Macbook Random Shutdown

Here’s my story…

I bought my black MacBook about one month ago, despite of fact the memory provided with the MacBook is not even close to enough, all was well and I was enjoying the use of it. Last Saturday, trouble began after about three weeks of use. When working on one of our projects, it just died on me.

Before we bought a series of MacBooks, I did my research and I was (and am) familiar with the known issues of the MacBooks. During the purchase of the MacBooks me and my colleague checked the MacBooks using the tool available on this site. Furthermore, we checked the serial number which indicated the MacBooks were produced about a half year after the first production cycle. I even asked the sales person if she could open up the MacBooks so I could check if they had the new heatsink, but unfortenately she didn’t agree. Anyway, all of this made me confident enough about the purchase and we went ahead.

After the first shut down, it wouldn’t come back on for about one day and I was having serious doubts about the heatsink being the issue here (I was always paying attention to heat and tried to keep the temp down as much as possible). So I opened it up to have a closer look at the heatsing and the potential problem. I took a close look at the heatsink and the cabeling next to and there was nothing wrong. The two wires were not melted together, and the heatsink was still looking brand new and not showing any kind of discolouration.

I closed the MacBook and decided to ship it back to Bangkok to have it fixed. I came back into the office around midnight to get my stuff and decided to give it one more try and it turned on! Happy but scared for more issues I started using it again…

Right now the only times I am having problems is when it has been of for while of when it has been sleeping for a while; it won’t wake up but instead it displays the error message or just turns of. All of this makes me seriously doubt if the heating is the problem here, I am constant monitoring the temperature and adjusting the fan speed if needed, but it never gives any problems when the temp is going up, only when the temp is going down (after being turned of or sleeping for a while).

cheers,

Mattijs Naus

It started the weekend of October 14th 2006. My MacBook (1.8Ghz, white) was four months old. I turned it off for the first time since… mid September, I think. I used to proclaim how I loved that my computer could last a month or longer, charged up every few days, without being switched off, and wouldn’t crash! I wouldn’t dream of it now.

It was when I tried to change the IP address to suit my partner’s connection. As soon as I clicked in the box to change it, the machine shut off, much to my shock. I switched it on again, and within five seconds, it has turned itself off again.
It repeated, over and over, and after ten minutes I gave up and left it. Half an hour later, impatient for internet access, I tried again. It switched on! Yay!

My luck and happiness was short lived. As soon as I loaded up the internet connection settings again, it switched off again. Sigh.
I gave up and used my partner’s machine, and when I returned home from the weekend, I connected it to AC power, and switched it on again. The same thing happened! I was mighty confused now, but with another computer connected to the internet, not too bothered.

Strangely, the problem seemed to fix itself over coming weeks, and a few days after I returned home, the computer switched itself on of it’s own accord.
Then, two weeks ago, it started all over again. Maddeningly enough, on the day I had to hand in a university assignment, that was located on my MacBook. Infact, it died just as I was about to transfer it to my iDisk.

I called AppleCare and spoke to an infuriating middle Eastern chap who was just as infuriated by me demanding he repeat himself over and over, as I was that Apple had put somebody on customer support who can’t speak English clearly.
I then spoke to IT support at my university, a much friendlier person, who understood everything I was saying and vice versa. As luck would have it, he was going into the local Apple retailer (which I had no method of getting to, being a lowly student with no more than a buspass and a pair of legs - I note here that the ‘local’ retailer is 15 miles away) with an Apple Cinema Screen that he needed repairing, and as the computer is under warranty still, he very generously offered to take it in for repair.
A few days later, the store (Gordon Harwood Computers of Alfreton, UK) called me to request my password so that they could install the latest version of the OS, and informed me that they had also replaced the casing of my poor computer - the casing beign a heat resistant plastic which yellows after long exposures to sunlight. Had I known this before taking it to Spain for three weeks in July…….

Just waiting on the return of the computer now. Let’s hope it’s in good working order again…

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Cheers!
Matthew

It appears the full line of Macbooks will have the new Core 2 Duo after a recent announcement from Apple - question is will they retain our beloved friend “RSS” or has it been completely addressed and fixed?

