lipwak
Level 1 (109 points)
Mac OS X

Q: MBP restarting itself lately

Hi,

 

My MacBook Pro (2011, 15”, 2 ghz/8 gb ram/10.10.2) has been restarting itself lately, 3x in the past 3 days. I though Safari might be causing it but today, it happened as Picassa was looking through a new folder I let it look at. That gave me a grey screen telling me there was a problem. The other restarts just went to a black screen and restarted. NONE brought up the Crash Reporter on restart. (I’ve found that to be flakey over the years…)

 

Where should I start in trying to remedy this. I did do an Apple Hardware test a few days ago, on the net, and it didn’t find any problems using the short exam.

 

I’d be happy to share a log but don’t know which one. I can zap the P-Ram if you think that’s a good idea. Maybe I need to reset the SMC?

 

Many thanks for any help.

 

Cheers,

 

John L

Mac OS X (10.0.x), 2011 15" MBP Quad core, 2.0/500/8

Posted on Feb 24, 2015 8:22 AM

by spudnuty,Solvedanswer
spudnuty spudnuty
Level 5 (7,097 points)
Mac OS X
A:

This issue is directly addressed in the current recall on this machine:
https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

"Computer restarts unexpectedly"


"on the net, and it didn’t find any problems using the short exam."

On the last recall due to video problems a Mac Tech in Chicago and I ran the ASD on a MacBook for 4 hours on loop before it kicked out an error code. It belonged to a client of mine and had been rejected for recall since they couldn't get it to error out. She took the code we found and got her Mac repaired for free.

Posted on Feb 28, 2015 11:11 AM

Close
lipwak

Q: MBP restarting itself lately

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2

  • by lipwak,

    lipwak lipwak Feb 28, 2015 1:34 PM in response to my ginger
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 28, 2015 1:34 PM in response to my ginger

    Thanks. I don't know about that one either.

     

    I will try the extended test.

     

    I checked my serial number on the service and support coverage page. It didn't say anything about being eligible for the repair so let's hope they will accept it when I come in to the Apple Store on Monday, having made my appt. I wouldn't be surprised if they say I'm not covered. I'll try though.

  • by lipwak,

    lipwak lipwak Feb 28, 2015 2:45 PM in response to lipwak
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 28, 2015 2:45 PM in response to lipwak

    The extended hardware test didn't find anything.

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Feb 28, 2015 2:59 PM in response to lipwak
    Level 5 (7,813 points)
    Notebooks
    Feb 28, 2015 2:59 PM in response to lipwak

    As described earlier by spudnuty…

    spudnuty wrote:

    On the last recall due to video problems a Mac Tech in Chicago and I ran the ASD on a MacBook for 4 hours on loop before it kicked out an error code.

    Run multiple extended tests in sequence. Some hardware issues can be temperature related, so allow the Mac to warm up from cold & reach it's operating temperature.

     

    Good luck with the store.

  • by lipwak,

    lipwak lipwak Feb 28, 2015 3:09 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 28, 2015 3:09 PM in response to Drew Reece

    OK. I'll try again in a few hours. (It was nice and warm when I did it. I leave it on all the time.) Thanks.

  • by lipwak,

    lipwak lipwak Mar 1, 2015 9:10 AM in response to lipwak
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 1, 2015 9:10 AM in response to lipwak

    I let it run overnight, did 9 passes. Didn't find anything or at least it didn't indicate that it found anything...

     

    (Weird that you have to hit control-L to get it to loop. Why do they make that a hidden "feature"?)

  • by my ginger,

    my ginger my ginger Mar 2, 2015 9:07 AM in response to my ginger
    Level 4 (2,472 points)
    Mar 2, 2015 9:07 AM in response to my ginger

    Hi. I looked through the string  You posted and there is  not enough info to show a path to the problem. The crash seems to point to helper files, but this could be anything. You might need to take note of exactly what you were doing when this occurs There could be some third party apps that need to be updated or that are not compatible to run on your current operating system. If you are able to run by booting to safe boot with no problems that would say that there is such an app. Or if you tried running after the clean install ,with no problems, and before you used your time machine backup to get you other apps back that would also point to this.

  • by spudnuty,

    spudnuty spudnuty Mar 2, 2015 10:38 AM in response to lipwak
    Level 5 (7,097 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 2, 2015 10:38 AM in response to lipwak

    So back to the beginning,

    in your original post you said:

    "My MacBook Pro (2011, 15”, 2 ghz/8 gb ram/10.10.2) has been restarting itself lately, "

    after being referred to the recall site, you said:

    "I checked my serial number on the service and support coverage page. It didn't say anything about being eligible for the repair "

    The recall site:

    https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

    says:

    "

    Affected Models
    • MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011)
    • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)

    "

    So I don't understand how your serial number doesn't come back as covered since every 2011 15" MBP is recalled?

  • by lipwak,

    lipwak lipwak Mar 2, 2015 12:41 PM in response to spudnuty
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 2, 2015 12:41 PM in response to spudnuty

    Me neither, spudnutty, BUT here's the good news. I took it to the Apple Store today. After telling me that it passed the video test and that therefore I wouldn't be eligable , one of the many Geniuses that was helping me saw that "kernel panics were related to the GPU" and they decided to send it off, giving me the impression that I wasn't going to be paying for any of the repairs, unless they found damage inside. Turnaround is expected to be a few days so I am pleased. It looks like they will also replace the S and E keys which have strangely worn away, and they will "replace logic board and any other failing components." 

     

    Thanks too, my ginger, for looking into that and your further advice. Picassa is definitely a problem, even the most recent version. I should probably trash all its file (no problem) and start all over again with that. I did have it look at ALL of my pics and then I changed it to just a few folders but I don't think it handled that very well. It has also crashed when using Safari, before I reinstalled the OS and after the reinstall, the Finder... Hopefully what repairs they do now will cure things and may even cure some of the other oddities like the alias icons that are wrong (and maybe even a long-standing problem where desktop aliases have to resolve themselves almost every time they are double-clicked...

     

    So, I'll let you all know what happens next. I'm using my old Powerbook with 10.4 on it, and old versions of all kinds of browsers, in the meantime but I should be able to check in here.

  • by lipwak,

    lipwak lipwak Mar 12, 2015 12:10 PM in response to lipwak
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 12, 2015 12:10 PM in response to lipwak

    So, to bring things up to date and close this thread, not only did they take back my old MBP but they gave me a refurbished early 2103 MBP with a faster processor, twice the memory, a SSD, and a Retina display! OK. I have it now and am all set up after a few days. A woman from Apple had called me and said they wanted to do an "engineering capture", made me sign some papers and I haven't heard from her since. OK.

     

    So, thank you Spudnutty for letting me know about this recall. It seems to have been very good for me. I still have some recurrent issues which I'll ask AppleCare about, now that I have a 3 year warranty.

     

    Cheers,

     

    John

Previous Page 2