Random shutdown from Australia!
My macbook was purchased in Australia in Sept 2007. In January 2008 it began randomly shutting down. No reason at all. I don’t think I’ve actually turned it off myself in a month. Leave it for long enough and it will do it itself. Sometimes it will turn off after 10 mins of use, other times it will go for a few hours. I took it back to the place I purchased it from, and still being under warranty, they confirmed the problem and replaced the logic board. Got it back and after one day it continued it’s usual habit of shutting down all the time.
So now it is back getting fixed. I have no faith that it will be. I’m sure that they will replace something else in the hope this will do something. Assuming that it wont I have written emails demanding a replacement for the whole machine. I will let you know if I am successful. Otherwise I will join the the long line of macbook owners who have purchased a very expensive paperweight.
Wish me luck, and also wish me luck as I attempt to write a thesis without a functioning computer, which is the purpose for which I bought it in the first place. If I fail university this year we can all thank Apple for ending my academic career. You know what… Bill Gates ain’t lookin so bad right now…
March 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I believe Apple’s “magic number” is 4 — as in, if you have the same (major) repair done 3 times, and the problem persists, then they will give you a new machine. This worked for me; I had a bad logic board on an iBook G3 replaced 3 times, and the fourth time, they gave me a shiny new iBook G4.
This is partially in their interest, I believe– a logic board is an expensive thing for them to keeping cycling through on your machine. Good luck! You may not be successful about a new machine until the 4th repair, however…
March 12th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I just recently had this problem on my macbook pro and believe it or not it is actually a virus causing this to happen. My advice or this is at least what worked for me is to get a program called virus barrier or at least the trial version and scan for viruses. After i did this it found a file called run.sh or something like that and it found a virus imbedded in this file. I recommend deleting it because after i did so all my problems disappeared.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
A virus on on mac!? Not good. And is possible, I wonder if apple techs check for viruses? But here’s what’s happening with my macbook. It has been diagnosed with RSS. Though the tech was very reluctant to call it that. He explained that the heatsink was faulty and causing the logicboard to overheat and switch itself off. And thus I will be getting a new heatsink. I asked him had this not been an issue with 2006 macs and thus been solved. He agreed. And he agreed that my Oct 2007 mac was showing symptoms. So yeh. RSS back?
Who knows, and who knows if a new heatsink will fix what’s happening to my mac. He did assure me a new mac would be coming my way in the event that the new heatsink doesn’t make a difference.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Well I am on to my third logic board and now have a new heatsink AND they replaced the outer casing (perhaps they damaged the old one?). And guess what. After 24 hrs it RSSed again. I have followed Grayson’s advise and used virus barrier to scan for viruses but my macbook has turned up clean. This means back to the service centre tomorrow. I really hope I get a new one soon cause I have a lot of homework that needs to be done and writing with pen and paper is getting frustrating.
October 28th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
People should read this.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:06 am
I know this is a totally belated update but I’ve been busy writing my thesis this past few months and it slipped my mind to let you all know the outcome of my faulty macbook. After the third logic board failed to fix the problem I was told that a replacement was in order. I had to call Apple myself and when I told them that the reseller had said I was to get a new macbook, they were very upset. They called the reseller, then called me back within 5 mins and said my new macbook would arrive within the week. I have no idea what the reseller said to them, but it worked and I was awarded a brand new macbook!! So it’s now October and I have handed in my thesis!! No problems with RSS on the new computer as yet. However the outer casing is starting to crack around the rear air vent… and its only a few months old. And I’m now out of warranty.. DAMN them! Hopefully they will fix this for free thought, since they have admitted their outer casing is hopelessly flawed. Probably why they’re switching to aluminium?
March 17th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Bought macbook may 2007
Rss logic board replaced Jan 2008
Rss returned Feb 2008
Handed it in to Nextbyte and got it back 2 weeks later with new topcase complements of Apple
Turned it on RSS almost immediately
Returned it again. 2 days later and they could not isolate the problem and suggested i pay for a logic board replacement to sort out the problem.
Got it going by taking out the battery and running it on the power pack only. No RSS issues but its running slow. Turns out it is a PMU failure.
I now have a macbook that is a slow desk top with limited wireless range.
Thanks apple always wanted a desktop with a 13.3″ screen and a new topcase.