Why would my iMac shut down without warning?


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My iMac isn't even a month old, non refurbished one, straight out of the box from the apple store. I was just about to open steam when everything just shuts down on me. Don't have alot of programs running, just firefox, radium (small app that plays radio internet) and steam. Don't know why it would do this to me. I thought macs "just worked" ? I guess not. I am severley dissapointed. It's the first time it's done this to me. I got away from windows because I heard macs were alot more stable, turns out I was wrong.

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Does the Mac go through the shutdown process or does it just switch off? If so, it's most likely a physical issue.

Could be any number of things.. A power problem, an overheating problem, or even something as simple as a loose connection.

Since you've only just bought it, you can just swap it for another one if there is a fault.

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Seems to me you're having unrealistic expectations. Nothing is infallible, that includes Macs.

You keep asking for support which is fine, but you're extremely lacking in details which makes it very hard to actually give you the help you seek. I told you this before. What do you mean by "shut down" exactly? As in the iMac just powered off? Check Console (Console.app) for any errors and post them here.

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I've had my fair share of issues with my Macs... they're not completely infallible... they're electronics just like a Windows PC. I've gone through screens, batteries, hard drives, logic boards, etc. I'm still happy with the quality of my computer over that of an HP or a Dell. Yes... maybe this machine has had it's logic board and HDD replaced once already, and two new screens due to dead pixels, but this machine is 3 years old, and I have no intention of upgrading this for at least another year.

Anyway... everyone is right. You're being too vague about this. Did it start a shutdown on its own? Did it restart after. Does it even power on after your random shutdown?

What about where you have it plugged in? Do you have a line conditioner, UPS, or surge protector? Any random power spikes? Is your house riddled with bad power?

Did you accidentally kick the plug?

Did you run the included Apple Hardware test? What about checking for POST errors in System Profiler?

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If there's a lot of tension on the power cable, tilting the machine bank and forth can loosen the power cable - especially if it wasn't seated properly to begin with. If all your connections are fine, take it to an Apple Store for a replacement.

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Yeah, the power cable has alot of slack. Pretty sure I didn't kick the plug because my foot is pretty far away from it. I just shutdown on its own. I had to press the power button to bring it back on. Its fine so far after an hour but for how long, who knows. No random power spikes at home or at least none that I noticed. I have the power cable plugged into a UPS.

Edit: Ran the AHT and it did not find any problems.

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Okay, this is extremely weird. The exact same thing just happened with my iMac. I went downstairs to poor myself a drink and when I came back my iMac was completely turned off. :blink:

screenshot20110129at230.png

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Happens for me occasionally, I have a 2010 27" iMac i7. Did you upgrade your RAM? I also experience random packetloss out of the blue, the funny thing about that is that when I experience the packetloss in OSX the Windows 7 via Parallels does not encounter packetloss. :p I did return the machine for another but the same problem was with it.

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Hmm so your Mac isn't straight out of the box from an Apple store. Try replacing the RAM that came with it originally and see how things go.

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I bought memory from Macsales.com as well as many others who have problems. It seems Apple is using a CL7 memory in the Macs but Macsales.com are mostly selling CL9's. Normally this shouldnt be a problem, I bought a 2009 27" iMac (sold it and got the 2010 model instead) and installed RAM from Macsales.com in it without any issues. These issues are only in the 2010 models as it seems.

See here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2567907&start=0&tstart=0

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Hmm so your Mac isn't straight out of the box from an Apple store. Try replacing the RAM that came with it originally and see how things go.

I never said that. My iMac IS from the apple store that I bought in my town. And what difference would putting RAM in from macsales.com versus apple expensive ram? Isn't it the same?

And if not then why the hell would macsales.com sell the WRONG kind of memory that causes problems in the 2010 iMac models anyways?

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I never said that. My iMac IS from the apple store that I bought in my town. And what difference would putting RAM in from macsales.com versus apple expensive ram? Isn't it the same?

And if not then why the hell would macsales.com sell the WRONG kind of memory that causes problems in the 2010 iMac models anyways?

Just because an organisation calls themselves 'Macsales' doesn't mean they're the touch stone for all Mac related wisdom. You need to make sure that the memory you have is compatible with it, that is no different than purchasing memory for laptops such as HP/Toshiba/Lenovo and making sure it is compatible.

As for me, I have Apacer memory in my iMac and it works without any problems; I've memtest86 it, I've also stress tested it (put it under a heavy load for a long period of time).

These things do happen in the Windows world except people blame Microsoft for BSOD's when in many cases they're due to hardware or poorly written drivers - you can't magically make incompatible memory compatible with a software hack any more than repairing a fan through a BIOS upgrade.

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uh huh so what do you suggest I do to test if my memory is the cause of the problem?

What do you think you should do when you have a faulty product? take it back to the store you got it from and ask for a exchange for something that is compatible.

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I do not know 100% sure that the memory is the cause of the problem, because I've been running the iMac for one month and no issues thus far. I did a full memory test using Rember and all tests passed as well as the AHT from the OSX install disc. Didn't find any problems there either, so why should I unscrew the plate for the memory bay, take it out, ship it back, wait weeks for a refund when I don't know for certain that it's the cause of the problem? It's like on a PC if you just randomly pull out parts until you find out what the problem is, can't easily be done on an iMac. In fact nevermind I'll just go to the apple store and have them diagnose it or something if it happens again.

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I'm assuming you didn't read the link Emil Valsson posted, (otherwise you would understand the difference between Apple and Macsale's ram.)

Go through that post, they say what the RAM must or must not have, in order for it to work. Check to see if your RAM meets those requirements.

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