SHUTDOWNS

Mine have gotten worse. I find they are primarily happening when waking the computer from sleep or starting up cold.

To start up, I usually hold down the power button until I hear the hard drive start up. Lately, even that doesn't seem to prevent a random shutdown from occuring within a few minutes, so then I start up by holding the power button until it beeps. While the system only runs at 1.0 Ghz using that method, it does seem to work. Then I try to wait a few minutes before actually doing anything, in order to give it time to warm up.

I've also set up the system so that the display will go to sleep, but the computer will not. That helps prevent the random shutdown upon waking up.

I've also found that if I just leave my system running, I get less shutdowns. (Of course, that would work a lot better if this were a desktop rather than a laptop.)

None of this is a permanent fix. I've noticed that as my random shutdowns became more frequent, my fans also started to run more often and at strange times. Today I experienced my first "mooing" incident with the fans speeding up and slowing down. But these tricks so far have kept me up and running so that I can keep my data backed up and stay caught up with my work until such time as I can get a repair or replacement.

I'm starting to have this problem last week. At first, I thought it was something wrong with the HDD. It's true that when I verify it, Disk Utility required some repairs. So I did Repair Disk. But I still have the shutdowns. Sometimes, it's only a couple of seconds after I turn the power on.

Then, I found out something's funny: The shutdowns occured whenever I log in using my account. After the first shutdowns, it's usually takes about 2 minutes before I could properly turn the computer on again fully (until the log in screen). However, when my wife use the computer, using her own accoung, the shutdowns never occured!

Am I getting paranoid or this computer doesn't particularly like me? 🙂

ANyway, for the last couple of days, I initially use my wife account to enter to the system, then switch to my account. And the shutdowns never occured.... so far... So, I just cheat the computer!

Any thoughts on this issue? I plan to bring to the nearest Apple Center this week, as I figure this is not a normal thing for a computer to do.

Cheers,
V

King Klick, i am having exactly the same problem with random intermittent shutdowns, mostly when it is cool, but they also increase in frequency when it is warm, whether plugged in or not.

I phoned the Apple help line, and the tech there asked me to remove the battery, hold down the start button for 10 seconds, replace the battery and start the computer again so see if that would work. i tried it while he was on the phone, and it started up ok. he said he would send me a repair return box if it happens again. It has been re-occuring frequently on a daily basis, however i am thousands of miles away from my home for a month, so have to wait until i return.

I phoned an Apple retail seller service tech 2 days ago and he said he had two macbooks in his shop this past month and a few more calls about the problem this past week. He replaced the logic board on the macbooks according to Apple recommendations, (i may be wrong it what he called the board), and the problem returned in both cases. He said Apple doesnt have a fix for this problem yet as far as he knows, since according to him, its not at a serious enough level yet.

I just downloaded the latest security update today, so i will keep you posted.

For me it has nothing to do with the security update - I know because I did an erase and install. I had the most recent updates installed when the problem started. I took it back to 10.4.6 and the problem persisted. I also have reset the PMU, PRAM, did a memtest, ran the hardware diagnostic, reseated the ram (apple ram installed) and removed coreduotemp and any software that may interact with the thermal sensors. None of this helped.

Apple care told me to send it in - they could not think of anything else for me to try. My problem occurs when it comes out of sleep and it is shutting down when it is cold. It started slowly but in four days it has gotten so bad that it has become unusable.

So sadly, if you have the same problem as me, I doubt it has anything to do with a security update. I understand replacing logic boards haven't been that successful. There has been talk of a thermal assembly/heat sink replacement working so far and also something about corrupted firmware. Hopefully we are getting closer to a solution.

Clayton

Macbook 2.0 ghz white Mac OS X (10.4.7) Mac Mini 1.25 PPC, Macbook 2.0 ghz white

Yesterday, I experienced my "sudden shutdown" and freaked the life out of me.
I am not a good person when it comes to technical stuff like this but I backed up everything "just in case"....

I am going to see how the week goes with my Mac.
I LOVE my computer but problems like this worries me.

Let me know how your computer is doing these days.
My computer was "cool" when it did the sudden shutdown... sigh.

Cjeffs, i am in Huntsville at the moment. Thanks for the sad news about the security update not solving the problem. I downloaded the core duo temperature monitoring widget http://bresink.de/osx/0TMonWidget/download.html and it says my cpu is running at 30 C, so i will see if these abberations are temperature related, as one user said that the temperature can climb very quickly, even when started cold. we shall see.. this obviously wont fix the problem but maybe provide more info to Apple.

it seems the new macs out of the factory are not having this problem..hmm

are the shut downs becoming less because of the
Security update. and are people having problems with
them. are they getting worse and worse people tell me
what you do inorder to help the shutdown problem.

Kingclick, Another cold spontaneous shutdown this morning despite the security update. - both cores in the 50C+ range. I am beginning to think the temperature sensor becomes damaged when the cores are in the 100C range, then begin to send erroneous shutdown messages when subjected to high cpu usage, as in a cold startup or when loading an cpu-intensive program.

I recall the first shutdown occured the morning after watching a DVD the night before while AC adaptor was connected. the computer was in a fully-charged state at startup, then a series of shutdowns occured while cold, to the point that a full boot would not occur. Does this help?

THE SECURITY UPDATE HAS NO INFLUENCE ON THE SHUTDOWNS....

Hi all. So, has there been an update to this topic?

All of a sudden, my MacBook has been shutting down for no reason. It doesn't happen over and over, but it has happned several times. As a matter of fact, it's happened twice tonight.

Is this something that has to be fixed by sending it in? I hope not. I guess it's a good thing I never got rid of my iBook 😀

Anyway...any updates anyone has are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Is this something that has to be fixed by sending it
in?

Yes. There are other long threads about the issue. It needs a new logic board and heat sink.

Thanks for the info. That really *****.

Any idea how long that takes? I have never had to take an Apple in for that kind of service. Do I have to worry about paswords and such stored in my keychain?

Does anyone know if Apple is addressing this as a recall problem?

Here's one thread about the random shutdown problem:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3023556&#3023556

The repair centers have been recently backed up with waits for parts. That may be changing. Repairs have taken from 48 hours to 3 weeks.

You should back up everything you're unwilling to lose. They may wipe your hard drive and reinstall the operating system.

Does anyone know if Apple is addressing this as a
recall problem?

There's been no recall.