Random Shutdown - What DOESNT help?

Can we all get a list going of what repairs DO NOT help? It would be nice to be able to go into the techs/geniuses (for people that haven't already) with a list of resolutions they can not waste their time on. It might also help provide some clarity for those who get their hopes up thinking something is working for them, only to be let-down when the problem resurfaces.

I don't come close to maxing out the CPU very often - maybe a few times in PS and Dreamweaver - mostly its just internet and word processing. I usually leave it on all the time, just close the lid and I use between one and three hours a day on average.
The temperature has never gotten out of hand, its rare that I hear the fans whirr-up and when it has been shutting down the last couple days it has been after coming out of a long sleep.
Just last night I had an application crash on me. Before I realized it had the fans started to roar. I had nothing else open and I was just using MacJournal (not exactly a taxing application). I opened up coreduotemp and watched as it went from 60% cpu usage to a 100 in a few seconds and said it was near 90 degrees C. I forced quit the application and the CPU usage dropped to nothing and the fans slowed to a stop. This happened twice in an hour's time. I had been using that program for months with no problem on that machine. That is the only strange occurance I can think of.
I phoned my Mac retailer and he told me to bring it in, but I am hesitant because I really need the machine the next couple weeks. I am hoping that it will continue to work for me for a couple weeks and by then they will know what the problem is. Right now it doesn't sound like anyone has found a solution.
Hope this helps.
Clayton
Macbook 2.0 ghz white Mac OS X (10.4.7) Mac Mini 1.25 PPC, Macbook 2.0 ghz white

Similar Messages

Random shutdowns: what should I do?

I'm getting really annoyed by the random shutdowns. what should i do?
i live in the UK, and my local apple store is about 2 hours away.

Just call Apple support up and tell them what is going on. In my case, I just started telling them of the random shutdowns and that I had tried everything that they were fixing to ask me to do. No further questions were asked and the sent me a return/repair box the next day. Now I'm just waiting to get it back and hopefully it will be fixed.

MacBook 3x went to service center, still random shutdown, what to do next?

Hi! Mine is week 17, and mainboard already replaced for 3 times. The last one they replaced the battery also.
There is no Apple Center in here, I deliver it to the local authorized Apple service.
I just got my 3rd replacement yesterday, and I noticed from the first place that it got blank gray screen on startup & can't sleep using the Energy Saver. But I waited long enough for the repairement, so I decided to take it home anyway. At home, I did the commandopt+pr and reinstall it back to 10.4.6 using the equiped cd. But still it can't sleep using Energy Saver..
But the blank gray screen problem is gone.
Today I calibrate (since they replaced the battery with brand new one), after the process done (5 hours sleep, zero battery), I plugged the magsafe and I heard looping click sound, and it went random shutdown again!
And it goes shutdown on: yes dev null
I just do the commandopt+pr, and the yes dev null havn't invoked the shutdown. But from my previous shutdown experiences, it will go crazy random shutdown in about 3 days ahead from now.
So what to do next? going to the authorized service again?
I'm sick and tired now.
Also the outer body case is suffers little scratches, and it's getting mucher and mucher everytime I got it back from repairement.
Oh dear God do help me! All I want is for my money back, at least a new replacement for my MacBook.
And they said Apple wouldn't allow it.

Since you're not actually turning it in to Apple for repair, I wonder if the repair shop that's doing the work knows what they're doing. Since you've had the logic board replaced three times, that's pobably not the solution. I had the random shutdowns and verticle lines on the display, and Apple replaced my heatsink and then erased the HD and re-installed to factory settings, 10.4.6. I then migrated my data from my backup HD, updated OS to 10.4.7, and installed the SMC firmware update. No problems since then.
Many other users have had their logic board replaced more than once only to continue having the problems. Some have had logic board replaced once and then no longer have problems. Others have had other parts replaced, such as in my case and have had no problems.
Apparently each MacBook has to be diagnosed individually to find the problem.

Let's Try to Figure out the Random Shutdowns - what were you doing ?

