Random Shutdown (theory | wild guess) - thermistor

Just sent my MacBook into service for the second time because of Random Shutdown. First time I got a new logic board. This next time, before I took it into the Genius Bar, I called up AppleCare to see if there was any known resolution on the Random Shutdown issue. Got directed to a Product Specialist who said that she would send a note to Engineering. I thought ... right. But apparently Engineering got back to her, she made some notes in my case report. Of course, no one at AppleCare would tell me what was in the notes. ???
So, this morning, the Genius tells me that the notes indicated that the thermistor cables may have been damaged when the logic board was replaced. Hadn't heard that before, so, thought I'd post.
Could Random Shutdown be caused by bad "thermistor cables"? Seems as likely as anything else; perhaps the manufacturing process tended to damage some as they were made. And during repair, they were also damaged. Who knows. Maybe Engineering took a wild guess. Maybe there's no such thing as "thermistor cables".
I'll post more when I get the box back; supposedly since this is a re-repair, it gets a higher priority. But they also couldn't repair it in store, no thermistor cables (or whatever). So it's off to Tennessee.
MacBook, White Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Please tell me you were repairing 8-track equipment
MORE than just a few years back...
Ya, I guess the 8-tracks were back in the 70s. Boy how time flies...eh? A good friend of mine used to go to K-Mart every week and buy new 8-track tapes. It was an addiction. He had a couple of suitcases in his trunk full of them.
Any random
shutdown issues in those?
I replaced a LOT of thermistors in television sets. When they went bad, the degaussing circuit stopped working and the CRT's color purity would get all screwed up. I could tell the thermistor was bad when I walked in the door and looked at the screen.
I had a PC that eventually had a problem reading disks (3.5", if you >remember those). Swapped it out, and when I did, realized their were a >bunch of coins in it. Gave the boys a little lesson that day to NOT put things >in slots on machines unless we said it was ok.
Oh yes. Coins were VERY popular.
parts replaced :-
top case 922-6869
bezel 603-9857
thermal assy 922-7379
lollipop 603-8320
robin.
Thanks Robin!
-Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
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Similar Messages

Random Shutdown Overload, I guess?

So I've noticed a lot of people have been having the random shutdown problems. I have, as well. I had the problem my first day of using it & just assumed that the battery wasn't fully charged. I got it for school, so I haven't used it much- as school doesn't start til Sept. 2nd. But, I've been messing around with it a little bit & this random shutdown keeps happening, & then I'm having a problem turning it back on. I have to hold the power button down until it beeps & comes back on.
Who do I contact about this? & What will they do?
Thanks for your help.

Call 1-800-APL-CARE and they will send you a box to ship it to their repair facility in Tennessee. 5-7 day turn-a-round time.
-Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
ITMS: MacOSG Podcast
 An Apple User Group 

[solved?] possible reasons for random shutdowns

Several months ago, my laptop started to suddenly shutdown for no apparent reason. Initially, I assumed it was overheating. Lenovo had a look, found nothing but replaced the thermal paste anyway, gave it back.
The issue continued so somebody from IT stuck my laptop in a server room on top of a hot computer and stress tested it for a few hours. Conclusion: can find nothing wrong, definitely not a heat problem! (Laptop never went above 65.) They ran a bunch of hardware tests as part of this, got my cable and adaptor tested etc.
Next theory: issue had only ever occurred on one level of the building (in my office) and it turned out there had been another issue with another laptop in that area and it turned out to be shutting down to protect itself due to spikes in the power supply. A UPS solved that issue. One is currently on order for me.
Meanwhile, last weekend I had the issue occur twice in a friend's house in Birmingham. Even more worrying, however, I just had it happen here at home even though I use the machine extensively here and have never seen this happen here before.
I'm guessing this rules out the environmental hypothesis although I'm by no means certain of this.
That leaves: hardware or software.
Hardware is a pain - Lenovo already ran it for 48 hours straight and found nothing. Moreover, although I have paid to extend the warranty and although they've taken my money, I've so far been entirely unsuccessful in getting Lenovo's system to recognise the extension. In any case, with the holidays and everything I'd rather be sure of what I'm dealing with before giving the machine up for an extended period of time. I cannot reliably reproduce the issue so it is hard to troubleshoot.
So I would like to know what possible software issues might trigger apparently random shutdowns.
The shutdowns are immediate. One minute I am working on some document or whatever. The next the machine is off. journalctl shows nothing except:
-- Reboot --
If it was a hardware protection feature, would this get logged?
It does not reboot - it powers off - but I always have issues with reboot since I switched to systemd. Generally, it just powers off instead. [Oh, and before anybody tries to blame systemd, the random shutdowns started before I switched to systemd.]
I've checked the RAM.
Any suggestions, however unlikely, are welcome at this point.
Last edited by cfr (2013-04-13 23:42:03)

