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iMac restarts instead of shutting down

Hello,

I have a 2009 iMac 24" running 10.6.2. When I select shutdown from the shutdown menu it asks if I want to shutdown and then after selecting yes it starts the shutdown process. After shutting down it immediately restarts. When selecting shutdown from the login screen, it shuts down correctly.

-I've zapped my PRAM
-I did a SMC reset
-I've unselected restart after power failure
-I have a wireless USB mouse connected
-I have Apple's wireless keyboard

Any thoughts?

Help is much appreciated

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Jan 7, 2010 6:50 AM

Reply
16 replies

Jan 8, 2010 6:15 PM in response to piknyc

I am having the exact same issue with my Mac Pro and Snow Leopard. I've tried everything you listed above including unplugging all usb and firewire devices (excluding the mouse & keyboard), reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling a clean OS X 10.6.2 all to no avail. Nothing helps. Hopefully someone from Apple will figure this out as it seems to be something of a common problem in these posts...

Jan 13, 2010 5:49 PM in response to diggydoo

So I don't think it's a hardware problem, if you are able to shut down without this problem when booted off the installation disc. But it is odd that, if you did an erase and reinstall, and BEFORE installing any other third-party software, this problem still recurred. And it is strange that the problem does NOT occur part of the time.

Two other tests to hopefully narrow down the cause further:

(1) Do a +Safe Mode+ startup

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

This will start up with only the essential Apple system extensions loaded. Then, try to shut down.

(2) Create a new admin user account in System Preferences Accounts pane

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8235.html

Log out and log in to the new account. Then, try to shut down, from the new account.

Jan 16, 2010 2:04 PM in response to diggydoo

If it does not happen in the new account (you should try it a few times to make sure), then the cause is usually one of two things, and there is probably not anything wrong with the overall system.

First is a background process that runs in your normal account. Check System Preferences Accounts pane +Login Items+ tab. Remove anything there that you no longer need to have running. Then, with what's left, remove one at a time and test to see if it makes a difference; make sure you note what you removed (and where it is located) so that you can put it back if it was not the cause.

Second are user preference settings. In this case, this is a bit harder to trouble-shoot, because I can't think of any particular user preference file that would make a Mac restart instead of shut down.

If the problem does not happen in a new account, and you can't determine the exact cause, one thing you could do is create a new user account for ongoing permanent use, and transfer your user data from your current account to the new account. Eventually, once everything is working fine, abandon your current account.

Feb 6, 2010 12:10 PM in response to Munak

Hey Manuk,

Can you confirm if the problem has come back again after deleting those three files? Has this solution held steady? Thanks.

Also to note...I have a MBP and after deleting the recommended 3 files and shutting down once only com.apple.PowerManagement.plist ended up regenerating. Started up fine and a little faster too. Guess I'll hang onto my backups just to be safe.

iMac restarts instead of shutting down

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