I am sure like everyone else experiencing these things, you try to deduce what the variables were to change them to see if it fixes the problem. Please add to the this list if you have noticed anything.
EVERY TIME MY COMPUTER SHUT DOWN I WAS :
- Typing. My computer has never shut off just sitting there running the screen saver or a DVD or whatever
- Once it does shut off there is a rapid succession of shut downs on each start up attempt. But then if I leave it for half an hour or so, it can turn back on, or it always turns on after a power manager reset.
WHAT ISNT CONSISTENT IS :
- before or after the firmware upgrade, it still shuts down
- my macbook can be plugged in or running off battery
- I can be on the net or off it
- the fans may have come on that session of use or not
- the macbook was hot or cold
- I used it for 10 minutes or 5 hours before it shut off

Prior to repair, it could happen when warm or cold, on AC or battery.
After repair, I ran for 3 weeks without a problem. Then I had a random shutdown. At the time, I was using AC with the 3-prong cord (the first time I'd used it since my repair). I was editing photos in iPhoto (before the fix I'd had a few other shutdowns in iPhoto). Some of my editing changes held up after the shutdowns, others didn't.
During the period when everything was working fine (after my repair), my shutdown codes were usually 0 (sometimes 3). When it randomly shutdown, the shutdown code was -72, and has consistently been -72 ever since (even when I shut it down myself). That's the same code I had before the repair when I was regularly having random shutdowns.
I've only had the one random shutdown so far since the repair. I've not used the 3-prong power cord since, and am wondering if somehow that might have triggered that first shutdown. (I had used it fairly regularly prior to repair.) I know that it can still shutdown again whether its on AC or battery, but am wondering if there might be some sort of electrical issue with the cord that zaps something in the computer to make it start acting up in the first place. (The only other explanation I can think of is that the heat generated by the processor slowly cooks the internal components, but it does seem to run cooler since the firmware update.)

Random Shutdown. PLEASE HELP!!

Hi guys. I'm desperate for some help here. I've just bought a MacBook Pro from eBay. When it came it had Tiger installed and straight away I did a clean install of Leopard. After that, all I did was set up BootCamp with Vista and transfer some files from my external HD.
However, after a bit of use, my MacBook seems to just switch itself off completely! I'm starting to really worry about it! I've just installed a new software update and it hasn't done it since but that was only about half an hour ago.
I got the MacBook quite cheap so I really don't want to send it back and have to part with MORE cash for another one.
Has anyone else experienced this and found a solution?
Thanks, Killian.

Just to update; for now, it seems that software update may have done the trick. I will be over the moon if it has!!
Still early though!

MOVED: PS2 keyboard/mouse causes random shutdowns or doesnt work

This topic has been moved to Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad boards.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=122315.0
Because it's in the wrong forum.

This topic has been moved to Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad boards.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=122315.0
Because it's in the wrong forum.

Help - Thermal or Random Shutdowns

My MBP 15” is outside the warranty and developed what appears to be a thermal shutdown issue. After a period of time it just shuts down. When I restart, it shuts down again very quickly. Each restart results in a shutdown sooner than the last. If the MBP is left off for a longer period of time it will restart, but shuts down after 10 or so minutes.
Being out of warranty and being brave I dismantled it and found nothing outwardly wrong. However, the heat sink compound was pretty dried and cake-like. So I cleaned and replaced the compound and fired it up only to have the problem once again. The compound may have helped a little, but it is not statistically significant. I also pulled the battery backup wire while I dismantled the MBP. I am not sure if that erases the non-volatile memory or not.
The problem shutdowns occur with and without the battery installed. The only way I have been able to work around this problem was to install a third-party fan control program. I set the minimum fan speed to 2500 – 3000 RPMs and life is fine. I have not had a shutdown in the last two weeks since I installed the fan control program. That tells me that the thermal sensors are probably initiating the shutdown. I can’t say what they are measuring is real or not.
However, I can’t recall ever hearing the fans before the MBP shuts down. I hear them now with the fan program running, but I can’t ever recall hearing them before the install. Any thoughts?

Have you run something like iStat Pro... just to get an idea of what the temp sensor readings are? It's possible you may have just a faulty sensor... Something like iStat Pro:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html
or Temperature Monitor:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19994
... will give you the reported temps of a number of components. If you have a faulty sensor... it should be easy to detect (for example, if your heat sink shows 120 C but both your processors show around 60 C and your other heatsink slightly lower... you'll know the first heat sink probably has a bad sensor). The first generation MacBooks had a problem with random shutdowns due to a faulty heatsink sensor. Apple was able to put out a firmware update that basically ignored the faulty sensor... but for those that had the problem, if they run one of the above programs... they can still see the faulty readings... only their machines no longer shut down as they are now ignored.
You should first determine your processor and heatsink temps... just to make sure you actually are not experiencing an overheat problem vs. just a faulty sensor.

