Not so random.
I bought my black Macbook in June ‘06. I added 2GB of Patriot memory and a larger disk the day after I got it from Amazon. The click-offs started at the beginning of August and I took it into my local Apple store a couple weeks later. Got it back about 3 weeks ago and it started again about a week ago. The first time I took it in, I just said “shuts down randomly” to the Genius and he said they would need to send it in for a new logic board (before Apple acknowledged the issue). Performed no diagnostics whatsoever. I was there 5 minutes (not counting the 20 minutes I waited past my appointment time). I got it back a week later with just a new logic board, according to the work confirmation. Everything was fine until a week ago. Click. Same exact problem.
The system will shut-off without fail when resuming from sleeping for a few hours. It usually happens 2-5 minutes after resuming. So it’s not that random for me.
I took it in again on Tuesday and a different Genius actually did some diagnostics this time. He opened the case to check the memory. He looked as if this problem was completely new to him (maybe he was new). He said the RAM looked like it wasn’t in all the way and took it out to inspect it. I told him that I added the memory myself, and he said that it could be the problem and that the repair center might not attempt a fix with 3rd party RAM. He gave me the option of sending it in with that risk (even though it wasn’t an issue the first time) or taking it home and running it for a few days with the original RAM installed. So even though I had read online that the memory didn’t matter, I agreed that it might be best to eliminate that possiblity than to go without my mac for a few days just to get it back and have the same problem. He made a record of everything he did and gave me a reference number. And that was that. After putting the original 512 MB of Apple (Iwill) memory back in yesterday, nothing has changed. The same exact symptoms.
I’m hesitating to take it back in because there might not be a fix yet. But 512 MB of memory is killing me (in addition to the RSS). Should I request that they replace the heat sink this time?
