Randomly Turns Off

Seems like we can divide the responses into three categories:

1. Software related
2. High temperature related
3. Warm-up related

Seems like the biggest group of us are in category #3. High temperature itself doesn't cause the power-offs, because the machine is relatively stable once it's been running for a while. It's when it's just been booted, or woken from sleep, that it dies. Thermal expansion? What's the cause??

Nic, I feel your pain! This is our reward for paying a premium for our Apple products in Canada?!?! If you have to drive 300 km to get your computer serviced (and only a hope at that!), you should start talking to the local papers.

Well, it's been almost 2 weeks -- did you get your problem resolved?

This started happening to me July 17th. Week 21 Macbook, 2 GB Ram. I can consistently recreate the shutdown by running yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null in a single terminal. My MB will shut down in about 45 seconds. I purchased this on June 2nd.

I will be visiting the Palo Alto store tomorrow, and will let you know what happens.

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Here in Hong Kong is no better. There is no official Apple Store, just partners and distributors. They are infamous for very poor service, not to mention over hundreds of complaints in local forum on the repair service. Who we should blame? Apple HK?

I wanted to order Macbook from the date of its release. Luckily I didn't. I still want a notebook which runs OS X, Windows is a bonus (not sure?!) but I am scared by so many many problems reported on Macbook and also the poor customer and repair service here in Hong Kong.

imac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

The problem is definitely the logic board. I've been having the same problems and I called Apple Care today and they confirmed that a logic board is the part that my MB is waiting for.

What annoys me about this is, my old computer stopped working, so I needed a new one immediately and bought the MB, not knowing that it is a bad idea to "buy 1st gen. products." I thought ALL computers, regardless of their company or time of manufacture, should be made without these problems.

I see only one sensor. Week 20 MacBook. Shuts down literally on-demand within 20 seconds using yes > /dev/null

The problem is definitely the logic board.

I bet Apple has a crew rebuilding/recycling logic boards as fast as they come in. When I worked on RCA's new solid state "modular" XL-100s with modular circuit boards back in the 70's, for about the first month we got new replacement modules. After that, 95% were rebuilt.

What annoys me about this is, my old computer stopped
working, so I needed a new one immediately and bought
the MB, not knowing that it is a bad idea to "buy 1st
gen. products." I thought ALL computers, regardless
of their company or time of manufacture, should be
made without these problems.

The problem is, technology is evolving so fast, companies don't have enough time to test prototypes long-term. Just get the product out there. Unfortunately, we end up beta testers.

- Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
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2.0 MacBook • 100GB HD • 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) 60G Photo iPod • AppleCare

I would just like to mention that I am having the same problems as well.

I have a Week 21 Black MacBook with 1GB RAM (Installed by my reseller) I've never had the Moo'ing problem mentioned by many others, infact the fan has only ever been loud about 5 times and it wasn't stopping and starting, the mac does get unbearably hot on my lap with the AC in though.

I have only had the turning off problem happen twice on its own so far, however I can reproduce the problem with the 'yes > /dev/null' trick in about 15 seconds.

I took it to my reseller, and I couldn't get the problem to occur at first, but after about 2 minutes it finally died. Probably due to it being fully turned off on the trip there.

They are going to try and repair it, so I'll let you know my progress. Obviously a new macbook would be great, but I'll be happy if its just completely repaired without any damage to the case.

Aside from that, It's the best computer I've ever owned and also my first Mac.

Good luck everyone else!

OS Version: 8J2135
Version 10.4.7
Serial Number 4H621
Black MacBook

This has been a horrible experience, 15 years ago I was an avid mac fan with my Fat mac and latter on my Mac SE. 10 years ago I switched completely over to windows. 10 weeks ago I switched back to using a Mac.... If I can't get a stable system soon, I'm going to have to switch everything back to Windows and maybe invest in a Dell or Fujitsu laptop. (After trying to get my money back from Apple)

After sending my mac off for a week to have Apple try and repair it, I just got it back. Six hours latter, bang, it shut off. It has crashed 4 more times since then.