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

My mac doesnt start. All i get is the gray screen with the apple and the loading icon but nothing more happens. I tried to start it in safe mode but it doesnt help. What can i do?

My mac doesnt start. All i get is the gray screen with the apple and the loading icon but nothing more happens. I tried to start it in safe mode but it doesnt help. What can i do?

If you have a external USB enclosure - trying installing your hard drive in that enclosure and connect it to your usb port - restart your macbook while holding down the options key. If you Macbook boots to your desktop then you have a faulty cable. If you get the same error, then your hard drive just died on you.
good luck.

What causes my i4s phone to randomly shutdown?

What causes my 4s phone to randomly shutdown?

Do you have a case on the iPhone? Maybe it's pressing on the home and sleep buttons, making it reset itself.
If that doesn't work, try restoring the iPhone then seting up service.

Whats next if all else fails with random shutdowns

Hi, having random shutdown on battery power on my 'macbook intel 1.83 core duo' no warning of low battery etc always ample battery power available.
Have installed battery update 1.2 twice
Have reset the SMC twice to no avail
Next stop apple repair centre, but what's the most likely outcome has anyone had this issue resolved by repair, and if so, what was the cause.

I am in the same situation, save that I have not yet tried re-setting the SMC. My MacBook is still under guarantee, but the local Apple shop can suggest nothing more creative than that l leave the notebook with them for a week plus. That is impossible for me -- any more than half a day, and I need to have a stand-by replacement into which I can slot my hard drive, but that is most certainly not on offer. It is the more irritating in that it is now apparent to me that Random Shutdown Syndrome been the subject of complaints literally for years, and comes as no surprise to Apple. I am beginning to wonder whether the AppleCare Protection-Plan was worth what I paid for it.

Random shutdowns/related to bad RAM? pls help

my 3 week old macbook was randomly shutting down all day yesterday. apple agreed to replace it. i just put the original RAM back in the macbook to prepare it for shipment back to Apple. i've had it on for a bit now and it has yet to randomly shutdown.
Is it possible that the RAM i bought from newegg is defective and that was the problem? what are symptoms of bad ram?
thx

thanks all. early this morning after i posted this i re-installed the newegg ram. ran the memtest. it took alot longer with 2gb to finish the test but it came out fine. i got up just now. the macbood was asleep. i lifted the screen and have been running alot of programs to see if it will shut down. it is working great.
so maybe the newegg ram was seeded wrong? maybe some kind of bump or something knocked it slightly out of place? I've had the newegg ram installed for the last 3 weeks and had no problems before so i cant understand why it would just stop working.
is there any was else i can test to see if this ram is working like 2gb should work?
anyone think it is highly probable that i do not have the random shutdown problem?

My iPhone 5 randomly shutdown and rebooting doesn't seem to work for me, what should I do?

It also happens when I'm charging my phone, and also the battery percentage doesn't show that correct battery level not unless I turn off and on.. I tried rebooting the phone but it doesn't seem to work for me, random shutdown still happens..

Will not turn on, will not turn on unless connected to power, or unexpected power off
Verify that the Sleep/Wake button functions. If it does not function, inspect it for signs of damage. If the button is damaged or is not functioning when pressed, seek service.
Check if a Liquid Contact Indicator (LCI) is activated or there are signs of corrosion. Learn about LCIsand corrosion.
Connect the iPhone to the iPhone's USB power adapter and let it charge for at least ten minutes.
After at least 30 minutes, if:
The home screen appears: The iPhone should be working. Update to the latest version of iOS if necessary. Continue charging it until it is completely charged and you see this battery icon in the upper-right corner of the screen . Then unplug the phone from power. If it immediately turns off, seek service.
The low-battery image appears, even after the phone has charged for at least 20 minutes: See "iPhone displays the low-battery image and is unresponsive" symptom in this article.
Something other than the Home screen or Low Battery image appears, continue with this article for further troubleshooting steps.
If the iPhone did not turn on, reset it while connected to the iPhone USB power adapter.
If the display turns on, go to step 4.
If the display remains black, go to next step.
Connect the iPhone to a computer and open iTunes. If iTunes recognizes the iPhone and indicates that it is in recovery mode, attempt to restore the iPhone. If the iPhone doesn't appear in iTunes or if you have difficulties in restoring the iPhone, see this article for further assistance.
If restoring the iPhone resolved the issue, go to step 4. If restoring the iPhone did not solve the issue, seek service.