Thanks. The adaptor, cable etc. was "PAT tested" by the electricals person in our building and they checked the fuse etc. in the plug as well. Moreover, the laptop never usually has a problem switching from AC to battery and back. My battery is more than adequate for this sort of purpose and, if the battery did run low, the laptop would automatically suspend to RAM. Also, I know if this happens because, among other things, the display is set to dim on switch to battery. When the power supply has disappeared due to a power cut or just unplugging it, the switch has always been flawless.
I've just been jiggling and shaking and rotating the laptop itself as suggested above with no effect whatsoever. I've also tried pressing around the edges of the casing just in case I'm somehow putting pressure somewhere and that's affecting things. (I assume if it was pressure due to typing or touchpad, it would be happening all the time.)
I've also just spent a while jiggling the adaptor and both parts of the cable - also with no effect.
The one thing which makes me reluctant to test sans battery is that I've read that the batteries in ThinkPads serve some sort of protective function in case of issues with the power supply and that you shouldn't use them without the battery for that reason. (Somewhere on Lenovo's site but it was months ago so I can't remember where to check the details.) In case there is an issue with the power, I'd obviously rather not fry the laptop. (But it seems weird if it happens in several places in that case...)
I'm not sure about the cold boot comment. Do you think a cold boot might help? If so, I already performed one yesterday as I opened the back to look for loose connections. So if a cold boot might help, I'll just have to see. I've done cold boots before, though, after opening it up to look for issues following shutdowns.
These issues appeared several months ago and I've reproduced the issue with the LTS kernel a while back. So if it is a regression, it has been around for a bit. I might try a live Ubuntu USB. (I don't have an optical drive.) The problem is that a negative result won't really prove anything because the issue is so random. Given that yesterday is the first time it has ever happened to me at home and that even in my office I've sometimes gone three or four days without problem, a couple of days testing won't cut it. (And will make it difficult for me to get stuff done!) It might be best to wait and try it in my office after the holidays - if it worked for, say, a week there without issue, that would strongly suggest something in my Arch setup. (Or something about the hdd, I guess.)
Somebody suggested modules so, for the record, here's output from lsmod:
Module Size Used by
usb_storage 47385 0
uas 11120 0
efivars 12441 1
fuse 69213 3
hid_generic 1114 0
usbhid 37036 0
hid 85974 2 hid_generic,usbhid
rfcomm 33792 8
bnep 8858 2
ipt_REJECT 2282 2
ip6t_REJECT 2797 2
xt_LOG 12055 6
xt_limit 1978 6
xt_tcpudp 2472 4
nf_conntrack_ipv4 7799 5
nf_defrag_ipv4 1340 1 nf_conntrack_ipv4
nf_conntrack_ipv6 7512 5
nf_defrag_ipv6 6318 1 nf_conntrack_ipv6
xt_recent 8603 12
xt_conntrack 3298 10
nf_conntrack 64101 3 xt_conntrack,nf_conntrack_ipv4,nf_conntrack_ipv6
iptable_filter 1457 1
ip_tables 16947 1 iptable_filter
ip6table_filter 1397 1
ip6_tables 18519 1 ip6table_filter
x_tables 17000 11 ip6table_filter,xt_recent,ip_tables,xt_tcpudp,xt_limit,xt_conntrack,xt_LOG,iptable_filter,ipt_REJECT,ip6_tables,ip6t_REJECT
nls_cp437 5954 1
vfat 10120 1
fat 48403 1 vfat
uvcvideo 72788 0
videobuf2_vmalloc 2469 1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops 2283 1 videobuf2_vmalloc
coretemp 6071 0
kvm_intel 124718 0
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 24529 1
videobuf2_core 24073 1 uvcvideo
videodev 100860 2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
snd_hda_codec_conexant 47159 1
btusb 12373 0
kvm 374014 1 kvm_intel
media 10406 2 uvcvideo,videodev
joydev 9992 0
arc4 2040 2
bluetooth 192234 22 bnep,btusb,rfcomm
iwldvm 171052 0
mac80211 426350 1 iwldvm
snd_hda_intel 26181 2
snd_hda_codec 98034 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_hda_intel
thinkpad_acpi 62562 0
snd_hwdep 6429 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 75735 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc 7218 2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
microcode 12346 0
snd_timer 18935 1 snd_pcm
nvram 5907 1 thinkpad_acpi
snd 60189 12 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,thinkpad_acpi
rts_pstor 401665 0
atl1c 33647 0
psmouse 71952 0
iwlwifi 125182 1 iwldvm
iTCO_wdt 5256 0
iTCO_vendor_support 1930 1 iTCO_wdt
cfg80211 177109 3 iwlwifi,mac80211,iwldvm
rfkill 15605 5 cfg80211,thinkpad_acpi,bluetooth
soundcore 5443 1 snd
i2c_i801 9572 0
evdev 10267 25
serio_raw 4690 0
pcspkr 1900 0
mei 32666 0
lpc_ich 10610 0
ac 2537 0
thermal 8120 0
battery 6774 0
wmi 8380 0
nfs 127008 0
lockd 64905 1 nfs
sunrpc 186134 2 nfs,lockd
fscache 40996 1 nfs
acpi_cpufreq 5934 0
mperf 1300 1 acpi_cpufreq
processor 26856 1 acpi_cpufreq
ext4 440435 10
crc16 1360 2 ext4,bluetooth
jbd2 78802 1 ext4
mbcache 6027 1 ext4
sha256_generic 10262 2
ablk_helper 1973 0
aes_x86_64 7556 5
aes_generic 26139 1 aes_x86_64
cbc 2737 1
dm_crypt 15800 1
dm_mod 72106 35 dm_crypt
sd_mod 29560 4
crc32c_intel 1988 0
ghash_clmulni_intel 4278 0
cryptd 8742 2 ghash_clmulni_intel,ablk_helper
ahci 21361 3
libahci 20024 1 ahci
libata 167757 2 ahci,libahci
scsi_mod 133434 5 uas,usb_storage,libata,rts_pstor,sd_mod
ehci_hcd 41817 0
usbcore 150472 6 uas,btusb,uvcvideo,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,usbhid
usb_common 955 1 usbcore
i915 496012 3
video 11277 1 i915
button 4663 1 i915
i2c_algo_bit 5392 1 i915
intel_agp 10745 1 i915
intel_gtt 15660 2 i915,intel_agp
drm_kms_helper 32878 1 i915
drm 218903 4 i915,drm_kms_helper
i2c_core 20708 6 drm,i915,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,videodev
I did wonder about the watchdogs and whether I should try turning (any of?) them off. But I suspect this thought just shows my ignorance of these things.
I don't think there's a fan in my power supply - it is just a brick type adaptor between the AC and the laptop. If it is the battery, it would be odd that it only ever happens when I'm plugged into AC. (Again, I use it a lot more on AC and the problem is random so this need not mean much.) One difference between battery and AC is that laptop-mode tools is configured to disable the NMI watchdog on battery. But again, I don't understand enough of what this means to know whether this is even vaguely relevant.
My graphics is intel so I'm not using any closed source drivers from Nvidia or ATI. The driver is currently set to use the default acceleration. QT is using default rendering (X11/XRender) rather than Raster or the experimental OpenGL.

