27" Retina iMac dead

Question

27" Retina iMac dead

Less than one week old, my 27" Retina iMac is… dead!

I put it to Sleep a few hours ago, and returned to find that I could not wake the machine. Screen trouble? Pressing the Power button, to turn it OFF, and pressing it again to turn it ON produced NOTHING. A black screen.

Checked the power strip (other devices are powered ON)… checked the U.P.S. (lights are ON)… tried a wired keyboard and mouse (no change)… Nothing works.

I hardly know this machine yet. Should there be a tiny LED light somewhere, indicating whether it's receiving power? (There is no LED to be seen.)

Has the screen died on me? The power supply? Something else? I am out of ideas.

Luckily, I have a nearby MacBook Pro, to let me post this Question.

TIA.

John Lincoln

Posted on Jan 4, 2015 8:59 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 4, 2015 11:54 PM in response to John H. Lincoln

Never mind. Problem solved.

Ran the power plug into another circuit, and the iMac came back to life.

May all your problems be so easily solved.

Happy New Year!

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Answer 2

Jan 6, 2015 12:48 PM in response to John H. Lincoln

Me again. Turns out that the problem of a "dead" 5K Retina iMac (unable to Wake from Sleep) might be a common problem.

I just got off the phone with Apple Support (800) 275-2273. I told the Tech that, when put to sleep, the iMac won't wake up without UN-plugging the machine, and plugging it back in. He said this is the same as re-setting the SMC (System Management Controller) on this model — which is accomplished by UN-plugging the computer, waiting 2-3 minutes, and re-plugging it back into the electric socket. That's it.

And he told me that the problem appears to be caused by having a particular setting checked in: System Preferences > Energy Saver.

The solution is simple — just UN-check the option: "Put hard disks to sleep when possible".

I've only been flying with this "fix" in place for a few hours, but Sleep-Wake-Sleep-Wake seems to be normal, and functioning well.

Using OS X 10.10.1.

If this is your problem, give it a try.

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Answer 3

Ralph9430

Level 7

21,756 points

Jan 6, 2015 2:24 PM in response to John H. Lincoln

John H. Lincoln wrote:

The solution is simple — just UN-check the option: "Put hard disks to sleep when possible".

That option has been checked on since I received my iMac 5K back in November. It has not exhibited the inability to turn back on after going to sleep. There must be another reason for your problem.

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Answer 4

Jan 7, 2015 12:10 PM in response to Ralph9430

The only difference between my machine's settings now (Wake from Sleep is working properly) and previously (would not Wake from Sleep without resetting the SMC) is that the option "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is UN-checked, instead of checked.

If the problem recurs, I'll let you know.

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Answer 5

jahill70

Level 1

9 points

Jun 28, 2015 4:51 AM in response to John H. Lincoln

Thanks for coming back with the answer. I woke up this morning, my iMac Retina was dead and nothing I did could bring it back to life. A quick search came up your post and unplugging for three minutes worked.

I've always had this option unchecked before as it seems counterproductive on an SSD based machine, but forgot to change it back after re-installing OS X.

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Answer 6

jahill70

Level 1

9 points

Jun 28, 2015 9:28 AM in response to jahill70

To follow up on my previous post, I've discovered that 'Put hard disks to sleep when possible' didn't make a difference, but'Prevent computer from sleeping automatically...' did (even though it was failing to wake after I put the machine to sleep manually). This was the option, incidentally, I changed yesterday as I hadn't realised my machine might not sleep automatically. It looks like my 27" iMac (Retina) just can't be set to sleep automatically right now...

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Answer 7

jahill70

Level 1

9 points

Jul 2, 2015 7:02 PM in response to jahill70

Well, to conclude this story, three days after my last post my iMac Retina stopped starting up full stop. So, my 27" screen has been replaced temporarily with a 12" screen and my iMac is going back to an Apple store to get fixed...

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Answer 8

babowa

Level 9

78,109 points

Jul 2, 2015 7:42 PM in response to jahill70

If your iMac is less than 14 days old, I'd seriously consider returning it and getting another; there is no way that a brand new Mac should have this type of problem and I see no reason to "fix" or "repair" a brand new machine - to me, it is DOA and should be replaced. That is exactly what I did in January with mine (not a 5k Retina) and the replacement has been great (mine had multiple problems).

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Answer 9

jahill70

Level 1

9 points

Jul 3, 2015 6:11 AM in response to babowa

My machine was ordered when they first came out and is a few months old, the original poster's machine was new. I'm happy to take it back for repair, although wish I didn't have to do two separate 90 mile drives to do so!

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