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User profile for user: Jeroen Pietersma1
Jeroen Pietersma1 Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

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Mac who had the same problem when starting iTunes and later wrote that iTunes wasn't the problem but that Topic has been archived and replies are not allowed...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

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112 replies
User profile for user: Juz
Juz
User level: Level 1
0 points

Aug 29, 2006 4:00 PM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

I am in the same boat, very recently.
About five days ago I turned away from my iMac G5 2GHz to take a phone call, came back and it was off. No freeze, no death screen, just totally off.

This happened three or four more times in the next 2 days and finally once while I sat there watching. I thought it was iTunes, and also perhaps a fan issue causing overheating? Temperature Monitor hasnt seemed to spike, but hard to tella s it doesnt log temps as it goes, just displays current. Just can't recall the last time I heard the fans kick-on...

Console shows very little, but I do get a similar message re: SMU or PMU as you mentioend below.

Resetting PMU and SMU to no avail. Indeed today, I restarted the machine and it shut down two minutes after I logged in. Thus its not iTunes for me either, as thats not a startup (and I wouldnt expect apps to cause such an ungracious failure).

Was thinking I would take it in as part of the iMac G5 Repair Extension program while I can, since my AppleCare expired 3 months ago.

Anyone else have any luck resolving such an issue?
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User profile for user: Merlote
Merlote
User level: Level 1
5 points

Sep 10, 2006 11:49 AM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

Jeroen,

Hi there not sure if this is a sound problem. I have a year old G5 with Tiger,and the latest upgrade, About three weeks ago my Mac just shut down, I thought someone in the next few offices where doing somthing or running a heater or fan. I found nothing. So I restarted the Mac and went on, well once a week sence then it has been shuting down. I don't use itunes even thow it is on my computer. I was running Quark XPress and even had Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator opened when it shut down. I found out yesterday the Quark file I was working on (32page catalog section) is now bad I can't open it. I do have a firewire scanner and an external hard drive connected. I have checked all cords unpluged them etc, nothing. I guess I will call my Mac srevice company here and see what they find, I will let everyone know if they find anything out. Seems to me it may be in the computer power supply.
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User profile for user: Mac-Medic
Mac-Medic
User level: Level 6
17,301 points

Sep 11, 2006 12:39 AM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

Check system.log in your Console application for lines like "Power Management received an overtemp signal. Going to sleep." or "localhost kernel: PowerMac7,3 Thermal Manager: Thermal Runaway Detected: System Will Sleep. You may have a processor(s) overheating and putting the G5 in thermal shutdown.

Also, are any of you using a UPS? A weak battery in there can trigger a -122 shutdown.

- Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
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User profile for user: Linuxpng
Linuxpng
User level: Level 2
195 points

Sep 11, 2006 6:06 AM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

I had the same problem too, I was in denial about it for about 3 or 4 months. The machine had been solid previous.

I finally broke down and Apple replaced the system board and powersupply. As with all Apple repairs, watch your case when they return it to you. Mine had very visable scaring upon return (which they fixed, but not before I had given them the machine for 4 weeks).

If your machine powers off randomly, and on boot (sometimes) on the gray screen right has it's about to change to blue, it's probably the same problem I had.
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User profile for user: Juz
Juz
User level: Level 1
0 points

Sep 11, 2006 7:15 AM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

I started my investigation under the assumption that it was thermal, but disproved it. I ran Temperature Monitor for a while, but that is only of use if it would log all your temps up to the crash (rather than just being an active display). I never saw a temp above 80 (and the threshold is 83 or something) I then had a couple of shutdowns happen within minutes of a restart. And this was after a shutdown overnight where the machine had been cool. Thus not temperature related.

I believe this is a power/system module or logic board issue, mechanical in nature, as the machine is particularly quirky after you shift it (we recently moved), but settles down (been on last 4 days no issue) if you leave it stationary as much as possible. I did wonder if there is a gyro in there? I thought I remembered something about iMacs being "incline sensitive"?