To Everyone with Random Shutdowns! (Solved! REALLY!)

Hey all,
I had posted about a week back about my Macbook (Core duo white, late 2006), it was having the same symptoms as some of the others with the known random shutdown syndrome (RSS). Like many others I had thought it was the end of my macbook and the logicboard needed replacing because that is what the 'genius' people do, but I was still wondering what would cause it. It would randomly shut off! (or so I thought) I'd be typing in Safari, watching a youtube video, and even playing games, it would just shut off and I could hear the hard drive spin down. I'd restart and it would do it again sometimes right away, sometimes hours later.
This got me to thinking (like others have said) that it must be an issue with over heating. To test my theory I backed up my HD, and tried to reinstall Snow Leopard after zeroing the HD (as a fresh install). During the install process the Macbook's fan started to get loud and then it happened, it died again! So, this proved to me that it is NOT a software/OS issue at all, which means the said efforts in other posts of changing screen saver and energy saver settings had nothing to do with the cause! Aha moment!
I thought to myself... something is making it shutdown, obviously, and has to do with too much heat as the fan was going crazy even while reinstalling the OS. After reading many posts on different support forums I came accross the possibility that it could be the heatsink and/or sensor that is attached to it. I also found out that this "RSS" only applies to the non-unibody, core duo, and core 2 duo macbooks... you know what that means?
These models are the only ones with the shared memory and GPU on the same heatsink! GAH! A possible solution presents itself? To make a long post even longer... I removed the keyboard, carefully unscrewed the heatsink and fan and what did I see? Cracked and dried out thermal paste on the CPU AND GPU, they are both under the same heatsink after all, this was bad, really bad.
Luckily I had some Arctic Silver thermal paste in a tube from years ago when I upgraded my PowerMac CPU. Using some rubbing alcohol and a soft cloth I removed the crud on the heatsink, processor, and GPU (I might add that there was way too much paste on there in the first place). I waited an extra few minutes to make sure the alcohol evaporated, and then I applied a small (dime sized) amount of thermal past directly onto the two chips, I aligned the heatsink carefully and gave it a very small gentle push down onto the chips, reattached the sensor wire to the mainboard, and screwed the heatsink back in.
After putting the keyboard back on and making sure all screws were in... I immediately turned on the laptop and reinstalled the OS. The OS install took approximately 10 mintues! (crazy!) The last time I did that it took over 30 mins to install! I was stunned!
After the OS installed I let the computer idle and shut down, I let it sit for about an hour to allow the paste to contract as it cooled. After starting up again I immediately downloaded Temperature Monitor and installed it (I did have it running when my mac had RSS by the way), here are the results to prove my theory:
My Macbook with RSS:
CPU1 and CPU2 Idle temp - 114 degrees (F)
Heatsink temp - 128 degrees (F)
Approximate over heating temp - 184 degrees (F) (causing the heatsink sensor to shutdown the laptop)
My Macbook with new high quality thermal paste:
Idle temp of CPU1, CPU2, and GPU - 77 degrees (F)
Heatsink temp - 84 degrees (F)
Running temp with adobe CS4, youtube, and typing this message - 103 degrees (F)
Pretty amazing if you ask me!
Before I applied the thermal paste my Macbook took at least a minute to start up with a fresh OS install, now it only takes about 15 seconds! I have not heard the fan spin up and go crazy since! And I can't even explain to you how much fast it is now!
This does prove that Random shutdown syndrome (RSS) is caused ONLY by your GPU over heating due to old thermal paste between the chips and heatsink! A design flaw by Apple? probably not because thermal paste will crack and dry over time.
This also proves that energy conversion to data in the chips can decrease because of over heating, causing the computer performance to dramatically drop!
So before you take your out-of-warranty macbook to Apple or a repair shop, see what your internal temp readings are and try to replicate the problem with over heating your CPU/GPU! This was a 10 minute fix! I am still amazed at how much faster everything is, and haven't had a random shutdown since! I hope this helps alot of people that think they are out of luck and have to pay to get it fixed!
- Cory -

