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...this is the same iMac that has had major hardware issues in the past.
Anyway, I've been doing some handbrake file conversions, and the iMac will sometimes in the middle of the encoding RESTART. If it happens during the day, the only warning you have is the BONG start chime.
As this has now happened 4 or 5 times, at the same time doing the same type conversions where my MBP has been converting like a champ, I am sure there is yet another problem with this iMac.
The question is how to document before I call Apple Care. I do not see anything in the log files under About this Mac.
Any thoughts? I've never had a mac restart itself - crash, yes, but restart?
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I've seen lots of iMacs with similar problems. They've got defective temperature sensors and PSU's. Apple's quality control is bloody awful these days.
Run the hardware test from your install DVD (insert disc, restart, hold down "D" key during startup) while your iMac is still warm after one of those restarts. Sometimes it'll turn up something.
If not, you have my deepest sympathies...
Because it's an intermittent hardware problem, the Apple Hardware test and Service Diagnostics discs aren't likely to turn anything up. People usually have to bring their machines into the Apple store several times, facing obstinate and downright rude "Geniuses" who don't know how to do anything more than run those tests and will act like you're imagining the whole thing.
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Which version Intel iMac are you referring to ?
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app, utilities, console
then click on logs
do you see anything suspicious?
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i had the same problem with my mbp last year. I called them "spontaneous restarts"
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> app, utilities, console
If it's spontaneously restarting, there's probably no log entry at the point where it restarted.
If you look in the system.log file at the time of the restart, you should just see the usual notes that pop up during a routine startup.
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I had a Dell that used to do that. It would just reboot and say "Device unexpectedly shutdown due to thermal event". It sucked. No warning. I replaced the CPU and the motherboard twice.
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Nothing I can see from the logs.
The icons in the dock went all crazy after the last reboot.
I think this will be the 7th visit to the Apple Store, all under warranty. But still...
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I'm really concerned about the (apparent quality control) problems I've been hearing since Apple switched to Intel processors. Our friends are having so much trouble with their Windows PCs (both hardware and software) but I'm now hesitant to even suggest they switch to Macs. In 23 years of using Macs I've had only one that gave real trouble--and that was a trashy clone (PowerCurve). The Toshiba CD drive, though hardly ever used, lasted a miserable 3 years (a friend's lasted only 3 months!) and the machine itself lasted only 5 years (logic board failure I was told). While my friend had a lot more trouble with his than I did, his did at least last longer, probably because it was used very little. My present G5 tower is nearly five years old (and was second-hand to boot). So far it's given no problems. I used to long for an Intel Mac because the G5s, though way faster than their equivalent Intel Windows machines, are now considered slow, but I'm not so sure any more. :-(
