IMac randomly losing power

My 2006 Intel CoreDuo iMac has started randomly losing power. Without warning it will just power off as if someone has switched the wall socket off.
I've managed to power it back up again about 4 times after which it just does it again.
Once power is lost the only way I can get it to work again is to keep taking the memory out, putting it back in, try to switch it on, take it out again, put it back in, try to switch it on again, etc. until randomly it works again!
I've tried resetting PRAM by unpluging everything leaving it 15 seconds and then nothing... I've also managed to do a CTRLCOMMAND+PR when it was working.
Now it's gone again
Anyone any idea what might be the problem here?
I have no AppleCare so the iMac is out of warranty and the internal DVD drive no longer burns properly either. Should I give up on this Mac and put the money towards a new iMac (with AppleCare this time!) or is it going to be worth trying to get it fixed. My thoughts are that the local Apple Service Centre might take ages to determine the problem and try various things and then might not even be able to fix it.
Could it be the logic board? Power supply?
How much is a new logic board and DVD burner?
Thanks,
Neil

There are a number of threads on the iMAC loosing power. Check these:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1088454&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7355735&#7355735
My iMAC was doing the same; it finally died and wouldn't power at all. The tech at the apple store stated they have seen a few bad power supply cables that are the cause of the issue.

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Computer randomly losing power after being serviced

My computer was just recently serviced after the motherboard was apparently damaged (the hard drive could not be located within the computer). After getting it back, I began using it regularly again, being slightly more cautious. It hasn't been more than five days and already I'm having issues, this time with power. I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but all I know is that one minute I'll be playing a game or working on music, and the next minute the computer just dies. It takes it a bit to be able to be powered up again, but the lap isn't showing any signs of overheating. Is there anything that I can do to fix this without needing to send it in again? (I'd rather not be without it again for 3 weeks, but if it boils down to it I will send it in again.)

Hi @RedX737 ,
Welcome to the HP Forums!
I would like to take a moment and thank you for using the forum, it is a great place to find answers. For you to have the best experience in the HP forum, I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More.
Please remember that to assist you better we need precise information.
What exact model of HP notebook do you have?
How Do I Find My Model Number or Product Number?
What Operating System are your running?
Does this occur both with battery power and AC?
Here ares links that may help.
Performing a Hard Reset or Forced Reset
Using and Testing the AC Power Adapter
Testing for Hardware Failures (Windows 8)
As it was just serviced, I would consider taking it back. I regret that this is such an inconvenience for you!
If you would like further assistance, please reply back with the requested information and any details that may help.
Sparkles1
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Battery randomly losing power...

So, my Apple power adapter started acting strange; I had to fidget with the part that goes into the computer to get it to light up, and most of the time it wouldn't stay lit long. I looked around on the website, and it seemed that it was, well, dying/the pin was damaged. I went and got a Macally adapter, and it worked fine for about a month, and then my computer lost power (while plugged in) all the way to zero and shut itself off. I managed to get it recharged with the old, mostly broken adapter. The Macally was fine for a while, and then my computer went to 0% again, but stayed on, using the power from the wall alone. The battery wouldn't recharge, went to X eventually. I reset the PMU, and it seems to be charging again (or at least it thinks it is... still at 0...), but I'm not really sure what caused this or if it will happen again. I've had the computer for a little over two years; is the battery maybe giving out? Even so, I can't figure out why it shut itself off the first time while plugged in via the Macally. Did the loss of power from the old adapter damage the battery in some way? Do I need a new one, or should I just rely on resetting the PMU whenever this happens again?

You might want to check on the health of your battery by going to "About this Mac">More Info>Power and see what it says about the health of your battery. But it does sound like it may be on its way out. I don't know if the faulty power adaptor was a problem other than it might not have been able to charge the battery properly.
This is the iBook forum, but I would expect the PowerBook to be similar to an iBook.
You might want to download "iStatPro" from the Apple site--it is a widget that makes it easy to keep track of the health of your battery.
Good luck!

Another iMac Randomly Shutting Down!!