I too have this problem as well and it has been getting worse lately, I don't know what to do anymore. Here is a little info about my macbookPro. I have the late 2008 unibody model, i bought it in late 2009 Refurbished from Apple. Recently my mac has been turning off out of nowhere. I may be doing something and all of a sudden it just shuts off, it usually happens faster when i start to open up more programs like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro. My mac is out of warranty now and i dont know how much apple is going to charge me to fix it. i mean they want 50 bucks just to talk to them on the phone (ridiculous if you ask me)!.
    I have a temperature sensor installed and here is my data
CPU A Proximity: 126F
CPU A Temperature Diode: 133F
Graphics Processor Chip 1: 122F
Graphics Processor Heatsink 1: 113F
Graphics Processor Heatsink 2: 126F
Graphics Processor Temperature Diode: 131F
Left Palm Rest: 91F
Main Heatsink 3: 122F
Main Logic Board: 118F
Northbridge Chip: 127F
Northbridge Position: 124F
Here is more data from the Power
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Manufacturer:          GSA-1281
Device Name:          ASMB016
Pack Lot Code:          0
PCB Lot Code:          0
Firmware Version:          0
Hardware Revision:          0
Cell Revision:          0
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh):          3739
Fully Charged:          No
Charging:          No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh):          4610
Health Information:
Cycle Count:          68
Condition:          Normal
Battery Installed:          Yes
Amperage (mA):          -1766
Voltage (mV):          11793
System Power Settings:
AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):          0
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):          0
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):          90
Automatic Restart on Power Loss:          No
Wake on AC Change:          No
Wake on Clamshell Open:          Yes
Wake on LAN:          No
Display Sleep Uses Dim:          Yes
GPUSwitch:          2
PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep:          0
RestartAfterKernelPanic:          157680000
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):          60
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):          0
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):          2
Wake on AC Change:          No
Wake on Clamshell Open:          Yes
Current Power Source:          Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:          Yes
GPUSwitch:          2
Reduce Brightness:          Yes
RestartAfterKernelPanic:          157680000
Hardware Configuration:
UPS Installed:          No
AC Charger Information:
Connected:          No
Charging:          No
PLEASE HELP ME, I CAN NO LONGER TRUST MY MAC FOR WORK. any replies will be appreciated. thanks

Random Shutdowns on a MBP Core Duo, Suggestions/Help would be great

I've had two random shutdowns of my mac since purchasing it back in August. The first happened on January 11th, when it said it was at 11-12% power. The second happened about two weeks later, at 23% power. I've been looking around these forums and other pages, and haven't really found anything that has helped so far.
Details of the first crash:
Open apps- Firefox (5 windows, two had about 20+ tabs open, the rest were single page, and yes, I know it crashes often with that many), Camino (1 window with 5 tabs), and Word 2004, as well as Quicktime open to the iPhone stream.
I had an USB key plugged in, to which I was saving my Word document.
So I was working in Word while in front of the TV and during an interesting bit, didn't do anything for a minute. So, like the many times earlier, it slept the display to conserve power (in "Better Energy Savings" mode). I moved my finger on the trackpad to wake it back up, and it turned back on the backlighting, and then stopped. I thought it had just went back to sleep, but after a few key presses and a check of the light that usually pulsates when it's sleeping (plus the USB key , I found out that the computer had turned off. I let it sit for a while, and when I plugged it back into AC power and turned it on, with my USB key still plugged in, and although it booted to my desktop, the Finder never started (so no desktop icons for anything), unplugging the USB key fixed this and everything returned to normal. I then installed the only update I was missing, one for iChat, restarted, and continued working.
In the second incident, I only had my browsers open, nothing external plugged in, and my displayed was dimmed to the third darkest level. When it was at about 23% power, it once again randomly shut down. This time, I attempted to turn it back on, and nothing happened. After plugging it into AC power, it turned on and once logged in showed a very low (2-6%) power, so I guess it was reporting the power incorrectly?
Anyways, went back to look at the battery exchange on Apple's website. I had checked before when they started it, and was pretty sure mine wasn't covered, and a second check confirmed that. My Mac's serial is W8618091VWX, which isn't covered by the recall.
So, I have a few questions:
1. Is there a toll-free number I can phone Apple (Canada) at? The only number I've found seems to be only free for those who bought their computer in the last 90 days, which I'm no longer covered by, and haven't been for a while. Talking to someone at Apple would be good.
2. Otherwise, if I took my computer to an Authorized Service Provider, would they be able to take a look at it and answer some questions? I bought my MBP at a London Drugs and they aren't service providers, so how much would it cost to do this?
3. Is there a definite cause for these random shutdowns? It seems to vary among other people, so it would be helpful if I could try something to eliminate one of the causes.
4. Does Tiger report battery levels pretty accurately? In the past when I reached 6% I got a warning and was able to plug it into AC power and had no problems.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Macbook Pro 2.16 GHZ Core Duo, 15.4", 1GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I had this problem of RSD fixed for a while after having had the battery replaced by Apple, till yesterday, when the MBP suddenly experienced a shutdown during a meeting presentation, while it was connected to the AC power. At the first restart, as coming back from a stop-mode, for a while appeared a warning of low-battery level, with battery level indicator flashing red and showing the empty icon but with a 86% of charge level and a new shut-down definitely put the MBP out of service, no way to have it functioning again. Obviously, AC power was OK, no problem with the microphone or the projector ( I was at the podium of an international meeting) and a lucky precaution ( double save of the same presentation on a friend's twin MBP, that worked correctly) saved the job.
Then, a couple of hour later, my MBP started up normally and everything works fine, with or without MAGsafe connected to AC power, almost up to now.
I've read the post with a link to the procedure for resetting the power controller chip on the mainboard, I'll do it in a minute, hoping that this will help.
Any further suggestion?
ambabu, Italy

