Randomly Turns Off

Well I got my MacBook back tonight and there def seems to be an improvement.

I want the "yes > /dev/null" test before the repair and it wouldn't last more the 2 mins before powering off. This time I ran it and the MacBook stayed cool (never went over 180 degrees) and didn't seem to break a sweat. So at this point I am hopeful.

Please please please let this be fixed!

An update on mine. It's only been in for one day, and has been "on hold - part on order". After reading all these posts regarding it taking so long I got very worried as I'm taking off shortly for the UK and cannot afford for it to sit and collect dust while it waits for a part.

So I called and asked to speak to customer relations, and I got someone and explained to them I cannot wait any longer than the typical 7-10 day turn around and she was helpful and said she'd email the repair facility and see if it can be done this week, and if not we'll get me a replacement unit. She said she'll know if it's able to be repaired this week by Thursday, and I have her email and extension.

So hopefully one way or another I have a machine by early next week that doesn't shutdown.

As for the guy that asked if people with MacBooks don't have this issue - - I have a white one (on it now) that has been w/o issue. I bought it at the same time as the bad unit. So they do exist.

I hope this ends well for all of us and once fixed stays fixed!

Nick

My BlackBook is also having these kind of problems and i've been following these thread since the day my MacBook randomly shutdown, i've done all possible solutions mentioned here but none of those works well. Mine is a week 21 Black Macbook and shutdown problem starts 2 weeks after purchase and a day or 2 after updating to 10.4.7.

Does anyone here running WindowsXP without Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop? just curious because I managed to install WinXP without those mentioned softwares intalled, and now i only have shutdown problem everytime i SWITH ON my macbook, And right after the desktop appear or even during the start up of MacOS and WinXP it will shutdown, and this time to RESTART AGAIN my mackbook i just have to hold the power button for 10 secs with the loud beep and then it will start normally without random shutdown, but i have to do this trick everytime i wanted to use my Macbook. well at least i can now work without interruption and manage to do everything i want while waiting Apple to find out the solution for these problems.

Yep. I have had my week 27 MacBook a week now, and just two hours ago it decided to start randomly turning off. I called Apple care right away. They had me do a PMU Reset and gave me a case number to keep track if it does it again. I hope it won't, but from the sound of things, I can expect it again and more often. I love my new MacBook and I hope that if it does continue, they will fix it and it will stay fixed. I am worried. And sad. I like being a Mac user, best choice I ever made.

You can add me to the list as well.

Yeah, it seems as though I can only successfully turn my macbook on when I hold in the power button untill in beeps... still not sure exactly what that does. yeah, I've had my mac for just under a month now and it started happening. My repair box is coming in the mail so hopefully it'll come back ok. This is my first mac and I had high expectations, only to see them come crashing down

One of our macbooks have been in since last week but we have another (my wife's) that is flawless, literally there is nothing wrong with it.

Mine on the other hand has been less than perfect but still more than acceptable until the shutdowns. It has DVD reading issues, very uneven backlight where a dark stripe runs up the middle, a case that creaks, a whining cpu and power brick, unresponsive trackpad button (typing these issues out makes me think that I shouldn't just accept them!). I didn't know they still made laptops with these kind of issues, guess I've been spoiled by thinkpads.


I'll call them again tommorrow for a status.


thinkpad r60 (it just works!) mac user for six weeks and holding

I had this same problem. I brought it in to my local apple store and told them of this thread. They immediately ordered a new logic board -- $900 - thank **** for the warranty -- and took my BlackBook. I just got it back tonight. It started doing the vertical color bar thing. So, I reset the PRAM (take battery out and hold power button thing). Works beautifully.

wonderful.

Kinda painful to read all these replies to the same problem. With no apparent fix for less experienced and less technical people, I really regret getting this 1st generation mactel.
Mine is doing the random shutdown on battery or a/c, right after staring up or 5 hours later. Now the power light on the front will not light up even when it is on. There is no pattern, not heat, just a plain ol' piece of work from the great folks at apple.
On a lighter note, I called tech support after it happened a couple of dozen times just so they would document it on my account. While the fellow on the other end was really nice, he said he had not heard of this problem...
I guess I'm stuck waiting for a fix and hoping that it keeps working. Meanwhile, I have a laptop that i can't trust to store data that I may not be able to access.
What a bargain for $1500...

Just an update.

I did everything support asked me to do and I still had problems.

One funny thing though. When I went to re-install the OS I could not do it. It would always turn-off at some point during the re-install of the OS from the disks included with the Macbook.

I called support and said I was worried that they would not see the problem and just send it back to me, so they suggested taking it to a service center.

Support setup an appointment with the 'genius' at the Apple store and I headed off.