Hey Everyone. I'm new to the forums, though i've always used them as a resource over the years to learn more or troubleshoot issues. Hopefully, now, someone can help me with mine personally.. :-/
I have an intel 2.8gH Aluminum iMac that I purchased fall of 2007. Only now, almost 2 years later is it suddenly (just started yesterday) turning off randomly. Everytime it will not allow me to turn it back on until a minute or so has passed. I have reset the SMC as well as the PRAM several times. This afternoon, it is now to the point where I cannot even keep it running long enough to download an app to up the fan speeds. Although, I don't think it is overheating in the first place.
I'm really hoping it is just the power supply, as I've seen that be the fix for SOME iMacs i've found at other online forums. Though, the upper corner of my iMac is not hot or smelling burnt out at all. I have found more than several online forums of people complaining about their iMacs randomly shutting down, and am praying it is not the logic board, as that is a $900+ fix.
please, someone give me insight to how i can check if its the power supply or something else? I use this iMac for recording all of my music, editing video, and (of course) playing WoW lol. Currently using my 1st gen macbook.

I bought my iMac 20" in May 2006. I had been very impressed with it until one day I shut it down to move it to another room. I could not get it to turn back on. I had to leave it unplugged for a few hours. Since then it has started randomly shutting itself down, turning itself off and not starting up again until I unplug and leave it unplugged for a few hours. I had purchased the Apple Care? Extended Warranty, and the fault occurred during this three year period, though I failed to take the fault seriously and did not phone during the period. It was just after the three year warranty that I phoned Apple Care? about it and everyone I spoke to said they had not heard of this problem occurring. I wonder now, why the Apple Customer Service Team don't visit the discussions.apple.com where they will find quite a significant number of like problems occurring with the iMac sold in 2006.
My reason for paying the nearly triple price point for an Apple Computer was the quality of the build and my expectation that I would get far longer life out of my purchase. I don't like buying throw away products and I gladly save and wait longer to buy better quality products. Just as an example and point of reference. In 2000 I purchased a second hand Dell with 8GB HDD and 256Mb RAM. I paid $1000 for it and I gave it to my father when I got this iMac and he still has it running today. It has not had a single hardware issue in nine years. Good luck I suppose. However, after spending around $3000 on this iMac, and Apple now telling me the Logic Board is generically, non specifically 'failing', it goes against my pure desire for non disposable, throw away products to buy another Logic Board for AUS $1064. For one, I don't believe it has given me anywhere near the life that I expected from a product with such a high price point and solid reputation for quality, nor do I feel confidence in buying anything more 'Apple' after the dealings I have had with them over this problem. I am amazed that Apple would sell a 'failing' Computer to their customers and then expect that the customer will spend more money, considerably more, on a product that may be equally faulty and that they will not stand behind either.

IMac randomly shuts down after Leopard Upgrade

My wife's iMac randomly shuts down since we installed Leopard. It wasn't doing this before the Leopard upgrade.
It takes about 5 mins. of inactivity after the machine enters sleep mode, then it shuts down. We've searched the Discussions but have yet to see an answer to our question. Nothing but an iSight is plugged in to the machine. Any suggestions?

Same problem with random shut downs that get more and more frequent making the computer unusable. Took to Apple Store where they did not recognise the problem - tried replacing RAM then power cable then power supply. Said problem was fixed but started to recur within a short time of using it back home. Used install discs to reinstall the original operating system (Mac OS X 10.5.2) and the problem resolved - on upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5.8 the problem immediately recurred. Have gone back to 10.5.2 now and all seems okay.
Seems strange that there are so many postings about this and Apple Store (Genius staffseem to be unaware of it as a problem).
Kim56
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IMac Randomly Shuts Down -Overheating Problem?

I've posted in these forums once before about my iMac randomly shutting down. I believed I had solved the problem by following another users instructions which were as follows:
"Machines that are just randomly shutting down are usually caused by defective hardware. The only thing that can be done about that is to call Apple and have it replaced or serviced. There is probably not any one particular solution as it could be any number of the internal components failing and the resulting symptoms could be the same.
If you'd like to do some hardware tests yourself before calling Apple that can be done. First try resetting the SMC: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303446
Next insert the original gray install disk, restart your iMac, then hold down the "d" key until it boots up into the Apple Hardware Test. Run the extended test.
Also if you have Apple Care install TechTool Deluxe from the cd provided. Then run TechTool on your system."
I also removed and replaced of a defective external HD that I thought my be causing problems. But after all these steps, the machine kept turning itself off.
I had read in some forums that it was due to the internal temperature of the iMac. So I downloaded smcfancontrol 2.1 and increased the fan speed on the internal fans. This did bring down the temperature as revealed by the iStat Pro widget. However, I still had another shutdown.
So I turned off the machine, went to bed, and this morning when I turned it on iStat Pro said these were the internal temperatures of the iMac:
CPU A 77 degrees F
GPU 85
GPU Diode 88
GPU Heatsink 85
Ambient 61
Memory Cont. 74
Airport Card 112
HD Bay 1 76
I find these numbers to be unbelievable. Especially the airport card. When the whole system seemed to be running hot, the Airport Card said it was 122. It always says something above 100 degrees. The other temperatures also seem out of whack. How can the CPU be 77 degrees after 10 hours of being completely powered down in an office environment that is only 55 degrees?
Has anyone else run into a similar problem?
Has anyone else found the problem to be a faulty temperature sensor (and is there a way to reset it, or does it have to be replaced)?
Overheated? in Oregon...
Message was edited by: OregonMac7

