iMac starting to shut off - as if power has been disconnected?

Question

iMac starting to shut off - as if power has been disconnected?

Hello,

My iMac has never given me any trouble before, and I really don't download much from the internet. I mainly use my iMac for e-mail, web-browsing, and the iLife programs. The only thing I have downloaded recently is the newest iTunes update.

Anyway, recently my computer has started to simply shut-off from time to time. I am talking about a HARD shut down, as if someone simply unplugged the computer. Instant black screen, and loss of power! I have to push the power button to start the computer back up, and of course I have lost anything I was working on.

Does anyone have a clue as to why this might be happening? I included all of my computer's details in my profile, so I think you should see it. I hope it is something that could be fixed, I am really not in a position to buy a new computer right now.

Thanks,

Lincoln

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.5), 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Posted on Sep 16, 2010 8:38 PM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

82,925 points

Sep 17, 2010 6:25 AM in response to Lincoln Nymeyer

Check the cable in the back is not loose, and the plug is flush mounted in its socket.

If it is there is a possibility the machine might be overheating. See what I have to say about heat:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=716829&tstart=0

This applies to all Macs, not just notebooks. P.S. I've asked the moderator to move your post. No need to repost. This is the iMac G4 forum, and your profile machine is equivalent to an iMac G6, except it was called an iMac Intel.

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Answer 2

Oct 5, 2010 6:19 PM in response to Lincoln Nymeyer

we have a 27" iMac 3.2G Intel i3 purchased in August 2010. we started experiencing random power outages about 2 weeks after we took it out of the box ... it started to become more frequent. apple is telling me that they need to send out a fix ... i question the quality of the product as the first one we bought didnt even power on. Could this be a theme, first iPhone, now iMac ...

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Answer 3

tsumuji

Level 1

0 points

Oct 6, 2010 11:00 PM in response to nick in canada

Thank you Nick for your post. Could you tell us what Apples fix they send out. What exactly did they say?
Thank you for your help as many of us seem to have this problem. By the way, where did you get your ram and how much do you have installed?

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Answer 4

Macaby

Level 3

923 points

Oct 6, 2010 11:29 PM in response to nick in canada

I have a 27" iMac purchased last December. Recently it was doing something similar to the above complaints in this thread. It would suddenly shut down about 2 minutes or less after booting. After several of these shutdowns, I trotted into a local Genius Bar. I thought it was a power supply problem. The Genius was able to boot off of some trouble shooting external hard drive to check for any system hardware problem. I think that check came up negative.

Then he went into Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and ran "Permissions Repair". After that program ran for about 8 minutes, the computer was rebooted and it's been fine for about 10 days now. Go figure.

While I don't know if it's good advice or not, the Genius told me I should run "Permissions Repair" monthly.

Since I'm coming up on one year with my warranty, I bought Apple Care in case something else happens with my MBP.

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