27 iMac (2012) crashes and requires smc reset to turn on

After hours with Tech support (as helpful or as unhelpful as they could be, given this situation) and studying the many responses and attempts on this board to remedy the similar problem I faced with my 27" iMac (late 2012. 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5) after installing El Capitan, I decided to try a solution for myself: erase and the HD and start over from factory settings. Fortunately, I was able to back up all the most pertinent files I needed---most, but not all---before starting over. I gradually updated OS through to Mavericks; including all updates, and my computer is running perfectly. It's been three days, and it's running as if new: no crashes, no slow response time, no beach balls. I'm considering expanding the experiment to downloading Yosemite. But only after I can complete some work at hand.

It was very disappointing that Tech Support was unable to help; this problem seems alien to them, in spite of my forwarding this lengthy and important thread to the senior tech advisors I spoke with. Even stranger, my computer didn't qualify for a replacement HD, according to the serial number I have.

I arrived at making the decision to erase the HD partition only after many attempts to solve the issue, either through advice from Tech staff or my own research, i.e. restoring from my most recent Time Machine backup. All previous solutions (no, I was not going to bring my machine into the store only to be told what so many others were told, that there wasn't a problem, or to be sold some new temporary fix) did not work and/or worsened the problem.

If Apple were made to be as responsible to the problems their machines face as any American car company would, we'd have some answers. The late model 27" iMacs are not equipped to deal with the recent upgrades, in particular, El Capitan. A hypothesis, only, as I've still more experimentation to do. But just my two cents on this sad, frustrating issue.

I am done the same thing today, format my hard disc and reinstall the OS El Capitan. I have contacted the Apple tech support .He has told me that to use time machine to restore the data. Unfortunately, everything was busted during the Transferring Your Information screen. My iMac is shutdown during the process. Pretty much, I am not able to restore the data from Time Machine. I couldn't restore the data one by one, as the Time Machine data is pretty much stored as a snap shot of your system.

I am very disappointed about the this model of iMac (late 2012 27 inch iMac). This may be the first generation of the Slim iMacs, therefore there are lot of issues about this generation. I strongly urged Apple to find out the solution to fix this iMac. As this is not a cheap investment, I spent 3300 AUD for iMac which doesn't last for 2 and half year. That seems ridiculous. My old 24 inch iMac is still running OK, it is just a bit slow. The build quality has been dropped so much. Is that related to Chinese Manufactory?😢

You can add another iMac 27" 2012 frustrated owner. Have taken it to the apple representative for the third time now. First, they replaced the logic board. It worked for about a month or so. Problem started again. Took it for the second time: they replaced the power supply. Worked for about a week, and the machine is now at the repair service for the third time. It's been there for a month now, and the technician tells me they cannot find anything wrong on the machine. This is nervous breaking. I've only had the machine for a year, and I am afraid it's been an expensive waste of money😠

Another victim over here 😟

For several months my iMac (late 2012 27 inch i7 with 3TB Fusion) is not usable for work anymore... I've replaced the Fusion Drive but the problem now occurs even more than before.

Support is ignoring this problem. Even if you point them to these topics on their own forums! I've sended them error reports from the console, but they just go on with their list to reset everything. "Did you reset the NVRAM?" 😢

For me this is a clearly a hardware problem with the new design iMac introduced in late 2012. People can make mistakes, but this is highly frustrating as this is not a cheap machine. Apple should really act and stop ignoring these huge problems.

But I'm a bit relieved I'm not the only one with this weird problem.

I have the exact same issue like other buddies in this group.

My spec is:

Late 2012, 27"

3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5

8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM-2X4GB

1TB Fusion Drive

Nvidia GeForce GTX 675MX 1G GDDR5

I have the same issue as everyone else. Started about a month ago.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) - purchased Apr '13 in UK

2.9 GHz Intel Core i5

8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Macintosh HD 1TB SATA

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 512 MB

I have a Genius Bar appointment this Sunday (13th Dec) will update if anything positive comes from this.

I have the same problem as everyone else. Support isn't any help. This should be a recall issue.

Hello,

I apologize because I speak very bad English so I use google translation.

I have the same problem with my imac 2012. The problems have starting with the update "el captain."

I reinstalled Yosemite and change all my RAM. For now, the problem disappeared.

Good luck and thank you for your actions.

Update: Was contacted last Thursday by an Apple Senior advisor. It turned the issue was out of his hands, so he escalated the problem to Apple Engineering. They contacted me last night. Let's see what happens.

Thats good news. Let me know what happens. I'd love to get things fixed and back to normal

Keep us updated. I've had mine running for the longest period ever now (4 days), but I'd like to feel that Apple is aware of this issue and doing something positive to reassure its loyal customers. I've been buying Apple products for 23yrs now and will continue to do so if my iMac problem can be resolved.

Hi Joe5000,

any news? Apple (Technical Support) will call me later this week.

Hi Paul_ngc,

Still waiting. At least we have caught Apple's attention to this matter. Fortunately, the Apple representative who fixed the machine twice documented everything, that is, the replacement of the Logic Board first, and later the power supply. I e-mailed both reports to Technical Support, and pointed out the futility of fixing this machine. All they can do is temporary fixes, the machine passes all tests, so I am sure the problem will arise again. Clearly a defective model. Therefore the only solution is the recall of that model and replacement with one that actually works as intended.

I've had the same issue since February of this year after 2 years of owning this machine (late 2012 model). Made a Genius Bar appointment in October and they were unable to replicate the issue after keeping it for several days. Also, the issue did not show up on any logs even when I gave them the time/date of occurrence. This is utterly frustrating and I believe a recall is warranted for this machine. Specs for my iMac are below.

Update: Was contacted today by the third Apple Representative. Polite as always. Definitively someone with higher power of decision. Will keep updating as the process develops. I can only hope for the best for all of us.