MacBook will not Shut Down or Restart

My MacBook will not shut down or restart from the apple menu, nor from any other dialog box that pops up, after an update, for instance. The only way I can turn it off/restart is by using the power button. I have tried archiving and installing OS X, but I am still having this problem. Does anybody know how to fix this?

Hi Henry,
Help here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319
Second, make sure you have all your updates. Click the Apple logo in the Menu then click Software Updates.
Reset PRAM by holding option-command-P-R keys down during startup until you hear the chime at least three or four times.
Resetting the PRAM is a standard procedure for the problem you are experiencing.
Also, run Disk Utility and Repair Disk Permissions. DU is located here:
Applications/Utilities. Launch DU, select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, then click Repair Disk Permissions. Quit DU and reboot.
If you need further assistance, please post back.
Carolyn

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My macbook will not shut down or restart or anything

I have tried to reset the SMC settings NO go
I have tried to repair all disks on my comp No go
I mean come on, this is a mac and it doesnt simply shut down?
Many people seem to be having problems with a simple task.
When I press shut down or restart it gets rid of all icons but it leaves the mouse arrow and the background image
PLEASE this is annoying me! I love you long time!

You might have better luck getting answers if you post in one of the Mac forums. You posted in the Using a Second Generation Nano with Windows forum.

My macbook air will not shut down or restart

my macbook air will not shut down or restart, but it will go to sleep. what can i do to fix this ?

correction its a macbook pro

IMac will not shut down or restart using the apple menu

I have an iMac running 10.7.3 that will not shut down or restart using the apple menu. The only way to get this machine to shut down is to hold down the on/off button on the back of the computer. This has been a problem for quite some time and may have started with Lion, but I’m not sure. Any help is appreciated.

Hi...
Before you shut down, make sure you "quit" all open applications. Applications are running if you see the small blue reflection under the app's name in your Dock.
If necessary, you can force quit apps... several ways to do this. One, from your Apple menu > Force Quit or using the Activity Monitor located in /Applications/Utilities.
If it's not a question of open applications, try Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

MacBook Pro 2013 will not shut down without restarting.

I got a macbook pro a month ago and it will not shut down without pressing down on the power button. Using the normal Shut down options only restarts the computer. I have done all the disk utility repairs, installed new mountain lion, reset the PRAM several times, and ran software repair from doing the shutdown hold D. I also checked to see if the PRAM is good, and it is Ok in systems utilities. It will also restart when i have not touched the computer for 10 or so minutes and will go to locked user log in.
I really don't know what else to do. If you need more details let me know. Any advice?
Thanks

Thanks!
I tried this and discovered something new. I noticed that if the computer is charging while shutdown, the computer will still restart. However, if the computer is charging and you shutdown, then unplug the charger, it will remain off. It will also resume normal shut down and sleep if you shut down while unplugged, now. An idea why it will still restard while plugged in though? If not i very much appreciate your help so far!

Macbook does not shut down or restart. It stops at an blank white screen with the cursor moving around it. Updated to the latest software

I have a Macbook Air 13.3" 2012 model. For a couple of days my Macbook does not shuts down. It just stops at a blank white screen with the cursor still hovering around it. I have to shut it down forcefully every time using the power button.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
For this step, the title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes.)
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamps of the BOOT_TIME log messages, which refer to the times when the system was started. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the last boot time when you had the problem. Select the messages logged before the boot, during the time something abnormal was happening. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
For example, if the system was unresponsive or was failing to shut down for three minutes before you forced a restart, post the messages timestamped within three minutes before the boot time, not after. Please include the BOOT_TIME message at the end of the log extract—not at the beginning.
If there are long runs of repeated messages, please post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.
☞ When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Step 2
In the Console window, select
          DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports
(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of reports. A crash report has a name that begins with the name of the crashed process and ends in ".crash". A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic". A shutdown stall report has a name that ends in ".shutdownstall". Select the most recent of each, if any. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot. It's possible that none of these reports exists.
I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.
☞ If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a crash or panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.
In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
☞ Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report—they're very long and rarely helpful.

MacBook will not shut down or go to sleep

My MacBook is not shutting down or going to sleep.
When I try to shut down: The desktop disappears as normal but then the plain blue screens appears (with the little circle down the bottom which spins (not the beach ball)) and it just stays there forever. To shut down I need to hold the power button for 10 seconds.
When I try to put the MacBook to sleep by closing the lid: The light in the bottom right hand corner comes on but it does not "pulse" - suggesting it has not gone to sleep.
When I try to put the MacBook to sleep using the Apple (top left hand) menu: Nothing happens.
I am not 100% sure when this started happening, but I believe it either started happening after:
a) The firmware update which was supposed to fix the "mooing" problem"; or
b) One of the system software updates.
If you need my current system/firmware version, you will have to tell me how to do this because I don't know how to find these numbers.
This is really frustrating because I move my laptop around a lot so I would like to be able to use the shut down/sleep functions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

First couple things to check is do you have any external drives plugged into the Macbook? My macbook would sleep because I had an external drive that prevented it from sleeping.
Also, check what's loading at Startup. There might be a program that's preventing this. Something that constantly needs internet access would cause this. Open up your System Preferences/Accounts/Login Items. See if something in there could be causing the problem.
Hope that helps a little.
AL

