Several sudden shutdowns on new iMac

Peter I don't believe we can say the imacs only work with 16 gigs Apple Ram as the earlier post from Atkins store is based on an imac entirely built by Apple had the same problem. Perhaps there is a weakness in some third party ram..but ..Apple ram also seems to fail sometimes.

Hey Peter,

Tsumuji was referring to my machine / earlier post. I just purchased the new iMac i7 with 16GB Ram a month ago. Everything was purchased directly from Apple.

My Specs:
2.93GHZ QUAD-CORE INTELCORE I7
16GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM-4X4GB
2TB SERIAL ATA DRIVE
ATI RADEON HD 5750 1GB GDDR5
8X DOUBLE-LAYER SUPERDRIVE
COUNTRY KIT,IMAC 27-INCH

The iMac has randomly shut down on me about 9 times.

I called up Apple after it happened 3 times to me the first night it happened about a week ago. They brought me through a procedure of turning off the computer, unplugging it, plugging it back in, and resetting the ram by holding Ctrl Command+RP.
This did not work.
I just called back tonight after my computer randomly shut down on me again 3 times. I now have booked an appointment with the Apple Store to have it checked out. Such a pain.

I will definitely update everyone after I bring in the machine on Thursday.

AtkinsStorefront I am so sorry to hear your problems persist and I just sent back my OWC ram and ordered Samsung hoping it would solve the problem. Obviously this is not an OWC problem but one of Apple's making. Please let us know what you learn. I am afraid this in an hardware issue such as heat.

OMG! Is the getting worse for everyone? Suddenly I am getting shutdowns within a single song on Itunes. It has happened 5 times in about 10 minutes! I was not getting this frequency before. In fact I did not notice this at all at first. I am sure it is happen more and more. Is this the same for all of you?

Tsumuji,

you can take out two memory modules (referring to the user guide is strongly recommended!). In case the machine runs then without problems, you can be pretty sure, that the inserted memory is OK. If it really is an issue of the memory, the faulty one is outside the machine.
Then, exchange the RAM with the other two modules and I presume that you will have no problems either. If so, the memory appears to be OK. No need to change it at all.

Of course, Apple specified the machine for up to 16 GB RAM, but it seems to me that in the end it can not handle with.
I took all the steps Apple recommended to us but I can not afford to dismiss my machine for days or weeks to Apple Service.
Though I bought the machine in order to use full 16 GB RAM, in the end I prefer to use it with 12 GB and no shutdown problems since Oct. 1st.

頑張って下さい。

Tom

Message was edited by: _Tom_

Thank you Tom. I will have to try using just 12 GBs. Hmmm I agree it is too bad as I have now paid for one set of 16..then to pay to return it with international shipping to OWC and now I have purchased a second set of Samsung ram which I am waiting for. And I agree it appears the ram is not the problem as much as it seems to be an hardware issue.
Gambaremasun yo!

I just want to add one clue just in case someone from Apple is trying to solve this problem. Today it must have happend 10 times and more than ever. But just a moment ago I was listening to itunes and happend to watch the event happen.. when it did there was a distinct 'pop' noise. It reminded me of a fuse blowing.
I only had Itunes, Mail and Chrome running at the time.

Thank you Peter. I will try your advise. Strange but today I had several shut downs in rapid succession with only Itunes on. Now for the last hour or more nothing happens. It is just so random and strange.
I also wonder if it is the ram alone or how taxing the software at some point may be? Apple ram also seems to have the same problem as third party ram but not all of them all the time. My Itunes library is quite large. Could it be an issue I don't know?

Tom I have a question. If 12 gigs of ram is fine with one slot empty. Why not fill the other slot with the original apple 2 gig memory for a total of 14? Is there still some loss in not having matched sets of memory in the current models? It just seems to me that 12 gigs is fine but 14 might be better. I have not tried it as I am not testing how long this will go without a sudden shutdown on 12 gigs.
By the way with 16 gigs the machine will shut down with only Chrome running.

I hope this is the end of this problem for me. Today I received 16 GB of Samsung ram from OWC. I was running 12GB of Nu rum. 12 worked fine, 16 gave me sudden shutdowns. I will test the Samsung ram with 16GB. If I should write again it is bad news. But I am hoping the new ram will solve the problem.