10.3.2 won't shut down; just restarts

If you tell it to shut down, it goes through all of the motions, but about 10 seconds later restarts on its own.
John Flater wrote on :

Ok, this is one I have not been able to figure out. My dad has an older Mac (450 mhz) with Panther installed. Starting about two weeks ago, the computer refuses to shut down. If you tell it to shut down, it goes through all of the motions, but about 10 seconds later restarts on its own.

To date we have tried:

  1. Permissions repair
  2. Logging out the user and selecting Shutdown
  3. Terminal "sudo shutdown -h now"
  4. Energy settings - Restart automatically after power failure (not selected)
  5. Zapping the PRAM and then trying all over again

Everything gets the same result.

Our next step is to the upgrade to 10.3.3. But, I am not very hopeful that it will improve it. He's on a slow dial-up modem and doesn't want to tie up the line. So, I have downloaded the update and will be mailing it out tomorrow.

Any ideas?

Thanks

John in Baltimore

Jennifer Mullen replied on :

In john731-4DA4BA.17552925042004@redacted.invalid John Flater john731@redacted.invalid wrote:

Ok, this is one I have not been able to figure out. My dad has an older Mac (450 mhz) with Panther installed. Starting about two weeks ago, the computer refuses to shut down. If you tell it to shut down, it goes through all of the motions, but about 10 seconds later restarts on its own.

To date we have tried:

  1. Permissions repair
  2. Logging out the user and selecting Shutdown
  3. Terminal "sudo shutdown -h now"
  4. Energy settings - Restart automatically after power failure (not selected)
  5. Zapping the PRAM and then trying all over again

Everything gets the same result.

Perhaps a USB device? What happens if you remove all of your USB devices? You'd need to leave a mouse plugged in to select shutdown, but you could unplug it after the confirmation dialog. If that doesn't work, I'd try a safe boot (hold down the shift key while starting up) to rule out a kernel extension.

Do any messages get logged to /var/log/system.log?

John Flater replied on :

In article slrnc8okhh.tbp.nomoreswenplease@redacted.invalid, Jennifer Mullen nomoreswenplease@redacted.invalid wrote:

In john731-4DA4BA.17552925042004@redacted.invalid John Flater john731@redacted.invalid wrote:

Ok, this is one I have not been able to figure out. My dad has an older Mac (450 mhz) with Panther installed. Starting about two weeks ago, the computer refuses to shut down. If you tell it to shut down, it goes through all of the motions, but about 10 seconds later restarts on its own.

To date we have tried:

  1. Permissions repair
  2. Logging out the user and selecting Shutdown
  3. Terminal "sudo shutdown -h now"
  4. Energy settings - Restart automatically after power failure (not selected)
  5. Zapping the PRAM and then trying all over again

Everything gets the same result.

Perhaps a USB device? What happens if you remove all of your USB devices? You'd need to leave a mouse plugged in to select shutdown, but you could unplug it after the confirmation dialog. If that doesn't work, I'd try a safe boot (hold down the shift key while starting up) to rule out a kernel extension.

Do any messages get logged to /var/log/system.log?

Thanks for the response and the suggestions. I hadn't thought of the USB thing.

We didn't do the /var/log..... I'll suggest that also. We did check the Activity Monitor and shut down everything we could.

Thanks again for the tips

John

aRKay replied on :

In article slrnc8okhh.tbp.nomoreswenplease@redacted.invalid, Jennifer Mullen nomoreswenplease@redacted.invalid wrote:

Perhaps a USB device? What happens if you remove all of your USB devices? You'd need to leave a mouse plugged in to select shutdown, but you could unplug it after the confirmation dialog.

Ditto..... I had the same problem and and it was solved by getting a new USB to Serial Adapter. No problems after changing to the Keyspan Adapter.

John Flater replied on :

In article slrnc8okhh.tbp.nomoreswenplease@redacted.invalid, Jennifer Mullen nomoreswenplease@redacted.invalid wrote:

In john731-4DA4BA.17552925042004@redacted.invalid John Flater john731@redacted.invalid wrote:

Ok, this is one I have not been able to figure out. My dad has an older Mac (450 mhz) with Panther installed. Starting about two weeks ago, the computer refuses to shut down. If you tell it to shut down, it goes through all of the motions, but about 10 seconds later restarts on its own.

To date we have tried:

  1. Permissions repair
  2. Logging out the user and selecting Shutdown
  3. Terminal "sudo shutdown -h now"
  4. Energy settings - Restart automatically after power failure (not selected)
  5. Zapping the PRAM and then trying all over again

Everything gets the same result.

Perhaps a USB device? What happens if you remove all of your USB devices? You'd need to leave a mouse plugged in to select shutdown, but you could unplug it after the confirmation dialog. If that doesn't work, I'd try a safe boot (hold down the shift key while starting up) to rule out a kernel extension.

Do any messages get logged to /var/log/system.log?

Thanks for the tip. I got the word today, that it was his new SmartMedia card reader (USB) that was causing the problem.

Thanks

John

aRKay replied on :

In article john731-AF63AD.19084527042004@redacted.invalid, John Flater john731@redacted.invalid wrote:

Thanks for the tip. I got the word today, that it was his new SmartMedia card reader (USB) that was causing the problem.

Been there done that and USB devices are usually the cause.