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Sudden shutdown

It started after the 10.4.7 update. When I rebooted after the update, My G5 would just shut down right away, like someone pulled the power cord. iTunes was a startup item and caused this. And did so later when I would start iTunes myself.

I threw out caches, reset the PMU, unplugged all devices/cables, reset PRAM, ran Disk Utility and TechTool Pro, deleted iTunes and related files, re-installed iTunes. Not sure what did the trick but the shutdowns were gone.

But they came back. A few times after starting iTunes and also a few times when surfing the web. So more rounds of unplugging, resetting, etc. and it would be fine again.
Today it happened again after starting iTunes, and unplugging, resetting, etc. would not help. Same thing on a second hard drive with pretty much a clean install of OS X. So I can't use iTunes anymore...

This is from the sytem log:
Aug 19 21:47:23 localhost kernel[0]: ApplePMU::PMU forced shutdown, cause = -122

I've seen more posts about the same problem, also at www.xlr8yourmac.com, and the same problem still happening after repair. Not sure if bringing it in for repair would help. The problem might be gone all of a sudden, who knows when it comes back, and it seems that nobody knows what the problem is so that would make it impossible to repair.

Or did I miss something? And I wonder what all people with the same problem did. Just living with the occasional shutdown now and then? I saw a much older post by sAik0, someone with the same Mac who had the same problem when starting iTunes and later wrote that iTunes wasn't the problem but that Topic has been archived and replies are not allowed...

My guess is that it's a problem with sound, iTunes talking to hardware. Or maybe QuickTime? (Because it happened a few times when surfing the web and maybe Safari needed QuickTime on some sites?) I'd like to hear from people with the same problem. And any idea what a good way would be to contact Apple about this? It looks like it's just faulty and Apple should fix this...

G5 dual 2.3 Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 19, 2006 8:40 PM

112 replies

nielx

Level 1

0 points

Nov 15, 2006 7:46 AM in response to DaddyPaycheck

hi Jeroen and DaddyPaycheck, thanks for the replies.
I will go and have a look at the other forum.
Good luck to you with the shutdown thing.

Nov 15, 2006 8:03 AM in response to nielx

hi nielsk,
thanks - i forgot to ask: what does your system log show after a crash? do you also get the -122 error message?

nielx

Level 1

0 points

Nov 15, 2006 10:53 AM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

jeroen,
is this what you mean? This is from the log - at 18:52 it completed startup after a crash and then crashed immediately again. At 19:45 (after a nice bowl of soup) I restarted the computer. There is no report of the crash itself.

Nov 15 18:52:33 G5 configd[38]: AppleTalk startup complete
Nov 15 19:45:57 localhost kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us

Niels

nielx

Level 1

0 points

Nov 15, 2006 10:58 AM in response to DaddyPaycheck

DaddyPaycheck,

I have to correct myself (that is what you get with nervous newbies). My Imac is covered, apparently the power supply is at fault.

Thank you very much for your advice 🙂

Niels

imac g5 2MHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Nov 15, 2006 10:58 AM in response to nielx

Hi Nielsk,
Thanks for checking that - must be a different thing - the shut down on the Power Mac is in the sys log:

Aug 19 21:47:23 localhost kernel[0]: ApplePMU::PMU forced shutdown, cause = -122

Nov 15, 2006 12:31 PM in response to nielx

nielsk-

No worries.

Thanks for the follow-up.

-DaddyPaycheck

Nov 16, 2006 1:55 PM in response to mykguilbault

UPDATE:

Well my tech says all things point to the power supply. I called Apple Support and (yes DaddyPaycheck, I was firm but polite!) apparently I had a power supply replaced last year when I was having another problem, that and a logic board. Anyway, it looks like my original power supply was replaced with one of the faulty ones that is now covered by the extension program, so therefore, they are covering the new power supply under that program.

I was impressed with the service (of course.. they're covering it!), and hopefully this will take care of the random shutdowns. I should have my computer back in a day or two and I'll keep you posted on the results.

