iBook randomly shut off, need help!

[vtprinz]

I don't know if this belongs in hardware or software, so feel free to move it to where it shoudl be

Just 10 seconds ago my ibook (800MHz G3, 640MB RAM, just for reference) just randomly shut off while I was talking to someone in Adium. It didn't do the normal shutdown or anything, the screen just immediately went black.

When I booted back up the date/time thing came up saying that my clock was set to a date before (if I remember correctly) March 24th, 2001 and that that may screw up programs (though when I checked the date, it was set correctly). iTunes then opened on it's own (was open when the computer shut down, but it isn't set to open automatically during login).

What's going on?!? This has never happened before on the ibook, but it HAS happened (and does happen) on my 4+ year old Dell. Quite often in fact. Was this just a random error somewhere that shouldn't happen again, or is there a failing piece of hardware somewhere in the computer? I have one of the iBook models with the logic board problems, but it's never caused it to shut down. When the logic board starts going bad it causes other problems, but never this (have already had the logic board replaced twice, always fun)

Any ideas? Should I be worrying?

 

[mkrishnan]

Hmmm...weird. Running on battery or wall power? Check out /libary/logs/panic.log to see if it was a KP, vs some kind of power short or something that happened outside of the processing envt itself....

 

[mad jew]

Sounds like a power source thing - although usually the laptops just go into a deep sleep, awoken only by the sound of plug-into-socket.

Was it plugged in at the time?

 

[vtprinz]

Sorry, should have mentioned that. It was plugged into the wall!

Even if it was running on the battery, when the battery dies it just goes to sleep, doesn't shut off like that.

And how do I get to that panic log? I went to Library/logs and it wasn't there. Tried typing /library/logs/panic.log in the terminal but that didn't work

 

[mad jew]

Do you have a surge protector? Could it have been a power surge? They often completely mess with computers.

 

[vtprinz]

Do you have a surge protector? Could it have been a power surge? They often completely mess with computers.

It's plugged straight into the wall right now. If there was a power surge I'm sure the lights would have flickered or the TV would have messed up or something right? I saw no evidence of a power surge.

 

[mkrishnan]

And how do I get to that panic log? I went to Library/logs and it wasn't there. Tried typing /library/logs/panic.log in the terminal but that didn't work

In terminal, type

cd /library/logs
more panic.log

*IF* you've ever had a KP. Well, this is true for Panther at any rate. If you're using a pre-Panther edition, I'm not 100% sure. You could use a finder window to search for it, or you could use the console utility in utilities.

 

[vtprinz]

In terminal, type

cd /library/logs
more panic.log

*IF* you've ever had a KP. Well, this is true for Panther at any rate. If you're using a pre-Panther edition, I'm not 100% sure. You could use a finder window to search for it, or you could use the console utility in utilities.

Says "no such file"

I'm using panther

 

[mkrishnan]

Says "no such file"

I'm using panther

Well, then I guess it wasn't a kernel panic.

 

[vtprinz]

It just froze up on me!!!

I took out the power cord to take the laptop into my bedroom, and it froze up. The mouse still moved around, but everything else was frozen. I couldn't click on anything, alt+command+esc didn't do anything, I couldn't change the volume/brightness of the display...

I ended up have to hold down the power button until it shut off...


WHAT'S GOING ON!??!!?