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iMac Keeps Restarting Itself

I have a five-year-old iMac, latest operating system, and I regularly run Disk Utility and Onyx. However, lately, it's been restarting itself. It started a couple of weeks ago when it restarted a few times a week, but by late week, it was restarting every few minutes. I downloaded SMC Fan and that didn't help, and I cleaned out all vents and fan intake using both a vaccuum and compressed air. I took it to the Apple Store, and they could not reproduce the problem and diagnostics have indicated that everything is oaky. So I am mystified. I don't think it's a virus, heat, or corrupted application, but I have hit a brick wall. Any thoughts?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Sep 22, 2013 12:47 PM

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18 replies

Sep 22, 2013 4:33 PM in response to Burren47

Back up all data immediately as your boot drive may be failing.

This diagnostic procedure will query the system log for messages that may indicate a hardware fault. It changes nothing, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator. I've tested them only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'Channel t|GPU D|I/O|n Cause: -' | tail | open -ef

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).


Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:


☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)


☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.


☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.


Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).


The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.


A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the command will produce no output, and the window will be empty. If the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window) has anything in it, post it — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the TextEdit window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

Sep 23, 2013 7:56 PM in response to Burren47

A negative shutdown code may indicate a hardware problem. The exact meaning of the codes is not publicly documented.


Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider. You may have to leave the machine there for several days.

Print a copy of the above output and bring it with you. I can't promise that the "Geniuses" will know what to make of it, but they might.

Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional — ask if you need guidance.

If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.


Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair

*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

Oct 3, 2013 7:44 AM in response to Burren47

Gentlemen,


Thank you for your help. I brought in an electrician who found no problems with the power in my study. I made another appointment at the Apple Store and went in yesterday. I brought the Terminal Screen output, as Linc suggested. The genius who helped me seemed dismissive of the output I gave to him, saying that he could base his analysis either on that output or his own analysis. I told him whatever fixed the issue was fine by me. When we started up the computer, we saw the dialog box that that remained from the last random restart. He took a quick glance and quickly concluded that it was the logic board that was causing the problem. I asked him why they did not discover that when they had my computer for a few days last week. He said it was because they couldn't replicate the problem while they had it, probably because it was not being stressed by constant use as it is when I have it at home. A new logic board for this five-year-old model would be $700, not including labor, so he obviously recommended that I not fix it. So I have to see if I can do anything, like lessen the demand on the CPU by keeping applications closed, to reduce the incidents of restarts until I can purchase a new iMac.


Thank you to you both for your help!

Oct 25, 2013 4:19 PM in response to Linc Davis

I'm having the same problem with my mid-2011 21.5" iMac 12,1 computer. Here's my terminal report:


Oct 23 00:49:53 Joels-iMac kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

Oct 23 00:50:21 joels-imac kernel[0] <Debug>: Process Setup Assistant [214] disabling system-wide I/O Throttling

Oct 24 11:33:13 localhost kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

--- last message repeated 8 times ---

Oct 25 15:51:52 Joels-iMac kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128

--- last message repeated 2 times ---

Oct 25 16:04:55 localhost kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128



After some troubleshooting and experimenting, I've isolated the problem. The computer will restart after entering into sleep mode (only with computer sleep, display sleep has no effect on the issue), and only after about 60 seconds of being in sleep. I can put it to sleep, wait 30 seconds and revive it just fine without incident.


Ideas? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Dec 30, 2013 7:30 AM in response to Linc Davis

I had the same problem. I used your method and got this:


Dec 26 15:56:22 localhost kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -128



I have installed Mavericks *since* this last event, and I am not certain that random restart has happened since then. This computer is used by my guys in the lab, not me so I don't generally get to see this in real time. I have recently purchased a UPS with voltage regulation but given that these machines are meant to run worldwide on all kinds of voltage, I am guessing that was not the problem.



Maybe the NSA knows what -128 is?

Dec 30, 2013 10:30 AM in response to BZRich

After some trial and error and frustration, I discovered the problem was entirely RAM based. I had aftermarket 2x8gb sticks in the computer and after taking them out, replicating the problem, switching ram slots, replicating, etc I learned it was the RAM sticks.


Solution? Never put my computer to sleep. I let the display sleep to save power and pixels, but my hard drive never goes to sleep now. I kind of like it. My computer is always on and ready to rock.


Hope this helps.

Jan 1, 2014 4:25 PM in response to doctordishes

I'd like to join this thread by saying I have a new 2013 iMac (two months old originally running Mac OS10.9 and now 10.9.1) and ever since the day I've bought it I've experienced random restarts. I have 32GB of Kingston RAM installed and it was happeniing every two or three hours out of the box. I informed my supplier and I said that I would test to see if it could be to do with the RAM. So I removed 16GB and it did indeed improve, the restarts are less frequent which is good. I even went back to the 8GB (2x4GB) Hynix RAM and that seemed to work better but still not perfect.


But, it still catches me out, I can go a couple of days with no problem and then yesterday I had three restarts in one day. It's really frustrating. I have three WD My Passport drives plugged in which are vital to my operation but maybe they are the culpritt?


One thing that seems to trigger it is a video call in Skype. After a few minutes it can hang the machine and I have to force shut down and restart. This makes me suspect it could be a ligc board issue or maybe an overheating problem?


Linc, I shall run your Terminal command and let you know what it reports, I hope you can shed some light on how this could be solved. I've got 16GB of RAM sitting in a box because it just doesn't won't work with it all in. I've not tried booting up in Safe mode but maybe it will show me if it is more stable. I have got iStat Menus installed which does report on sensor and component temperatures but I'm not sure how to interpret the data as the figures go up and down. If it is running too hot maybe I should install fan controller app? If this is a good approach, can someone recommend one?


I do have it plugged into an APC Back UPS power supply unit, which I will bypass to see if it helps, but I'm doubtful on this.

Apr 7, 2014 12:04 AM in response to Linc Davis

Dear Mr Davis ( EK )

I had a similar problem and tried your procedure. Here is the code I got. Can you help me?


Apr 6 10:52:20 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Apr 6 10:52:27 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info End **

Apr 6 10:52:35 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Apr 6 10:52:42 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info End **

Apr 6 10:52:50 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Apr 6 10:52:57 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info End **

Apr 6 10:53:06 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Apr 6 10:53:13 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info End **

Apr 6 10:53:21 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Apr 6 10:53:28 johns-imac-651 kernel[0] <Debug>: ** GPU Debug Info End **

Dec 10, 2015 9:47 PM in response to Burren47

hey so i have had the same problem for a long time, an older version but fully updated. At first it just started turning…. ANY WAY, today i couldn't even watch a movie enough on the flix to get it on recently watched. So i went to settings and turned off airplay. We own a lot of mac products, and most can connect to the apple tv. So for me it was to much action for an old dog. after i turned it off, it has been perfect (just the last hour or so) i tested it, and did everything to it that would normally bring me back to my boring screen savor. So yeah…. GO TO SETTINGS AND TURN OFF AIRPLAY. IT WORKED FOR ME

iMac Keeps Restarting Itself

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