What the hell? iMac won't shut down...

[Jasoco]

So I am trying to go to bed and I choose "Shut Down" from the menu. it quits all apps and goes to the blue screen.. but then everything comes back up. The desktop, Dock and menubar all came back! So I try again.. same result. Try again.. same result! Then I try restart... same damn result! Then I try "Log Out" it goes to blue and stays there!

So I press and hold the power button to shut it off. I figure "What the hell, it ain't shuttin down anyway" and it REBOOTS! I don't WANT it to reboot! I want to go to SLEEP! If I try to unplug it it just restarts upon putting the cord back in anyway.

What the hell is going on?

 

[kenny]

Admittedly, this is a longshot, but...

Have a look at the energy saver preferences... On the Options tab, there's an item "Restart automatically after a power failure". Is that, by any chance turned on? It would certainly explain the power-cord bit, although I'm not sure about the shutdown behaviour you describe.

Failing that, there's the usual suspects; zapping pram would be at the top of the list for me.

Of course, theres always exorcism...

 

[Jasoco]

Well, it WAS on in OS X.. I didn't realize that option was in X. I checked 9 and it wasn't on, but I just turned it off in X. That's probably why it restarts after I unplug it. But why would the OS relaunch itself after trying to shut down and reboot? THAT part I don't get.

How do I zap the PRAM again?

And do I really have to open my iMac to hit that damn CUDA switch? It's a slot loader. Is it not in an easier to access place? Even though the warranty is over, I don't feel right opening up a year old iMac. If it was a Classic or PowerMac, I would.

Anyway, this was the first time that weird thing ever happened. If it continues I will have to try to figure it out.

 

[Jasoco]

Originally posted by testuser
Not sure why it would restart after a shutdown command... did it have this behavior under OS 9 with the "restart after power failure" option? If the behavior is different under OS X, than in OS 9, it would be good to notify Apple of this at their feedback site.

It sdidn't RESTART. It never even shut down. It went to the blue screen and then everything came back a second later. Then it sat there mocking me.