iMac won't shut down unless forced.

[Jodie99]

Hi - My Imac desktop has suddenly decided it does not want to shut down anymore. The last 3 times I have had to force it. I unplugged all the hard drives tablet etc to ensure it wasn't anything to do with those but it still won't shut down. It just stays on the screen with the Catalina background.

I don't think there are any apps that are causing it as I think I've checked correctly that nothing is running. 

Any ideas please? Thank-You 

Jodie 

 

[Brian]

First question, does it restart?

I'm just curious but I'm thinking this won't work either.

After you are forced to pull the power, remove everything that is attached to your computer. Nothing in the USB ports, no HDs, etc. Just the Keyboard, Mouse, iMac and Power Cord.

Then the next step is to Reset the SMC and PRAM.

After that, Genius Bar is probably in your future.

[Jodie99]

Hi Brian - No it does not restart either. I have just done the SMC and PRAM reset and thankfully the PRAM reset seems to have done the trick. 

It said on the instructions that the iMac should make a start-up sound? Mine doesn't.....I did hold the keys down until the sign in screen came up and when I came to shut it down it did shut down normally. 

Thanks so much for the help! 

 

Jodie 

[Brian]

Not all Macs make a startup sound. It’s normal. You can go in the Command Line and type a command to enable it, but this command doesn’t work at all on brand new Macs. The new Macs don’t make the sound at all; it doesn’t seem to be part of the ROM’s programming any longer. Oh the sound that people recognize the most is a F# Major Chord, in case you are wondering.

Well, it has been a few differ tones over the years, even was a C Major Chord at one point. Give this video a watch for more info: