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age old issue but

A

AL2TEACH

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 17, 2007
1,353
610
North Las Vegas, NV.
after I updated iTunes, the machine turned off twice. Once while trying to see a movie in Plex and the other while watching vids and browsing. The only thing I could do was wait a few to turn it back on. After the second time, I thought I should see what the temps were because I remembered reading the machine would shut down due to heat. Took this not to long after normal browsing. The fans never rev up more than shown. I've downloaded SMC FanControl just in case. :eek:
 

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iMacs will get hot enough to burn your hands, and that's normal.

Look in /var/log/kernel.log for the shutdown cause. What's the number?

e.g.:

Sep 22 14:09:49 localhost kernel[0]: Previous Shutdown Cause: 3
 
The listed temps are warm but NOT hot enough to perform emergency shut-down (from heat overload). For example HD temps should be between 35 - 60C. They start to endure damage when running above 65C for too long. Being at 56C, its temp is fine. In the past, I remember reading that HDs do issue auto shutdown codes when above 90C.

If problems started after upgraded iTunes, then perhaps there's a problem with this version of iTunes. Can you perform an upgrade roll-back? If roll-back and unexplained "shut downs" goes away, then problem is with this specfic version of iTunes. Or, something in your iMac that is conflicting with it,

Good luck.
 
Last edited:
how ironic, emptied the trash and when I came back the log in screen was up. Came here and was about to log in and the screen goes blank, usb hub still powered, waited and 4 minutes later, it restarts. The log stated: Previous Shutdown Cause: 3
Thanks and after work, I'll go through my settings to make sure that's not the problem.
 
I don't have an iMac in front of me to verify for certain, but a shutdown code 3 should mean the power button was held down, according to my records. If you search for other shutdown causes, are there any negative numbers, or are there many zeros? A zero should mean power was lost and can indicate multiple issues.
 
I'm bacckkk, lol. at 10:30 PM, the puter gave me a black screen and 2 minutes later, it restarted. the log stated, Previous Shutdown Cause: 5. I looked at more reasons for a shutdown and thought, mmmm, maybe it's the power supply. it has been a 3 years, lol, sad if that's the reason. then it did it again 10 minutes later and the same Previous Shutdown Cause: 5. :confused:
 
From my database, a 5 is a normal shutdown. The computer thinks it was told to shutdown. That's not particularly useful.
 
Detrius said:
From my database, a 5 is a normal shutdown. The computer thinks it was told to shutdown. That's not particularly useful.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info, do you know what a 3 means? I had another shutdown and turned off all power to it and went to work. I tried to start it up but I just get the Wally noise, lol, but no power.
 
well it seems that the problem was the graphics card for the machine and expired apple care for me, lol. sorry it took so darn long to reply.
thanks all and have a great everyday and holidays.
 
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