Random shutdowns X99S SLI Plus, ms-7885

Hello,
I'm trying to narrow down some random shutdowns. These seemed to be completely random and could happen with the computer idling. The computer just shutdowns and reboots. Nothing in the log, no BSOD. I have tried to trigger the problem by running CPU and GPU stresstests without success.
Until wither 3 came out. With witcher 3 the problem is 100% reproducible. Start witcher 3 => shutdown.
I can play other games for hours without any problems.
Can someone give a hint on how to find the problem?
/Tommy
Board: X99S SLI Plus
Bios: 1.8
VGA: Gainward titan X
PSU: Corsair RM750, 750W PSU ATX 12V V2.4, 80 Plus Gold, Modular, 4x 6+2-pin PC
CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K, Socket-LGA2011-3
MEM: Crucial DDR4 Ballistix Sport 32GB (8GBx4), 2400MHz (PC4-19200) CL16 SR x8 Unbuff
HDD: HyperX Predator SSD 240GB M.2 PCIe
COOLER: Cooler Master Seidon 120V v2 CPU
OC: none
OS: Windows 8.1

Some updates...
Tried to run with only two memory sticks, no problem with that. Even if I switch one it works. But with three it crashes after I exit witcher 3. Wierd since I can play the game without problem.
Ran some memtests one only one stick in. Only got errors in the "hammer test" which I guess is ok.
Put all four memories in again and ran memtest over the night. It ran one pass and after that the comp shut down and rebooted.
Downclocked memory to 1333 and ran 4 passes memtest without any crash. Some hammer test errors only.
I'm now trying to run at 2200 and it seems fine. I can play witcher and exit without any crash.
Is it the memory or the MB? Or just a bad combo?
/T

After a year, another chain of random shutdowns

can anybody tell what's going on with my computer from a remote desktop? by now that should be easy.
i had random shutdowns problems last year, one month after buying my macbook pro, but they seemed over after the download of the oct.2006 firmware. now they're back. as random as they were. could it be possible that the new battery update clashed with something? the appearance seem to have occurred just after that update. maybe a coincidence. but i had started to have battery failures - computer shutdowns at 95% of battery charge, with 28 cycles count - and was about to go replace it (the sick battery).
just i cant stand abandoning my computer in a dark room with many others, so i didn't turn it in and kept it on ACDC.
anybody may guess what i should do to avoid a premature death?

There's nothing anyone here can do about this. We're all just users like you. Was the phone still covered by warranty? Was there an explanation from Apple?

MacBook Pro Core Duo 15" Random Shutdown worsening

Have had my MBP for over 18 months now, and any glitches have been software so far.
Two nights ago, I was working on my MBP and suddenly went into an unwakeable sleep. After resetting, I could start up intermittently up to 5 minutes, but it seems to have gotten worse, to where I'm at a point where I can only manage a few seconds of startup before it blacks out again, either off or again, into an unwakeable darkness.
It's the same with just battery, battery & AC, or just AC. It wont stay on long enough for me to start from CD, neither will it stay on to let me Firewire my info/account to another Mac.
At times when I cannot start at all, I can hear a small 'electrical snap' (best description I can give) when pressing the power button, whichever combination of power source I use. I guess this is normal, but I wouldn't notice it usually.
For anyone who've had their MacBook Pro with "Random Shutdown" fixed by Apple out of warranty, could you give an example of cost?
Thanks
Sion Joyce

i dread to think how much it would cost, but i was having random shutdown problems as of last week. completely out of the blue
but, the latest Firmware update seems to have solved it! not before i went and bought another battery of course
one thing i have noticed though is the eta on the battery fullness is completely random now, it'll go from having about a minute left to having an hour and 30mins

