Imac shuts down when not in use

I purchased my 21.5" imac July 9, 2011 with Snow Leopard. No problems for 1 month. Then about August 12th or so, my imac started to mysteriously "shut down" when not in use. I'll be working on it, then get up to go pour myself a cup of coffee or something...then I come back to my computer that has now shut off. It is NOT asleep...it is OFF. So I turn it back on and it is fine. This has happened a few times now within a week. Anyone else have this problem?
By the way, I am now running Lyon, as of August 18th. When the imac shut down, I was usually viewing photos or on the web.
thanks!

First thing I would try is to reset the SMC, it can help with power related problems. Shut down the Mac and unplug everything including the power. Press and hold down the power button for 10 seconds. Plug in the computer but be careful not to press the power button as you are plugging it in. Wait a few seconds and turn it on. Hopefully it won't happen again. There is always Apple Support. Don't let the problem persist until your free phone tech support has expired (3 months). I would also recommend using the iMac with an UPS, and at the very least, a high quality surge protector.
If you have MS Word or a similar word processor you could try enabling the autosave feature and set it to 1 minute intervals. Keep a document open and if you come back to the computer and it has shut down, you can look at the last time the document was updated and know what time the comptuer turned itself off. It could be useful in diagnosing the problem.

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Computer shuts down when not in use

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Hello, some things to try...
Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

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We thought perhaps we were getting interference from other wireless devices and unplugged our cordless phone which worked for a day. The computer always turns back on so its more of an annoyance than a real problem, but I'm baffled.
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Hi Barry -
Yes I do live near a ghost town (kinda) - Virginia City, NV. And I did tell any unwanted visitors to leave.
Actually, in the last year, they have replaced the Super drive, power supply, inverter and logic board. The only reason I'm not thinking power issues is that it only happens when I'm in Safari or iTunes. I would use Firefox except I've got java issues with that. I can (and do) use the machine for other things all day long without problems. I can use Safari all day long as long as I'm not playing on Pogo or certain video sites. Maybe Pogo is haunted?
It also doesn't happen on my husband's iMac on the other side of the house. Is there something that could cause enough interference to actually make the machine shut down? Oh, the antennae for the satellite TV and internet are on the roof directly above me, if that would have anything to do with it.
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iPhone is 17 month old and shutting down when not connected to the mac any this I can do about it?
should I bring it to apple ?

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Replacing or even suggesting replacing hardware without doing basic troubleshooting first is not very smart.
If basic troubleshooting does not resolve, take it to Apple for evaluation. There is no obligation to pay for anything, the evaluation is free.

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I took it already to an authorised reseller in Cyprus and they have told me that this is a logicboard issue, i do not beleive this and a 700 euro replace is not an option for this 3 year old machine.
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Thanks for all the help.
I went back to his house tonight and we figured it out. I reset the SMU and installed the latest drivers, but the problem persisted. It was a little warm in the room, so we turned on a small fan on his desk next to the iMac. The next time we tried to print, we noticed that the speed of the fan dropped for a moment at the same time the iMac shut down. I then looked to where the equipment was plugged in and found one of those battery backup power strips with the printer plugged in to one of the backed up outlets. I moved it to one of the non-backed up outlets and the problem disappeared. I'm thinking that the printer was pulling too much power from the system and the iMac was shutting down due to low voltage. Just proves you have to check everything.
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Hi -
When it's plugged in ...does your battery show a charge? Also, if you press the little button on your battery (on the bottom of the macbook) a series of green led's should tell you if you have a charge. just asking this because your macbook may not stay on if your battery is not charging/dead.
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Message was edited by: Biz Bizzle

Could be you battery. Mine shuts down when showing 40% charge left and I have to plug it into the power supply to fix it. I found out it was the battery by downloading coconut battery. It's an application that allows you to check the status of your battery (Link at bottom). I suggest you get that and when your macbook shuts down again, plug it into the mains, start it up and run coconut battery. If it shows your nearly out of battery power then that's your problem.
I was showing 40% left when it shut down. Did the above and I had no power left. It happens when the battery is old about 250-400 loadcycles
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Thanks

rk87,
Thanks for replying. I have a 500 gig hard drive which yields a 465gig usable capacity, so, at 30 Gigs available, I don't have 10% of the drive free. This may be an issue, but my more immediate problem is that I can't get the install disk to boot up at all.
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IMac shuts down when I touch the computer

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Ok, I understand everything but the RAM part. You
could not have added VRAM yourself, only ordered it
special, so that is still as you received it from
Apple. Since you received the iMac, if you added
SDRAM, you'll have to remove that and operate your
iMac with only original RAM. If you no longer have a
problem, then the problem is with the added SDRAM.
If your problem only shows up after using Office for
Mac, is it possible that you're using a registered
version without first removing the trial version? If
you have both on your iMac at the same time, just
drag the trial folder to the trash and delete it.
I'm sure you already know that kernel panics can be
the result of either hardware or software issues.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
Message was edited by: myhighway
I did not add any SDRAM. The SDRAM came as it was standard. The extra VRAM was due to a special order from Apple. I am also aware of the Office for Mac, that cannot be, because like I said below, I am having the same problems after erasing and reinstalling OSX.

Imac shuts down when not in use

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