iMac 2015 turns off automatically when working in AE

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Level 1

12 points

iMac 2015 turns off automatically when working in AE

I recently upgraded to Big Sur a couple months ago on my 2015 imac 27" and now randomly the mac will automatically shut down while working in Adobe AE (After Effects). Most the time its while rendering or sometimes doing other important or editing tasks. Then all of sudden... BAM... computer just off... black screen. It literally turns off. This has never happened before. And it ONLY happens while working in AE and since the upgrade. Coincidence? I can't imagine. But seems like maybe OS issue?? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Brian

iMac 27″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Jun 24, 2021 6:26 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 24, 2021 7:34 PM in response to concort5435

Bad RAM module? This problem only seems to crop up when doing memory intensive tasks.

Start with an EtreCheck evaluation of your Mac.

EtreCheck is a diagnostic app that gathers and reports important debugging information about your Macintosh. It is very highly regarded and meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help others help you troubleshoot and resolve your Mac problems.

Please navigate to EtreCheck.com and download the free version of EtreCheck. Once you’ve run the app and created your report please post it with your reply to this message. You must upload the full report. For instructions on how to attach your EtreCheck report to your reply, please click How to use Add Text when posting…

We can use the EtreCheck report to look for the more obvious things that may be causing your problem and advise how to correct them.

There are other utilities out there that will run system diagnostics that include RAM and GPU, but that are not free. I've used TechTool Pro for many years with good success. https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro/

For now, though, start with EtreCheck and let's see if it finds something that might be problematic.

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Answer 2

concort5435 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 25, 2021 5:42 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Well the reason i didnt get in touch with Adobe is because the Mac itself literally shuts off in the middle of working in AE. That to me sounds like a hardware or OS issue. I would think if its Adobe software issue the software would just crash and go to desktop.

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Answer 3

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,591 points

Jun 25, 2021 6:00 PM in response to concort5435

Do you get any kind of report from the computer about the crash?

Not saying this is the guaranteed cause, but experienced a similar difficult to trace down issue that ended up being bad RAM that was being stressed when rendering long comps to RAM in AE.

How much RAM do you have? Can you pull a couple of RAM chips and test? If it still crashes, swap the ones that are in the computer with the RAM chips you had pulled out and test again, to see if you can narrow down the problem.

MtD

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