You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

vier-zwo Author

Level 1

39 points

Random Shutdown on Macbook Pro (15" mid 2014)

i have a Macbook Pro (Retina, 15', Mitte 2014) with El Capitan installed (10.11.6 (15G1004)).

It keeps randomly shutting down. This happens like this:

1. Screen turns black (does not turn off, logo-light is still on)

2. Fans accelerate,

3. After 5-10 secods, it turns off (screen & apple-logo turns off)

4. i can boot normally. no crash report.

I was not yet able to reproduce the problem. ive tried a lot:

- happens with or without power cord plugged in

- resetting the smc does not change anything

- reinstalling OSX does not change anything

- it feels like it happens mostly when having high CPU Usage, but running a benchmark (cinebench) to put pressure on the CPU does not automatically shut it down

- also happens with no CPU Usage at all (but fewer times)

What diagnostics can i provide to give you more detail?

What monitor tools are available to get more information about what happens?

Anybody encountered this... ever?

I'd appreciate your help!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Oct 5, 2016 2:16 PM

Top-ranking reply

crlonline

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Jan 16, 2017 2:18 PM

I had the exact same problem with my MacBook Pro Retina 15 mid-2014. No crash log and the diagnostics in the Apple Store didn't show anything. It ended up being the logic board and it cost me $600 to get it fixed. It is less than 2 years old.

View in context

123 replies

May 21, 2018 3:06 AM in response to muskevier

One month went by, since I applied new thermal paste and the thunderbolt driver fix and unfortunately, since about two weeks, I had 4 crashes. All of them occurred on battery and I think are triggered by too high temperature. Since I applied liquid metal as thermal paste, I have read before that shortly after the application thermals are great but many are reporting, that after a few weeks the effect decreases. So I am thinking about reapplying a good normal thermal paste. But apart from this solution I was really annoyed that it happened again. And I would really like Apple to fix this, because I don't want to sell this Macbook only to buy another used 2013-2015 15-inch retina and hope it doesn't suffer from the same issue.

dikkind

Level 1

4 points

Jan 30, 2018 2:39 PM in response to dikkind

Is apple censoring this thread? I cant see this comment here, only in my mailbox i can see the preview

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Oct 6, 2016 12:04 PM in response to vier-zwo

Hi vier-zwo,

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Sorry to hear that you are having these issues with your MacBook Pro. If you are having intermittent but persistent random shutdown issues with your Mac, you may find the information and troubleshooting steps outlined in the following article helpful:

OS X: When your computer spontaneously restarts or displays "Your computer restarted because of a problem." - Apple Support

Regards.

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,317 points

Oct 6, 2016 12:09 PM in response to vier-zwo

You might also run Apple diagnostics which might offer a clue:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

Ciao.

vier-zwo Author

Level 1

39 points

Oct 8, 2016 2:22 AM in response to CarlAVII

thank you Allen. as i mentioned above, i do not get a crash report. there are also traces of a kernel panic in the system logs. any more ideas?

vier-zwo Author

Level 1

39 points

Oct 8, 2016 2:25 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

thank you, ogelthorpe. i ran the diagnostivs with no result. i also went to a apple-certified service and they did the "bigger" check:

- no problems with the hardware

- no prblems with the cooling system

- pro problems with my ram

- CPU and GPU Benchmarks do not provoke a crash

Esquared

Level 6

12,409 points

Oct 8, 2016 2:38 AM in response to vier-zwo

To rule out possible software conflicts, please do an Etrecheck test and post the results here: http://etrecheck.com/

Linus001

Level 1

4 points

Nov 18, 2016 10:13 PM in response to vier-zwo

Have the exact same problem. Ran EtreCheck (computer crashed 3 times trying to do so). Here are the results:

EtreCheck version: 3.1.2 (334)

Report generated 2016-11-18 22:10:42

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 1:41

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: Computer is restarting

Hardware Information:ⓘ

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,2

1 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-4770HQ) CPU: 4-core

16 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 587

Video Information:ⓘ

Intel Iris Pro

Color LCD 2880 x 1800

System Software:ⓘ

OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 (14F27) - Time since boot: less than an hour

