Why Did My iMac Shut Down?

[Grateful11]

Hey Decay should the extended hardware test be run with peripherals disconnected or does it matter?

[mrlynn]

decay wrote:
check Console logs.

reboot holding D key, then run the built-in hardware test with the "extended" box ticked.

Rebooting with D key doesn't do anything. ???

/Mr Lynn

[decay]

did you clone your HDD from another Mac?

you might have to boot from the OS X installer disc that came with it to run the AHT (Apple Hardware Test)

[mrlynn]

OK, ran the extended Apple Hardware Test (AHT). Took an hour and 37 minutes. No problems found.

I did not see an option to print out or display anything; maybe if problems had been found, there would have been.

Grateful11, you do need to unplug all your peripherals. For some models the AHT is not on your boot HD, but on either the OS X Install Disc 1, or the Applications Install Disc 2, as specified here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

Took me a while to get reconnected properly. Too much spaghetti (especially black USB cables—I should label them!).

Saintyohann says,

Post the console log from the time the iMac turned off...

How do I access the Console Log?

OWC Larry says it is not possible that the problem RAM from 2010 is responsible, but could be a bad module, nonetheless, and offers to exchange the RAM I bought in June to rule that out. I'm very grateful for the offer.

/Mr Lynn

[Forrest]

How do I access the Console Log? wrote:

From the Finder, Go-Utilities and click on Console

[mrlynn]

Forrest wrote:
From the Finder, Go-Utilities and click on Console

Got it; thanks.

But I don't understand what I'm seeing. Many log entries seem to be like this: ". . . Type Error: 'undefined' is not an object (line: 0)."

Is this a startup at 8:54:46 PM?

. . .
2012-11-08 8:30:23 PM com.apple.Dock.agent[1445] 2012-11-08 20:30:23.174 DashboardClient[14341:a03] (com.kamalaboulhosn.radarinmotion2) undefined: TypeError: 'undefined' is not an object (line: 0)
2012-11-08 8:40:23 PM DashboardClient[14341] (com.kamalaboulhosn.radarinmotion2) undefined: TypeError: 'undefined' is not an object (line: 0)
2012-11-08 8:40:23 PM com.apple.Dock.agent[1445] 2012-11-08 20:40:23.182 DashboardClient[14341:a03] (com.kamalaboulhosn.radarinmotion2) undefined: TypeError: 'undefined' is not an object (line: 0)
2012-11-08 8:50:23 PM DashboardClient[14341] (com.kamalaboulhosn.radarinmotion2) undefined: TypeError: 'undefined' is not an object (line: 0)
2012-11-08 8:50:23 PM com.apple.Dock.agent[1445] 2012-11-08 20:50:23.191 DashboardClient[14341:a03] (com.kamalaboulhosn.radarinmotion2) undefined: TypeError: 'undefined' is not an object (line: 0)
2012-11-08 8:54:46 PM com.apple.launchd[1] *** launchd[1] has started up. ***
2012-11-08 8:55:38 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.xprotectupdater[54]) Exited with exit code: 252
2012-11-08 8:55:41 PM com.apple.WindowServer[159] Thu Nov 8 20:55:41 LEJiMac.local WindowServer[159] : kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
2012-11-08 8:56:18 PM com.apple.loginwindow[63] 2012-11-08 20:56:18.358 ManagedClient[219:903] -xaStopDACallbacks: time out processing volumes after waiting 20.0 seconds - queue still contains 20 volumes
2012-11-08 8:56:18 PM com.parallels.vm.prl_naptd[193] QKqueueFileSystemWatcherEngine::addPaths: open: No such file or directory
2012-11-08 8:56:18 PM com.parallels.vm.prl_naptd[193] QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Library/Managed Preferences
2012-11-08 8:56:19 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[244] (com.apple.ReportCrash) Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self
2012-11-08 8:56:33 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[244] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[281]) Exited with exit code: 1
, , ,

I think that's when the iMac shut down.

I can post more, or email a text file, or something, if it would be useful.

/Mr Lynn