Certainly sounds like a case of the left hand not knowing from the right, huh
Well, I have my call in, and I am getting onsite service to replace the logic board, as per Apple's recommendation.
I'm reading the other longer thread (171 replies), and it's disheartening to hear how some of the "geniuses" are handling this problem. They can't replicate it by leaving the mac running overnight, so "the problem doesn't exist". Hello! It's *random*! As in, not easy to replicate!
I'm also a bit disillusioned that the popular Mac sites (TUAW, etc) haven't picked up on this story yet. I emailed TUAW the link to the long thread, and they ignore it. Usually when this gets more "mainstream" press, then Apple finally steps up, acknowledges a problem, and serious fixes are made. Right now, it's a bunch of complainers (me included) in some threads on the Apple site.
I took a huge leap last November, and went from PCs to the Mac platform, after working on my personal migration plans for a month prior - how to move from my photo editing on the PC to the Mac (I wasn't about to buy another full copy of Photoshop, for eg, but I did find out I could upgrade from Win PS to Mac PS), if all the programs I use for photography and design were available on the Mac, learning the ins and outs of shortcut keys, how things are done, etc etc, and was so happy initially when I got the Mac and said goodbye to the PC.
Now I'm literally afraid to do any serious work on the Mac for fear of the "pulled plug" syndrome losing the last 20, 30 minutes of work I've been doing because I didn't save every 2 minutes. And iLife's Pages doesn't autosave (much to my chagrin), so I've lost some long correspondence and articles typed because I didn't save it before the pulled plug o' death.
Not a very nice computing experience.
As a suggestion, maybe everyone reading this and the other thread can flood TUAW.com with a news suggestion to cover this problem. Engadget, Gizmodo too while you're at it. I think once these million-viewers a day blogs cover it, we'll see some real action from Apple.
Just a thought....
Mark

IMac randomly frozen at grey Apple logo screen.

Hi Guys,
I need your help.
My iMac randomly freezes at startup, at the grey Apple logo screen... some vertical black bars appears, the image is unclear and doubled. The round icon showing that the system is loading freezes. Some times, a black screen appears asking for the computer to be restarted.
I need to power off the iMac for 7-8 times and then it comes to normal till the next boot.
One time, a month ago, the same happened when I was already in leopard, but since then nothing. Now, in the last week, it's happening in 80% of the startups.
Any idea?
Thanks !!!
Andrei

1. Have you installed any third party RAM? If so try removing the third party RAM and install the Apple original RAM for testing.
2. Disconnect all external devices during testing. This means hard drives, ipods, printers, scanners, and hubs.
3. Boot to your install disk. Insert the install disk and hold down the "c" key at startup. Once it boots up select your language but instead of going through the install process go to the Utilities menu at the top select Disk Utility. Select your hard drive/Mac volume on the left then under the First Aid tab click Repair Disk. If that passes/repairs successfully Repair the Disk Permissions. Once this is finished go back to the Utilities menu, select Startup disk, choose your Mac OS X volume and click restart.
4. If you are still having issues insert your original gray iMac install disk, restart and hold down the "d" key. This will boot you to the Apple Hardware Test. Run the Extended test.
George

My iMac keeps losing the connection to my chosen Airport Wi-Fi network. Anyone know why this happens?

My iMac keeps losing the connection to my chosen Airport Wi-Fi network. Anyone know why this happens?

Close all Apps and see if Activity Monitor shows any processes runnung.
Not that I think this is the cure but have you tried these resets:
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
The 5 second timing is important to a successful reset.
PRAM RESET
Zap the PRAM
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Imacs randomly dripping network connection

I have 3 imacs that just drop the network connection. If I leave them alone, they will reconnect some 5 - 10 minutes earlier.
They range anywhere from 10 minutes to approx 1 hour to drop the connection and theis happens randomly.

