Mac mini (iLex) shuts down, all the way down

**minicoopS007** · 10-12-2005, 08:36 AM

Hi All,
I've been lurking on this forum for a while now; great forum I've learned a lot and installed a Mac Mini in my lexus gs (http://www.clublexus.com/forums/show...ight=mac+mini). I've had my set up for about 2 months. I've been using CCar for my frontend and I've been trying to extend it. That's another story. Last night I decided to try iKarr and Harmony as frontends. I decided to quit one of the applescript applications not sure which one and got an error. It finally terminated once I quit iTunes. I relaunched CCar and things appeared to be normal. This morning I start up the car, my iLex (Mac mini) wakes from sleep then shuts down, all the way down. The power light is off on the front panel. I turn the car off remove the key and iLex awakes from sleep then shuts down all the way. I turn the car on and it does the same thing.

Help, accepting all ideas.

btw I'm running tiger.

**MikeH** · 10-12-2005, 08:54 AM

How are you getting the Mac into sleep mode? Are you manually sending it to sleep thru the onscreen menus? Or are you manually pressing the power button? Or are you allowing the P1900 to put it in sleep mode?

**minicoopS007** · 10-12-2005, 09:34 AM

The P1900 puts it to sleep.

**MikeH** · 10-12-2005, 10:39 AM

I turn the car off remove the key and iLex awakes from sleep then shuts down all the way.

I guess this is the part I don't understand. The way I read this implies that the Mac is sleeping when the car is ON. Or do you mean the Mac goes into sleep mode normally when you turn off the car, but later wakes on its own. If the latter is the case, it sounds like you have some sort of USB activity that wakes the Mac from sleep. ANY USB activity will wake the Mac from sleep. This may include a touchscreen or USB hub. Have you recently changed any of your USB connections?

Also, double check your ignition line into the P1900. Make sure it is really doing what you think it is (ie +12V when the key is ON, 0V when off).

**minicoopS007** · 10-12-2005, 01:50 PM

The mac goes into sleep mode when the car is on. The mac will boot up, then shut down. Then turn the car off the mac will boot up then shut down. I don't think it is going into sleep mode since the power led on the front of the mac is not lighting up. Any change in the power state causes the mac to boot up then shutdown. Only thing I've done is added software (iKarr and Harmony), which are applescript frontends. I've not changed or added any usb devices. The only usb devices attacher is the lcd monitor.

**MikeH** · 10-12-2005, 04:29 PM

When the Mac begins to shut down, does it appear to be a "graceful" shutdown, or is the P1900 just abruptly removing power? If the Mac goes thru a graceful shutdown process it is not being shut down by the P1900 since all we can control is the power button. ...... hmm, could your power button cable be shorted so that the P1900 appears to be "holding" the power switch. That's really the only way the P1900 could completely shut down the Mac.

**minicoopS007** · 10-12-2005, 04:57 PM

I believe it is a graceful shutdown, I guess one way to test it is to remove it and power it with the brick. I wish i built a doc for it.

**MikeH** · 10-12-2005, 05:02 PM

You could just try removing the power button cable from the P1900. After you remove this cable turn on your car. You will then need to manually push the power button to start the Mac. Once it has fully booted, see if it shuts itself down. This would confirm that it is something inside the Mac shutting it down.

**Bugbyte** · 10-12-2005, 06:04 PM

Have your power button settings gotten changed somehow?

It also sounds like somehow your Mini has gotten "flipped" and out of sync with when the car is on or off.

Try booting the Mac from the install CD and see if it will start up that way. If it does, use disk utility to scan the disk and see if it has some kind of problem on it. You may have to do the repair twice.

**minicoopS007** · 10-12-2005, 07:12 PM

Okay I've pulled out the mac mini and responding to this post using the mac. She has been up for the past hour. It appears the P1900 is sending a shutdown signal to the Mac mini. I hope there is a reset button on the P1900, I would hate to pull down my glove box to re-ship the P1900.

On another note, I'm happy with my install of the Mac; all I do is pull out the Mac and unplug the cables. :-)