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The infallible iMac

0098386

0098386

Suspended
Original poster
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
Okay, I'm asleep in bed. It's about 8am and my brothers going off to work, mum doing all that mum-ly stuff, sister going school etc. Suddenly our house alarm goes off for a split second. Then I hear the chorus of other house alarms in the distance. My sisters screaming "The powers gone off!!!". I worry here! Because my iMac was just involved in it's first power outage.

But it isn't affected. I look over my shoulder and see the faint white glow that tells me it's still alive. Everything else is off, the mains powered clock, the DVD player etc. all blinking away with 00:00.

I'm just a little bit scared as to why my iMac didn't go off? Is there a mini battery in there perhaps? My downstairs PC went off too, if that's worth anything (Which it isn't... Pentium 4. urgh). MADNESS!
 
As long as you are awake and thinking about your iMac it doesn't need electricity. It loves you and doesn't want to disappoint you. Try it today! Start an important document, don't save it, just spend hours working on it. Then whilst thinking good thoughts about your iMac, unplug it. See?! It is running off of love!
 
Your iMac probably has a large capacitor in the internal power supply which can keep it going for a while. Most things like clocks and other small electronics don't. The alarm is designed to go off even at the slightest sign of a power shortage for safety reasons.

In all seriousness from the point of view of an electronics engineer having a power supply that does not have a fast drop off is very poor design! Sorry Apple but you have been caught out again :p
 
Yea the power was totally cut off for about 10-30 seconds. The PC downstairs went off completely, as did the external monitor for the iMac, the HDD too. Everything but the iMac itself.

We used to have a power generator under the house, just a little diesel thing to keep us going incase of a long power cut. But as far as I'm aware that was disconnected years ago. It burnt out after a previous power cut.. hmm.
 
The PSU has some large capacitors in it. They'll supply power in the case of the low sleep-mode draw for a while. (And a reason why you should take 'non user serviceable parts inside' warnings carefully)

If you woke it up, it'd have spluttered to a complete off.
 
It wasn't asleep :) just had the monitor off, and probably in some low power "C2D rocks" kinda mode. My room is the furthest from where the fuse box is in the house, could that affect it? Slow electricity or something :cool:
 
Your power was off for 10-30 seconds and your iMac didn't turn off?
Clearly, your iMac was running off of a combination of your love and its fear of disappointing you. There is no other answer!
There is no such thing as slow electricity, at least not on our level of quantum existence!
 
I've had this happen with my home-automation system before. Power cuts out, but you can still hear it trying to get the responce from the damned lamps that they turned on (they 'click!' when they come on).

It's actually quite odd and funny at the same time.
 
skoker said:
I've had this happen with my home-automation system before. Power cuts out, but you can still hear it trying to get the responce from the damned lamps that they turned on (they 'click!' when they come on).

It's actually quite odd and funny at the same time.
Click to expand...

Glad I'm not the only one with gremlins in my power cables! I can't believe I'm away from home now. I'd just be sat downstairs turning off the power to see how long it would take for my iMac to turn off.
 
When I had my CD iMac and the power went off, it should turn off and make a loud "clilck." The first time it happened, it wouldn't turn back on, and i though it died. I was frantic so I pulled out the power cord from the back panel, and then it clicked again, so I re-plugged it in, and turned on. Amazing. The next time the power went out the next week (we were having a lot of storms), power went out, "click," wouldn't turn on, unplug with "click," plugged back in, booted up, all is good. Is there a built-in surge protector in the iMac?
 
My iMac lives for a little less than 3 seconds with no power. I doubt it it has anything to do with a large capacitor or anything else inside the machine and is more likely to do with the powerbar (as suggested by backsidetailsli) or maybe Safe Sleep is enabled. Any MBP/MB/PB user who has an extra battery probably knows what I'm talking about. I have Safe Sleep enabled on my mini so when the power goes out it wakes up just as if nothing happened.
 
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