Still should get it checked out/replaced, but need to do so under the iMac replacement policy, as am out of AppleCare. But 4 weeks? Egads - Thats a long time to be without a computer...

iMac 2GHz PPC 1.5GB Mac OS X (10.4.6)
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User profile for user: Jeroen Pietersma1
Jeroen Pietersma1 Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

Sep 27, 2006 8:40 PM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

And then the shutdowns were back... and I think it's iTunes again... (mostly...)
In my previous post I mentioned the recent QuickTime and iTunes update
That were QT 7.1.3 and iTunes 7.0
After that update the shutdowns were gone, except for two sudden shutdowns when I was watching flash movies in Safari...
Then the iTunes 7.0.1 update came and the first time I started this new iTunes, there was another shutdown. Then it went fine for a while, but then I had a series of shutdowns, all after starting iTunes 7.0.1....
I went back to iTunes 7 and it's fine again (for now...)
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User profile for user: decksnap
decksnap
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 4, 2006 8:31 AM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

Somebody needs to get to the bottom of this. I have the exact same problem- Power dual 2.3 G5, now running 10.4.8.

From my research, here are the things most people seem to have in common:
- Dual G5 (specifically mostly 2.3s)
- console shows PMU forced shutdown error -122
- Issues did not start until after upgrading to 10.4.7 or 10.4.8 (10.4.6 was fine)
- Issues seem to revolve around quicktime- iTunes, QT player and sometimes Safari can all cause the shutdowns. (I can specifically reproduce the problem by running QT through its paces)
- Hardware tests, SMU resets, unplugging, reseating RAM have solved nothing.

My conclusion is that this is software related. Otherwise, how could the problem happen only after 10.4.6? I hope there is a resolution to this, because I am out of warrantee, but if it is either a software issue OR a batch of faulty hardware across lots of users, I feel entitled to a fix.
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User profile for user: mykguilbault
mykguilbault
User level: Level 1
5 points

Nov 4, 2006 8:50 AM in response to decksnap

I'm on a Dual 2.0 and random shut down started on Wednesday. It was once or twice near the end of the day and occured when I was in Adobe Lightroom and started a Slideshow. Until reading this thread, I didn't realize, but when you start a Slideshow it automatically starts iTunes to play the selected music. As soon as that happened... it shut down.

But on Thursday, it shut down once in the morning (no iTunes playing) and then in the afternoon, about every 10 minutes until I gave up. I took it to my Mac Tech and he couldn't find anything other than the PMU error... reset it and ran it all night with no problem (although I don't think he had anything running on it). I got it back yesterday at noon. Everything worked great until about 4:30. I was in PhotoShop and it shutdown again - no iTunes running.

I've had it going for about 2 hours today (no iTunes) and it's ok so far. I'd sure like to know what caused this though. If it is iTunes, it has triggered something that makes it shutdown in other programs too. If it's hardware... what's causing this all of a sudden?
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User profile for user: Jeroen Pietersma1
Jeroen Pietersma1 Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

Nov 4, 2006 9:01 AM in response to decksnap

Hi Decksnap,
Some big news at the end of this post
Uhm, it's a bit weird to say it's good to see another person with the same problem, but it's more likely to get a fix when there are more people... And just when I'm writing this I saw another new message in this thread...
I've been having the shut downs every now and then, I think it must be QT, in particular together with iTunes. When I start my Mac and start iTunes right away, it's almost certain there will be a shut down. Frist start a few other apps and it's not a problem most of the time. Also shutdowns with Safari, mainly with movies.
I also think it's software related, like changes in QT that our hardware doesn't like... So you could see it a a hardware problem.
And now for the big news: At Xlr8yourmac.com there's a web page about this problem, one person did get a fix from Apple:
They sent out a new power supply, a new logic board, and new RAM to replace the original 512MB.
A technician came to my house yesterday and replaced all three components. So far (over the last 24 hours), I have not had any random shutdowns (knock on wood).
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User profile for user: decksnap
decksnap
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 4, 2006 9:12 AM in response to Jeroen Pietersma1

Jeroen-

interesting that you believe it to be a software problem yet replaced all that hardware. 🙂

I too have been reading the thread at xlr8yourMac. Seems there are lots of us out there. I hope we are heard, and that those of us out of warrantee get some satisfaction as well.

One more bit of info- I just found this PowerMac G5 extension repair program posted on Apple- it is for Power Supplies. Only problem is it isn't for random shutdowns, and it isn't for my serial number range. I am hoping that this extension program will expand to encompass our problems and serial numbers as well.

http://www.apple.com/support/powermac/powersupply/repairextension/
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Sudden shutdown

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