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New PowerMac turning itself off intermittently

M

milozauckerman

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 25, 2005
477
0
Received my new dual 2 GHz from Apple yesterday (FedEx 2-day shipping beat the box to death but everything inside looks safe), set it up late last night after archiving my iTunes collection to an external drive and so on.

I've been using it for light tasks (Safari) for the last two hours and twice it has turned itself off with no warning. I've doublechecked both ends of the power cable, both are tight, it's plugged into a good battery backup.

I can't replicate the circumstances (which would make this oh, so much easier), both times I was just reading a page and it went off. There are no odd noises (almost none, actually, aside from the fans firing at startup). The second time it lost bluetooth contact, I had to restart the computer again in order to find my keyboard.

I'm a little worried about installing Photoshop and setting up all my other stuff until I can narrow this down. Are there any log files I can check before calling Apple? Have there been any problems with G5 power supplies?

Thanks
MP
 
How does it shutdown? similar to unplugging it or more like selecting "shutdown" from the menu? If its the first kind of shutdown I would definately call Apple. Even if it is only a faulty cable, shutting down the computer like that can damage your harddrive and whatnot and it would be better if they sent you a new one.

I would also try plugging it elsewhere though, just to make sure its not your powerline.
 
Sounds like this could be a heat issue, most Macs will shut themselves off when they get hot.

Is the Mac in a nice cool area? It may not work well if it is stuffed in computer desk cabinet for instance.
 
Sharewaredemon said:
Now where did you get one of those iGary?

Is your G5 up and running now?
Click to expand...

:p Yes, it is, but my UPS/power supply is complaining about it. I have to pick up a bigger, better UPS tonight.
 
hey
it sounds like it might not be the G5 at all, but might actually be the power plug, dont forget that a dp g5 sucks power like no other, you cant get pc's that use that much power anymore, while most plugs will work with it, some are too old and even if it is plugged into a battery backup, it might not be getting enough power, now i am not saying this is the problem, just might be the problem because i have a dp g5 and when i use older plugs i have power problems(aka anything else i plug in, woomph, out goes the spark) try seeing about how many watts the socket can handle, the g5 uses around 600 watts of power

milozauckerman said:
Received my new dual 2 GHz from Apple yesterday (FedEx 2-day shipping beat the box to death but everything inside looks safe), set it up late last night after archiving my iTunes collection to an external drive and so on.

I've been using it for light tasks (Safari) for the last two hours and twice it has turned itself off with no warning. I've doublechecked both ends of the power cable, both are tight, it's plugged into a good battery backup.

I can't replicate the circumstances (which would make this oh, so much easier), both times I was just reading a page and it went off. There are no odd noises (almost none, actually, aside from the fans firing at startup). The second time it lost bluetooth contact, I had to restart the computer again in order to find my keyboard.

I'm a little worried about installing Photoshop and setting up all my other stuff until I can narrow this down. Are there any log files I can check before calling Apple? Have there been any problems with G5 power supplies?

Thanks
MP
Click to expand...
 
Absolutely: call Apple.

Unless you're living in a furnace, I doubt such light use would cause the G5 - in particular, a dual-2.0 as opposed to a dual-2.7 - to power down due to heat.

Also, while it might be the UPS, it seems really odd that you'd get no indicator from the UPS.

My guess: the beat-up box indicated a fall, which caused something to become loose, which leads to intermittent problems.

Call Apple.

Edit: emphasize that it had this problem immediately after using it for the first time, and you might just get a DOA replacement. It sounds like the problem surfaced shortly after plugging it in.
 
an update:

It powered down again a little after midnight, I haven't found any errors in the logs, references to overheating, etc., but it did say that the PRAM had been reset (presumably why it lost contact with the network/bluetooth and had time errors?).

After the last shutoff, I restarted and the battery backup started squealing that it was overloaded. Shut down ASAP, took the monitor and my soundsticks off the battery backup onto a separate power strip (computer only into battery backup), started up and got the overload shriek again.

Shut down once more and switched the two - computer into surge protector, monitor and soundsticks into battery backup - now no overload. I've used it for a couple more hours of light work this afternoon, no shutdowns, but I'm still wary of installing my extra RAM and HD until I'm sure it won't need to go back.

I can't imagine that a G5 normally pulls enough to overpower a battery backup that was handling my old G4 tower, a monitor, soundsticks and a DVR unit with no problems, but maybe I underestimated (greatly). Time to call Apple to cover myself completely.

FWIW, I downloaded Temp. Monitor and it doesn't seem to be running hot (compared to the Temp. Monitor-referencing sites I've looked at):
Main Logic Board Backside - 78.6F
CPU A Die Temp - 127.0F
Processor Card A Ambient - 77.5F
CPU B Die Temp - 115.7F
Processor Card B Ambient - 77.9F
Drive Bay - 89.6F
Memory Controller Heatsink - 136.8F

Thanks for the heads up on TM, it feels safer to be able to check temps when I want to.
 
milozauckerman said:
I can't imagine that a G5 normally pulls enough to overpower a battery backup that was handling my old G4 tower, a monitor, soundsticks and a DVR unit with no problems, but maybe I underestimated (greatly). Time to call Apple to cover myself completely.
Click to expand...
Yes, they do draw a bunch of power....

There is a big swing between low power and high power mode though when all the fans are running and the CPUs switch to full clock.

If you did have it plugged into an older UPS, the machine very well could have been shutting off due to an undervoltage due to overload.

However this should only have been happening when the machine went full throttle, unless the UPS is screaming the second you plug it in (to something like a 100-200W output UPS.) :(
 
The UPS is 450W, I believe. Looking at Apple's site, that's below the max wattage of a dual 2GHz, but at idle it's only 120W and with Safari going, I'm maxing out at 15% active/85% idle on the CPU monitor.

Looking at it (and wondering how I'd describe the situation to phone support) I'm thinking that I should burn a Saturday and visit for the Dallas Apple boutique tomorrow. At least in person they can plug it in and (maybe) test the electrical system.

Thanks everyone for their help thus far.
 
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