Hi!
I have the same problem of randomly losing network connection over wireless, though mine is hardly related to surfing.
I have an external storage drive in which I use for backup of my stuff, and I access the drive via my modem, using the airport. Of late, I noticed that when copying files from my iBook to the external drive, the connection would suddenly drop before the transfer is completed. This began to occur with increasing frequency, particularly when transferring large files.
I have since abandoned wireless connection, and reverted to my trusty cable. Still, I admit that I'm really curious about the cause of the apparent lack of reliability with my wireless connection. Has it something to do with the airport?
1.33 GHz iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5) New to Mac, just switched from Windows 4 months ago.

8330 keeps losing power and rebooting

my curve 8330 keeps losing power and rebooting, does anyone know how to fix this, tried cleaning battery terminals but did not work.

I also have a 8330 and it does the same thing. It randomly resets (like a master reset as it takes a long time to reboot) throughout the day. I am a Canadian user and talked to Bell who told me I had to send the phone in. I went to one of their stores and sent the phone away for 2 weeks. I received it yesterday as it was "repaired". I had it less then 24hrs and again it reset about 12 times during that time. I am also not able to activate Enterprise since the repair. My company exhausted it's options to help me set it up but they determined the is a hardware issue. So The problem is worse now. I have tried with and without media card and it doesn't change anything. I have waste days with Bell trying to resolve this issue as technical support on the phone confirms that it is a hardware problem. I have now had to take the phone back to Bell for repair again. I am shocked with Bells attitude concerning this problem as I have talked to numerous customer service managers that tell me that I have a contract with them to provide the "service". They don't seem to care that the hardware doesn't allow me access to their service. I am also amazed that they don't care that a customer has to waste time on tech support phone calls and traveling to their stores to ship the phone back to Blackberry. As well as my company that wasted time setting up my "loaner" phone then my regular phone after repair and then again a "loaner" phone when nothing was fixed. When does Blackberry get involved and make the customer happy? I am surprised that the cell phone providers can not issue a new phone when there is a hardware problem under warranty. I was told by Bell that Blackberry typically needs to see the phone 5-7 times before they will issue a new one.... This translates to the customer doing 10-14 trips to the store and a large amount of time setting the phone back up each time...
Unless something happens fast, my company is buying out my contract with Bell and I will be switching to a competitive smartphone. This is unfortunate as I like Blackberry but can not stand the support. (since I can only talk to Bell as Blackberry won't talk to me directly and only directs me to my cell provider)
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IMac keeps losing network connection

My iMac keeps losing the connection to my AirPort very sporadically, but very often. I keep having to open Network Assistant, choose the AirPort and the network, and re-enter the password. I then get a message that my network connection appears to be working correctly, which it then is. This could happen several times in a few hours.
I have tried creating a new network, but it still happens. We have 6 other devices on this network and do not have a problem with those devices.
Any advice?

LB60 wrote:
What am I looking for in the window that pops up?
here's a (very crude) screen shot of an iStumbler scan on my MBP
my network is called pegasus. see that it broadcasts on channel 11 (2.4 GHz band) ? see also that there are six other networks broadcasting on the same channel ? now, ideally i would change my channel to broadcast on "5" or "6", but since there are so many networks around, even those would give me interference from other networks nearby.
in the end, i decided to hardwire (using ethernet cables) most of my devices to my router (time capsule) in order to avoid interference alltogether.
also, there could be closed (hidden) networks around that only KisMac would be able to pick up.
lastly, as the read about *wireless interference* revealed, there are other sources that could interfere with your network performance: microwave ovens, cordless phones - heck, even enabling bluetooth on your very own Mac could be a source.
as an alternative to running ethernet cables throughout your place, you could consider *powerline adapters* _*such as these*_.
JGG

Randomly losing network connection over wireless

Shortly after installing the 10.4.5 software update, my G4 iBook with built-in Airport Extreme card has been losing connection with increasing frequency. Built-in Ethernet use is unaffected. I'm calling this problem thrash-and-drop.
1. When it's losing signal, processor activity goes through the roof. I had Activity Monitor running during a thrash-and-drop. kernel_task CPU consumption goes from under 1% before the event, to over 80% during the thrashing, and back under 1% after the thrashing stops. The activity is so bad the cursor can't be controlled: using the track pad sends the pointer all over the screen or nowhere at all.
2. This has been observed to occur with two different wireless base stations: A Linksys WRT54G and an older SMC 802.11b router. Either router is within 10 feet of the computer. Only one is running at a time. There are no other base stations in range.
3. Another iBook G4 (OS 10.3, Airport Extreme card (not built-in)), sitting next to it, shows no change and its wireless behavior is unaffected.
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I've tried the following things to address the problem. None have affected the thrash-and-drop problem. Admittedly, most of this is random:
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1.33 GHz G4 iBook Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hi!
I have the same problem of randomly losing network connection over wireless, though mine is hardly related to surfing.
I have an external storage drive in which I use for backup of my stuff, and I access the drive via my modem, using the airport. Of late, I noticed that when copying files from my iBook to the external drive, the connection would suddenly drop before the transfer is completed. This began to occur with increasing frequency, particularly when transferring large files.
I have since abandoned wireless connection, and reverted to my trusty cable. Still, I admit that I'm really curious about the cause of the apparent lack of reliability with my wireless connection. Has it something to do with the airport?
1.33 GHz iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5) New to Mac, just switched from Windows 4 months ago.

