Randomly Turns Off

Ok, after 2 long phonecalls with Applecare, and another visit to my Apple Service Center Im finally done.

The service center is giving me back my broken Macbook today. A courier service is coming round my house this week to pick it up. I just got 2 emails , one with an RMA number to write on the book, and another one a NEW order confirmation for a brand new macbook straight from the factory and being assembled with High Priority as we speak..

Finally after 1 week of using the macbook, and 3 weeks without a computer Im finally there.

Hope the new one works better (and I asked its not a stock model but a brand new BTO)

PS: I am not in the 14day period for returns btw..

The Apple Service Center guy really did do his job well in getting Apple to make an exception.

Let me give my two cents...


The exact same thing was happening to me last week. I have a 2GHz MacBook with 2GB of RAM I bought from datamem.com and the 120GB HDD from Apple.

The screen would go black, but the fan would keep spinning. The screen would have crazy colors, and then kernel panic. All sorts of wild things. At first it was when I picked it up with just one hand, but then it started happening all the time. It was totally unacceptable.

I took my MacBook to the local Apple store on a saturday and showed them exactly the problem. They said they will ship it out on Monday and it would be back in a week. Needless to say I was pretty upset at the situation. I came home and realized that this is total crap from Apple and I was going to demand a replacement machine (i.e. I don’t want to keep a machine that needed to be repaired a month after purchase, that could just be bad news bears in the future).

That night I went in and asked about replacements, they said they weren’t authorized to do that, but I could call Applecare. I took the computer and went home and then tried using it. Shut down about 4 times in ten minutes and the sleep light would blink incessantly. I called Applecare sunday afternoon and it was about an hour phone call (45 minutes of that was me on hold). They said they would not replace it, but would ship a box out to me so I could send it in. I just decided to take it back to Applecare.

That night I was just tinkering around with it and then put my stock RAM back in the machine. I booted it up and it was fine, running without crashes. It was amazing. I used that painfully for awhile (coming from 2GB, 512 feels pretty slow), and then decided to put my 2GB back in the machine. I did this, suddenly it worked perfectly. Act of God? Who knows.

I made sure I put the RAM in perfectly, but what I feel did the trick was that I pulled the HDD out (no apparent reason, just wanted to see how easy it was to pull out). I slid the HDD back in and plugged it in nicely.

I, personally, believe I fixed it by pulling out the HDD and plugging it back in. It could be the RAM, who knows.

Anyway, hope I helped somehow.


dav

This sounds like a different issue, probably something to do with the RAM not being inserted correctly the first time you installed it.

The "random turn off" issue does NOT lead to any weird display problems or kernel panics... just a total power off of the machine at random times.

Latest news here is that a replacement is on its way to me 🙂 I shall report back on how it goes...

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I agree, there are no kernel panics reported with the random shutoff error. It sounds like the problem was either bad RAM or the RAM was not seated correctly. If the hard drive were not seated properly, there would be a host of other issues (grey screen, question mark, data corruption, etc.)

The kernel panics were then and again, but I did have the exact same random shutoff problem.

Screen black
Fan still spinning
Have to press the power button multiple times
Sleep light blinking


And the RAM had not been a problem for the month that the computer worked flawlessly, so hmph.

Anyway, if you are having this problem I would at least test it out as a last resort. I know it was mine.

New firmware? So what does everyone think, sould we
wait for the update? I'm in line to give up my
macbook for over a week while i get it replaced.
Would love not to be without it for that amount of
time. Or do you think I should follow through and get
it replaced?

