Comments on: Force shutdown / restart in Mac OS X

By: conrad

conrad — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:51:55 +0000

Khanna, that is not a normal problem. Many users run their Macs for weeks without having to restart or shut down, only sleeping it at night. There may be software that is conflicting with the system. You may have to troubleshoot using methods such as process of elimination to try and isolate the problem. For example, does it happen if you use the Mac from a different user account? Does it happen if you log in with the Shift key held down to disable login items? You might also watch Activity Monitor’s displays to see if any processes are using an unusually high amount of CPU or RAM.

If you’re unable to diagnose it yourself and the Mac is under warranty, it would be a good idea to contact Apple support, because that is definitely not normal operation.

By: khanna

khanna — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:08:52 +0000

I have a problem , whenever i use my Macbook air for more than an hour or so , it does not shut down properly and i ultimately end up using the power button for force shut down. what am i supposed to do? is this a common problem in a mac?

By: conrad

conrad — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:01:53 +0000

Hi William, it sounds like your Mac had what’s called a “kernel panic,” where the core of the system (the “kernel”) had a problem. It isn’t typical, and when you see one, it should be diagnosed and resolved. They’re often caused by a problem with hardware (like a bad RAM chip) or a software driver for hardware (like a video card driver).

Apple has a pretty thorough tech note for troubleshooting kernel panics; see the link below:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742

By: William P.

William P. — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:10:22 +0000

I have a question about my Mac desktop. This evening a grayish “veil” came down from the top of my screen, and this little black box popped up and said I needed to restart my computer by holding down the power button for several seconds, then power it back up…..it wouldn’t allow me to do anything else. When I turned it back on, I got a message that the reason I had to turn it off was due to a program problem. Is this a common issue with Mac computers? I’ve had mine for a year and a half, and this has never happened to me. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

By: Victoria

Victoria — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:19:52 +0000

Thank you sososososososososo much! I really appreciate it:)

By: conrad

conrad — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:42:19 +0000

Usually, holding down the power button for several seconds should shut it all the way off. If that doesn’t work, traditionally the next step would be to remove the battery. I’m not sure what to do on the newer unibody MacBook Pros where you can’t take out the battery. I guess you could get a screwdriver, take the bottom off, and then disconnect the battery…

By: Varrojo@Linux » Apagar de Emergencia un Mac

Varrojo@Linux » Apagar de Emergencia un Mac — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:24:19 +0000

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By: ackee

ackee — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:17:50 +0000

what happens if the caps lock doesn’t come on but you know the computer definitely getting power? the only key working is the on/off switch! can’t get it to boot up at all and i have tried the fixes suggested above

By: conrad

conrad — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:49:44 +0000

There’s a lot going on there. Playing back sounds or iTunes shouldn’t stress any recent computer enough to cause glitches. Maybe try it in another user account on the same machine, to see if it’s a problem with a specific account. If you have a spare hard drive lying around, you can also try installing a fresh test copy of OS X on it to see if the problems happen if you boot off of that. If the problems still happen, it’s probably a hardware problem in the computer. If they don’t, there may be a problem with OS X on the main drive that might require updating or reinstalling. Beyond that, the problems are such an unusual combination that it might be a good idea to bring it in to Apple to have it looked at, because it isn’t obvious to me what would cause all of that to happen.

By: Ken Brown

Ken Brown — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:52:37 +0000

Hi,
A year ago I bought a used (1 yr old) MacBookPro to run my theatre company’s video and audio cues for our summer tour. All worked well till week 10 of the tour (we were running Qlab), and then the sound files started glitching, with intermittency. Even in Itunes the sound cues were glitching.

Now, a month later, the machine is having startup problems. I’m having to force start it, and I suspect that the battery is not taking a charge. Any ideas?