Macbook will not shut down (bought new in June)

I saw some other threads on this. Mine will not shut down and I have the latest software updates on Leopard, bought my 13 in. Macbook in June. I have run it a lot, so that it gets warm but seemed to work fine until I try to shut down. I'm really worried about this because I hate to have to force it to shut down by turning it off. I do not have that third party program installed that someone said he'd downloaded and had to remove to get it to work. I hope I don't have to uninstall what little I have installed, such as Intego firewall/antvirus/personal backup, Camino, Sunbird, Flip4Mac, Washing Machine, and Io programs by Time Cycles. I don't run any of those other programs much, mostly just Safari and just now an HP printer driver. I wonder if doing a lot of scanning using the HP printer driver is what caused the problem. I just downloaded the HP printer driver right before this happened, I think. But I really need that to work.
My computer starts to hang when I shut it down and says it can't log out until I shut down something else, which is generally a program that is not even running. I wish this would stop; I'm not sure what to do about it or whether turning the computer off will hurt it. I don't know if I'm supposed to "zap PRAM" or something but I already did that for a different reason a few days ago and don't want to do that a lot.

Thanks for your message. I actually just logged in to report that I solved the issue by going to Disk Utility / First Aid / verify permissions/ repair permissions.
The problem was that the HP Officejet 7300 Series printer driver I had recently installed had all sorts of permissions wrong and they are now repaired. And the Macbook has now shut down properly twice in a row. I wonder if I should report that to HP?
** I wonder what damage if any I did by shutting off the computer using the power button two or three times in the past 24 hours when I needed to shut the computer down prior to repairing the permissions problem?*
And I did see the Activity Monitor in the Utilities section on my own just prior to trying Disk Utility / first aid / repair permissions (the disk it self didn't need repair, supposedly). I don't really think activity monitor was going to help in this instance because I did shut down all the programs, but I'll be testing that utility in the future.
I bet now would be a good time to hurry up and get Disk Warrior.

IMac will not shut down or restart

Only a "hard" shut down works (holding the main power button for 5 seconds). I don't think that action does my directory any good! This started when my automatic software update launched and had an unsuccessful installation of QuickTime 7.6.2, and Safari 4 public Beta. I removed Safari and used Firefox to get Safari 3.2.x. I was then able to install QT 7.6.2 after several attempts.
But, my machine will not shut down! Any suggestions? Thank you.

HI Kenny,
Try resetting the SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543
If that doesn't help, try resetting the PRAM/NVRAM.
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.
Your computer’s PRAM and the NVRAM are reset to the default values.
Make sure your important data is backed up just in case.
Carolyn

My iBook G4 will not shut down or restart without force

I have huge issues with my 20 month old iBook. For the last two months it has been acting completely out of character.
The issue that's frying my head completely is the fact it won't shut down or restart by itself. I always have to hold the power button until it dies. When I start it up again, the screen is at minimum brightness every time, and I don't know why that would happen.
Not only that, but every program freezes at the one time at least 4 times a week (I use this thing every day). And, when one program stops responding, even force quitting doesn't close it, I have to force the whole system to shut down and restart to be able to use the program again.
I have never had any problems with this machine until two months ago. In fact, I had been boasting to my friends for the prior year and a half about how it had never crashed on me. Why is it starting now, and going all the way?
Would it have anything to do with a wireless router? Or an external hard drive? Right before all this crap started happening, I bought myself an external 80Gb hard drive because I was struggling to find space on this 27Gb internal hard drive. I was always running on 1-2Gb, and now I'm running on 8-9Gb of space. Around the same time, a housemate of mine talked me into sharing my internet connection with him via a wireless router. The router was connected to my iBook, and caused some speed problems, not with the internet but with my system. That project was abandoned after about a week because the housemate was never able to keep an online connection. And since then, my laptop's been screwed up.
I'd like to know reasons for why it's going screwey, and if I have to fork out stupid money to fix something that's supposed to be still working.

correction its a macbook pro

G5 will not shut down or restart.

Spec: PowerMac G5 1.8DP with 3GB RAM, 1TB disk, OS 10.5.8.
I've had this problem before, but always solved it by using either Repair Disk Permissions, Disk Warrior or Cocktail cleaning all caches and corrupt pref.files. But it won't help this time. Have to shut down manually. I thought it might be the HD, so this is swapped with a new WD Caviar Black 1TB - system cloned from the former sys.disk using CarbonCopyCloner 3.3.4. Got two systemdisk (to keep one system SUPERCLEAN for ProTools HD DAW), and the CLEAN system shut down or restart the normal way. So it seem to be 100% software related. Any tips? Thanks.

