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TICKET ARCHIVE -> My Mac keeps "powering down" of its own accord after only being on for seconds!
Slinga - Jul 20, 2006 - 11:12 am
Hi there,
I have recently had a new and very frustrating problem with my IMAC G5. Everything was working fine until one day i was watching an AVI file, and my MAC powered down as if it hadnt been touched for a while and went to the black screen, i then moved the mouse and the screen came back worked for a few seconds and then powered down again to the black screen. I kept pushing the mouse so the screen would come back, but again after about 10 seconds it just powered down and went black.
After a while a message popped up saying that the frame rate was dropping below a certain speed and it gave me a message to either cancel or view the problem but then a black Linux looking screen opens and i have no idea what it means or what to do with it. At first this only happened when watching AVI files but now it happens all the time and i cant actually do ANYTHING with my machine because the screen keeps going black after 10 seconds. I havent done anything out of the ordinary with my MAC at all i have just been watching programmes and listening to music - one day its fine the next day this!!! Please Help me
Thank you for your time,
Rob
I have recently had a new and very frustrating problem with my IMAC G5. Everything was working fine until one day i was watching an AVI file, and my MAC powered down as if it hadnt been touched for a while and went to the black screen, i then moved the mouse and the screen came back worked for a few seconds and then powered down again to the black screen. I kept pushing the mouse so the screen would come back, but again after about 10 seconds it just powered down and went black.
After a while a message popped up saying that the frame rate was dropping below a certain speed and it gave me a message to either cancel or view the problem but then a black Linux looking screen opens and i have no idea what it means or what to do with it. At first this only happened when watching AVI files but now it happens all the time and i cant actually do ANYTHING with my machine because the screen keeps going black after 10 seconds. I havent done anything out of the ordinary with my MAC at all i have just been watching programmes and listening to music - one day its fine the next day this!!! Please Help me
Thank you for your time,
Rob
philippe99 - Jul 21, 2006 - 3:49 am
Hi and welcome to macosx.com
May I suggest you to boot on the Apple Hardware Test CD (or DVD) that came with the machine and run both the classical tests but also the extended ones (see the paper doc that came with your Mac to learn how launching AHT)
Carefully write down any error message AHT displays (post them here, I've the more often used ones)
Possible reasons of your breakdown:
* logic board or video failure (a common issue to G5 revA - the ones bought until January 2005)
* hard drive failure
But also, little issues:
* a not firmly inserted power cord
* a issue (bad cable) with an external device
Regards
Philippe
May I suggest you to boot on the Apple Hardware Test CD (or DVD) that came with the machine and run both the classical tests but also the extended ones (see the paper doc that came with your Mac to learn how launching AHT)
Carefully write down any error message AHT displays (post them here, I've the more often used ones)
Possible reasons of your breakdown:
* logic board or video failure (a common issue to G5 revA - the ones bought until January 2005)
* hard drive failure
But also, little issues:
* a not firmly inserted power cord
* a issue (bad cable) with an external device
Regards
Philippe
Slinga - Jul 24, 2006 - 4:40 am
Last night i booted up my MAC to try and write down the exact problem and see if i could run that test - so i started up the AVI viewer and put something on. You could here the fan in the machine slowly getting louder, the programme i was watching worked fine for about 10 minutes before the same problem reoccured - the screen went black and i had to move the mouse so I could see the error I had to do this about 4 or 5 times before i could write out the whole message before the screen went black again:
The message was as follows:
"An error has occurred which probably prevented the execution of your request:
Frame (Computer too slow?)
FFMPEG: More than 5 seconds of late video > dropping
Frame (computer too slow?)
If you believe this is a bug please follow the instructions at
http://www.vidoelan.org/support/bugreporting.html
Open Message Window Dismiss"
I then clicked on "Open message window" and a new pop up message appeared:
Main warning: late picture skipped (73930)
(the above message was repeated several times but with different numbers in brackets on the end.)
At the bottom of this message was another button which read "Open crash log"
I opened it and the message read:
"No crash log found either you are running OSX pre 10.2 or you havent experienced and heavy crashed yet"
After this i was going to check out that website address but by this time when i was moving the mouse to bring the screen back it would power down again almost immediatley before the cursor had appeared on the screen. So i had to turn off my Mac with the power button rather than a proper shut down and after that My Mac wont turn on at all now!