K9N Platinum: CPU upgrade = Random shutdowns..

I just installed a new AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ EE in my MSI K9N Platinum motherboard (MS-7250 v1.0, the 070 model according to the box). I had updated the BIOS to version 1.7 before installing the CPU. Anyhow, I got the CPU installed and it seemed to be running fine. Until I started playing my games. Upon playing fifteen (!!!) minutes of Day of Defeat, the system completely turned off. COMPLETELY. No error messages. I check core temp's log to make sure the CPU wasnt overheating; it wasnt. The max temp was 38C on one of the cores. Just to make sure the CPU wasnt the problem, I ran two instances of prime95 for 5 hours and there were no calculation errors whatsoever. I also ran 3-4 loops of SuperPi, using the 32M test. No errors.
I have come to the conclusion that it must be the motherboard, and possibly it does not like the CPU. Or else it is having the same random shutdown problems as many other K9N Platinum/Ultra boards are experiencing. From what i have read, this issue only relates to boards that are 040, 050, or 060 models. I have a 070 model, and I AM GETTING THIS PROBLEM!!
Help!!!
Full specs:
MSI K9N Platinum MS7250 V1.0, BIOS 1.7, model 070
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ EE (old CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+; had no issues with the 3500+) vcore: 1.225
1 GB OCZ Platinum DDR2-800, 5-5-5-15, 2.1v
eVGA GeForce 7800GT videocard with Zalman VF900, 490/1220
Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 SATA HDD
LITE-ON DVD-ROM drive
Floppy drive
3x 80mm fans, 1 cold cathode
Antec Truepower 430 watt PSU, dual +12v @ 17A a piece.
Any ideas?

well, i know that ACPI has to do with power saving features.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACPI
and HPET also has something to do with CPUs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPET
and MCP55 is the nortbridge.
so i suppose i can conclude that it protects from overvoltage or promotes more power-saving? i dunno i really dont care as long as my PC works now,

Macbook won't detect external display anymore - Random shutdown injury??

Hi,
my Macbook has the dreaded random shutdown thing happening, often it can't even get through the startup sequence. If I reset the PMU and PRAM and check the disk every week I can keep it running. Applecare are making not particularly helpful suggestions like "run it in safe mode" - hello people, random means it can take days to happen again... I use this computer for work so I need it at full capacity every day!!!
Anyway, enough angry ranting. The casualty of today's RS and subsequent PRAM PMU resetting is my external display (Viewsonic LCD). The macbook is no longer sending signals to it (display says "no signal"). When I ask the macbook to "detect displays" nothing happens. I have restarted the macbook several times and unplugged and replugged the display connection it doesn't help. Yes, I have the AC power cable plugged in on the Macbook (I know it doesn't like talking to the screen if I don't).
The display and macbook have always worked fine together in the past...
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to test for causes or fix this display related problem?
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

You don't mention ever having brought the problem to Apple's attention, or what resulted from your request for Apple's help with it. This isn't a universal or widespread problem. It may be a hardware fault in your own equipment that needs to be resolved with a repair, or it may be a software problem (corrupt file, incompatible software conflict, update needed, etc., etc.). You seem to think Apple should have fixed it for you without your lifting a finger, and you're eager to complain about Apple's lack of support. But you've offered nothing to indicate that Apple even knows you need support. You do have to ask for it. Have you done so?
We have no idea what steps you've taken to try to narrow down the possibilities, e.g., making sure the monitor is turned on; trying a different video cable as iVmichael has suggested; testing the monitor with the same cable on a different computer; testing a different monitor with the same cable and then with a diferent cable on your computer; substituting a different cable adapter, if you are using one; applying all applicable system software updates and then Repairing Permissions and Repairing Disk; starting in Safe Mode and seeing whether the monitor is recognized and activated then; seeing whether the monitor is detected in System Profiler; and so on. You may have done some of these things, but you haven't told us about them or about the results.

Random Shutdown - What DOESNT help?

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