IMAC doesn't want to turn off after hitting shut down in the apple menu

[joenj07087]

bad problem here, my Imac is not turning off after hitting the shut down command in the apple menu, I have to physically keep the on/off buttom pressed for a few seconds to turn it off....very disappointing, this thing was bought in FEb, and this is not a problem I expected to have at this point....has anyone encounter this problem with the Imac ? is there a solution?

Imac 27" 2.93 ghz intel Core i7
8 GB RAM 1333 mhz DDR3
MAC OS X version 10.6.8

 

[John T]

This can happen. So long as the on/off button works ok! Why the great need to keep switch the machine off?

 

[FrankHahn]

When this happens again, you can bring out a terminal (from Applications/Utilities) if you do not already have one running and then type the command "sudo shutdown" in the terminal. You can turn off the machine by entering the superuser password. For a forceful reboot, you can use the command "sudo reboot" in a terminal.

 

[iSayuSay]

This can happen. So long as the on/off button works ok! Why the great need to keep switch the machine off?

Uuuh .. but keep pressing switch button to turn off your iMac ain't nice. It's not the same as shut down your iMac in a normal way (via menu) .. HDD could be crashed, or other hardware can be caput due to electric shock if you do that EVERYTIME you shut it down.

Shut down your iMac in a proper way means all system ready to power off, not being forced to do so

 

[DewGuy1999]

Give this a try:

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

 

[John T]

Uuuh .. but keep pressing switch button to turn off your iMac ain't nice. It's not the same as shut down your iMac in a normal way (via menu) .. HDD could be crashed, or other hardware can be caput due to electric shock if you do that EVERYTIME you shut it down.

Shut down your iMac in a proper way means all system ready to power off, not being forced to do so

Well! We live and learn! What a load of .........! With respect, you need to learn a little about computers before making silly statements like that.

 

[iMouse]

Well! We live and learn! What a load of .........! With respect, you need to learn a little about computers before making silly statements like that.

Yeah...it won't damage the hardware, but it can royally screw up the file system, causing operating system corruption and the potential for data loss.

I've encountered a few Macs that had corrupted operating systems where pieces of the OS refused to appear or operate properly. Usually reinstalling Mac OS X over your existing installation and patching to current release resolves the issue and leaves your data intact. Some software packages want you to re-license the product as somehow they are writing to a section of the OS that appears to be replaced with new content (Probably something in Application Support).

I had a Mac where parts of the Sharing options in System Preferences were missing. Dumping plists, re-registering kexts and re-running the combo updater didn't address the problem. Saw no output in the console of errors accessing some libraries either. Reinstall fixed everything.

Some applications running in the background that refuse to close can also cause the Shut Down menu to not work. Mac OS X typically lets you know that "The Application "......" cancelled the shutdown", but I've seen some cases where the OS doesn't prompt if it thinks the application is trying to quit.

 

[joenj07087]

thank you guy for all the suggestions, for now I'm going to leave as it is, because it looked like it only happened twice so far(even though it was back to back instances) I sincerely hope it doesn't keep happening, I have Apple care, I may have to put it to use....

 

[iSayuSay]

Well! We live and learn! What a load of .........! With respect, you need to learn a little about computers before making silly statements like that.

There's a good reason that every OS has "shut down" or "turn off" function, sir. It's not like "Push your power button for 5 secs to turn off your computer". That's doable in an emergency situation, not that you have to do it everytime u want to shut it down, do you?

Turn off computer in a normal way means any system files has been unloaded and normal shutdown come after. Force it by hard shutdown can damage hdd, something wrong w/ my statement?

 

[John T]

There's a good reason that every OS has "shut down" or "turn off" function, sir. It's not like "Push your power button for 5 secs to turn off your computer". That's doable in an emergency situation, not that you have to do it everytime u want to shut it down, do you?

Turn off computer in a normal way means any system files has been unloaded and normal shutdown come after. Force it by hard shutdown can damage hdd, something wrong w/ my statement?

Methinks you're getting confused with Windows/Mac operation and terminology!

In a Windows machine, a hard shutdown is not advocated because the action is immediate and files will not be saved and the OS and any open Apps are not shut down correctly resulting in a possible loss of data.

An iMac is different. There is no such thing as a "hard shutdown". Cilcking on > Shut down or holding down the on/off button on the rear of the machine for a few seconds does effectively the same thing. Namely, there is a pause of approx. 5 seconds before the machine closes down. During this period, open files/apps are closed, the HDD is dismounted and the OS shuts down. Pressing and immediately releasing the on/off button only puts the machine to sleep.