Losing power/signal and no internet connectivity for WRT54G2-RM

Just installed router and using Motorola SB5101 cable modem and Comcast. Followed instructions and the router has lost losing power and needing restarts a few times. Have it installed by ethernet cable to my desktop, and using laptop (XP Pro Thinkpad P42). Cannot get internet connectivity and also loses wireless signal connection. I know there are a number of similar posted issues, and I am new to this forum. Any ideas?

Download and upgrade your router's firmware, reset and then re-configure it...
Follow these steps to upgrade the firmware on the device : -
Open an Internet Explorer browser page on a computer hard wired to the router...
In the address bar type - 192.168.1.1...Leave the Username blank & in Password use admin in lower case...
Click on the 'Administration' tab- Then click on the 'Firmware Upgrade' sub tab- Here click on 'Browse' and browse the .bin firmware file and click on "Upgrade"...
Wait for few seconds until it shows that "Upgrade is successful" After the firmware upgrade, click on "Reboot" and you will be returned back to the same page OR it will say "Page cannot be displayed".
Now reset your router :
Press and hold the reset button for 30 seconds...Release the reset button...Unplug the power cable from your router, wait for 30 seconds and re-connect the power cable...Now re-configure your router...
If your Internet Service Providor is Cable follow this link
If your Internet Service Providor is DSL follow this link

Bluetooth mouse losing power every few seconds.

bluetooth mouse losing power every few seconds. What is the problem and how do I fix it?

Hello:
It is probably failing.
Take it to an Apple store for diagnosis.
Barry

Wifi losing power and disconnecting

Hi,
My mid-2014 MacBook Pro keeps disconnecting from wifi intermittently, whether in use or in stand by. I reset the wifi and it reconnects after some time searching. The errors in the wifi.log each time this happens are below. I suspect there's a problem with the wifi adapter circuit so it's actually losing power, but I was wondering if anyone else had this issue and found a solution that didn't require a replacing the hardware?
Sat Apr 18 18:57:10.509 <airportd[54]> _handleLinkEvent: Got an error trying to query WiFi for power. Resetting state variables.
Sat Apr 18 18:57:10.511 <kernel> AWDL Sync Enabled 0
Sat Apr 18 18:57:12.582 <kernel> AWDL Sync Enabled 0
Sat Apr 18 18:57:22.671 <kernel> AWDL Sync Enabled 0
Sat Apr 18 18:57:23.030 <kernel> AWDL Sync Enabled 0
Sat Apr 18 18:57:32.932 <kernel> AWDL Sync Enabled 0
Sat Apr 18 18:57:33.483 <kernel> AWDL Sync Enabled 0
Sat Apr 18 20:43:35.865 <kernel> wl0: leaveModulePoweredForOffloads: Wi-Fi will turn off.
Sat Apr 18 20:43:35.879 <airportd[54]> _handleLinkEvent: WiFi is not powered. Resetting state variables.

Wifi problems seem to crop up a lot on here and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a 'one fix' solution.
However, sometimes any one of the following can help although, unfortunately, not always. In no particular order:
Check wifi security - if it's WEP change it to WPA or WPA2 (preferably, as it's more secure)
Change the wifi channel on the router
Create a new Network Location: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5289
Reboot the router
Also take a look at this link and the links within the article for other ideas. They mainly reference Lion, but still seem to be relevant to Mountain Lion:
http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/06/lion-wi-fi-problems-solution-mac/?utm_source=feed burner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+osxdaily+%28OS+X+Daily%29&utm_conte n t=FaceBook
...and this link:
http://osxdaily.com/2012/11/30/resolving-stubborn-wi-fi-connection-problems-in-m ac-os-x/

IMac randomly losing power

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