For those that have sent their MacBooks for Repair (Randon Shutdown)

Took my week 21 MB to the Apple Genius yesterday (random shutdowns followed by pretty vertical lines on many hues). Told me it was my 3rd party memory. They put in known good memory and it started up just fine. Then they tried to sell me Apple memory (right $600 for 2g).

Went home, reinstalled the ram and it worked fine for a couple of hours, then random shutdowns. Put the original Apple memory back in. No change.

Took it back to the genius today. And on startup gave me the color lines again. So they've sent it off for repair (the store is too backed up with repairs to do it inhouse).

Promised it would be shipped back to me directly next Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll see.

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Can anyone elaborate if this problem is more consistent when one installs Boot Camp. It seems for myself that could be the problem but would like other opinions?

So judging by most of the responses in here, getting it "fixed" usually results in a temporary solution. No word from Apple on any type of solution? My friend's PowerBook G4 is totally kicking my MacBooks butt right now. Maybe I should look for one of those instead?

Anyone know if there is a similar issue with the MB Pros?

all these complaints is making me really afraid of receiving my macbook next week in the mail...i'm really considering once getting it returning it immediately and get a windows based laptop cause it seems the macbook are lemons. It seemst he problems are affecting the majority rather than the minority of the apple community :\

Macbook 13" 1.83

That is nowhere near right, though... According to the MacInTouch reliability surveys (http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks.html), about 7.5% of the black MacBooks suffer from sudden shutdowns, and 12.1% of the white MacBooks (regardless of CPU-speed). Those numbers are for the first few weeks of MacBooks, though - hopefully the quality check has improved since then. DOn't worry, most probably you will not have problems! Keep your new MacBook for a week, use it a lot and see what happens. You have the right to return your MacBook for two weeks.

While logic board replacement alone seem to have failed to fix the problem in some cases, I have yet to come across where a logic board AND heatsink replacement failed as a fix. Mine failed with the logic board replacement alone but is working fine after the heatsink as well.

That is good news.

Thanks for starting this thread. My black MB (week 23) bought in mid June worked well until a week ago and started random shut downs. After talking to the apple support guy, I was asked to take it to the appleshop. The tech rang me in a few hours to say the MB shut down on him when he tried to run apple diagnostics. He thinks it is definitely the logic board. (My gut feelingis that it is the battery.) The part was ordered yesterday, may get my MB back before the end of this week. I will let you know what happens.
( It is all stock 1 GB ram etc.). I don't have bootcamp but have recently updated my Parallels to the new beta update and also just for fun installed Q emulator. These programs are not misbehaving. In fact all the programs are running to perfection and the MB is an absolute delight aprt from the unpredictability of the shutdowns. The shut downs occured when I am not running any of these programs. It is not a software problem. No warnings, no clues in console logs and no problems at start up. I am running 10.4.6.
The shutdowns are so random and unpredictable but I was able to reproduce it each time by connecting it to external firewire drive and try moving files to and from the external drive.
None of these worked. (Do all of these to save time before ringing apple support)
1. PMU reset by pressing the power button for 5 seconds after removing the power adapter and battery.
2. Reset PRAM by option, apple, P, R and pressing the power button and wait for 4 chimes and then let go.
3. Start the computer by pressing the power button for 15 sec until a loud beep is heard. (This fixed the problem for several hours and almost a day).
4. Insert install CD 1 and start with C pressed. Then run disk utility from the installer menu and verify permissions.
5. Keeping the computer cool and monitoring the temp using coreduotemp. The temp never exceeded 58-60 C. It even occured when the computer is really cool.


Black Macbook 1 GB ram Mac OS X (10.4.6)

My Macbook suffers from random shutdowns too, but interesting oddity is that it rarely shuts down once it goes into sleep mode and is awakened.

My week 20 MacBook is at the local Apple Service Center 1½ week now, waiting to get its logic board replaced (they never mentioned thermal assy or lollipop, so I guess they were not an issue (yet)). They had no logic boards in, so they had to order one from Apple - and they have no idea how long it is going to take to get it.

I hope they'll fix the moo
and the trackpad too.

This *****!

First time mine went in for random shutdowns, it came back in 48 hours, but the only things replaced were the bezel and top case. Had to call and complain that no actual repair had been attempted and send it right back in again. Now it's been 5 days on the second repair attempt and I'm hoping the fact that it's still there means they're attempting to replace something internal!

If Jesus replaced your battery, you shouldn't have any problems with it for eternity!

Black MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6) various older macs going back 15 years, and they still work!

I really hope you are right.

But somebody here said, "So they've sent it off for repair (the store is too backed up with repairs to do it inhouse)." I am afraid this happens to many MacBooks.

I have a question. Do you, experiencing problems, have running/installed Windows (through BootCamp or Parallels software)? Is it possible that that could cause the problem? Just a thought.

Also does it mean that MB's with later issued weeks are supposedly better and shouldn't have those problems? Thanks.

That is nowhere near right, though... According to
the MacInTouch reliability surveys
( http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks.html),
about 7.5% of the black MacBooks suffer from sudden
shutdowns, and 12.1% of the white MacBooks
(regardless of CPU-speed). Those numbers are for the
first few weeks of MacBooks, though - hopefully the
quality check has improved since then. DOn't worry,
most probably you will not have problems! Keep your
new MacBook for a week, use it a lot and see what
happens. You have the right to return your MacBook
for two weeks.

iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I sent mines out on the 11th, and got it back today on the 16th-

What was replaced was:

APP-605-0994 SVC, TOP CASE W APP-603-ASSY,BEZEL, M42 APP-603-8071 ASSY HEATSINK, M42

i powered it up and it works fine so far (keeping my fingers crossed) that i do not have to send it back again. I hope it resolved the shutdown issue