Random power shutdowns when there is high performance

Hey guys
I am using a refurbished Macbook purchased in late 2011, its running on Mac OS-X version 10.6.8.
I had to change my laptop's old hard drive to a new one after I experienced the 'grey screen of death' two weeks ago. I also bought a new battery for my laptop as the old one was starting to go bad.
Even after that, I am experiencing random shutdowns. This happens only when there is high performance involved - when browsing the Internet and I have a lot of Safari tabs open, or when I am transferring files from my portable hard disk drive.
The guy at the shop says the fans are working fine, even though iStat says the fans are running at 0 RPM.
Any suggestions?

its most likely shutting down to prevent the mac from overheating and getting damaged. Since this only happens during high performance.

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Macbook pro 17 turns off when switching to high performance mode

Hi guys!
My 2009 Macbook pro 17 turns off and goes dead when switching to "high performance" graphics in the energy saver controll panel.
This happens also when the battery is 100% charged. i must reconnect powersupply to reboot.
The battery is new, from june this year.

Aardal87 wrote:
I have just re installed the system. and the problem continues.
I guess ur solution isnt worth trying on a fresh system install?
It will not do any harm trying it but you are probably correct in these circumstances.
If the symptoms are consistent, then a savvy technician at an Apple store genius bar should be able to define the problem.
Ciao.

When to use Higher Performance

i have a March 2009 MBP 17“ and have been experimenting with Higher Performance and Better Battery Life to see when it is an advantage to use the Higher Performance. I cannot detect any difference when I switch and reboot and I have been trying heaps of operations etc. Can anyone suggest to what advantage there is in using Higher Performance? Which apps or operation processes speed up?
Graham e

Hi Graham_e,
My understanding is that this toggle is strictly for the GPU. The "Better Battery Life" is enabling the Nvidia 9400m "shared" GPU. The "Higher Performance" is enabling the Nvidia 9600m GT "discrete" GPU @ 512MB of VRAM.
I regrettably have not had the pleasure of owning one of the beautiful new 17" MacBook Pros but I've been using a 15" MBP with the options for a few weeks now. The biggest difference I've seen, is in applications that require 3D acceleration (gaming/flash). In terms of day-to-day usage the advantages in battery life I saw were minimal, maybe 30-35 minutes. But I certainly have not set out to specifically test the difference.
Sounds like a weekend project.

[SoIved] Is there a high performance, low performance, etc.?

Like windows?
Last edited by jjshinobi (2013-04-09 19:53:40)

jjshinobi please read How to ask questions the smart way
If you are not willing to put any effort into asking your question why should we put in effort to help you?
Last edited by doug piston (2013-04-09 19:54:48)

Excessive Fan Activity - High Performance Mode

I have a macbook pro 15" 2009 model
It works brilliantly, no complaints I love it.. in battery saving mode!
When its in high performance mode the fan goes nuts!?
I've checked activity monitor etc and nothing is using all the power, theres no reason why the fan should be working harder than it does in battery saving mode.
I always have open.. Adobe Fireworks, Chrome and Finder.. Thats pretty much it. And in battery saving mode everything works great, the fan is quiet. Why when I select high performance for a bit extra speed maybe does the fan speed increase tenfold? Dosnt make sense!
Anybody come across this?
Thanks

Reset the SMC, as per > Resetting the System Management Controller
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

Random Shutdowns when on Battery Power

Hello!
My Macbook Pro is about 2 years old and it seems to be randomly shutting down when the battery is at about 40%. This has happened twice in the past 3 days. Both times, when the battery was at about 35-45% and was not plugged in with an adapter the computer would shut down without any warning and wouldn't turn on again unless it was plugged in. Once it restated (the full boot up) no applications acted as if they had "crashed" (though, thankfully I was never in the process of working on something, just browsing the internet), and Firefox, when reopened, opened up all my tabs as before the system crashed. Also, once it restarted the battery wasn't depleted and still showed about a 45% charge.
To complicate matters, the computer doesn't die every time the battery reaches 35-45% (one of those days it decharged fully and gave me the reserve battery warning as usual), so it doesn't seem to be a dead cell in the battery, if I understand correctly. The first time it randomly shut down was 3 days ago. Earlier today my computer decharged fully and gave me a reserve battery warning, at which point I plugged it in. However this evening it again died on my at 45% battery life, I restarted it by plugging it in, and then as an experiment unplugged it once it had started up. In the next 10 minutes it shut down once more.
I've removed the battery and there isn't any dust or grime, so that's not the problem as far as I know.
My battery information in the System Profiler comes out like this:
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 1731
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 2547
Health Information:
Cycle count: 125
Condition: Check Battery
So, is my battery dead or in the process of dying and I should consider replacing it? I'm still a little fuzzy on how cycle counts work, but 2 years seems like not a lot of time before replacing a battery.
Maybe my computer is overheating (I do have a case on it, but it should ventilate correctly)?
Or perhaps it has a virus? Though I have Norton Antivirus and it runs scans about 3 times a week and has not found anything ever.
I'd like to get this sorted out so I don't have to be paranoid about loosing my data in case I ever am working on something. And I'd really like to not have to plug it in all the time (I'm a college student...plugging it in everywhere on campus can be a pain in the ***).
Thanks!!

