iMac is randomly shutting down while I am working. Pressing the power switch does not work.

Thank you all for your comments. I have run the diagnostics suggested by Tesserac. , and followed steps 2,3,5 as well as 8. Step 5 (apple hardware test) found no trouble (it took 3 min and 12 sec. I then ran the EtreCheck test, the report of which I cannot attach (no text box visible), so I will describe the results. A major issue that slows down performance is that there are 2 antivirals installed (Malware and Symantic). The latter inadvertently installed itself yesterday, but I cannot find it in my application folder nor does it show up with the looking glass search. How can I uninstall it.? A number of minor issues were also found but are less important now.

Overheating, as suggested by Aqua is a likely cause. The computer was moved 2 weeks ago and there is a bit less room behind it (front is about 1 foot from wall). I have tried to vacuum the vent holes (hard to do), and I noticed that the heat here seemed excessive. I am now using a small Howard fan to cool the back of the computer. Furthermore, as soon as I have completed a task, I put the computer in sleep mode, and the temperature is less high. I have downloaded the macsfan control zip file suggested by Aqua but as I am not that technically savvy am a bit scared to run it. What could happen if I run it?

The symptoms are also similar to Old Toads suggestion of a bad power supply.

What do you suggest should be the next steps? The iMac is no longer under warranty.

I will try to send the EtreCheck report separately, as I cannot find a textbox to put it into.

tineke

EtreCheck version: 5.3.2 (5034)

Report generated: 2019-08-01 16:43:55

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 3:22

Performance: Below Average

Sandbox: Enabled

Full drive access: Disabled

Problem: Other problem

Description: 

iMac is quitting unexpectedly each 30-60 minutes while I am working on

it. Power button does not restart. I have to unplug the power-cord, w

ait 10 sec and then plug it back on.

Major Issues:

    Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention. 

    Antivirus software problems - Antivirus software is causing performance problems.

    More than one antivirus app - This machine has multiple antivirus apps installed.

Minor Issues:

    These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement. 

    Configuration profiles present - This machine has configuration profiles. These are sometimes used by adware and malware.

    Clean up - There are orphan files that could be removed.

    Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

    Low performance - EtreCheck report took over 5 minutes to run. This is unusual.

    Heavy I/O usage - Your system is under heavy I/O use. This will reduce your performance.

    32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps will not work after macOS 10.14 “Mojave”.

    Limited drive access - More information may be available with Full Drive Access.

EtreCheck part 2:

Hardware Information:

    iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)

    iMac Model: iMac13,2

    1 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-3770) CPU: 4-core

    16 GB RAM - Upgradeable

        BANK 0/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1600  ok

        BANK 1/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1600  ok

        BANK 0/DIMM1 - Empty 

        BANK 1/DIMM1 - Empty 

Video Information:

    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX - VRAM: 2048 MB

        iMac 2048 x 1152

Drives:

    disk0 - APPLE SSD SM128E 121.33 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

    Internal SATA 6 Gigabit Serial ATA

        disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

        disk0s2 [Fusion Drive] 120.99 GB

            disk2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 3.11 TB (1.92 TB used)

        disk0s3 - B*******X 134 MB

    disk1 - APPLE HDD ST3000DM001 3.00 TB (Mechanical - 7200 RPM)

    Internal SATA 6 Gigabit Serial ATA

        disk1s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

        disk1s2 [Fusion Drive] 2.20 TB

            disk2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 3.11 TB (1.92 TB used)

        disk1s3 - Recovery HD [Recovery] 650 MB

        disk1s4 [Fusion Drive] 801.44 GB

            disk2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 3.11 TB (1.92 TB used)

        disk1s5 - B*******X 134 MB

Mounted Volumes:

    disk2 - Macintosh HD

        3.11 TB (1.92 TB used - 1.19 TB free)

        Journaled HFS+

        Mount point: /

Network:

    Interface en0: Ethernet

    Interface en5: iPhone

    Interface en1: Wi-Fi

        802.11 a/b/g/n

    Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN

    Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:

    macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G5019) 

    Time since boot: Less than an hour

Configuration Profiles:

    This computer has configuration profiles installed.

