Macintosh XL: Unwanted Shutdown



My Macintosh XL intermittently dims its screen and shuts off. While the
screen dims, the HD still runs. The dim effect is not a normal tube
shut-down. Rather, it is the XL dimming the screen just as it does when
you normally choose Shut Down from the Finder's Special menu.

The problem is not application-specific and does not seem to follow any
type of schedule. It seems random.

As the intermittent shutdown procedure is the same as a forced-shutdown
(via the menu), and that procedure is stored in software rather than
firmware, you are looking at a software or software-related cause. On the
hardware side, you could have damaged RAM or motherboard, but it's not
very likely. You would see many more problems than this if you had a
failing component.

We suspect either MacWorks Plus, system software, or (possibly) an INIT or
CDEV. Something is either corrupted or conflicting with another piece of
software.

Try reloading MacWorks Plus and reinstalling the operating system.


Published Date: Feb 18, 2012