Randomly Turns Off

Hey-

I have been having the same problem with my black macbook for a week and a bit now- I'm wondering whether it because its a very early build- it was delivered a week after release... It's very unnerving to think that at anytime it will cut out. The other night it clicked off 14(!) times in a row...

Mine is in an apple service centre now- Apple took me through all their tests on hardware and software- nothing has helped. I switched from PC for this... never had a problem like this on my IBM laptop- ok so PC software, looks and features suck- but the so called apple reliability is out the window right now... Oh and my ipod died in the same week! Go apple.

So anyway, my point or rather question is, do i get a new one or a logic board? I don't want to be dicked around trouble shooting for apple...

Suggestions?

I contacted a few mac pod casts to see what they say
about this. Maybe get some airtime and get this
addressed by apple.

My week 18 MacBook is currently at an Apple repair centre in the UK. They took it in for testing and I shall be really annoyed if they return it saying there is no fault. My MacBook can run for two days without getting a random shutdown so I am worried I will still have a defective MacBook.

I am disappointed Apple are still in denial about this issue. I hope you get some publicity for us.



MacBook serial 4H618* Mac OS X (10.4.7) base model - suffering random shutdowns

I took delivery of my week 22 MacBook on Friday 16 June. All was fine over the weekend, but on Monday 19th, it started doing the shutdown thing. I posted here on the 21st (on a different thread from this one), by which time I had returned the machine to my local reseller. They hung on to it for a few days, ran their tests, said it was definitely the RAM, which they replaced, and returned the machine to me. It worked fine for about 18 hours then died and plain refused to start up again. Back to the reseller, who wanted to give me a replacement but didn't have any in stock. I then went on holiday for a week and I've just come back to the news that the reseller is still in discussion with Apple...

So... I've had a functional MacBook for approximately 4 days out of 24. I'm not terribly happy about this. I suspect a hardware problem but I really don't care what the problem is, I'd just like a MacBook that works. Please.

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

So... I've had a functional MacBook for approximately
4 days out of 24. I'm not terribly happy about this.
I suspect a hardware problem but I really don't care
what the problem is, I'd just like a MacBook that
works.

Under the UK Sale of Goods Act you are entitled to reject the goods and demand your money back from the reseller. The reseller's discussions with Apple are nothing to do with you. I suggest you write a letter which you can later produce in Court if needed. I think Scottish law is slightly more helpful in this respect than English law.

Thanks - I'm aware of that and I'm on the verge of quoting the law to the reseller. Trouble is, I don't want my money back, I want a computer that works! The staff at the reseller appear to be genuinely helpful and sympathetic and I don't want to antagonise them at this point. I have been careful to document everything in emails to the reseller just in case things get (more) difficult. If they had stock on their shelves right now, I'm sure they would replace the machine, but their problem seems to be getting stock from Apple. (Incidentally, I see that the Apple Store UK is currently quoting 5-7 days delivery...)

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I'm really beginning to wonder if a lot of these issues are all caused by faulty logic boards - My Macbook died (refused to power on - no lights or chime) the day I got it (last Monday) after a RAM upgrade. Swapped the factory RAM back in and still nothing. The Apple Store wanted to blame it on our upgrade, but I set up an Applecare ticket and sent it back last Wednesday.

Now, my machine is still saying "service requested" although it arrived at the depot on Thursday. My machine is a week 26, by the way. It just sounds like a lot of the experiences in this thread are similar in many respects, as far as the machines having "power" issues...

ohh thats not good, yours is a week 26, well there goes the theroy of it only happening to the earlier 21-24 books.

This might be a separate issue, actually. The random shutoff issue does culminate in a non-startup state, but the lights still come on, fans start, etc. The computer seems to be on but doesn't do anything.

Let's not put the cart ahead of the horse, there are many thing that can cause power failure, let's not bundle all of them under this random shutoff/half-power restart problem. Those who have reported random shutoffs culminating in an inability to start up (lights come on, but no screen) seem to still be contained between weeks 18-23, as far as I can tell.

My mistake - I thought the end condition was a machine that wouldn't power up, giving no indication of power whatsoever. Don't mean to panic people, that's for sure!

same problem here. However, Apple Support suggested trying to use the Macbook without the battery and it seemed to have solved the problem. Now I need to go to an Apple Store and see if the problem persists with a new battery.

Has anyone yet figured out how to reproduce the issue -- or at least found something that seems to increase chances of the spontaneous shutdown?

I'm planning on handing my Blackbook in tomorrow but I'm terrified that it'll come back with no new logic board if the support team can't be able to see it shut down by itself. No Apple Store in my town unfortunately.

Unfortunately that's the nature of random shutoffs - there are random, without any specific triggering cause, at least nobody has found one, which points to the logic board.

I was able to get mine replaced by bringing it to the Apple Store and having it shutdown 3 times in front of the genius. The last time mine shutoff at home, I left it alone (didn't reboot), boxed it up and took it in. The shutoffs seem to happen several times in a row. The only way I was able to clear them for a while was press and hold the power button for 10 seconds until the loud audible beep. Then it would boot and run for a while. YMMV.

How did you get them to replace it? Have you not owned it longer than 2 weeks?

Mine has been randomly shutting off and doing tons of other stuff too, and no matter what I said, they were very stubborn about not letting me exchange it, only get it repaired.

Also, have the service dept. open console.app and go to /var/logs/system.log[number]. Click on each one of these logs, hit control-R to load the whole log, and filter on "Previous" for Previous Shutdown Cause. This will show the genius exactly when the problem started and how often.


These are the codes that seem to be related to this issue:

Previous Shutdown Cause: -82
Previous Shutdown Cause: 3
Previous Shutdown Cause: 0