Random shutdowns: my experience, and a suggestion

I own a BlackBook whose random shutdowns began a couple of weeks ago.
During my first trip to my local Genius Bar, the guy behind the counter reset the PMU and PRAM, and was unable to reproduce the problem, and sent me on my way.
The random shutdowns continued.
During my second trip to the Genius Bar, the guy was able to boot the machine from another drive, and was able to reproduce the problem. The machine was sent to the repair center for servicing. I got it back a few days later.
Random shutdowns have still occurred, but I find that if I reset the PRAM as the machine is booting, and wait for at least three startup chimes before letting go of the key combination (control-option-P-R), the machine seems to stabilize and not shut down on its own, at least so far.
Before repair, the machine was also exhibiting the "vertical colored lines at startup" problem. Before that, it needed a replacement power adapter and a replacement battery (the battery was refusing to take a charge or even be recognized by the computer).
Various theories for the cause or causes of the problem with random shutdowns have been suggested -- along with a number of magic-bullet solutions from different sources. My guess is that even Apple isn't sure what's causing the issue, and there's certainly no foolproof solution that the user can apply. We'll just have to wait and see what comes of the investigations.
Despite these problems, I still love the BlackBook and think it's perhaps the most beautifully designed computer ever made. I assume that once these growing pains subside, Apple will have a total winner on its hands.
MacBook (black) 13" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I have a whitebook bought in June, shutdowns started about 6 weeks after I got it. Did the whole tech support line thing several times resetting various things etc. No change. Sent it in for repair with a strong encouragement that it would only take 48 hours. It is now 10 days later and repair is still on hold. Sent in several "why is this dragging on" and got nice automatic reponse saying they would respond in a day or two. No real responses yet. Called today the helpful tech said they would check and see what was holding things up and let me know when I called back in 48 hours. Assured me I would not be without my Macbook more than a week longer. Have missed work and have a presentation on Friday that I will have to do without it. Had I known it would take this long I would have taken my chance that it would not shut down mid stream in the presentation. I am very disapointed with Apple at this point. Have been a long time user and own stock etc. This is the worse customer service I have gotten on a computer problem, personal or business. Apple needs to realize they have a batch of lemons on their hands and bite the bullet and replace them. I am not encouraged to hear others are getting their books back repaired only to find the problem on going.

Temp fix to random shutdown (plug AC/remove battery)

I avoid this discussion board b/c of the hardcore fanboy-ism (rated members is a joke) but I want to drop off this temporary fix for random shutdowns:
Plug in your power adapter and remove your battery.
It seems to lock the cpu at 1ghz even at 100% load under the: "yes > /dev/null & yes > /dev/null" test.
I have been running this test for over 30min now with no random shutdowns where before I could not survive the 1 minute mark.
My cpu is now running at 1.0ghz/151F/100%.
Try for yourself and post your results.

Good News!
Last week I got a new logic board for my MB. After two hours working the MB shut down again!
I called Apple Care to get further informations and told them about the fix on macfixit.com the day before yesterday. And guess what... today my service provider have done the job!!!
I have made some tests right now... over 2h running with 100% CPU usage at 1.83 GHz. Bofore the repair it shut down after 1 minute under same condition.
It seems to be ok now. Tomorrow more reports....
MacBook 1.8GHz, 1GB Mac OS X (10.4.7) my first apple

Arghhh random shutdown ...

I've had my MacBook for about 2 months now and have never had any problems with it ... until two days ago.
It was working fine then it powered off, and after switching back on it would power off after a few seconds.
It was fine yesterday but has done it again today, it sems to start better without the power cable attached.
Having seen several threads about this I can't decide whether I should take it into the apple shop and ask them to repair it (replace the heat sink?) or not.
One thing I hve noticed is that the fan doesn't seem to come on very much at the moment.
I've just installed core duo temp and the average temp i about 50 deg C - which is much lower than some of the 80 temps i've been seeing.
Please note that when it's been crashing i've just been doing simple web surfing - it's never crashed during the month i've been playing WoW on it, e under heavy load!

P*ed off MacBook owners (especially ones they've
just culled from Windows) are going to remember this
and are already getting pretty steamed.
Yep, that pretty much describes my situation. My Macbook is my first Apple product ever, and after a pretty good honeymoon with the MacBook, the random shutdowns have started happening regularly. Actually, they aren't so random anymore; they happen every time I turn the MacBook on from a cold state. When the temperature gets up to a certain point, poof, the power goes out. Holding in the power button usually allows it to come back up again, but not always. If I can get it to stay up long enough, it seems to warm up enough to allow it to stay up indefinitely. Even if I put it to sleep for a few minutes, it will still work fine since it is still warm inside. When it gets cold, the problem cycle starts all over again.
Being a computer hardware engineer myself, I can understand design flaws in early revisions of a product. What has worried me is all the horror stories from MacBook customers about how Apple has been treating the problem with random clueless solutions and how they have been treating customers. I have been painfully living with the shutdown problem waiting to see some positive stories from customers. I don't want to waste my time dealing with Apple until I feel that they really understand the problem and know how to fix it in a reasonable amount of time.
Meanwhile, I use my 5 year old non-Apple laptop which has been quite reliable and has never randomly shut down on me. I avoid doing anything important on the MacBook since it is so unreliable. I'll contact Apple when there are some indications from customers that Apple has truely solved the problem. I guess in a month or so I'll know whether I'll ever do business with Apple again.

