Old MacBook Issue - RSD?

Question

Greetings to All,
It’s been a few months since the debacle started over the RSD and all 40, and now 60 of the MacBooks at the college in southern California that I consult for are working fine since the illegal software was removed and the machines reloaded, properly, and the hardware all reseated. I also installed FreezeX on them so that no matter what was done to them, they would always go back to the way they were at the next reboot. The only way to save their files is on the AD networks Home Directories.
None of these machines ever gave us issues again, and none were ever sent in to Apple – I called them (Apple) and had several talks, but at the time there was no acknowledgement of a problem. I understand that some had MB/Heat Sinks replaced as well as some other stuff, but they never had to do that for us.
The school where I am actually employed, we have no MacBooks, so the only real exposure I have is at the Jr. College near Pomona – after I set up the server and the first lab. Since that time in September, they have had no issues.
They performed all the updates and after each successive one the machines had an overall performance increase. I have two of my own MacBooks, and I did the same, and with the same results. Mine are week 27&29, so they fall in the time frame. I never had any issues, and one of them is on most of the day, each day.
I did have an interesting experience with a person and their MacBook – Week 29 - where she insisted that she was having the RSD problem, but refused to send it in to Apple because of all the horror stories that she read about on this forum.
I took a look at it and found nothing wrong, but she would take it home/work and bring it back saying that she had RSD issues. This went on 5 or so times so I asked her to sit down and give me 15 minutes and to set it up and work as she usually did.
Well, lo and behold, she pops out this wireless mouse that I never had seen, inserts the receiver into a USB port and turns everything on. After about 5 minutes, the machine did its shutdown. This occurred several times.
I pulled the receiver out of the USB port, and sure enough the problem went away, and its never shutdown since.
I have to wonder how many of these RSD problems were actually a manufacturing problem. I do know that less than 1% of the machines were seen for the heat sink issue, and I wonder about that, as well.
Some of the stuff that I read on these forums is very useful and helpful, but some of it is so far fetched, and impossible that it’s almost funny when you read about it.
I’ve used the Apple forums, and many others, and have gotten some excellent help, so I will always stay involved, but some of the stuff is like light reading and very entertaining. If I can help, I’ll jump in, but I rarely respond to idiocy as some of it is, like, way out there.
It appears that Apple came through and solved the issues of RSD and several others regarding the MacBook, like I knew they would. Now, most of what I’m seeing is pretty entertaining, for the most part, but I hope folks figure out their problems – this forum is as good a place as any to start.
Cheers.

Answer 1

I know 8 Core Duo MacBook owners. 4 of them,
including me, had RSD. All of us own stock MacBooks
without any 3rd party hardware or illegal software.
I'm thoroughly convinced that RSD is/was a
manufacturing problem which has now been "worked
around" through a firmware fix. My heat sink
replacement reduced my 10-15 shutdowns a day to
zero. Flawless computer for two months and now I've
installed the firmware update...still working great
Yes it's certainly true that there have been many
theories tossed around on these forums as to what
defect causes RSD. Your implication that illegal
software/3rd party hardware is the primary RSD
culprit, is merely one of these RSD theories.
As "entertaining" and "far-fetched" as you have found
other RSD theories, some readers will be equally
amused by your .
theory.
Greetings,
I didn't mean to imply that illeagal software or 3rd party stuff was the primary culprit in all this, I'm sure it wasn't. By illegal software, I was referring to faculty that installed things that they were not supposed to, like games, card making programs and software that wasn't part of th estandard school load. We fixed that with FreezeX.
If you look at the relatively few numbers that were affected, and they didn't range in a batch scenario because from what I read the week of manufacture was all over the planet.
I, myself, have never seen any of the symptoms described within these forums - it was always something else. I have worked with 60 - 70 of the MacBooks from widely varying weeks of production and we have been very satisfied with them. Sixty of them have gone through late summer school and almost an entire semester without a hitch, and they get used and abused.
I know that there are some machines with definite issues that Apple needs to take care of.
I find it a bit odd that the books are from so many different weeks of production, different life styles, different configurations, some with factory ram and some with whatever, and from different countries.
I'm glad Apple has found the problem and is taking care of it - I've had Apple computers since they first stated (PeeCees too) and I run with a huge Mac crowd from all over he world - like I said our overall satisfaction is high.
I hope everyone gets taken care of, which ever way it comes out,whether the machine is fixed, replaced or their money is returned.
Sorry to have riled some of you - that was not my intent.
Cheers.