Randomly Turns Off

Mine was a week 21 purchased June 4. The problem first occurred June 12. I opened an Apple Support ticket June 29 and I went to my Apple Store (where I bought the Macbook) on July 7 when it was replaced with a new week 24 Macbook.

1.) Try to exhibit the problem. Mine shut down three times in the store. The last time it shut off at home, I left it alone, boxed it up and took it in to the genius bar. We booted and viola! It shut down within a couple minutes. Then it shut off during boot. Then we powered it back on and it booted but shutoff within a few minutes.

2.) 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.

3.) Be FIRM (not argumentative) and insist on having a new macine. Tell them you are very disappointed in having a brand new machine fail. Talk to a manager if necessary. I didn't have to ask twice. Apple knows this is a problem (unofficially), though the knowledge may vary from Apple Store to Apple Store and genius to genius, BUT it is known and you can reference the vast number complaining on this very board.

Good Luck!!!

My replacement week 24 machine have been running fine since I received it July 7. No problems yet.

I'm going to venture a wild guess here. If this turns out to be the logic board as suspected, I'll bet that the error codes specify processor and power failures, which would be indicative of bad traces on the logic board. Again, this is just a wild guess, but it will be interesting to find out.

Interesting. Check out this doc on Intel-based Mac firmware.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303880

My replacement week 24 machine has the SMC Version as listed, but the Boot ROM version differs from what is listed. Either the Apple website has a typo or my Boot ROM is actually different.

Listed in doc: MB11.005F.00B

Mine via System Profiler: MB11.005F.B00

Now for the intersting part. I wish I had taken note of these on my week 21 machine. Can those with shutoff problems please report your SMC Version and Boot ROM versions, or at least confirm if they match or differ from the Apple doc (link above).

I've been to the store twice (the first time it wouldn't do anything in the store, and the Genius read the console but couldn't tell anything; the second time my MacBook would not turn on but she eventually got it to). I've also called in Apple Support twice and I know they have like tons of notes of my problem right now.

I never said "I want a new machine now no matter what" but I practically begged them and asked them if it was possible and they said it simply wasn't, because my computer was purchased over 2 weeks ago.

I suppose it will be up and working after I get the logicboard replaced but I am so disappointed in buying this machine and already having to do without it for a week or two. I really expected more from Apple.

I went to the Apple store today near my job. I talked to some of the people that work there that I know well.

They believe that for most people who are reporting that it did not start happening until after they updated to 10.4.7 that is in fact something to do with the 10.4.7 update. They suggested that everyone here that is just ******** about it on the discussion board actually pick up the phone and call Apple support and make them open a ticket on it. Apple does not pay attention to this board, they pay attention to the ticket.

They also suggested going back to 10.4.6.

I am one of those who are hoping it will be fixed with an new update. I have had mine since May 24th with no issue unitl the update to 10.4.7, and that is a fact, mine has been great until I installed that update and I noticed that many others did not have it happen until after the update. I have so much on my system now to have to deal with a getting a replacement and do not want to have it sent out to repair.

But I am going to call Apple support and open a ticket on it so they pay attention to it. And I would suggest eveyone else do the same that has this issue. The problem will not be fixed by posting on this board, it will only be fixed by the masses calling Apple.

Good luck all!

It's funny, I can get it to turn off by running Temperature Monitor, Parallels and Civ IV at the same time. It must be something with the heat monitor because it seems to shut off when I have several programs open and the computer is working.

I called Applecare again today and told them I wanted an exchange under the 14 day warranty and they didn't even try to blow me off this time. The rep immediatly said OK after looking up my call history. I was surprised as I was preparing to go throught the whole turn of events for the 4th time.

Anyway, I should be getting a new model in the next week or so and will report back here. I don't think the week numbers have anything to do with the shut off problem as I have a week 25 already. I'm expecting to get a week 26 or 27 as a replacement.

Chris, out of curiosity, were you running 10.4.7 when these crashes were happening?

I agree that people need to call Apple support and let them know about this problem, when i talked to them they acted like they've never heard of this problem. We all know its a well documented problem, but they don't.

Despite calling apple support 3 times, and even going in store, they didn't replace my machine. i guess it was too long past the 2 weeks (i ordered it may 18), and i ordered it custom built online. I am having them repair it.

I too was worried about not being able to replicate the problem in store, but i quickly remembered the trick i saw here, with the two terminal windows open at the same time and running the command yes > /dev/null in both. Then checking the cpu on the activity moniter. Works like a charm. Apparantly it makes the cpu run at 100% on both cores. The genius, seeing this ran a bunch of cpu intensive programs (itunes visualizer, 3-d graphing, etc), hoping to max out the cpu. Once again, after checking the cpu on activity moniter, it shut down. It seems as though, running the cpu at max trigers it.

Don't ignore the problem like I did, hoping that some simple software fix will take care of it. It just makes you more past the 2 week window.

Also, anyone interested in a letter writing campaign, or website? i'm pretty ticked that they acted like this was no big deal. it's a new computer for christ's sake. They shouldn't just give us a repair number and act like this is standard procedure...not on a new machine. I'd understand this treatment by apple if this machine where a year old, but not 1.5 months old.

Sorry for the rant..

I have a week 22 and my boot rom is shown as MB11.005F.B00.

My SMC version shows 1.4f8.

Yes, I received the Macbook the day 10.4.7 came out so thats the only version of the OS I ran on the machine.

well after have the genius take the puter in the back and do his magic the thing works great, well for a day. then the shut down start again. So I called the store back, its an hour away and they say if i bring it in they will make me a satisfied customer but they cant tell me they will replace the unit. This is total BS, $1300 for a puter that no longer even power up. It just hit a month old. well myt box from apple showed up today. I guess it out in the mail it goes. I left a little note on the keyboard saying i wan ta new puter and that replacing parts in mine is just as if i had purchased a refurb unit. Total bs guys, ahhhh

Also, anyone interested in a letter writing campaign,
or website? i'm pretty ticked that they acted like
this was no big deal. it's a new computer for
christ's sake. They shouldn't just give us a repair
number and act like this is standard procedure...not
on a new machine. I'd understand this treatment by
apple if this machine where a year old, but not 1.5
months old.

That's what I'm talking about! Seriously, your procedure sounds exactly the same to what I have been through. I practically begged of them to just give me a new computer and was almost crying in the store and they didn't give in.

The news services are picking up on Apple reliability.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5164934.stm

My BlackBook is en route to me right now and - let me tell you - this thread has me very excited about my brand new computer!

Does anyone know if they would try to ship off the older models before sending new ones or am I far enough out to get a later model?

Also, I wanted to note that I have been having similiar problems with my little old iBook G4. A few weeks back, my firewire port stopped working and my computer - when not plugged in - will shut down randomly. Sometimes 10 minutes after being off the power chord, sometimes 20 seconds. I'm quite sure this isn't the same problem that you all are having with the MacBooks, but I wanted to point out that there are probably multiple sources of our symptoms. They all, however, seem to center around the logic board.

For those of you who are having this problem, read an earlier post of mine. Apple will definitely take care of you.

For the record, my previous macbook was a week 21.