i1sam Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 My macbook is half dead because of these, i am one of the unlucky 20% macbook owner who suffers from this issues.... i took this link for reading pleassure...credit goes to the "guykuo" http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?t...=0&tstart=0 guykuo Posts: 22 From: seattle Registered: Jul 19, 2006 Do a google search for "macbook random shutdown" and you'll find many people with similar problems reporting on various forums. At present, this issue has not been picked up by the mainstream PC news media. However, one should also note that only a fraction of those with problems are suffering this particular fault. A large number of other reasons must be ruled out before a MacBook owner should become convinced their machine is one which suffers this problem. Bad RAM, poorly seated RAM, improperly installed hard drive, corrupted OS, corrupted plists, bad batteries, bad chargers, corrupted PMU, and corrupted NVRAM all need to be ruled out first! My own MacBook suffered the random sudden shutdown malady and eventually required complete replacement after a logic board replacement did not solve the issue. Some of the MacBooks appear to have a hardware problem which surfaces after a period of use. Many reported their problems starting after a month of ownership. Coincidentally, that also coincided with the release of 10.4.7, but most likely that is not at the root of the sudden, random, shutdown problem. (However, 10.4.7 is strongly implicated in a separate MacBook problem - colored vertical lines during boot on some machines. That is probably a separate issue.) Description of the Random, Sudden Shutdown Problem MacBook suddenly shuts off to a completely powered down state seemingly at random. There are no kernel panic, mouse freezing, or other premonitory symptoms. The machine simply powers down suddenly. The screen goes black. The hard drive spins down and no sleep light illuminates. The machine simply turns itself off. The shutdowns may occur on either battery or with AC adapter attached. Some owners report their MacBook is less prone to sudden shut down while on battery vs AC adapter. My own afflicted MacBook would suddenly shutdown on a fully charged battery or on either of two AC adapters. The shutdowns occur with either 10.4.6 or 10.4.7 OS loaded. I went through several cycles of clean installs of the base 10.4.6 and the Intel Combo update to 10.4.7 before it became clear that it mattered not which OS was running. Another indicator that this is not an OS issue is that sudden shutdowns can occur in target mode and also when running just the Apple Hardware Test - which relies on minimal software to operate. The shutdowns tend to grow more frequent once they begin. They may worsen to the point that a machine will not complete boot up before shutting down. It may take several power up presses to start the machine. Oddly enough, a machine that had difficulty starting up, may be easy to start up several minutes later. It may run for hours or minutes before another sudden shutdown. The frequency is low and random enough that is very difficult to demonstrate this fault to a service technician. Some users are able to induce a sudden shutdown by running their CPU's at high load and thus heating up the machine. This is easily done by running the yes command in two Terminal windows. Some users report their MacBook is more prone to sudden shutdowns when their CPU is relatively cool. The bipolar reporting is confusing. There may be more than one type of sudden shutdown being reported. One due to CPU overheating and another due to another hardware problem which has yet to be elucidated. Resetting of the PMU and PRAM MAY temporarily reduce the frequency of the sudden shutdowns, but the effect is temporary. Indeed, the effect may not even be real given the randomness of the shutdowns. None-the-less, one must perform PMU and PRAM resets to ensure that some corruption of those devices is not creating a reason for shutdowns. On my own MacBook, resetting PMU and PRAM (four chimes) did not prevent the random sudden shutdowns. The sudden shutdowns occur with well seated stock RAM, replacement RAM, and reseated/replaced hard drives. Swapping out and testing both RAM and hard drive helps to eliminate those as the source of the problem. In my case, a logic board replacement did indeed solve the fault, but several days later, sudden shutdowns began again. Presumably either the replacement board has the same weakness as the original or some other component of the machine was the actual reason for the sudden shutdowns. The former is quite likely because the machine was made stable for several days with a new logic board. At that point, I requested to be swapped to a new machine and the Apple Store manager wisely decided to help out his customer. For that I am most grateful. However, it is unlikely that the majority of people will have their machines swapped out, but instead repaired. At this time, no official statement regarding cause for or acknowledgment of the MacBook's sudden random shutdown problem has been made. Because the underlying cause has not been revealed, it is impossible to know that a logic board replacement will permanently solve the problem or merely result in the same fault recurring later on the replacement board. Of course, we do not know if it actually is a logic board flaw. Note: If your MacBook has become so "narcoleptic" that it cannot even complete a boot up sequence, try holding the power button down until you hear a loud beep. That may allow an otherwise balky machine to start. Once you have done the above, and are still seeing random sudden shutdowns, you have largely done the preliminary footwork that you'll need to prove whether your MacBook has this particular problem and not something more common. Then, call AppleCare or visit your Apple Genius to have the machine repaired or replaced. Hopefully, the root cause of this problem will be discovered, disclosed, repaired and prevented. For now, it appears only a fraction of the MacBooks are suffering this fault, but the machine population is still young. Overall, the MacBook is perhaps the finest laptop I've bought from Apple. It will be nice to trust the machine to not lose my work. BTW - resetting PMU may induce a separate 10.4.7 related bug which results in your MacBook exhibiting a white screen with progressively more numerous vertical color lines during startup. This appears to be fixable by resetting PRAM and then temporarily changing display resolution to something other than the current setting and then back. macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willgonz Posted August 18, 2006 Share Posted August 18, 2006 Hopefully the new SMC patch that went out will fix the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i1sam Posted August 19, 2006 Author Share Posted August 19, 2006 Hopefully the new SMC patch that went out will fix the problem. No... it did not fix the random shutdown issue... in my case it worsen when i applied the new smc for macbook the random shutdown... it becomes more and more frequent and at random... no signal.. hang up or kernel pacnic what so ever... it just shutdown... they say... we are the unlucky few who has this issue.