An open community 
of Macintosh users,
for Macintosh users.

FineTunedMac Dashboard widget now available! Download Here

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Unrequested system shutdown
#52078 07/20/19 08:05 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
grelber Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
For the past couple days, once I've turned off my Magic Mouse and put the system to sleep as usual (via short touch of power button) over night, the system shuts down completely — with no log or error message indicating why. DU indicates that nothing has gone awry.

Is this an omen of impending iMac failure? Or what?

Running El Capitan 10.11.6 on mid-2011 iMac 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5.

Re: Unrequested system shutdown
grelber #52079 07/20/19 09:33 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 7
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 7
Sounds like you may need to reset SMC. Read How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
jchuzi #52081 07/20/19 12:28 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
Offline
Moderator

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Are you certain you aren't holding the power button a touch too long and thereby triggering a shut down?


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
grelber #52084 07/20/19 05:11 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
See what happens if you first switch off your mouse, then sleep your Mac with the keyboard: CMD+ALT+eject key


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
grelber #52085 07/20/19 05:26 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Taking a different tack, I'll wonder if, perhaps, your power button has deteriorated after years of use?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
artie505 #52088 07/21/19 08:28 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
grelber Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
jon & joemikeb & freelance & artie: Many thanks.

No change in my short touch of power button, but since the following suggestion helped I think I'll just keep resetting the SMC in reserve.

The sleep keystroke combo (option-⌘-⏏) seems to do the job.

So, rather than tempting fate, I think I'll switch to that (for putting the iMac to sleep after turning off the Magic Mouse) and leave the power button alone except for booting.

Re: Unrequested system shutdown
grelber #52089 07/21/19 08:53 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Why not just take the path of least resistance and use  > Sleep?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
artie505 #52090 07/21/19 09:01 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
grelber Offline OP
OP Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 4
Originally Posted By: artie505
Why not just take the path of least resistance and use  > Sleep?

With the Magic Mouse turned off, one can't access the drop down menu (as far as I know).
And if I do that with the MM turned on and then turn it off, it causes the iMac to wake up.

Re: Unrequested system shutdown
grelber #52091 07/21/19 09:13 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Originally Posted By: grelber
Originally Posted By: artie505
Why not just take the path of least resistance and use  > Sleep?

With the Magic Mouse turned off, one can't access the drop down menu (as far as I know).
And if I do that with the MM turned on and then turn it off, it causes the iMac to wake up.

Sorry, I've got no experience with the Magic Mouse, so I thought you could save the "turn it off" step. I guess you turn it off for battery conservation?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
grelber #52092 07/21/19 09:30 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Glad that worked for you.

I'm curious to know where you find those keystroke icons?


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
grelber #52093 07/21/19 09:32 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 7
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 7
Resetting SMC is very easy and has no adverse effects. I have done it with my iMac, and all it involves is shutting down completely, unplugging the iMac for a short time, and plugging it in again. If you have a power outage, the effect is the same.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
jchuzi #52095 07/21/19 09:52 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
And right on point:

What the SMC does
The SMC is responsible for these and other low-level functions on Intel-based Mac computers:
Responding to presses of the power button


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
freelance #52103 07/21/19 10:21 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
Offline
Moderator

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Originally Posted By: freelance
Glad that worked for you.

I'm curious to know where you find those keystroke icons?

They are all over the place and often not easy to get to. In virtually all versions of MacOS  is achieved by Shift+Option+K (⇧⌥K). In Mojave and Catalina the rest can be found somewhere in Emoji & Symbols (∧⌘space). NOTE: Emoji & Symbols has two UIs. The default looks like this and you can find some of the symbols browsing here. However if you click where indicted you will get this view. For reasons known only to a few developers there are symbol sets available in the second view that do not appear in the first, specifically "Technical Symbols" which is what you are likely looking for. No the apple logo does not appear in either variety of emoji and symbols or at least I have never found it, but it is available on the keyboard as ⇧⌥K.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
joemikeb #52104 07/21/19 10:43 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Thanks for pointing out the other view (Surely, they could have hidden it better! tongue ); I knew there was stuff missing.

I've got  from somewhere - The only place I can think of is an ooold symbols viewer...back in the days when it showed the entire Unicode sequence. - but it shows up in my favorites like so...whatever on Earth "PRIVATE USE AREA-F8FF" is.

More:
Originally Posted By: Private Use Areas - Wikipedia
In Unicode, a Private Use Area (PUA) is a range of code points that, by definition, will not be assigned characters by the Unicode Consortium.[1] Three private use areas are defined: one in the Basic Multilingual Plane (U+E000–U+F8FF), and one each in, and nearly covering, planes 15 and 16 (U+F0000–U+FFFFD, U+100000–U+10FFFD). The code points in these areas cannot be considered as standardized characters in Unicode itself. They are intentionally left undefined so that third parties may define their own characters without conflicting with Unicode Consortium assignments. Under the Unicode Stability Policy,[2] the Private Use Areas will remain allocated for that purpose in all future Unicode versions.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
joemikeb #52105 07/22/19 06:26 AM
Joined: Aug 2009
Offline

Joined: Aug 2009
⌥⌘+⏏︎

Thanks!


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
artie505 #52107 07/22/19 12:48 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
Offline
Moderator

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Originally Posted By: artie505
Thanks for pointing out the other view (Surely, they could have hidden it better! tongue ); I knew there was stuff missing.

I can't claim any genius in finding that. It was purely curiosity that caused me to check what that little icon up there at the right corner of the Character Viewer window did and voilá I struck gold. Instead of hiding it they could have shown the Technical Symbols in both views but perhaps with a warning that "Symbols on this page are not Unicode standard." My aggravation is I have not found a way to add symbols from the small view to the "Favorites list" in the default view 🤬. Nor have I found a way to add  to the Favorites list 🤬🤬

Time to submit another suggestion.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Unrequested system shutdown
joemikeb #52113 07/22/19 10:48 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
Online

Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
I've got  in my Favorites list; I assume it's been there since the days when the Character Viewer displayed the entire Unicode sequence.

I'll be happy to send you the file if you can figure out where it lives.

I"m not sure why I never clicked on that icon, but then again, it took me a few years to learn to look for answers to questions by cruising the menu bar.

More: On second thought, isn't the key command much easier to use than the Emoji & Symbols pane?

Last edited by artie505; 07/23/19 08:22 AM. Reason: More

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

Moderated by  alternaut, dkmarsh, joemikeb 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.4
(Release build 20200307)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 7.4.33 Page Time: 0.044s Queries: 48 (0.036s) Memory: 0.6581 MB (Peak: 0.7815 MB) Data Comp: Zlib Server Time: 2024-03-29 07:38:40 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS