Thanks to one of our readers ‘Eric’, I wanted to pass on the “apple’s “learning curve” for applying heat sink compound” – very interesting links – this was buried in a comment on the site so I wanted to make sure everyone could see it… Thanks Eric!
-Matthew
I know we’re all either depressed or frustrated or both with this whole random shutdown issue. I thought I’d bring a bit of light relief to all of us…
Remember when Apple introduced the shuffle:
Well it looks like the MacBook has also joined in.
This banner is not an advocation against Apple in any way but rather an attempt at keeping MacBook owners smiling through the bad times.
ash
::: Update on my first post :::
August 28th
This morning I talked to the technician who tested my computer, he said they had it running up for 5 or 6 days and it always worked fine, so they couldn’t do anything and they sent it back to the store. The guy from the lab also said they heard from Apple that installing the last firmware update would definitely solve the random shutdown problem. I called the store and was told that it wasn’t there, I called the lab and they said the same. I was told that someone from the lab might have forgotten it in his car, so apparently my computer is stuck in someone’s car. I waited to hear back from the store about when to get the “unrepaired” machine back, nobody called. So, I called the store and asked if they could find my computer. They couldn’t find it and said they were contacting their “private courier”, “someone’s car” became “our private courier”. Good!
August 29th
Today my MacBook came in, just back from the repair centre. I went in and I asked to test it out just to be sure it worked properly, but a few seconds after they turned it on… it shut down! The guy was embarrassed and tried replacing RAM, it kept shutting off. He told me he was sorry but he couldn’t do other than sending it back to the lab to get fixed again. I said no, because it had just come back from the lab (and clearly wasn’t fixed). I asked for a new unit and he said he couldn’t give me one, so I asked for a refund and he couldn’t do that either. We argued for two hours before he finally said I could have it replaced with a new model, and I got an iBook until it comes in. It took two hours to convince them of all of this.
A funny note, while I was there a guy at the store in line behind me said that his MacBook was shutting off by itself too, and that he had other problems like the ones reported at the Apple discussion forums (vertical lines at boot up, discoloration of the plastic around the keyboard, etc).
p.s.: the iBook just crashed in the middle of an Apple software update.
So a few weeks ago I started experiencing random shutdowns on my white 2ghz Core Duo MacBook. Last night when researching the problem, I realized all the occurrences happened while using Quicktime in some way. Thinking back, I realized the shutdowns happened twice when trying to watch a trailer from apple.com in Quicktime, and once when viewing a embedded .wmv on a webpage using the Quicktime plug-in and Flip4Mac. Upon coming to this epiphany, I booted up my MacBook and opened Quicktime, I clicked a link to view a trailer, which then opened up in an embedded player inside of iTunes (which I’m assuming is powered by Quicktime). Part way through the trailer, just like with the other videos, my MacBook completely shut off. For those who haven’t experienced this, it’s like a TV when the power goes out — everything is normal, full-speed, etc…. and then all of the sudden BOOM, it all goes black.
So I’m wondering, has anyone else had this problem seemingly ONLY when running Quicktime? I’m figuring it’s not just a problem with a Quicktime update, seeing how I think others would have made the correlation by now, but I could be wrong. Also, is anyone experiencing this problem with any other specific apps? Maybe if a short list of apps that people believe are triggering shutdowns was compiled, someone more knowledgeable than myself could figure out how they’re related and find the real problem. Please comment if you have any particular program that seems to be triggering shutdowns.
EDIT: Wow, I could have sworn I pasted the spell-checked copy in, sorry about that.
Ugh! My RS started a week ago and after about 3 days of no probs, the shutdowns have returned, with 5 today. I’m in Thailand and I’m hesitant to have anything done on my macbook until a REAL fix is released. I’ll be in the States for a visit next month and I’m thinking about sending it in then, so I can hopefully bring it back to Thailand repaired…I’m verrrry skeptical at this point though after reading so many posts about failed repairs. I feel like I’m typing on a landmine. My first mac. lame.
My experiences thus far are located right here on my blog. It’s the classic shutdown experience with a new twist: re-seating the RAM seems to have knocked out the whole machine. I sent it off today for repairs.
It looks like Apple has released a few new commercials to the world in the ever so popular Mac v. PC battle. Now what would be funny if they did a reverse spoof with all the Macbook Random Shutdown hoopla going on – that would be hilarious. Read more >>
My week 20 (May) black 2.0 Ghz MacBook from factory 4H (China) has the random shutdown problem too. It does this even when plugged into the wall, not just on battery, so I do not believe this is a battery-related problem. Rather, I believe the entire motherboard or “logic board” must be faulty. I’m busy this week, but plan to take it in to the local Apple Store next week. I don’t want a new MacBook because I want this hard drive! I spent too much time getting everything set up how I wanted it: Triple-Boot.
Hi everyone, first off, THANKS to everyone for all the information that is flying around about all these Macbook problems. I am glad to see that I am not alone (well to be honest I wish that no one had any issues). At any rate, I think we have started some great threads about what’s going on with all the random macbook shutdowns. So kudos to everyone for their input. If you have a story you want to share, just register and let everyone know your story.
I just rolled a new theme to the site as well – I cleaned up the header image and made the main posts all in the left part of the site – I hope you all like it – again thanks to everyone for all their comments/feedback and stories.
We are going to start a massive blogroll so if you are interested in getting in on it, just comment the following on this thread:
Name:
Your Site:
Category: (be creative)
Site Description:
I will collect sites for inclusion until 10/1 – please be sure to spread the love back to Macbook Random Shutdown with a link if you wish 
Let’s keep those MacBooks running! Ours is solid now for almost 1 week since our Heat Sink fix!
-Matthew
My machine was bought at the Orlando, FL, Apple Store on June 14th, and is a Week 22 machine made in China. Sometime in late July it started to shutdown by itself, as a lot of people know by now, but the interesting thing is that it only shuts down when I first power it up in the morning. It boots normally, and after a couple of minutes it simply dies. After that initial shutdown it works normally for the rest of the day without any glitches. I’m down in Brazil, and while I’ve read reports of people having their machines fixed at local Apple Centers, I’ve decided to wait either until Apple acknowledges the problem and has a reliable fix or no more new machines suffer from the shutdown. So far, I’ve read a few reports from people who had their logic boards replaced only to have the shutdowns again after a little while.
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