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menno Posted August 19, 2006 Share Posted August 19, 2006 Interesting thread, nice post. I had my macbook 2ghz for like 3 weeks, then the horror began. Random shutdowns when I was working. First I thought my battery was the issue, I went to the apple store and replaced my battery. Well I turned on the machine and it booted for like 5 seconds and baf again a shutdown. At this time I was getting a little bit pissed of. Well again to the apple centre the so called "Apple Genius" said it was certainly the RAM. Well I got new ram went back to home. Everything looked fine, but then after 30 minuts it turned off again. When I turned it back on there was the so called "Color stripe problem". Well I had it never before so I certainly think the problem might not be 100% software. Well with the colors still on the screen I went back to the apple store. Well the apple genius said they'll replace the logic board, but I refered to the apple discussion thread and demanded a new one. He said he couldn't do that, I had to wait for the logic board. Well 2 weeks for now and still no macbook and when it's comming back. *sigh* I think have to go again for a trip to the apple centre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i1sam Posted August 19, 2006 Author Share Posted August 19, 2006 Lucky for you Menno you are near an apple center.... me... i am $200 away.... so i have send via courier, hope it will not take 2 week on our(philippines) apple center to fixed my macbook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menno Posted August 19, 2006 Share Posted August 19, 2006 I live in a very crowded country (Netherlands). 30 Mins driving and you can reach like 4 apple centers in the neighboorhood, but all these centers shouldn't be called apple centers. They know {censored}, just to tell how beautifull the color white is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i1sam Posted August 19, 2006 Author Share Posted August 19, 2006 he he... and lucky for us here... we still have our iMac (InsanelyMac) as a backup and more reliable now compare to my real macbook.... what an irony when i come to think of it... hope your unit will be fine soon..Menno.. mine... i am still keeping my finger cross and have no idea... what all those genius will change... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted August 19, 2006 Share Posted August 19, 2006 That's odd. My MacBook had every current MacBook problem except for this one. Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i1sam Posted August 19, 2006 Author Share Posted August 19, 2006 Althought this is only affecting the few of us unlucky macbook users , but its continuing to grow... look here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LU8chsw1Rk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menno Posted August 30, 2006 Share Posted August 30, 2006 Well, I got my macbook back. The engineer said they tested it whole day long *sigh*. Well back home everything seems okay. Until I was listening a song today, my left speaker was blown up / very low sound. It got replaced with a logic board with a broken speaker. Getting tired now, I got also some weird power-on situation where the screen gets all black and the system starts op but no display. Thinking of getting a sony vaio or something. Last trip to the centre is tommorow, I will demand a replacement because I really need it for school right now. Can't be without with these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Let us know what happens, Menno. I hope you get everything fixed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munky Posted September 3, 2006 Share Posted September 3, 2006 My new macbook (1.83Ghz, third-party 2x 1Gb RAM and 120Gb Seagate HDD) suffered this problem the first couple of times I tried the 'yes > /dev/null' trick to push the CPU to 100%. I phoned Apple and arranged for an RMA, for which they will give me a full refund (as I phoned within 14 days of receipt). HOWEVER, in the meantime I can no longer get it to do its random shutdown trick. I have noticed something else though. As I write, i've had both CPU cores running at 100% for about an hour. CoreDuoTemp is reporting the CPU temperature is 25 degrees C - this hasnt changed during the entire hour. Can anyone please confirm this is clearly incorrect? I've heard of operating temps for the Core Duo as high as 90 degrees C... surely 100% usage on both cores for an hour would result in higher than 25 degrees... right? My theory is that the thermal sensors are malfunctioning on this and other MacBooks. Sometimes they report the temperature as much higher than it is, triggering the Intel CPU's emergency shutdown mode (instant black screen - or 'sudden shutdown'), and other times it is reporting the temperature far too low. (ie 25 degrees C after an hour at full CPU usage). Any thoughts on this theory? I mean, I guess CoreDuoTemp could be reading the temps wrong (which would explain why my fans are running at high speed despite the reported temps of 25 degrees). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimmalo Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 Hi all, I'm new here and planning to buy a Macbook, so be gentle . I've found this http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060821101232169 It seems to work, and the fix is reported in Apple discussion forums too. Pay attetion: it's hazardous and may result in voided warranty. Hope this could be helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 Welcome, dimmalo. Do you have a link to the Apple discussion forums thread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimmalo Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 Thank you, Mash. I often read Apple discussion before buying any Apple hardware (...well, i'm not completely sure if it's the right way to be confident on future purchasing, because you'll mostly find people with issues ) Anyway, I recently read this thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?t...71&tstart=0 and http://www.macnews.de/news/79194. Hopefully these links may be interesting for Apple Geniuses and people who dare to manually fix the Macbook. (sorry for poor english) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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