X220 - Random shutdown

My X220 is running Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 32 bit. I have updated to the 1.21 version of the BIOS.
I have a 128 GB SSD,
I am still experiencing random shutdowns under these circumstances:
1. Only when connected to AC power. I am using 65W standard AC/DC adapter.
2, Has been connected to the LAN always when it happens
I have re-configured my computer: Will come back with results.
1. I did upggrade BIOS to 1.21
2. I have now reduced the System Performance settiung in Power Manaher from a value of "Maximum Turbo" to "Turbo".
Kommer tillbaka med findings.

Grrrr.. while writing this entry - the computer made the random shutdown AGAIN (now using another machine). Lenovo - can you PLEASE make at least ONE Thinkpad with IBM quality....
Anyway .. here goes...
Bought an X220 i7 a few months back.
Data:
Model: 4291-36G
OS: Windows7 64bit (shipped with unit) + dual booting Ubuntu Linux 10.10 (64bit)
On BOTH Windows AND Linux these random shutdowns started to happen during the last week - with no change in my usage pattern (software development, browsing, email, etc. - under both linux and windows).
The most strange part is that the behavior feels like someone is pushing/holding the power key at random times (anything from 5 to 20 minutes after boot) - because windows goes to "fast sleep" and linux pops up the shutdown/sleep selector when it happens.
I just updated to the 1.21 bios (using a stand-alone CD from ISO).. luckily it didn't reboot while flashing...
This DID NOT FIX THE PROBLEM (I am not sure what bios was there before).
This really smells like a HW issue.
NOTE: Temperature monitors say that the CPU is well under critical - so that doesn't seem to be the issue.
My guess is:
1. faulty motherboard (sending the power off event.. or other)
2. could it be related to the fingerprint reader? - I know it's a long shot - but every time it has been initiated, I think my palms have rested, touching the reader as well as putting a light pressure everywhere else on the palm rest (just trying to help you to troubleshoot the design flaw - it's still a HW issue ;-))
Lenovo - I have 3 years on-site support on it... how do I get a new unit ASAP (I live in Denmark)? Can I just move the HDD to the new machine (I remember that Win7 may have some annoying copy protection linking machine, HDD and OS)?
br
Lars
PS Lenovo - as I wrote in the beginning of this post... I have NEVER EVER EVER EVER (well, you get the picture) had ANY problems with this back when ThinkPads were done by IBM. Can you please start making some machines that are as stable as those? So far, I have been the Proud owner of an X31, T41p, T21 and many more... and *not so proud owner of* T61p and now X220 - both seem pretty flawed - and I seem to remember an IBM internal stating they had to send 1/2 a shipment of T61's back because of serious problems with design, construction, etc...
PPS I know I was a bit evil above... but still think that premium price should deliver premium product.

Random shutdowns - IT'S THE BATTERY, NOT THE LOGIC BOARD!!!!

Hey,
Just got my battery replacement, and the shutdown problem is GONE. Here's how you verify - run your Macbook with the battery removed, on AC power - the problem disappears.
The tech told me that it is a short in the battery, which tells the PMU that there is no power (whether there is or not!)...anyway, I hope this is helpful to all of you!
P.S. If you're also getting the vertical lines at startup, that's a video driver issue - just zap the PRAM so you can boot, and once booted, change the resolution to something else and back to normal - it will fix the problem entirely.
THERE IS HOPE!!!!

<<<dear ASPs! this is -NOT- true!!!! it is NOT the battery!>>>
probably thanks to you my ASP (DataQuest, Zurich Switzerland) only replaced my battery and handed back my MacBook unrepaired.
After the "repair" the problem at first was rare but after just three days I'm back at normal frequency of random shutdowns. I have to spend another two weeks waiting for my macbook. this time I'm sending it to Netherlands
I guess that it's really that badly calibrated thermal module causing these shutdowns. obviously the thermal module is irritated especially if you use your macbook often - so after 1-2 weeks of repair time the problem is barely apparent. (which causes unsuccessful repair - "testing after battery replacement worked fine" says ASP)
MacBook 1.8Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.7) & iBook 2 600

Random Shutdown plagues Macbook Pro C2D as well?

Hello everyone,
I know the Macbooks suffer from random shutdowns, but I thought this issue was fixed in the recent models. Apparently, it's still a problem since my brand new macbook pro core 2 duo exhibits random shutdowns when it gets too hot. Yes, I have all my stuff up to date. No, the new firmware does not apply to the Core 2 Duo MBPs.
My question is, is this still a known problem? I haven't really hard of Macbook Pros suffering from this, is this also common with Macbook Pros?
My Macbook does not get extremely hot to the touch, contrary to some of the "Hot" threads on this board. But, I guess it's enough to short the circuit that causes immediate shutdowns. It's easy enough to avoid, but I'd like to push my Macbook to it's fullest without worry of shutdown.