The message was as follows:
"An error has occurred which probably prevented the execution of your request:
Frame (Computer too slow?)
FFMPEG: More than 5 seconds of late video > dropping
Frame (computer too slow?)
If you believe this is a bug please follow the instructions at
http://www.vidoelan.org/support/bugreporting.html
Open Message Window Dismiss"
I then clicked on "Open message window" and a new pop up message appeared:
Main warning: late picture skipped (73930)
(the above message was repeated several times but with different numbers in brackets on the end.)
At the bottom of this message was another button which read "Open crash log"
I opened it and the message read:
"No crash log found either you are running OSX pre 10.2 or you havent experienced and heavy crashed yet"
After this i was going to check out that website address but by this time when i was moving the mouse to bring the screen back it would power down again almost immediatley before the cursor had appeared on the screen. So i had to turn off my Mac with the power button rather than a proper shut down and after that My Mac wont turn on at all now!
philippe99 - Jul 24, 2006 - 6:52 am
Do you run the Apple Hardware Test ?
Philippe
Philippe
philippe99 - Jul 24, 2006 - 6:56 am
Could you also download XResourceGraph to monitor the temperatures of your G5 when watching videos.
http://www.starcoder.com/xrg/
Overheating ( a disease of iMacG5 of early 2005) or defective video card may explain these shutdowns
Philippe
http://www.starcoder.com/xrg/
Overheating ( a disease of iMacG5 of early 2005) or defective video card may explain these shutdowns
Philippe
Slinga - Jul 24, 2006 - 9:31 am
I didnt get the chance to run the apple hardware test because I wanted to get the full error written out in full so i could give you the proper discription of the problem and by the time i had done that it was crashing so frequently that the cursor wouldnt have even reappeared on the screen before it went down again - so i had no other choice but to just turn it off. Then when i tried to turn it on again a few minutes later it wouldnt even turn on!
I will give it a try again tonight and if it works i will run the test without opening anything else.
To be honest though i cant remember ever seeing an "Apple hardware test CD" when i got my computer so i will have some searching to do.
I will give it a try again tonight and if it works i will run the test without opening anything else.
To be honest though i cant remember ever seeing an "Apple hardware test CD" when i got my computer so i will have some searching to do.
Slinga - Jul 31, 2006 - 5:04 am
Hi there.
I finally managed to find the AHT disc this weekend!
So i ran the test but it says that there arent any problems? Here is what the conclusion said:
"The extended test has been completed and no hardware problems have been detected. If you continue to experience problems the following options are available:
Review troubleshooting material (which i did but it didnt say anything in the manual that sounded like my problem)
Go to apple.com/support
Contact apple care directly.
So it looks like im still not any closer to solving the problem. My computer is unusable at the moment and its killing me : (
I finally managed to find the AHT disc this weekend!
So i ran the test but it says that there arent any problems? Here is what the conclusion said:
"The extended test has been completed and no hardware problems have been detected. If you continue to experience problems the following options are available:
Review troubleshooting material (which i did but it didnt say anything in the manual that sounded like my problem)
Go to apple.com/support
Contact apple care directly.
So it looks like im still not any closer to solving the problem. My computer is unusable at the moment and its killing me : (
philippe99 - Jul 31, 2006 - 6:53 am
Could you monitor your machine's temperatures during the 10 minutes before the crash ?
Philippe
Philippe
Slinga - Jul 31, 2006 - 7:02 am
No i wouldnt have time to get on to the website and download / install it and run it. I literally cant do anything before it crashes.
philippe99 - Jul 31, 2006 - 7:22 am
No way to download on a friend's machine (mac or Win), burn it on a CD and take it back to your mac ?
If you boot on the install CD, does the same crash arrives ?
Phil
If you boot on the install CD, does the same crash arrives ?
Phil
Slinga - Jul 31, 2006 - 7:26 am
I doubt i would have time to install it before it crashes. I think i can tell that its using way too much CPU just from the noise the fan makes when it comes on and how it gets progressively louder until it crahes.
I dont understand what you mean by booting on the install CD?
I dont understand what you mean by booting on the install CD?
