/software equation, however, since the SMC is regarded as being separate from (not controlled by) OS X.

Perhaps you can get it resolved by explaining that the SMC reset won't resolve the issue you're having, and neither will an OS X reinstall, and seeing if they then regard that as a software or hardware issue.

You could always ask to speak with a product specialist. It isn't that hard to get bumped up to a product specialist as long as you know what you're talking about. The average person with no computer knowledge to speak of has a much more difficult time getting referred up the line. Since there aren't nearly so many of them as there are phone calls, the product specialists are too busy to try and coax an explanation of an issue out of someone. I think it's a lot like visiting a doctor, and first having to answer a nurse's questions to get your medical history up-to-date and in front of the doctor's eyes, and then the doc can come in.

I have had the same problem of the computer just powering down unexpectedly. I have it set to restart after power failures, so I don't have the problem of it not starting up. I went to the console menu in the utilities folder, and looked at the messages. I have a message that says shutdown now, and 1 second later, a new message that states system shut down time has arrived. These messages come right at the same time the computer turns off. I do not have any scheduled start up or shut down times. Any other suggestions?

Yes, that SMC reset does apply to the 2007 Aluminum iMacs.

Judge,

I see that you are from Colorado.
Have your son take his machine to http://www.themacoutlet.com/ .
They are very good.

,dave