Notifications:

    Notifications not available without Full Drive Access.

Security:

    Gatekeeper: Enabled

    System Integrity Protection: Enabled

    Antivirus apps: Symantec and MalwareBytes

Unsigned Files:

    Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

        Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

    Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.epson.eventmanager.agent.plist

        Executable: /Applications/Epson Software/Event Manager.app/Contents/Resources/Assistants/Event Manager/EEventManager.app/Contents/MacOS/EEventManager

        Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

32-bit Applications:

    38 32-bit apps

Kernel Extensions:

    /Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Kext

        MB_MBAM_Protection.kext (Malwarebytes Corporation, 3.8 - SDK 10.14)

System Launch Agents:

    [Not Loaded] 15 Apple tasks

    [Loaded] 172 Apple tasks

    [Running] 107 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:

    [Not Loaded] 38 Apple tasks

    [Loaded] 184 Apple tasks

    [Running] 114 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:

    [Other] com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a23d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-22)

    [Running] com.epson.eventmanager.agent.plist (? cd93600d - installed 2012-06-20)

    [Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2019-05-09)

    [Loaded] com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2019-05-09)

    [Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.frontend.agent.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-05-10)

Launch Daemons:

    [Loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-22)

    [Loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-22)

    [Loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-06-21)

    [Loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist (? 41245744 - installed 2013-04-01)

    [Not Loaded] com.bombich.ccc.scheduledtask.33569914-78F3-428F-8861-D7719E716499.plist (? 9fcf4aba - installed 2013-04-03)

    [Loaded] com.bombich.ccchelper.plist (? bc948f55 - installed 2016-12-30)

    [Loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2019-05-09)

    [Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.rtprotection.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-05-29)

    [Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.settings.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-05-10)

    [Loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e - installed 2012-04-02)

User Launch Agents:

    [Other] com.adobe.ARM.***.plist (? 0 - installed 2013-03-14)

    [Other] com.adobe.assistant.plist (? 0 - installed 2019-07-21)

    [Loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2019-02-13)

    [Loaded] com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist (Skype Communications S.a.r.l - installed 2018-11-24)

    [Loaded] com.symantec.NortonInstaller.plist (Symantec - installed 2019-08-01)

Internet Plug-ins:

    AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 17.012.20098 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-08-01)

    FlashPlayer-10.6: 32.0.0.223 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-07-11)

    Flash Player: 32.0.0.223 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-07-11)

    AdobePDFViewer: 19.012.20034 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2019-08-01)

    SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.6.2 (? - installed 2016-03-25)

Audio Plug-ins:

    BluetoothAudioPlugIn: 6.0.7 (Apple - installed 2019-07-30)

    iSightAudio: 7.7.3 (Apple - installed 2019-07-30)

    AirPlay: 2.0 (Apple - installed 2019-07-30)

    AppleAVBAudio: 683.1 (Apple - installed 2019-07-30)

    BridgeAudioSP: 4.69.2 (Apple - installed 2019-07-30)

    AppleTimeSyncAudioClock: 1.0 (Apple - installed 2019-07-30)

3rd Party Preference Panes:

    Flash Player (installed 2019-06-21)

    Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X (installed 2013-02-23)

Time Machine:

    Time Machine information not available without Full Drive Access.

Performance:

    System Load: 3.86 (1 min ago) 3.63 (5 min ago) 3.00 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O speed: 11.03 MB/s

    File system: 28.78 seconds

    Write speed:  36 MB/s

    Read speed:  185 MB/s

Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

    Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

    EtreCheck 536 MB (App Store)

    mdworker (17) 530 MB (Apple)

    Mail 257 MB (Apple)

    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (3) 230 MB (Apple)

    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (5) 224 MB (Apple)

Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:

    Process Input / Output (Source - Location)

    Mail 317 MB / 252 KB (Apple)

    Other processes 233 KB / 81 KB (?)

