Randomly Turns Off

Yes, mine also randomly turns off when in Windows.

Thanks

so it's not OS or software related.
we can still hope it can be solved with a firmware update maybe ?

i've been thinking about creating a website and make some noise to fasten things but with a laptop crashing every ten minutes it's quite hard

I think you are describing "PMU Reset"; ie, holding down the power switch when you start, until a loud annoying beep.

I've had 5 shutdowns in the last three days. Week 21 white MacBook shipped w/2G RAM. With the 10.4.7 update. Never happened it until I installed the update.

My most recent shutdown was this morning, coming into work and firing up all the crap I run every day. Machine had been previously asleep.

When I restarted, I did the PMU rest, and it's been going good so far. Maybe this is a temporary work-around; will also resist putting the machine to sleep for the remainder of the day, till I go home.

Crossing fingers ...


MacBook, White Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I thought about it and it seems to be a good idea..

Maybe we can create a wiki so we can have all the data together, when it happens, how it happens, link to the videos.. Maybe that way we can help apple crew to discover what's happening really..

I can do the "software" part, but my connection is not so fast. Anyone else?

I have had my white MacBook 2.0 ghz since the day they were available. For the most part it has worked great for me for the whole time I've had it. Within the last two weeks, it has started doing the random turn off thing. The first time it happend, I was annoyed. The second time I started to worry that there was a real issue. Both of those times, a single push of the restart button caused it to come back to life normally.

Today, it happend for a third time... and then a fourth, fifth and sixth time. It also exhibited the "not wanting to turn on again" behavior.

One odd thing is that when you simply unplug the battery and power cord, the machine goes into the suspended state and when you restart it it comes back to life where you were. This crash does not act like that. The whole machine goes dark and you can hear the drives spin down.

I did check the cpu temp during the crash cycle today and it was very cool. (it had been sleeping all night long)

It it working ok for me at the moment, but I'm going to call applecare.

i was more thinking of something like this
(draft)
http://racr.free.fr

i can give you login & pass to this ftp. i have a fast connection and can upload stuff if you want. it has php & stuff too so a wiki is possible
the url has no meaning but i think it doesn't really matter.

one thing is : what can we hope from apple in return ? 🙂

i think most of us are too addicted to our macbooks and have waiting enough for it to arrive and now sending it back is too hard !

Just create a case w/AppleCare; I suggest everyone do this, who hasn't already.

Never called support before (I don't think); generally, much more supportive than the always surly folks who work at the Genius Bar.

Support guy (Marc) informs me that holding down the power button while it's booting, till it makes the loud beep, is not in fact a PMU reset. It's just a beep to inform you you are still pressing the power key.

PMU reset (according to the support site) is: remove AC adapter, remove battery, hold power button for 5 seconds; you will get no noticeable response from the unit (there is no power), but it will reset the PMU and other stuff like NVRAM (date/time, etc; booting again, connecting via wireless supposedly avoids a date/time prompt); put battery back, plug in AC if desired, and power up.

Support guy left the case open, suggested I reseat my Apple-installed RAM, do extended test twice, and post results if not "ok". Haven't done that yet.

My hope at this time is that this is somehow triggered by the machine going to sleep, like closing the lid. Haven't had a reset since full powerup and no sleep.

Just purchased a black mac book for my daughter. She has the same random turn off issue. Took it to the apple store, where they said they have heard of this issue on a few machines.... they took it to get it fixed, this will take 6-10 days to check it out! Great experience...

Yup - week 18 build with the same problem.

If I run the yes > /tmp/var command in two command windows, it'll dump. It's dumped when just running Safari, though so not sure what's up with that as that shouldn't be sending both cores to 100%.

And, the stupid thing has got the brown staining going on a little bit, too.

Will be calling AppleCare but, screaming in my head when I bought this thing was, "NEVER, EVER BUY AN APPLE REV A ANYTHING!!". I'll never learn, it seems.


MacBook 1.8 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

The summer heat has, as far as I can see, nothing to do with the shutdowns. I run an ice cold A/C and the MB keeps on shutting down. Not as much as some do experience but it does. If someone wants to check the Intel temperature sheet to see if your MacBook is within the temp parameters here it is: http://www.intelmactemp.com/list.
By the way what's the difference between: Previous Shutdown Cause: -72 and Previous Shutdown Cause: -82?

Just an update for the records. Apple replaced my logic board as well as the upper keyboard case (fixing the discoloration issue without my prompt). Fix was rather quickl (4 business days on a holiday week). The system works very well now, and sleeps when it should.

It's not at all good when Mac OS X ignores fundanemental OS commands on these systems, if you just purchased one. Do see an Apple Store if you experience issues such as what I described happens, and quick fixes or reinstallations fail to help.

You might also include my Google video on your page, which shows the ultimate consequences of this problem: A MacBook which won't start up at all. Do a Google Video search for "DeadBook".

Great job!

I think the best we can do is have all the info together so the apple crew can have a better clue on what's the problem here..

Maybe a wiki can be a good idea. Contact me at iChat (cyberplant) so we can talk about it.

A comment about the web, we're not really sure it's a hardware problem. It's not a 100% software problem as it happens when you are booting, or when you are in windows or booting from CD, etc.. But some people got their hardware replaced and got the same results. So we're not really sure if it's hardware or something in the middle (like firmwares)

Mine crashes almost every time I turn on after having it powered off for some time. Maybe it's a thermal physics problem? like the processor heating too quickly so it shuts down, and when it starts again it's warm already so it keeps without shutting down?

Maybe our macbooks are like the old diesel cars, that we had to "warm up" for a while before using :P

PS: Nice cat 🙂

4h621, same shutdown problems as the others. glad to know that others are seeing the same thing.

Mine is also randomly shutting off. I cant even get through the hardware test before it turns itself off. I've reset the power management stuff, etc. When I get time I'm calling apple support. Serial 4H6210...