mybluehighways,
looking at your battery figures, your description of the computer's behaviour, and the age of the battery it is pretty clear that it has simply deteriorated to the point where it can no longer sustain normal operation.
The short answer is that you need a new battery.
The long answer is that when computers running on batteries shut down unexpectedly it is simply because the battery is not able to provide the transient power needed for a particular task or tasks. It usually occurs because the internal resistance in the battery has built up to the point where, though the battery can still store electricity, it can't deliver it sufficiently quickly to meet the demand.
It is like a car with plenty of petrol in the tank but a faulty fuel pump. It will trundle along quite happily on the flat for quite a while, but if you put your foot down to overtake or climb a hill the engine will stall because it can't get enough gas to meet the increased demand. At this point you can choose the dangerous option to keep on driving on flat roads only, and to never overtake anything or "put your foot down" to get out of trouble until the fuel pump dies completely (which you can be certain it will soon do), or you can get it fixed by getting a new one. The same applies with batteries, though you are "only" risking data loss and hard drive corruption with a computer, rather than your life!
The variation in the amount of time for which it ran before cutting out will simply be due to variations in power demand when doing different sorts of tasks. You will find, too, that the battery will cut out earlier and earlier, under lower and lower power demand situations, as it continues to deteriorate. (Once these batteries start exhibiting this behaviour you can be sure that they are well on the way out)
If you take your battery to an Apple AASP or Apple Store they can quickly test it for you, but if I were you I'd be preparing to buy a new one.
This has nothing to do with viruses or the like. It is a very common experience with the batteries in these MBPs when they are around a couple of years old. My own first battery in essentially the same model became problematic after 18 months.
Cheers
Rod
Message was edited by: Rod Hagen

HT3207 Help, trying to switch my computer to high performance but not there

Hey im just wondering how to switch my computer from energy performance to high performance, im going in system prefernces, energy saver and the option isnt there, would it be somewhere elsE

That's for laptops that have a dedicated graphics card in addition to the CPU based graphics and Apple has allowed the ability for one to chose to run the dedicated graphics all the time, which consumes more power than allowing the computer to automatically switch between CPU and dedicated graphics on it's own.
If your machine has only CPU graphics or it's older and there is no switching option, then you won't see that choice in Energy Saver.
There is no "higher performance" graphics option in the terms if checked will give better graphics performance.
The "higher performance" just means it will use the more powerful graphics for low graphics uses that could save energy if the CPU graphics was used instead.
So it's a Energy Saver choice and only if have both types of graphics and Apple has allowed the option to choose.
Some might have been having issues with 3D games when the CPU graphics switch over to dedicated graphics, thus Apple started including that as a option recently.

I Can't Switch between 'power-saving GPU' and 'High-Performance GPU' in Catalyst Control Center

Hi,
Whatever if my computer was only on the battery or was only plugged in to the main power supply. In Catalyst Control Center, I noticed that 'High-Performance GPU' was always selected', although the 'automatically select power-saving GPU when on battery' was enabled. Also, When I tried to switch into the 'power-saving GPU', there was no response at all. However, when my laptop was only on the battery, I noticed the the try of switching into 'Power-Saving GPU' results in shutting down my computer suddenly.
Thus, I had to open the Device Manager, then I disabled 'Radeon HD'. After that, 'power-Saving GPU' was selected(Screen shot below), regardless of whether my laptop was on only the battery or was only plugged in to the main power supply. To switch it into 'High-performance GPU' again, I only must enable 'Radeon HD' in the Device Manager since clicking on 'High-performance GPU' in the Catalyst Control Center didn't respond.
As conclusion, 'High-performance GPU is always selected, regardless of whether my computer was only the Battery, or was only plugged in to the main power supply. To let 'power-saving GPU' is selected, then 'Radeon HD' must be disabled in the Device Manager.

Hi @cooperator ,
Welcome to the HP Forums!
It is a terrific place to find answers.
For you to have the best experience in the HP forum I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide Learn How to Post and More
I see from your post that you have switchable graphics and are experiencing a difficulty with them.
Have you checked your power plan. Here is a link to Using the HP Power Plan Utility.
Here are two documents on switchable graphics that should also assist you.
Overview of Switchable Graphics or Dual GPUs
Switchable Graphics on Notebooks Configured with Dual AMD GPUs
If you are still having an issue, I suggest contacting HP support for further assistance.
Please call our technical support at 800-474-6836. If you live outside of the US/Canada Region, please click the link below to get the support number for your region. Phone Assist Worldwide
Sparkles1
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Random power failure / shutdown?

Hey all,
I recently purchased the 20" 2.4 GHz and have been experiencing random power failures. Right in the middle of typing an essay or watching a movie, my computer turns off unexpectedly. Has anyone else experienced this problem or know what might be going on? The only things I could think of are static buildup/discharge in the power supply or overheating...
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iRocket wrote:
I have a iMac G5 (purchased 5/05) and I never had an issue with it other than having to manually connect to my home network) Recently (last week) I called Apple Support about my network issue and we did a commandoption+PR during powerup. This is the first time it was ever performed. Since then My iMac turns off (completely) randomly. It doesnt matter if I am surfing the web, watching a movie, or the machine is idle doing nothing, and BAM no power. I'm glad I bought the 3 year Apple iCare package, because it seems that Apple knows in about 3 years, the machines begin failing.
I performed the SMC procedure about 30 minutes ago. I will update this post if I no longer have the loss of power issue again.
That vintage of iMac (and eMac) had a problem with bad capacitors (the problem hit other manufactureres than Apple, too.) If you open up the case and look at the logic board, see if any capacitors (the little barrel-shaped doodahs) are swollen or leaking brown fuzz. If so, Apple had an extended repair program for that, although you're lucky you have Applecare. If you're not comfortable opening the computer (that model is easy, just 3 torx screws along the bottom edge, though it's a little tricky getting the cover back on when you're done), definitely take it to a Mac tech ASAP, as this gets worse with time.
Message was edited by: cavenewt

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Yes.
MBP is in limited warranty for 1year from the date of purchase.
MBP comes with 90 days of free tech support from AppleCare from the date of purchase.
AppleCare: 1-800-275-2273
Best.

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Random power shutdowns when there is high performance

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