[Akarso]

Well so far my cube and i, has had a wonderful relationship. But now something is wrong. For some unknown reason my cube shuts down on it's own. That's right. It just shuts down by itself, without me going to the apple menu and clicking on the "shut down" button. Also without me manually pressing the power button.

I just don't get it. It just started to happen a few days ago. My computer will be running for about 10 minutes, then bam. It just shuts down. I reboot it up again. 20 minutes later, bam, shuts down. And i'm not running anything resource intensive. I just have classic and netscape 6.2 running. But like i said, i've had the cube for close to a 1 1/2 now and this is the first time i've encountered this. Also some times the cube will turn itself on.....it's starting to get scary. But i'm thinking it might be heat related..maybe the plastic around the power button warps and bends with the heat and that might be making it turn on. But i don't know anymore...i'm surprised it didn't shut down on me as i'm typing this out.

specs:

Cube G4 450 mhz
704 mb ram
20 gb hard drive
DVD drive
firmware 4.19
OS X 10.1.2

*no programs have been installed or system prefs changed. I've been using this setup for the past couple months and everything was fine.*

If anybody has any ideas as to what could be affecting my cube, i'd greatly appreciate the help.

[solitere]

Originally posted by Akarso:
<STRONG>Well so far my cube and i, has had a wonderful relationship. But now something is wrong. For some unknown reason my cube shuts down on it's own. That's right. It just shuts down by itself, without me going to the apple menu and clicking on the "shut down" button. Also without me manually pressing the power button.
</STRONG>

Possible solutions!

1. "Dust/dirt under the Hood" under the glowing powerbuttom
- Try to clean any dirt or dust away, be gentle!
2. Reset "pram" I think it was alt+command+p+r (while you reboot)
3. The cubes internal battery is low or in bad condition
- try to replace it

I Hope it helps!

[jfdonahue]

First, what kind of display do you have connected to the Cube? Is it an Apple Display that has the same type of on/off switch that the Cube has? If so, it could be a problem with either the Cube or the Display. Unplug the moniter from the Cube and see if the Cube still turns itself on and off. If so, you got a bad sensor in the moniter. If it is not the moniter, then it must be the Cube's sensor. I had to send my moniter to Apple to get the sensor replaced. Once you figure who the culprit is, give Apple a call. My moniter was still under warranty and the repair only took four days.

[jfdonahue]

First, what kind of display do you have connected to the Cube? Is it an Apple Display that has the same type of on/off switch that the Cube has? If so, it could be a problem with either the Cube or the Display. Unplug the moniter from the Cube and see if the Cube still turns itself on and off. If so, you got a bad sensor in the moniter. If it is not the moniter, then it must be the Cube's sensor. I had to send my moniter to Apple to get the sensor replaced. Once you figure who the culprit is, give Apple a call. My moniter was still under warranty and the repair only took four days.

[PowerCube]

I remember reading some previous threads about early Cube problems with the proximity (power) sensor on the top of the Cube. Along the same lines, I also recall a thread about the gasket around the proximity sensor being a probable cause!Good luck!

[Jansar]

I understand how sensitive the buttons are, considering that I've been through the process myself, owning a Cube. However, even without hitting the buttons, the computer also manages to turn off by itself in my case, too. It does not shut down, but in turn goes to sleep. Sometimes you're going to have to reset the PRAM. Usually this works.

[BobK]

Have you done the firm wear update? I had the same problem- did the update and it has been running for a week straight with out a problem.

[milhous]

Also, is your cube located in an environment that is generally warm like a room that's not air conditioned,etc. Temperature within the room can also be a possible contributing factor to your problem.

[BrunoBruin]

If your Cube is about a year and a half old, it may be one of the early models that was afflicted by a problem with the gasket under the power switch. This is easily fixed. Call Apple support and tell them about it; if the Cube is out of warranty they'll want to charge you for the call but should send you a new gasket.

See this page for a PDF about replacing the gasket.

I think people have had success fixing the problem themselves by inserting a piece of paper between the gasket and the switch. Search the forums -- someone has probably posted instructions.

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: BrunoBruin ]

[Akarso]

Originally posted by BrunoBruin:
<STRONG>If your Cube is about a year and a half old, it may be one of the early models that was afflicted by a problem with the gasket under the power switch. This is easily fixed. Call Apple support and tell them about it; if the Cube is out of warranty they'll want to charge you for the call but should send you a new gasket. </STRONG>

Thanks for the help and advice everybody. I'll try cleaning around the power button first. Then i'll reset the pram and call up apple for the gasket replacement, hopefully that will solve this problem. Thanks for link BrunoBruin!

BobK- Yes i did the firmware update almost a two months ago, and it was running fine. That is, until now.

[behnke]

Hi!

Had the same prob with my cube a few months ago. I didn't want to send it back to apple, so I tried to find another solution ... and I did.

It's very simple, but it work great...even if it sounds strange.

The reason for the trouble is the very sensitive on/off-switch on top of the cube.

Solution: Open the case ... look inside the case. Right in the middle there is the top part of the switch ... Take a small piece of paper with aprox. the same size and place (or better tape) it there.

Reattach the case .. that's it. You will find out, that the switch is a bit less sensitive, but it's still working just fine.

The solution wasn't my idea ... I was looking through the discussions and www.apple.com. Several guys had the same problem, and a lot of them were really happy with the "paper-solution".

Hope it help

Marcus

[Akarso]

Originally posted by behnke:
<STRONG>Hi!

Had the same prob with my cube a few months ago. I didn't want to send it back to apple, so I tried to find another solution ... and I did.

It's very simple, but it work great...even if it sounds strange.

The reason for the trouble is the very sensitive on/off-switch on top of the cube.

Solution: Open the case ... look inside the case. Right in the middle there is the top part of the switch ... Take a small piece of paper with aprox. the same size and place (or better tape) it there.

Reattach the case .. that's it. You will find out, that the switch is a bit less sensitive, but it's still working just fine.

The solution wasn't my idea ... I was looking through the discussions and www.apple.com. Several guys had the same problem, and a lot of them were really happy with the "paper-solution".

Hope it help

Marcus </STRONG>

Thanks Marcus! I'll give it a try.

[Michael T. Doyle]

The piece-of-paper solution works great. My Cube developed Cubepilepsy about four months ago. I called Apple for the gasket and used the paper fix in the interim. Or so I thought. That paper has been stuck happily inside my Cube ever since, and the gasket just sits lonely on my desk...somewhere.

[Akarso]

Thanks for helping out everybody! I didn't call apple and just decided to give the paper trick a try, and guess what? It worked. I had my cube on for almost 4 hours straight and so far it hasn't shut down. Thanks again!!