Cheers!
Matthew

One day, my Macbook turned black on me. Oh yes, random shut-downs. Even the name sucks. I called the mac-support immediately, and asked what I could do?! It took me three calls to apple, before they finnally understood - yeah, the mac has to be sent in for repair. And to top it of, the support telephone was hosted by some foreigners. Talking swedish! Anyways, a quick search on the net gave me more on the issue, and told me that I had to send my computer in to repair at InfoCare. “okay enough” I thought….. but what did I know? I logged onto the Norwegian mac forums, and found a post called “InfoCare destroyed my MacBook”. Whats this? It turns out that the company has han habit of returning Macs with hebrew keyboards, marks that looks like someone has dragged your computer over spikes several times - and that the screen and plastic has cracks. Others couldnt even start their Macs when it came back.

1/5 people experienced this. And I had no way out of this. It was a bit like sending my baby to an evil dentist, when I saw the package roll away from me at the post office. Its the sort of thing you really dont want to, but you cant avoid it. It has to be done. A week has gone since I said goodbye, and today I begun to wonder how my MacBook was feeling. I called InfoCare, but they had the following to tell me “no.. we haven’t recieved your mac!” Oh man, I got scared. I thought that this was the top of the iceberg, my Macbook had dissapeared somewhere in the country. But a quick search on the postal office’s homepage told me that my mac had arrived at InfoCare TODAY. alas, it took my mac a week to do a travel that normally takes 2 hours with a plane.

Well. Lets see how this goes! Ill keep you updated on how my MacBook comes back. If it has been tortured by the evil repairman, or if it’s in tip-top shape. I cross my fingers. And stare ugly at Apple. Shame on you- production error!!!

Since we seem to have a little quiet period with folks getting some relief with their RSS issues, I wanted to bring something up that has been a pet peeve of mine since I got the macbook. It’s probably just a config issue, but I have tried every which way this side of Texas to get the internal speakers to play at a volume that can be heard over any background noise.

I was reading a story about setting the headphone volume level on the Intel based Macs today and it reminded me how bad this pet peeve of mine annoys me. Anyone else have the issue where you can barely hear a DVD or song from iTunes out of your Macbook?

Hi all!

First of all, my RSS was propertly repared in the support-center in only one week, in Leon, Spain, so +1 point to apple, :). They changed the heatsink.

But, now I’m sad again with my new macbook. This week i have been testing my machine, and i have discovered the next:

1-When the battery is unplugged, the cpu frequency is ALWAYS at 1Ghz, independently of the system load. I use to unplug the battery when i’m at home for several days, so this sucks.

2- When the system is iddle, the cpu frequency NEVER down to 1Ghz, it’s always at 1.5Ghz, and rarely down to 1.33Ghz. This reduce the battery autonomy.

And THIS ISN’T NORMAL. In windows & linux it runs fine. So, has macosX a poor cpu frequency-scaling implementation?? or is only my macbook?? If the first, i hope apple fix this soon.

PD: I did the test’s with Menu Temperature (it’s free). CoreduoTemp shows the frequency incorretly under 10.4.8.

Well, it’s been a few days, actually just over a week since the Apple Firmware ‘fix’ for RSS was released. What is the general consensus on the Firmware patch? I would like for everyone to post their experience with the ‘fix’ from Apple by commenting on this post. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Cheers!
Matthew

I have a week 31 Macbook that started exhibiting mild RSS symptoms about six weeks ago. After reading that others were originally receiving unsatisfactory results from Apple’s repair attempts, I decided that I would stick it out for awhile and see what developed. For me, avoiding the problem was as simple as never letting the computer go cold. So my MacBook was plugged in and ran constantly, with the occasional reboot after updating software.

I installed the SMC firmware update that was released last week in an attempt by Apple to address the problem without having to replace the heatsink. However, since installation, I’ve noticed a curious phenomenon that works in the opposite direction of the original problem.

When the lid is not closed and my computer is off, my MacBook now boots itself when the power cable is attached to the computer and I plug the cable into an outlet. To the best of my knowledge this never happened prior to the firmware update.

Granted, this problem is probably better than the alternative, but still not acceptable given what one pays for a MacBook. I plan on contacting AppleCare US later today to inquire but would be curious to know if others have had similar experiences with their MacBooks post-firmware update.