[cbcarbaj]

mac-guru's

I have a 800MHz Quicksilver running OS X 10.2 that is randomly powering down. Doesn't seem to be app related as it's happened in lots of different apps and many times when the screen saver is running.

Seems to happen less when I have the case open which leads me to believe that it *may* be heat related, but at this point that is just a guess.

Has anyone seen or heard of this problem before? It's driving me nuts :-)

thanks in advance

[reader50]

I had this happen on a flat-screen iMac. Turned out the power cord wasn't plugged fully into the case. Pushing it in all the way cured the problem.

Another possibility. On occasion, if the power button is not perfectly centered in the front panel hole, it can get stuck pushed in a little. Under hotter conditions or random vibration, it might register as pushed in. Holding the case power button in for 5 seconds will cause a shut down.

[mac freak]

What screen saver are you running? Is it one that would stress your computer, possibly leading to overheating? (such as any distributed computing thing, or a fancy 3D thing).

[JB72]

That's actually a feature. It keeps you from getting too adicted to computing. And it keeps you alert and on your toes, reminding you to save frequently.

Seriously, that's a drag. Good luck getting it sorted out.

[schalliol]

Is it just shutting off like you pulled the plug, or is it a shut down?

I had a similar problem with my G4 after I installed some hard drives, but it wouldn't turn on, it was a short caused by screws that were a bit too long. it's possible you have a short and it just vibrates sometimes to the point of going out.

[Mac Zealot]

It could be static related too. The el capitan case is widely known for problems like that (you can restart a g4 or g3 just by touching it wrong if you're in an area that has static)

This means touching one of the 8 screws on the outside of the case lol/

[tooki]

My roommate's QuickSilver did the same thing... it would just shut off (not a proper, software-controlled shutdown... it would just suddenly die), and you'd have to wait a 1/2 hour before it would power up again (pressing the power button would make it light up, but it would just fade back off and nothing would happen).

The local (now-gone-out-of-business) Mac shop was staffed by idiots who couldn't diagnose it, but luckily my old boss (in another city!) trusted my diagnosis and ordered my roomie a new power supply. It's worked fine ever since.

tooki

[schalliol]

The condition you reported indicates a short, you probably just had something not correctly grounded. It's possible it could be something else though, but not likely from what you say.