    SystemUIServer 0 B / 64 B (Apple)

    spindump_agent 0 B / 0 B (Apple)

    backgroundtaskmanagementagent 0 B / 0 B (Apple)

Virtual Memory Information:

    Physical RAM: 16 GB

    Free RAM: 3.35 GB

    Used RAM: 6.48 GB

    Cached files: 6.17 GB

    Available RAM: 9.52 GB

    Swap Used: 0 B

Software Installs (past 30 days):

    Install Date Name (Version)

    2019-07-11 Adobe Flash Player

    2019-07-30 Security Update 2019-001 (10.13.6)

    2019-08-01 Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (19.012.20034)

    2019-08-01 EtreCheck (5.3.2)

Clean up:

    /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.bombich.ccc.scheduledtask.33569914-78F3-428F-8861-D7719E716499.plist

        ~/Downloads/Carbon Copy Cloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc_helper.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc_helper

        Executable not found

    ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.assistant.plist

        ~/Library/Application Support/.helper/Finder

        Executable not found

    ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.ARM.***.plist

        /Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/MacOS/Updater/Adobe Reader Updater Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Reader Updater Helper

        Executable not found

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

    Directory /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports is not accessible.

    Enable Full Drive Access to see more information.

End of report

Thanks for your patience with this large EtreCheckfile. What should be done next? I need help in removing Norton. Should I run the MacsFancontrol zip or do you think it is the power supply? The problem has not been solved yet, but the fan definitely helps.

tineke

Thank you all for your suggestions. BDAqua, I really appreciate your help on this issue. I was not able to find all of the plists that you suggested deleting.

Method 1:

1 From the Finder, select the Go menu at top of the screen, and choose Go to Folder.

2 In the window that opens, enter ~/Library, and click Go.

Method 2:

1 Go to the Finder (or desktop).

2 Hold the Option key on

your keyboard, and click the Go menu at the top of the screen.

3 With the Go menu open, you'll notice that pressing and releasing Option will display or hide the Library choice in this menu.

4 Select Library from the Go menu

(while holding down Option) to access the hidden folder.

Method 3:

1 Click anywhere on the desktop so

Finder is the name of the foreground app shown at the upper left.

2 Press Command+Shift+H

3 With your home folder open, press

Command+J. This the only place you'll see a check box to Show Library Folder.

Turn it on. I found the tineketover home folder

4 From now on, your user account

Library folder will be visible without having to use special keys or commands

to get there. Not seen.

Using methods 1, 2, or 3, I was able to remove some of the files below:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.bombich.ccc.scheduledtask.33569914-78F3-428F-8861-D7719E716499.plist.... not found

found symantic com (aug 1, 2019) and deleted; also removed an empty Symantic folder;

~/Downloads/CarbonCopyCloner.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc_helper.app/Contents/MacOS/ccc_helper...... not found;

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.assistant.plist ..... found and deleted;

~/Library/ApplicationSupport/.helper/Finder...... not found

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.ARM.***.plist......  found and removed to

trash

Apple hid the Users' Library folders...

Norton should be easy to uninstall...

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v64924250 

Norton or Symantec was not in the

application window, so perhaps it did not install itself.

Did you unzip MFC & install it?

I do not recall seeing this. What does MFC stand for?

I have downloaded macOSUpdCombo10.13.6, but not yet installed it. Will clean-up my googlemail and computer and verify backups are working before I do this.

 I am currently not using my DOS partition, as Apple no longer supports this..

My iMac has been running for about 2 hours and is no longer running hot; perhaps the hardware resets and cleanup steps that were performed have rectified the problems. Is it important that some of the remaining plists should be found?

At this stage, will Apple give me a credit if I purchase a new iMac, or do you think it is good to go for a while (1-2 years)?

 tineketover

My reply was more than 5000 words and now has been lost. It contained the EtreCheck report and my own comments. How can I best send this information to you. It is a rtf file.

tineke