Well, this is what I've found out ...don't know if that will mean anything to you, but does not seem very good to me. Note that this was prior to the date I received my MBP.
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: hi mem tramps at 0xffe00000
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: PAE enabled
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: 64 bit mode enabled
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: vmpagebootstrap: 251691 free pages
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: migtable_maxdispl = 71
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Enabling XMM register save/restore and SSE/SSE2 opcodes
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: ACPI CA 20060421
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: ready
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorApicId=0 LocalApicId=0 Enabled
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorApicId=1 LocalApicId=1 Enabled
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: using 5242 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Enabling XMM register save/restore and SSE/SSE2 opcodes
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Started CPU 01
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 64:87
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: ACPI: System State [S0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Security auditing service present
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: BSM auditing present
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: disabled
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 0DC7FF3D-D334-4F4C-914D-9FA50D95FDA5
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: AppleYukon: 00000000,e00002bc PwrSavingsEED - failed to get EDGP
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: USB caused wake event (EHCI)
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 8025 built-in now active, GUID 0017f2fffe814a26; max speed s800.
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: CSRHIDTransitionDriver::probe:
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: CSRHIDTransitionDriver::start before command
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Extension "com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard" has no kernel dependency.
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Extension "com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyEventDriver" has no kernel dependency.
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleAHCI/PRT2 @2/IOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDri ver/Hitachi HTS541612J9SA00 Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme/Customer@2
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: CSRHIDTransitionDriver::stop
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: HFS: created HFBT on Macintosh HD
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: IOBluetoothHCIController::start Idle Timer Stopped
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Jettisoning kernel linker.
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Resetting IOCatalogue.
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 0
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Matching service count = 1
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: ath_attach: devid 0x24
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: mac 12.10 phy 8.1 radio 12.0
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: Previous Shutdown Cause: 3
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost mDNSResponder-108.2 (Aug 20 2006 04: 04:10)[57]: starting
Nov 13 18:16:31 localhost memberd[65]: memberd starting up
Nov 13 18:16:33 localhost lookupd[71]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Mon Nov 13 18:16:33 2006
Nov 13 18:16:35 localhost diskarbitrationd[63]: disk0s2 hfs F89B2CC8-63E3-337A-9EE4-346BAB54E7BB Macintosh HD /
Nov 13 18:16:35 localhost DirectoryService[72]: Launched version 2.1 (v353.5)
Nov 13 18:16:36 localhost kernel[0]: yukonosx: Ethernet address 00:17:f2:c2:38:10
Nov 13 18:16:36 localhost kernel[0]: AirPort_Athr5424: Ethernet address 00:17:f2:e7:66:7d
Nov 13 18:16:37 localhost lookupd[91]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Mon Nov 13 18:16:37 2006
Nov 13 18:16:39 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name; using default ‚ÄúMacintosh-0017F2C23810‚Äù instead
Nov 13 18:16:39 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default ‚ÄúMacintosh-0017F2C23810.local‚Äù instead
Nov 13 18:16:40 localhost kernel[0]: Registering For 802.11 Events
Nov 13 18:16:40 localhost kernel[0]: [HCIController][setupHardware] AFH Is Supported
Nov 13 18:16:40 localhost mDNSResponder: Adding browse lanain local.
Nov 13 18:16:43 localhost KernelEventAgent[56]: tid 00000000 received unknown event (256)
Nov 13 18:16:56 localhost /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Admin.framework/Resources/UpdateSettingsTool: UpdateSettings Error: makequeues -u returned 512
Nov 13 18:16:57 localhost /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
Nov 13 18:38:50 localhost /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
Nov 13 18:39:03 localhost /System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant.app/Contents/MacOS/Setup Assistant: _MDSuspendIndexing() 1
Nov 13 18:39:05 localhost /System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant.app/Contents/MacOS/Setup Assistant: starting movie now\n
Nov 13 18:39:33 localhost /System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant.app/Contents/MacOS/Setup Assistant: movie done now (hide)
Nov 13 18:39:40 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name; using default ‚ÄúMacintosh-0017F2C23810‚Äù instead
Nov 13 18:39:40 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default ‚ÄúMacintosh-0017F2C23810.local‚Äù instead
Nov 13 18:40:34 localhost ntpdate[622]: no servers can be used, exiting
Nov 13 18:40:34 localhost ntpd[624]: bind() fd 11, family 30, port 123, addr fe80:5::217:f2ff:fee7:667d, in6is_addrmulticast=0 flags=0 fails: Can't assign requested address
Nov 13 18:40:38 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name; using default ‚ÄúMacintosh-0017F2C23810‚Äù instead
Nov 13 18:40:38 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default ‚ÄúMacintosh-0017F2C23810.local‚Äù instead
Nov 13 18:40:38 localhost configd[61]: executing /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/Kicker.bundle/Contents/Resources/enable-net work
Nov 13 18:40:38 localhost configd[61]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Nov 13 18:40:38 localhost lookupd[627]: lookupd (version 369.6) starting - Mon Nov 13 18:40:38 2006
Nov 13 18:40:40 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name; using default ‚ÄúMacintosh-0017F2C23810‚Äù instead
Nov 13 18:40:40 localhost mDNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default ‚ÄúMacintosh-0017F2C23810.local‚Äù instead
Nov 13 18:40:42 localhost configd[61]: target=enable-network: disabled
First Crash --> computer suddenly OFF !
i've had 5 or six crashes since I received my MBP on Nov. 15th. Apple told me it must be a hardware problem. I have other stuff to read from the console if you're interested caus' quite frankly this does not make a lot of sense to me.

Random Shutdown Solution!!!

Hi all,
as it turned out, the Random Shutdown Syndrome is caused by the Energy Saver settings.
;-Petra

wow... never would have guessed that its fake... its CLEARLY a joke dude...

Random Shutdown (theory | wild guess) - thermistor

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