overheating???

Question

Level 1

6 points

overheating???

Hi

last week my Macbook pro 15" A1286 spontaneously shut down ie white/grey screen and had to hold on/off button to turn off. The base was very hot. The Laptop has always been used on a glass chopping board. I have always used the unit for photoshop work and have never had an issue. The hot spot was beow the processor area ie near the two fans.

When It had cooled the unit re started for an hour or so and then repeated the error as before.

I purchased an air duster and cleaned both fans - neither seemed that dirty tried the unit again to no avail.

I downloaded a trial of Istat and checked the CPU temperature started around 42 and then rose to around 60 when the fans speeded up and the monitored temperature dropped.

I tried using Istat to increase the speed of the fans and that seemed to help but was not an ideal solution.

TOday after 20 minute work the laptop stopped and despite leaving it to cool will not start.

When I press the on/off button I can here the two fans start quietly but no screen function. ie black screen

Has anyone any suggestions as to what else I can try?

thanks

Ian

Posted on Aug 31, 2015 3:52 AM

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Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Aug 31, 2015 3:59 AM in response to jenodorf

Try a SMC reset:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

The temperature levels that you are reporting are not close that would result in triggering a thermal shut down (60°c).

If you have a monitor, connect the MBP to it. If the monitor mirrors the MBP (black display) that suggests a GPU problem. If the monitor shows an image, the MBP display or display connection is faulty.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

D.Cohen

Level 6

8,588 points

Aug 31, 2015 4:00 AM in response to jenodorf

Hi! Try resetting the System Management Controller: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Try Safe Boot:

- Shut down your Mac

- Wait until your computer turns off and after that press the Power button

- Right after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key

- Release the Shift key when you see a grey Apple sign and the progress bar below this sign

- After your Mac boots up, restart it as you usually do.

If this doesn't help, follow the instructions below:

- Shut down your Mac

- Wait until your computer turns off and after that press the Power button

- Right after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key

- Release the Shift key when you see a grey Apple sign and the progress bar below this sign

- Once you see Desktop, start a Disk Utility scan to detect and repair file system errors (don't forget to choose your main hard drive)

- Click on Verify Disk and then, if asked to fix problems, on Repair Disk

- After this, click on Verify Disk Permissions and then on Repair Disk Permissions

- After the process is finished, shut down your Mac and turn it back on after about 30 seconds

Apart from that, take a look at this Apple article and follow the instructions on Resetting NVRAM shown there: How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If this doesn't help, visit your local Apple Store and ask for help. This may be a hardware issue.

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Answer 3

jenodorf Author

Level 1

6 points

Aug 31, 2015 4:53 AM in response to D.Cohen

Thanks a lot for all the good advice, regrettably still have a dead laptop so tomorrow off to find an efficient apple repair man.

Am I better to stick to Apple or are the independents ok?

thanks

Ian

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Answer 4

D.Cohen

Level 6

8,588 points

Aug 31, 2015 4:55 AM in response to jenodorf

You are welcome.

I'd choose Apple.

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Answer 5

jenodorf Author

Level 1

6 points

Aug 31, 2015 6:44 AM in response to D.Cohen

Hi

OK off to apple tomorrow.

Although I use a time machine this Mac is the on;y one I have, all my other Pcs are windows.

ON the Mac is four years research into my family tree 2000 people.

If I take the hard drive out of the laptop and then connect it to a pc can I back it up?

thanks

Ian

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Answer 6

jenodorf Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 10, 2015 8:58 AM in response to jenodorf

Hi

after much help and many exited cheers followed by screams of frustration , changing memory, hardrive trying a borrows power supply I think I have a solution!!!!

|Trawling the forum in the early hours found a thread which was similar but not exact. Reading all 100's of posts I realised the fault was much the same as mine and on the final page was a link to an Apple page admitting to a fault on the discrete video card.

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

Ran my serial no and - hip hip hooray- mine was listed. Spoke to techies on phone who were in the US who agreed my symptoms were those experienced by faulty soldering/discrete errors. It is booked in at a genius bar on Monday for a FOC repair!!

THanks everyone

cheers

Ian

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