Nov 16, 2006 5:08 PM in response to Timothy McNichols

Well thanks for keeping vocal about this - hopefully Apple are listening!

this thread alone has 1,497 views... says something right there I'd say.

Nov 17, 2006 4:37 AM in response to mykguilbault

Mike_Guilbault-

Atta boy! Glad that you figured it out! I am telling you the firm yet polite is the only way to deal with these folks.

I am always blown away when people claim that they get nowhere with Apple regarding problems. This is a great example about how digging in your heels and getting to the bottom of things, combined with firm yet polite, can get things done.

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

Dan-o

Level 2

403 points

Nov 19, 2006 4:20 PM in response to mykguilbault

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for my disappearance. I have been without my machine since last Monday. I took it into the Apple store... and the cause of the problem was neither a power supply fault nor software. Somehow, the power supply to my optical drive had been jarred loose over time. And what happens in any Power Mac or Mac Pro... is that as it's booting power checks are done to the components as they "spool up", etc. If any one of those components returns a fault (i.e. not receiving power), the entire machine will -by design- shut down.

A complete AppleStore diagnostic was run on my machine and it was perfectly fine, and once the power to the optical drive was re-seated, they rebooted my machine several dozen times without incident. Oddly I haven't ever replaced my optical drive and haven't had it out for case cleaning in months, but for some reason that power supply came loose enough that it tripped the system every time I tried to start it up.

The reason it worked in Safe Mode, is because the optical drive kernel is not active during said mode, so it bypasses it.

CONCLUSION: Check all of your drive cables and fan connections before taking your machine in to the Apple Store. You may save yourself $75 and a lot of trouble.

Nov 19, 2006 5:29 PM in response to Dan-o

Hi Dan-o,
Thanks for the update. Great that your Mac is good again. I hope you won't see the -122 error message, which is definitely not a matter of loose parts... I wish it was 🙂 I'm tempted to bring my Mac in, but I won't. Not going to pay $75 for a problem that got started bu 10.4.7 and is gone after downgrade to 10.4.6... It's a software problem (caused by Aple) that might actually go away with some new hardware and that would be expensive, and I think Apple should come with a fix. About a week ago I sent a letter to Apple Customer Service... Maybe that will help, but I guess it will take quite some time...

Nov 24, 2006 12:32 PM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

today I got a letter from Apple, pretty much a standard letter, saying I can call tech support, check Apple's support site and I can take it to an Apple Store for diagnosis... I'd like to go there, but I don't think I have to pay for that, so I explained the whole thing one more time in a new letter, asking for a free diagnosis... I'll be back here as soon as I hear from Apple.

Nov 28, 2006 5:47 PM in response to DaddyPaycheck

Well I got my G5 back yesterday with a new power supply. Fired it up and it hasn't shutdown once since then. Ran it all day today on various programs (although I haven't tried iTunes yet - that'll be tomorrow once I'm caught up on 12 days worth of bookkeeping) The power supply was on back-order so that was part of the delay. My tech had it installed and ready for me within a couple of hours.

I'm a happy camper again - and it didn't cost me anything. (whew!)

Nov 29, 2006 4:12 AM in response to mykguilbault

Mike_Guilbault-

Power supplies on back order must mean that Apple is burning through the replacements rather quickly.

I am glad you are once again happy.

For now (;>)

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

Dec 5, 2006 9:20 AM in response to DaddyPaycheck

Hi, I'm still waiting to hear back from Apple, but might have found something to prevent iTunes form causing the shutdown. Whenever I start iTunes, 9 out of 10 times it will cause the shutdown, but when I double click a music file in the iTunes Music folder, this will start iTunes without shutting down the Mac. Well, at least so far, after trying this 3 or 4 times...
Just had another shutdown though after viewing some online flash movies and then scrolling on the web page wth the movies.

Sudden shutdown