Slinga - Jul 31, 2006 - 7:31 am
plus even if i could install it, how will i be able to see its readings if the Mac will crash after a couple of minutes?
Slinga - Jul 31, 2006 - 7:41 am
Also i thought it might be worth mentioning that these crashes initally started when i was watching a video but now they happen all the time no matter what programme / application is being used so i think it could be more than just a video related problem.
philippe99 - Jul 31, 2006 - 7:56 am
Yes.. I mean booting on the install CD
My main worry is that, in your issue, I cannot see if this a power suplly default - so not so expensive to change- or a main board defect..
The main problem is that your machine does not give time to perform any backup...
Because, if I had a backup, I would try...
I would try to hook your defective Mac to another machine in Firewire target mode
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage..._mode_ben.html
Doing this, your defective machine will be viewed as a simple hard drive.
From the other Mac, I would perform an "Erase and Install" to put a fresh system on your machine.
Without adding nothing to this system, I would play with it -basically, no web access...- and see if the '10 minutes crash' is still there.
My dilemma is that I'm not sure a Genius guy will be able to distinguish between a power supply problem or a main board problem
If main board... do not cry... I would really think deeply before sending the mac to repair.
Out of warranty, a main board can reach up to 400 $, plus Genius/lab hours to replace it
Compared to a 600$ new Mini or 1000$ new G5
I do not know how old is your G5.
If one of the first ones, knowing the problems this series -and rather all Rev A. series at Cupertino- has, I would not hesitate.
If G5 from March 2005, well, I would also hesiate between repair or replace.
yes, I know -and plz apologize me- it is difficult to understand that a 1500$ machine can die after 3 years...
But this is not related to Apple exclusivly: my brother Dell laptop had its motherboard replaced two times during the one-year warranty. Three months agay, nearly next to its 3 year bitrhday, the 3rd mainboard died.
Philippe
My main worry is that, in your issue, I cannot see if this a power suplly default - so not so expensive to change- or a main board defect..
The main problem is that your machine does not give time to perform any backup...
Because, if I had a backup, I would try...
I would try to hook your defective Mac to another machine in Firewire target mode
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage..._mode_ben.html
Doing this, your defective machine will be viewed as a simple hard drive.
From the other Mac, I would perform an "Erase and Install" to put a fresh system on your machine.
Without adding nothing to this system, I would play with it -basically, no web access...- and see if the '10 minutes crash' is still there.
My dilemma is that I'm not sure a Genius guy will be able to distinguish between a power supply problem or a main board problem
If main board... do not cry... I would really think deeply before sending the mac to repair.
Out of warranty, a main board can reach up to 400 $, plus Genius/lab hours to replace it
Compared to a 600$ new Mini or 1000$ new G5
I do not know how old is your G5.
If one of the first ones, knowing the problems this series -and rather all Rev A. series at Cupertino- has, I would not hesitate.
If G5 from March 2005, well, I would also hesiate between repair or replace.
yes, I know -and plz apologize me- it is difficult to understand that a 1500$ machine can die after 3 years...
But this is not related to Apple exclusivly: my brother Dell laptop had its motherboard replaced two times during the one-year warranty. Three months agay, nearly next to its 3 year bitrhday, the 3rd mainboard died.
Philippe
philippe99 - Jul 31, 2006 - 8:00 am
> so i think it could be more than just a video
> related problem
So ok, through target mode, reinstall a fresh system and see if this helps.
Oh yes, before, start the fsck mode to repair the system
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Philippe
> related problem
So ok, through target mode, reinstall a fresh system and see if this helps.
Oh yes, before, start the fsck mode to repair the system
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Philippe
Slinga - Aug 1, 2006 - 12:14 pm
I dont understand how my Mac can be completely broken beyond repair (without buying major new components) when i have only had the machine 20 months and the AHT said that there were no hardware problems??? Surely it would discover something if one of the major components need replacing?
philippe99 - Aug 1, 2006 - 12:25 pm
Well, computers are full of electronic circuits and iMac G5 of end 2004 -start 2005 were not a model of reliability.
(1) try fsck and test again
(2) if this not solves, think to the opportunity to re-intsall a whole system in target mode
Philippe
(1) try fsck and test again
(2) if this not solves, think to the opportunity to re-intsall a whole system in target mode
Philippe
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