My Macbook Pro Shuts off Randomly

I had this very problem and my first reply to you is YES IT IS OVERHEATING but not in the way you would notice it. Please read the following as I solved this problem for the cost of a Penta Screw driver set and some arctic silver thermal compound.

On my late 2013 Macbook pro Resetting PRAM or NVRAM did not fix random shutdown faults . I tried this as a first option including resetting the SMC on my Macbook. Did lots of hardware tests to no avail, nothing seemed to be faulty.

One thing I found was that booting up in SAFE MODE stopped the random shutdowns. This led me to two conclusions, one that there was some corrupt driver or software causing the shutdowns in NORMAL MODE or some nasty malware had gotten onto my Mac. So wiped the SSD and reinstalled a fresh OSX, but to no avail, still random shutdowns in normal mode with no shutdowns in safe mode.

Finally I decided that maybe the amount of processing power in Safe mode used was less than in normal mode. So I began to suspect maybe the cooling system on the Macbook was faulty. Pulled the Macbook apart and took off the fans and heatsink. There it was !!! the thermal paste had turned to dust !!! so I cleaned it off with alcohol, put some Arctic Cooler paste on the CPU / GPU, just a dab on each is perfect. Put the heatsink back on, cleaned out the fans and vents and ran some stress tests in normal mode. Worked like a dream, problem solved !! The reason it was turning off was that the CPU/GPU were overheating and the heatsink wasn't drawing away the heat. So the Mac would seem to get hot at all for this very reason. The automatic shutdown in the CPU or GPU would kick in over a certain temperature and the CPU would shut down or the GPU would lock up and give a dark grey screen but with the computer still working. Either of these two symptoms can indicate a cooling issue.

I suspect Apple use very low quality thermal paste in order to save money, and over time this degrades and becomes dust as the computer heats up. This is great for them because then people will just go and buy a new mac thinking it's broken. By the way, I phoned Apple helpdesk, their advice for sorting the problem was to clean out my caches, totally idiotic as I told them I run Mac Cleaner which does this regularly. They had no other option apart from replacing the MOBO and Battery, which is more cash for them. By the way, run a fan controller on you macbook such as Macs Fan Control and set it to run on bootup. You'll need to set the temperature it starts to cool the computer at, to around 35 degrees celsius or less. This will ensure your macbook doesn't heat up again, but the fan noise will be audible, very slightly, whereas normally it will be totally silent, because the 2 fans running very slowly.

Hope this helps. There are online videos on youtube showing you how to take the macbook apart and fix it yourself with minimal tools. Apple hate this as they can't make money out of people. If it's under warranty, take it to a repair shop but if it's out of warranty, you could be up for a very hefty bill if they tell you the motherboard and battery need replacement.

Thermal paste has probably turned to dust inside the Mac. It helps the heatsink draw heat from the CPU. You'll need to replace this with some good paste such as Arctic Silver. If you can't do it yourself, then find a technically inclined friend. There are lots of videos on youtube which guide you step by step to fixing this problem. I had the identical same issue, and this fix worked.

Hi Macanova

You need to look in the computers fault logs, and there you'll find something like -128 as "Cause of Previous Shutdown" This is a hardware error and in many cases is the result of the thermal paste inside the mac turns to dust causing the CPU / GPU to overheat and go into shutdown mode. I had this same issue, and it shuts down totally randomly. One thing which gives the game away is that in SAFE MODE bootup it probably wont shutdown.

You'll need to replace this with some good paste such as Arctic Silver. If you can't do it yourself, then find a technically inclined friend. There are lots of videos on youtube which guide you step by step to fixing this problem. I had the identical same issue, and this fix worked. You'll also need a penta / torque screw driver set to get into the mac 1.2 mm for the ourside screws if it's 2013 late model onwards and I think torque if it's older. Hope this helps.

That is not any proof regarding the health of your battery.

You need to go to the Apple Menu, About This Mac, and in the window that pops up click More Info... In the next window that comes up click System Report... Then click on the Power category and take a screen shot and paste it here so we can see about the health of your battery.

