[MoontaMacman]

Hi,

I purchased this 20" iMac last December- 768Mb RAM, standard 80Gb H/d and it runs quite sweetly most of the time but on at least 3 occasions over the last weeks it has done an automatic restart by irtself -at first I thought it may have been a power failure - very brief- but twice I was in the room with it - but not actively using it.I was watching the news on TV when I noticed the 20 or so pages I had been browsing in Safari disappear off screen - along with Mail , iCab and possibly iView and Preview - all to be replaced by the standard blue screen and boot up process.
So far it hasn't lost me anything important - other than time and a phone call to reconnect to the internet but it is a worry- what could cause this?

One thought was some sort of virus that is forcing a restart but I do not know if that is possible -- my motto - think the worst and it may seem better :-)

has anyone else experienced this behaviour or is it time for an Apple care call?
Incidentally when I first bought it it would not recognise audio CDs or burn a CD/DVD (or play that Tony Hawk thing) - I had to do a complete reinstall of the OS to get things functioning properly

thanks for reading

Ron

[macuzer]

do you happen to have the auto download of important updates enabled in the system pref pane? not sure if this could be the culprit, but it may be worth a check. it's located in the software update module of the system preferences. hope this helps ya.

[Cadaver]

Could be a power issue. Make sure your power cord(s) are well seated. Make sure there is no voltage issue in the room you've got the computer installed. Power fluctuations can easily cause a computer to reboot.

[MoontaMacman]

Negative to that one thanks macuzer - I did have check for updates weekly but not the automatic background option- all downloads are up to date except for Airport, Bluetooth, iCal and iPod - none of which I use


-----
Cadaver - now there's a user name :-)

The voltage regularity is a possibility except nothing else flickers or goes off /on at the times I have seen the restart on the iMac -watching TV on the RPTV it is very quick to drop out if there is a failure of even a fraction of a second - variations I am not so sure of - all plugs seems to be secure

Perhaps the voltage regulator (? is there such a thing) on the iMac is defective -- that sounds possible - got one more month of free support but I thought I'd see if it is a common problem before contacting them- also , as you see , it is somewhat hard to pin down

---
thanks for the ideas

Ron

[Big Mac]

Machines that restart spontaneously most always have defective power supplies. The power supply is the internal unit that converts DC wall power to electricity the computer actually uses. You should have the iMac exchanged, if at all possible (depending on where you purchased the unit), or repaired by an authorized technician.