Mac Stopped Working

[ElDiabloRobotico]

I've got a 3 year old iMac. Bought it brand new. Now it will randomly shut itself off and it will be hours before I can turn it back on again. I figured since we had pets that maybe there was some blockage on the I take fan that was causing it to overheat. Took it apart to blow all the dust and hair out of it. It worked fine for a few days and then the problem started again. Any suggestions?

/please no mac vs pc flamewars. I just want my computer to work again.

[Casual_Shooter]

Some talk on Mac forums about bad RAM causing the problem...

Others say they've replaced the power supply or the whole machine.

Might take some digging but perhaps try the RAM first. If you're not doing any RAM intensive work, you could pull all the extra RAM and see how it goes.

[TWoods450]

Casual Shooter is on the right path, I'd try the ram first as well, but it sounds an awful lot like a power supply issue. If you need parts this site has been good to me in the past http://allmac.com/

[Doheny]

Isn't there an Apple store in Fairbanks?

Hope you backed up...good luck, let us know what the fix was.

[shooter74]

Pull out the ram sticks and blow all the dust out.
make sure they are in and locked .

[ElDiabloRobotico]

you guys rock. tried the ram thing and now it works. it may be temporary, but now i can back everything up again. thanks