It will look similar to this:

Did you buy the Snow Leopard disc from Apple or did you get it via a torrent site or something similar? Just asking because Snow Leopard is not available as a download from Apple. If you downloaded it via a pirate site, I would suggest buying the 'real' disc and using it. I would also recommend restoring from an old backup if you used a pirated version of Snow Leopard. Pirated software - especially OS X - is notorious for being loaded with malware, etc.

Clinton

You just had me worried with that "download" part - sorry.

You can try a couple of things - but I doubt that they'll fix your problem. First reset your PRAM/NVRAM, then try resetting the SMC. No luck with either, insert the SL installation disc and use Disk Utility to both repair permissions and verify and, if needed, repair your hard drive.

Beyond that, there's no much else I can suggest other than taking your machine into your local Apple Store or AASP and having them run diagnostics on the machine.

Good luck,

Clinton

I had the same exact problem and after a week of searching all over the web for a solucion, I finally figured it out myself.

Check if the "Automatic Graphic Switching" (System preferences<Energy Saver<Automatic Graphic Switching) is ticked. If it's not ticked it means that the computer uses the highest graphic settings at all times and it causes repeated kernel panics.

So just tick it.

If not- something else might be causing for the kernel panic. Try to remember if you did a certain change for the settings more or less at the time the shut downs began, and undo it.

I am having the same problem and I was wondering if someone could let me know if anything looks wrong with my info and see if there is an obvious problem from that.

Battery Information:

Model Information:

Serial Number: 9G204293BD3MA

Manufacturer: DP

Device Name: bq20z451

Pack Lot Code: 0

PCB Lot Code: 0

Firmware Version: 201

Hardware Revision: 2

Cell Revision: 158

Charge Information:

Charge Remaining (mAh): 4994

Fully Charged: No

Charging: Yes

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 5256

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 325

Condition: Normal

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): 722

Voltage (mV): 12527

System Power Settings:

AC Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Wake on AC Change: No

Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes

Wake on LAN: Yes

Current Power Source: Yes

Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep: 0

RestartAfterKernelPanic: 157680000

Standby Delay: 4200

Standby Enabled: 0

Battery Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 2

Wake on AC Change: No

Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes

Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

Reduce Brightness: Yes

RestartAfterKernelPanic: 157680000

Standby Delay: 4200

Standby Enabled: 0

Hardware Configuration:

UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

Connected: Yes

ID: 0x0100

Wattage (W): 60

Revision: 0x0000

Family: 0x00ba

Serial Number: 0x00b39236

Charging: Yes

I'm having a "random shut down" with my macbook pro (2009) as well. I checked my Power usage in the "About this mac" and it is not fully charged and not charging, yet my charger is plugged in and the little green light is on. The battery status on my top menu bar says "(Not Charging)" as well.

Just yesterday, the laptop wouldn't restart after a "random shut down" until I plugged it in. The battery looked charged when it restarted, but when I pulled the plug out, it shut down again, twice.

Battery no good anymore?

Thanks,

Justin

I know this thread is "closed" but I just wanted to add a point. I recently have the same problem with my macbook pro (mid 2008/last one before converting to the unicase version). The computer would work for about an hour before it just shuts down. When I tried turning it on again, it refuses to stay on for the next ~15 minutes (grey screen, shut down). When I let it rest for a little bit, it would turn on and usable for ~hour. I did everything (reset smc, nvram, the works) but nothing helps. Finally, I found a relatively obsure thread from a guy with similiar problem. He fixed it by replacing the thermal paste on the heatsink/cpu/gpu. I did the same thing (instructions on ifixit.com) and my computer is now working again. Anyway, FYI. Good Luck!

Yep, i agree with Ustilago. my sister's Mid 2009 Macbook pro had the same problem. it was out of warranty so i did a little DIY stuff. after reinstalling the OS, checking RAM. the problem persisted. the battery was for replacement so i thought it was the battery but when i removed the battery and powered the MBP, it still shut down randomly. so i thought of the last thing( since it was kinda old MBP) i checked the thermal paste for both the video card and processor, they were baked(or dried and chalky). so i cleaned it up and put in new thermal paste and the MBP is fine and working without the random shut down thing.

Can someone help me with mine??

I would appreciate.

Also, my microsoft word crashed twice recently.