You should at least lodge a call with Applecare whilst you are waiting so there is a record that you have reported a fault. Hopefully this should help later if you want a replacement.

yeah, i too begged them, and tried win them over with my powers of logic, each time spending over hour, making countless points to which they couldn't reply, but they still wouldn't give in.

the thing that i can't understand is why I, the customer, who spent 1800 on a brand new computer, should suffer for 2 weeks without a computer and without compensation, while they repair a problem that was caused by them selling me a faulty computer. it doesn't even matter what the component is, the fact remains if a component breaks after a month of use, its faulty (or did i miss something...does apple use disposable parts in their machines? or how else can they explain this). and its not like i have an isolated case, there's OTHERS!

their entire attitude is that they're being nice and coming off their white tower to help us with OUR problem. no, when it breaks after a month, that's THEIR problem. i shouldn't suffer because they sold me a defective computer.

their customer service reps all repeat the same thing...its only 5-7 days, but after further questioning it turns it is 5-7 business days, plus shipping, plus processing, so really its 2 weeks. i've had a customer service rep hang up on me, and after telling another rep about this forum and how there are dozens of others like me, and theres obviously a flawed batch- she replied, those 50-75 people are just a drop in the bucket compared to the other thousands of fine macbooks.

So, basically, apple doesn't think my case and your guys case's deserves special attention. apparantly if 99 out of a 100 macbooks are fine, they did their job. if you're like me and you're the 1 out a 100, then tough. Take a number, we'll get it back to you in 2 weeks and in the meantime you can just stand there with your hands in your pockets without your NEW laptop.

The customer service reps i talked to seemed like middlemen that were incapable of making decesions. Thats why i want to write to some executive types. plus i'm bored...and without my laptop, so i've two weeks in which my only goal is to give apple a hard time about this.

Here's something interesting...

I was swapping RAM in and out to make sure that it was not my third party chips causing the problem, and I randomly decided to try booting up without any RAM in it at all. As expected, the machine attempted to run the power on self test, then sat there blinking it's little front light because there was no RAM installed. And then it shut off.

I know it's supposed to stay on for a while, more than a few seconds at any rate. So I tested it four times, timing how long the front light stayed blinking. In order, I got 35 seconds, 14 seconds, 2 seconds, and 15 minutes. Each time the light stopped blinking, I got the same pfsst sound I normally get when the machine powers off suddenly.

From this analysis, I can almost guarantee that the logic board is at fault. It's not improperly seated RAM that was causing it before, at any rate.

MacBook 1.83 GHz White Mac OS X (10.4.7) 80 GB / 2 GB / serial 4H622

Yes, as posted many times here it is the logic board. And to respond to the previous comment, Apple fixing a problem that is a result of defective production is what a warranty is. If it was your fault that the machine was defective, they would not fix it. It does suck that there are so many people here experiencing problems with their machines, me being one of the ones with this problem, but in the end Apple took care of me. I had to live without my MB for 3 weeks and in the end I managed to get them to give a new one, but they did honor their warranty obligations. The bright side of this is, if you do send in your computer it will undergo a battery of tests by a professional, and will be repaired with working parts and then tested again. So maybe this will give you a little piece of mind for the future. In the grand scheme of things what is two weeks anyway? I survived without my MB and now that I have it back and the three weeks I didn't have it are history. I'm not trying to trivialize your frustration but isn't waiting two weeks better than having a $1300 paper weight?

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

My main worry is getting a damaged MacBook. Last year my iBook had a logic board replaced under warranty and it was returned with a badly scratched case and a distorted metal shield under the keyboard. It was a bodged repair. I complained to the Apple store manager and I was eventually given a new iBook but was without my iBook for two months.

This is why I am very worried about having a six week old repaired MacBook.

Well my Macbook 2.0, 512M RAM, factory config, also shuts down intermittently...so I called apple care. He made me reset the PMU. Apparently it solves that problem, and I quote, 9 times out of 10!. Asked me to call back if it happens again. Why do I get the feeling I will be calling back.

Well, it turns out they actually DIDN'T replace the logic board, so I wouldn't worry too much if I were you just yet. I've entrusted it to a local university's repair shop, which does excellent work and, unlike my last experience with an Apple Store, they actually listen to me.

I'm hopeful it's going to get taken care of finally. I spent too much money on this puppy not to have it working properly.

Macbook (1 gig RAM; 120 gig HD); 20" iMac Core Duo (1 gig RAM; 250 gig HD) Mac OS X (10.4.7)

well my beloved macbook is also shutting down on its own and having problems powering back up. Im an Apple Technician and have just ordered a new logic board that hopefully arrives tomorrow so I can install it and get rid of this annoyence.