Create a new User go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> "+" (make it an admin acct) and test the apps in this new account, if they work the problem is isolated to your User and not systemwide.
If the issue is limited to your user account try starting up Safe Mode (It will take more time to startup in Safe Mode because it runs a directory check.)
If your apps functions correctly that way, go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> Login Items, and remove them. Boot normally and test. If not go to/Users/yourname/Library/Contextual Menu Items and move whatever is there to the desktop. Then do the same with /Library/Contextual Menu Items. Lastly, try moving/Users/yourname/Library/Fonts to your desktop and restarting.
Log out/in or restart, if that sorts it start putting items back one at a time until you find the culprit.
If the issue is systemwide then, you may be able to repair this with the The 10.6.4 Combo Update This is a fuller install, as opposed to an incremental "delta" update so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing. It does not matter if you have applied it before.
Remember to Verify Disk before update and repair permissions after update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
-mj

MacPro will not shut down or restart

My three weeks old MacPro has never shut down or restarted. It stops on the blue screen and needs to be crash started.
I have repaired permissions, used TechTools for maintenance and have all software up to date.
Sleep functions are OK.
A question: should I have the hard disks spin down when possible in the system preferences?

I first went in the System Preferences under the Apple menu. There in Accounts - Login items there is a list of applications or files, which can be removed by pressing the MINUS button. I was quite reluctant to delete these, and indeed 1) it didn't help, and 2) I had to reinstall them afterwards, since e.g. Extensis Suitcase Fusion (a font utility) needs to be loaded at startup. For some items you can do that from a dialog which pops up if you click on the item in the dock, for others you may have to reinstall the application. So do this last - after the next step I describe - and if you do, take a screenshot first so you know what was in - I did that, and it helped.
The real culprit was one of the items in (Main disk)/Library/StartupItems
I had there files called
comapcpcpestart, Parallels, ParallelsTransporter, Portfolio NetPublish Server
which I removed and didn't reinstall - the APC display software provided by the APC company isn't really needed if you have standard mac APC cards, since it's already there, and the others I didn't use.
With this, the problem went away. If I needed the above, I would reinstall them one by one to check.
Please leave me a note if that works,
Good luck,
Adrian
PS By the way of sleep, the wonderful freeware called Sleep Display works and the only good screensaving on LCD displays: turning the backlight off so it doesn't dim so much over time.
One of my former twin 23 in monitors had the backlight replaced after 3 years, and became noticeably brighter than the other one.

Macbook pro will not shut down or restart

I have a new 17" Macbook Pro that is 2 months old. The laptop will not restart or shut down without holding down the power button and restarting by turning the power on button. Otherwise it will sit there and the gear icon will spin and spin until it goes into sleep mode.
Everything was working fine until now. Any help would be appreciated.
Paul

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find nothing has changed after you complete it.
Boot in safe mode. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
During startup, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login screen, which appears even if you normally log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Safe mode is slower than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including your login items.
Restart (not in safe mode) without doing anything else. Same problem now?

My iPad just randomly stopped having sound and will not shut down only restart.

my iPad just stopped have sound. Only works with ear-buds. Also, now when I power it down or even force it, will only restart & will not stay shut off. I have done the whole mute/lock thing, did a reset & even backed it up & restored it. Anybody have any suggestions?? thanks!

Try this - Reset the iPad by holding down on the Sleep and Home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons. (This is equivalent to rebooting your computer.)
Check your settings. The iPads have a small switch on the right edge. It can be used as a rotation lock to keep the screen from automatically reorienting itself as you move around, but you need to have the tablet’s settings configured properly. That same switch, right above the volume buttons, can also be set to function instead as a mute button to silence certain types of audio.
If the switch is set to work as a mute button, you can change its purpose to “screen-rotation lock” by tapping the Settings icon on the home screen. On the Settings screen, tap General on the left side, and on the right side of the screen flick down to “Use Side Switch to.” Tap to select Lock Rotation or Mute to set the button’s function. Even if you set the side switch for your preferred use, you can still mute the Mini or lock the screen. Just double-click the Home button, and when the panel of apps appears along the bottom edge of the screen, flick the row from left to right with your finger. Tap the icon on the far left side of the row to either lock the iPad’s screen or mute the iPad’s alerts, notifications and sound effects. Music, podcasts and video are not muted unless you turn the volume all the way down.
iPhone: Can't hear through the receiver or speakers
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1630http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1630
http://www.atreks.com/app-no-sound-on-ipad-4-%E2%80%93-what-to-do/http://www.atreks.com/app-no-sound-on-ipad-4-%E2%80%93-what-to-do/
To solve some sound problems, just follow these simple steps
1. Go to Settings
2. Tap on General
3. Tap on Reset
4. Tap on Reset All Settings
 Cheers, Tom

Ibook will not shut down or restart

my g3 will not restart or shut off when prompted from the finder menu. it will turn off when i hold down the power button for ten seconds as recommended. i tried resetting the PMU but still no luck.please help!

I suspect that it might be software related... That could be isolated by booting from the install CD and see if the shutdown from it works. Also, I had a ibook that had the bad video memory problem that still ran fine otherwise, so I have made it a headless compute engine... so I do not have a window to click on shutdown.... therefore I use the admin user account and the terminal to issue the system command halt
given the prompt just type halt
halt
that should work for you as well and lead to a graceful shutdown.
At least you would know if it is software or hardware
JWC / accesstospace

MacBook will not Shut Down or Restart

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