Is this normal with macs today? I really can not lose any more time, I use my PC as my primary business tool, and I can not afford to lose another week only to discover that Macs in general are a very unstable platform.

Well I’m off to the store to see if they can do anything about it.

My macbook suffered from the random shutdowns to.
I turned it in referring to this board and placed a printout of the logfiles with the -82 error with the machine.
Apple service just finished repearing my macbook. changed the baterie and the logicboard. I´m getting it back on wensday. Fingers crossed. I´ll keep you updated.

macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I called apple care yesterday to report that I had my first random shut down and they put me through a few steps that they said would solve the problem.

1) take the battery out and disconnect the ac adapter and then hold down the power button for 5 seconds. (they said there is a little battery inside that will help reset something)

2)Insert the first install disc and hold down c. Select what language you want to use then ignore the next screen and goto the ultilies and open up disk utility and select the harddrive that has the mac os on it (i have boot camp on my macbook) and then select repair disk permissions.

I was told that I should watch the tempurature b/c my macbook might be one that has problems with heat and random shut downs. Well it has been around 24 hours since my last (and first) random shut down. Hope this helps. ciao

wow!

13,178 views and more than 420 replies on apple.com to this issue

and still no word from apple? cupertino better be sweating over it right now...

mine started today, its a week old but i will not send it in as i dont think it will solve the issue reading the many posts here.

WHAT IS GOING ON?



macbook <2.0 week 26 Mac OS X (10.4.7) white is beautiful</span>

Having had several my MB turn off randomly and having read almost every post on the subject I have to tell you that these steps have only elimated the problem in a couple of cases (and these folks haven't used their computers for more than a few days or weeks). Almost everyone who has called AC and done these steps writes back within days saying it didn't work. Its not RAM, PRAM, or temp. related, or even 1.4.7, since some folks have it happen with 1.4.6. Its likely an engineering flaw and appears to be due to faulty logic boards. Note the many posts where Apple replaced logic boards. My bet is that your computer will do a random turn off within a couple of weeks.

I'm planning to call Apple Care this weekend when I have some free time, and abosoluted will not go through the rigamarole. I will point them to this discussion.

I called apple care yesterday to report that I had my
first random shut down and they put me through a few
steps that they said would solve the problem.

Yep, it's pretty unbelievable. Mine started with the random shut downs about a week ago and it's getting worse and worse. I had to take the day off from work today to take this sucker in the a genius bar. I'm leaving in a half hour. I'm not going to let them take the machine though because I don't think they've fixed it.

On a side note, I read a lot of these posts (but not all, who has that kind of time) and I'm not sure I saw anyone bring this up. Every crash I've had I have been doing some serious net stuff. Usually streaming video. Is it possible it's related to the airport card? Some sort of hardware error? I'm not as hardcore as a lot of you guys but I thought I'd throw that out there.

Anyway, I'll post and let you know what they are saying in NJ about this issue. It's starting to get crazy. Very strange how the problem sets in too. I had no issues for two months and then once it starts it just gets worse and worse.

GOOD LUCK TO ANYONE WITH THIS PROBLEM.



MacBook, G5 Dual 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

First off, if you're hesitant about sending it in to Apple to repair, you need to get it back to the store pronto before your 14 day warranty expires. I say that because that's what ended up biting me in the butt- I didn't think it was any big thing, and waited too long.

On the other hand, I think it'd be beneficial to send it in to Apple if you can't just get a new one. I called early on Monday,a box was sent to me on Tuesday and I had it picked up on Tuesday. It was shipped pretty quickly through DHL, because late Wednesday, when I checked for repair status on here, it said they were ordering a part for the repair. Now, it doesn't say what part exactly, but it seems like something is being done.

I admit the call in general was not too helpful though. They are very good about not letting on that they have heard the problem before. Also, don't let them hassel you into trying lots of other things first- because I have tried all the things the person I spoke to suggested, and none helped. You will just end up hanging up, tryng these things, and then having to stay on hold for an hour again to talk to someone.

Anywho, I'll report back when I get mine back, see if it REALLY is fixed! Thanks for all of you who posted on here- it did seem to make a difference somehow when I spoke of it to the AppleCare rep.