White MacBook randomly shuts down

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Level 1

35 points

White MacBook randomly shuts down

I Recently got an old MacBook used, and it is randomly shutting down. I wiped hard disc, and reinstalled OS X. It is MacBook 5,2 mid 2009 and is running snow leopard. I am downloading El Capitan right now. I did a smc and pram reset, and that hasn't solved the problem. The logs give me code 0 and -79, with -79 being the more common of the two. The fan seems to be running, and the computer doesn't get excessively hot, so I'm at a loss as to what to do. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), MacBook 5,2

Posted on May 2, 2016 3:43 PM

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Answer 1

Dastumer Author

Level 1

35 points

May 2, 2016 8:05 PM in response to Dastumer

Update: I ran a test in terminal maxing out the CPUs, and the computer shut off within five minutes. The fans sounded like they kinda came on, but weren't very loud and I didn't really feel any air coming out of the vents. It shut off within a minute of rebooting, so it must be a heat issue. Found out code -79 is improper battery voltage, but I'm running it without a battery, so I'm a bit puzzled as to why I would get a battery code instead of an overheat one.

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Answer 2

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,492 points

May 3, 2016 3:32 AM in response to Dastumer

How dis you find out that code -79 is a battery code?

Have you tried running the Apple Hardware Test from disc 2 of the original gray install set?

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Answer 3

Dastumer Author

Level 1

35 points

May 3, 2016 5:20 AM in response to SeaPapp

A Friend found a list of some shutdown codes, and that is what it happened to be. Haven't run the hardware test yet, I'll try a fan control program first. Maybe it's just a little dirty? Idk.

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