Help with my iMac

drumbendrum_ESO · June 2016

So this is not actually about the game being played on a iMac which I miss more than anything atm!

But I am looking for someone that has a good amount of knowledge and expert advise with dealing with iMac.

I used to play ESO on it back when I first started and really enjoyed doing so even with all the unexpected shut downs.

Currently I'm having an issues with my iMac where it will randomly just power down. Once doing so I will have to unplug it and wait a couple of seconds and re-plug back the power cord and then be able to turn it back on.

After powering down though it will not take very long after restarting it and then it will repeat itself. I leave it unplugged for the remainder of the night try again the next day and it will work until it repeats the power down steps again. I am only able to get it to stay on for roughly an hour if not watching any streams or playing games. Just regular web surfing, however when I try and play ESO it will immediately shut down as soon as I log in and in fact I have not even been able to update it so its been awhile since I have even logged in.

Does anyone have any experience with what could be going on? Im' pretty sure this is a hardware issue but again I don't know.

The system is a iMac (27in Late 2012)

3.4 GHz Intel Core i7

8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

GTX 680MX 2048 MB

Thanks to anyone that can offer any assistance~

wayfarerx · June 2016

Sounds like overheating to me. Are your fans working?

drumbendrum_ESO · June 2016

Good question I am running Temperature Gauge by Tunabelly Software but there is no indication that the fans have stopped working.

What temperature would you say is too high for the CPU and GPU to monitor cause I'm seeing everyting around 51 degrees Celsius.

Is there a better way to check this?

wayfarerx · June 2016

51 is a tad high but not particularly concerning. If it's not something obvious like overheating then it's probably something you'll need a tech to take a look at. Be sure and update all your software and drivers and if it's still happening then off to the genius bar.

Niastissa · June 2016

It sounds like overheating but if the system is reporting about 50C at the time it fails it might be something else.

Can you get into the restore mode disk utility and back up the contents of your drive and reformat your drive and do a fresh install. It might be something corrupted on your drive causing it to crash.

Nestor · June 2016

This can also be a power supply going bad. It has just enough juice to run the system, but under stress or heat, the voltages get wonky and the system shuts down to protect itself. Your PSU is 5 years old, and that is about when they start failing.

KhajitFurTrader · June 2016

What @Nestor said, plus it's possible that after four years of continuous running, dust might be blocking the internal air ducts, amplifying heat-related issues.

You should probably try to reset your Mac's NVRAM and SMC, to see whether it changes anything. If it doesn't, heed @wayfarerx 's advice and take your machine to an authorized Apple service tech.

For hardware-related monitoring, I've been using Bjango's iStat Menus for the past several years. It has a very detailed display of voltages and temperatures. On my 2013 27" iMac with a Core i7 CPU (3.5 GHz), I'm seeing temperatures north of 80°C (176°F) while gaming, without having any issues at all.