Was just watching a small video, doing nothing and BAM, a reboot!

[Cape Dave]

I gotta say, that is very unnerving. Especially on such an expensive and new machine. It is the second, maybe third time it happened in about a week.

Is there a log file somewhere I can access to send to Apple to document said meltdown?

Thanks much, Dave

 

[sharon22]

Yes! Go into Applications / Utilities, and fire up Console.

Under "System Log Queries," click on "ALL MESSAGES"

Now, as BEST as you can remember, try to figure out the exact time your video made your computer reboot, look through your Console for that time-frame, and voila -- the answer is in there! (Or, at least a clue)

My two-cent guess? Overheating. Something overheated. Either your GPU, or CPU, or something. Make sure you don't have dust blocking the fan intakes.

Have it checked out. Overheating = not good.

 

[Cape Dave]

Yes! Go into Applications / Utilities, and fire up Console.

Under "System Log Queries," click on "ALL MESSAGES"

Now, as BEST as you can remember, try to figure out the exact time your video made your computer reboot, look through your Console for that time-frame, and voila -- the answer is in there! (Or, at least a clue)

My two-cent guess? Overheating. Something overheated. Either your GPU, or CPU, or something. Make sure you don't have dust blocking the fan intakes.

Have it checked out. Overheating = not good.

Hi HSaron, thanks for the specific places to check. I will do that. I had googleedd in the meantime and messed around the console but with no specific luck. I will try your plan. I did make note of the time thankfully

Also, I always have activity monitor running in my dock and there was almost NO CPU action in any of the cores. My fan has never spun up past default. I am a MANIAC for coolness and no dust

I am beginning to think it was Firefox, or maybe Norton that I get free from Comcast but is not fully compatible with the latest OSX. I am going to uninstall that this evening. I am also very careful about virus/malware and have ClamAV as well.

Thanks so much for your response. It is always SO disconcerting when that type of a super hard reboot takes place.

 

[WilliamG]

Hi HSaron, thanks for the specific places to check. I will do that. I had googleedd in the meantime and messed around the console but with no specific luck. I will try your plan. I did make note of the time thankfully

Also, I always have activity monitor running in my dock and there was almost NO CPU action in any of the cores. My fan has never spun up past default. I am a MANIAC for coolness and no dust

I am beginning to think it was Firefox, or maybe Norton that I get free from Comcast but is not fully compatible with the latest OSX. I am going to uninstall that this evening. I am also very careful about virus/malware and have ClamAV as well.

Thanks so much for your response. It is always SO disconcerting when that type of a super hard reboot takes place.

Quite frankly you don't need either Norton or ClamAV. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those is causing your system reboots.