Disk Information:ⓘ

APPLE SSD SM0256F disk0 : (251 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

GT (disk1) / [Startup]: 229.34 GB (136.41 GB free)

Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked

Core Storage: disk0s2 229.68 GB Online

USB Information:ⓘ

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Thunderbolt Information:ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper:ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions:ⓘ

/Applications/zoom.us.app

[not loaded] zoom.us.ZoomAudioDevice (1.1 - SDK 10.8 - 2016-09-15) [Support]

System Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] 5 Apple tasks

[loaded] 145 Apple tasks

[running] 61 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[not loaded] 44 Apple tasks

[loaded] 138 Apple tasks

[running] 79 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-09-15) [Support]

[loaded] com.efi.fpdu.plist (2016-11-16) [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-11-05) [Support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (2016-09-09) [Support]

Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-10-25) [Support]

[running] com.efi.fieryd.plist (2016-03-11) [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (2016-11-05) [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helpertool.plist (2016-01-27) [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (2015-07-01) [Support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (2016-09-09) [Support]

User Launch Agents:ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-09-15) [Support]

[loaded] com.logos.LogosIndexer.plist (2016-11-18) [Support]

User Login Items:ⓘ

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins:ⓘ

FlashPlayer-10.6: 23.0.0.207 - SDK 10.9 (2016-11-08) [Support]

Flash Player: 23.0.0.207 - SDK 10.9 (2016-11-08) [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-09-09)

Google Earth Web Plug-in: 7.1 (2016-11-05) [Support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 101 build 13 (2016-09-09) Check version

Default Browser: 600 - SDK 10.10 (2015-07-16)

User internet Plug-ins:ⓘ

ZoomUsPlugIn: 3.5.64836.0908 - SDK 10.11 (2016-09-15) [Support]

3rd Party Preference Panes:ⓘ

Flash Player (2016-10-25) [Support]

Java (2016-06-22) [Support]

Time Machine:ⓘ

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

GT: Disk size: 229.34 GB Disk used: 92.93 GB

Destinations:

My Book [Local]

Total size: 3.00 TB

Total number of backups: 59

Oldest backup: 12/25/13, 9:48 PM

Last backup: 11/16/16, 2:56 PM

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 3.00 TB > (Disk size 229.34 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU:ⓘ

126% mdworker(7)

23% mds

2% WindowServer

2% kernel_task

1% fontd

Top Processes by Memory:ⓘ

836 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(8)

818 MB kernel_task

115 MB mdworker(9)

115 MB Finder

98 MB Messages

Virtual Memory Information:ⓘ

12.78 GB Available RAM

11.10 GB Free RAM

3.22 GB Used RAM

1.69 GB Cached files

0 B Swap Used

Diagnostics Information:ⓘ

Nov 18, 2016, 10:08:43 PM Self test - passed

Nov 15, 2016, 10:30:54 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent_2016-11-15-223054_ [redacted].crash

/System/Library/Frameworks/WebKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.We bKit.WebContent.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

Nov 15, 2016, 10:30:38 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent_2016-11-15-223038_ [redacted].crash

Nov 15, 2016, 10:30:32 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent_2016-11-15-223032_ [redacted].crash

Jbc30

Level 1

8 points

Dec 13, 2016 11:45 AM in response to vier-zwo

I'm having the exact same issue. My computer is no longer under Apple Care coverage and I'm wary of taking it to get it examined only to have the technicians fail to find any issues and have to shell out a lot of money for the tests. One similar question had someone say they did not experience the crashes when plugged into an external monitor.. could this give anyone a clue as to what the issue may be?

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,317 points

Dec 21, 2016 7:51 AM in response to Jbc30

Jbc30 wrote:

My computer is no longer under Apple Care coverage and I'm wary of taking it to get it examined only to have the technicians fail to find any issues and have to shell out a lot of money for the tests.

All Apple store genius bar appointments and evaluations are FREE!