I told them there was no OS on the machine because I wasn't able to get it installed because it kept shutting down.

The way the 'genius' was acting I could tell he had not seen this issue so I mentioned that this was not unique to me and that there were 600+ messages in the forum on this subject. At that point he took on a very aloof air. And told me that the forums were full of people who complain and that people just say they have the same problem because they want to make it look worse.

I said that even if that was true, there are legitimate people having the same exact problem on this forum. Then he said I had to calm down before he would be able to work on the machine. This really upset me because up to this point I was not raising my voice or acting angry.

Then he told me he had some paper-work to do and that he was passing my problem off to another 'genius'.

The second guy actually looked at this forum and acknowledged that although some people do just come here to complain there clearly are people with similar problems.

As luck would have it the machine shut-down while we were trying to install the OS so I was happy to finally have someone else see it.

He took the machine and filled out the paper work to send it off to Apple for repair. Now I just have to wait and see and hope for the best.

I also decided to buy the extended Applecare while I was there. I skipped it in the past but I am thinking that this particular machine is already proving its not as reliable as my previous Apple machines so I thought it might be worth it this time.

Let me also say that although I am upset with loosing my machine and also with having this issue, I do not think the problem is that large. Even if you count 100 or so people in the forum with the problem and compare that against the machines sold its problably a 1 in 10,000 or 100,000 problem.

That doesn't make it easier for those of us who are plagued by this issue, but so far I am happy that Apple has made an valid effort to resolve this problem for me. Sure I would like a new computer, or loads of cash, or a free iPod or something like that, but in the end all I really want is my machine fixed and returned to me. Apple is doing that, and they are doing it for free. In the end I cannot ask for much more than that.

Hi Nickites.

Yea. Mine did the random turn off thing a few times but hasn't done it for about 2 days so far. I'll wait for Apple to come up with a real fix (rather than replacing motherboards and hoping the new board doesn't do the same thing) before I call it in, unless it gets real bad. As I implied in my most recent post, I half expected something like this to happen on a first release piece of hardware. The MacBook Pros had issues to on their first release, as did the Core Duo iMacs (though that was fixed with a firmware update). Once Apple figures this one out, the next revisions will work fine. Too bad we have to beta test for them. :-\

Black MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2 GB RAM, 100 GB hard drive

just got it back tonight. It started doing the
vertical color bar thing. So, I reset the PRAM (take
battery out and hold power button thing). Works
beautifully.

wonderful.

If the vertical colored lines come back, try this.

1. Shut the computer off.

2. Restart holding the Option-Command-R-P keys down, wait for three "bongs" and release keys. MacBook should boot normal with no lines.

3. Next, open your System Preferences control panel and open "Displays" in there. Now change your current resolution setting to some other resolution and then switch it back to your current setting. Close preferences and reboot to test. It should keep rebooting normal without the lines.

On a lighter note, I called tech support after it happened a couple of dozen
>times just so they would document it on my account. While the fellow on the
>other end was really nice, he said he had not heard of this problem...

- Bmer
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2.0 MacBook • 4H620 • 100GB HD • 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) 60G Photo iPod • AppleCare

UPDATE 1:

My MacBook still shut itself off even if AC Power is plugged in (w/battery)
* BUT *
if I remove the battery, using ONLY AC Power, my MacBook won't shutdown itself.

with my little electronic experience, this problem is mostly caused by faulty (or underpowered) capacitor on the motherboard.


-**** it, my macbook is not a portable machine anymore... I can't bring it in for repair, I don't have time to wait for them the fix it I need to use my computer everyday.

just to add my macbook to the list of problem units.

it has shut down twice in last couple of weeks when cold at/after startup.

however today it took about 10-15 attempts to start up & be stable.

on battery power, from cold, would shut down from 1 sec to 30 sec after power button pressed.

i have rung apple to get support number.

did pmu & pram resets.

one thing was interesting though i tried to run hardware test this morning when unit was sort of stable & it shut down.

i took out the ram & swaped them, then run h/w test again without problem.

so it could be a ram or ram seating issue, will know i guess tommorow when i restart again.

i leave computer on all day & it so far has only been from cold, that i have problems

robin....

I got mine back from repair (took 1 week), and it is now 10 degrees cooler than before when idle (or actually while surfing/mailing and doing casual stuff). The mooing is also gone!
And it hasn't done any shutdowns so far ...keeping my fingers crossed.

The only weird thing is, it hasn't got a serial number anymore. Where the serial used to be, it says "SystemSerialNumb".

My MacBook is just on the way to be repaired; it turned off in random intervals and is not starting any more, finally.
RAM or Power issues could be sorted out.
This definitely seems to be a repeating issue on these computers.

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7)