Randomly Turns Off

Reason you feel you will have to call back, it cause this what they tell everone todo, and it does work, for a day or so.

Having the same issue. I have the 2.0ghz white macbook. purchased end of may and started having issues on june 16. Running 10.4.7 and no addt'l upgrades. should i take it back to the apple store.

I would suggest taking it in ASAP.

Got mine back with a new logic board - all seems well and the repair is professional - I don't feel like I have a "refurbished" machine and I think apple handled my particular case as quickly and helpfully as it could - I will let you know if anything werid arises.....

So I finally ended up doing a total restore to factory settings. Then did all updates except for 10.4.7, staying at 10.4.6 for now. So far, no problems, no random shut downs while I am using it, etc... For now, issues seem to be gone. Seem to be gone....

My MacBook is definitely dead now, so there's nothing left to do but get it serviced.

I just got off the phone with AppleCare Canada, and here's what I learned. They only provide service in authorized service centers, and do not accept mail-ins. I live in quite a rural area, and the nearest service center is almost 300 km (200 miles) away. I'm a university student with a full time summer job and no car. Of course, this has made me rather upset.

What should I do now? I paid over $1300 for this computer, I think the least Apple could do is let me mail it in to be fixed.

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

That's ridiculous. They allow mail-ins in the U.S., so I don't why they wouldn't in Canada. Just keep calling Support and Customer Service and complaining.

Mine started to display vertical lines in addition to the random power offs. It is going to Apple in the moring for replacement

I am thinking more and more it is to do with 10.4.7. I never had the "power off" issues until I installed it. The vertical lines were new, again post 10.4.7. I read others with the vertical line issues zapped the Pram repeatedly and I gave it a whirl ( 3 series of 3) and it worked. So far now "power off " issues, but they maybe unrelated. However after 20 years in IT, my gut feeling tells me they did something to the firmware that is causing the havoc, when it is intalled as a slipstream upgrade vs a clean, virgin install. I have seen it before. It would be a worthwile experiment.

I also have the shutdown issue since yesterday (Black Macbook with 10.4.7).
I called Apple Support. They made me take off the battery and hold the power button for 19 seconds, Boot with Alt-Cmd-P-R pressed down, Run a hardware test that revealed no problem at all.
An hour later, it shuts down again (It's the longest time without a shudown I had yesterday).
I decided to back up everything for a clean MacOSX install.
When I reboot to launch the Install DVD... Vertical colored lines all over the screen.
I tried over 15 reboots ... nothing.
(I had an iBook G3 with a colored lines issue... it went straight to Apple for a Logic Board replacement).
I finally manage to boot holding Alt-Cmd-P-R.
The MacOSX install goes smoothly , and the Macbook works great for several hours(made every upgrade ... but not the 10.4.7).
When I wake up this morning, I switch it on... it shuts down... and it does so everytime I try to turn it on.

If it comes from the 10.4.7, formatting the harddrive is not sufficient to make it work in 10.4.6
So I'm more enclined to think that it's a hardware issue (maybe triggered by the 10.4.7).

I'll call Apple today to send it back.

OK. Me too. I am always on battery power when this happens to me. In fact I don't recall it ever happening on AC. It is most certainly happening since the 10.4.7 upgrade. I originally thought maybe I was doing something odd...I was trying to blame myself, really. I had not been taking mental not of how much battery I had remaining when this happens, so I thought maybe I was running low on battery. The past couple of days I have been looking at my battery level constantly...always a decent charge when it happens70-100% I finally logged on here. I was certain others were having the problem. I was surprised to see how widespread the problem is.

Machine Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Machine Model: MacBookPro1,1
CPU Type: Intel Core Duo
Number Of Cores: 2
CPU Speed: 2 GHz
L2 Cache (shared): 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP11.0055.B02
Serial Number: W8609735VJ1
SMC Version: 1.2f10
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

MacBookPro1,1 Mac OS X (10.4.7) Ser Number: W8609735VJ1

Here is a temporary fix for the colored lines.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=553646&tstart=0

I don't have the shutdown problem, but I have the vertical colored lines. Apple had me wipe my drive clear, do a fresh install and then apply the 10.4.7 update. Well, I did and the lines still appeared after the update. I could not get them to show up on 10.4.6.

- Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
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Hey, I've the SAME problem as you.

I think in this thread we have different cases, but I think some of us has this particular problem.

I've used the machine all the day today, a looot of hours without problem. The only problem I had was: I had the machine full charged and closed. When I've opened it at the morning (on batteries), it shutted down. After that I connected the AC adapter, and worked for hours. Later disconnected the adapter and worked a bit on batteries.

After that I closed and opened the machine like 4 times and never crashed. (all on batteries).

I arrived home, turned it on, and connected to AC. All OK.

So.. the problem seems to be:
1) You have the battery full
2) You close the macbook
3) When you open the macbook and the battery level is high, it can crash. If the battery is not full, you have the chance to avoid the crash.

So, my recommendation as a workaround is to use the machine on batteries for a while before getting it to sleep.

(Hey Apple Firmware Developers.. maybe the battery how-much-it's-charged numeric value gets overloaded and the negative number makes the machine power off? (like 32768+1=-32767))

Sorry if my english is not so good. I'm awake from 07:30 AM and now it's 05:20 AM of the next day 🙂

Good luck to all!

There are no single set of conditions that cause the problem. I don't think that it's anything that the user is doing, the problem is with the mac. Don't go into the applegeeks, they wont help you. All they do is cycle the power a number of times, reset the PMU. Unless you happen to be there when the mac decides to shut down they will tell you that there is no problem.

Applecare is not much better. Even though it's plastered all over the web (including apple's website) they wont admit they know of any problem. I find this hard to believe, since the problem is so widespread. Don't waste your time, just send it in and insist on another computer. If you are considering buying one DON'T. Until they've fixed the problem, anyway. Stick with the old ibook.

Hi,

I have the same problem. The MacBook randomly turns off. If i try to switch it back on, i have to wait a minute, else it just turns immediatly off after switching on.

I called apple-support, too. They gave me the same advices (reset, ...), but no effect.

I just tryed to keep the battry lower as 70%. Until now it works fine. I will report further experiences soon.

Does anybody have a solution for this problem yet? I don´t want to send it in, cause I have my data on it and need it to work. I can miss it for a couple days. I bought it a apple-at-campus.


MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2.0 GHz, 80GB