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MacBook random shutdown
- Thread starter McBain
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At this point in time, my guess is that replacements wouldn't be guaranteed to not have the RSS issue either, so your best bet really might be to have your machine repaired.isopop said:
Maybe we should do a poll on thatTBi said:They could contrast the PC getting BSOD's and getting infected over and over with viruses with the mac shutting down for no reason.
Then at the end ask
"Which would you choose"
That would be a tough choice, though. I would pick Mac's random shut down over BSOD as the both does the same (shut down the computer). At least, I will be spared the dreaded blue screen.
I just started getting the RSS problem a little while ago. (had it for about 3 1/2 months without the problem). Of course when i first got it i had opened it up to replace the thermal paste with AS5 so woudn't have the warranty to get it fixed.
So.. i decided to open it up again and take a look at the Heatsink components and checked out the thermal sensor. Turns out there was a bit of bare wire showing where all 4 of the wires are "glued" together so i extremely carefully seperated all the 4 wires, then used electrical insulation tape around them all. Of course my being careful wasn't careful enough and i snapped off one of the copper fins from the heatsink where the thermal sensor is attached too *doh*. Got out my trusty superglue, fixed the sensor back on, connected it altogether and booted her up...
Before i was getting the RSS several times an hour if i was viewing youtube or anything remotely intensive. After my DIY job it hasn't happened since, been running 3 days now with no probs.
Putting it back together i did a crap job of reapplying the AS5 so now my temps are a little bit hotter than before, may be tempted to open it up again. If i do i'll get some pics to show my really bad, but successful botch job on the sensors in case anyone else who has already voided their warranties wants to do it.
So.. i decided to open it up again and take a look at the Heatsink components and checked out the thermal sensor. Turns out there was a bit of bare wire showing where all 4 of the wires are "glued" together so i extremely carefully seperated all the 4 wires, then used electrical insulation tape around them all. Of course my being careful wasn't careful enough and i snapped off one of the copper fins from the heatsink where the thermal sensor is attached too *doh*. Got out my trusty superglue, fixed the sensor back on, connected it altogether and booted her up...
Before i was getting the RSS several times an hour if i was viewing youtube or anything remotely intensive. After my DIY job it hasn't happened since, been running 3 days now with no probs.
Putting it back together i did a crap job of reapplying the AS5 so now my temps are a little bit hotter than before, may be tempted to open it up again. If i do i'll get some pics to show my really bad, but successful botch job on the sensors in case anyone else who has already voided their warranties wants to do it.
i took mine apart again after getting shut downs, this time i unhooked the cable and laid it inbetween the fan and the heatsink, i cant be arsed to send it to apple for an official repair so i'll leave it like this untill when/if i ever need to send my macbook into repair for a part that needs replaceing i'll put it back and tell them about both issues.
I had APPLE replace the heatsink. it worked great! no RSS for about...a month?
They just started again yesterday.....
...Now i'm in college and I have no clue where the nearest apple store is.
Also, I dont have the OEM Ram (it's at home) so that complicates sending it in or getting it repaired. I use this thing daily for school though. I'm very, very pissed. I convinced many of my friends to get macbooks, there's a bunch of people at school here that have macbooks. The "MacBook" has been wildly successful as a Switcher's First mac, at least from my personal experience. I see them Everywhere! I just cringe at the thought that the macbook's defect could tarnish apple's reputation (and therefore my stock prices!)
They just started again yesterday.....
...Now i'm in college and I have no clue where the nearest apple store is.
Also, I dont have the OEM Ram (it's at home) so that complicates sending it in or getting it repaired. I use this thing daily for school though. I'm very, very pissed. I convinced many of my friends to get macbooks, there's a bunch of people at school here that have macbooks. The "MacBook" has been wildly successful as a Switcher's First mac, at least from my personal experience. I see them Everywhere! I just cringe at the thought that the macbook's defect could tarnish apple's reputation (and therefore my stock prices!)
Hmmmm. From reading the Apple support forums, it sounded like Apple had a newly redesigned heatsink. I wasn't aware that Apple's had that for a month now.Donz0r said:
TBi said:They could contrast the PC getting BSOD's and getting infected over and over with viruses with the mac shutting down for no reason.
Then at the end ask
"Which would you choose"
After years and years of using PCs, I've never encountered a BSOD nor have I ever gotten a virus. Spyware is a problem on the other hand, one easily remidied with spyware cleaners (which are a pain in the ass)
Still, that's nothing compared to a computer randomly shutting down all the time.
I visited my local Apple store today. I threw in my iMac keyboard for warranty and was about to drop in my Macbook because of RSS and then the service man said:
"Listen. Apple has discovered the reason for RSS and they are figuring out what to do about it. You can leave your machine here now and be without it for three weeks or so OR you can wait a month so that they can get the replacement parts out flowing and then bring your machine here."
"So it's a hardware problem?"
"Yeah, no software fix for this one."
He then commented the German IT-engineer was "close but quite" with his theory about the cause of RSS.
"Listen. Apple has discovered the reason for RSS and they are figuring out what to do about it. You can leave your machine here now and be without it for three weeks or so OR you can wait a month so that they can get the replacement parts out flowing and then bring your machine here."
"So it's a hardware problem?"
"Yeah, no software fix for this one."
He then commented the German IT-engineer was "close but quite" with his theory about the cause of RSS.
The german IT guy being the one suggesting putting the paper spacer (from motherboard mounts) in? if so that doesn't work, been there done that.
What does work is insulating each individual wire from the 2 Sensors connected to the heatsink, and ensuring theres no possible way for any bare contacts making contact with the metal heatsink. I have done this, and it has definately worked.
My Original Macbook did this...
...I called applecare and they walked me through a series of steps... Taking out the 3rd party RAM and HD I'd installed... it kept doing it anyway... they replaced the machine for me...
My new one has worked without a hitch!
Good luck with yours..
-matt
...I called applecare and they walked me through a series of steps... Taking out the 3rd party RAM and HD I'd installed... it kept doing it anyway... they replaced the machine for me...
My new one has worked without a hitch!
Good luck with yours..
-matt
Just checking - are there any other MacBook Pro users experiencing RSS? If so, has anyone experienced it since replacing the battery?
RSS help in Asia?
My girlfriend's white Macbook (Week 19 I think) developed RSS about three weeks ago. Right now it's still fairly intermittent, but no less annoying. We're waiting to see if Apple actually comes up with a fix that we're sure will work before we send it in. My real question is, if we're in Bangkok, Thailand, where is the closest place she can send it to where they can fix it?
Thanks,
Apples in Bangkok
My girlfriend's white Macbook (Week 19 I think) developed RSS about three weeks ago. Right now it's still fairly intermittent, but no less annoying. We're waiting to see if Apple actually comes up with a fix that we're sure will work before we send it in. My real question is, if we're in Bangkok, Thailand, where is the closest place she can send it to where they can fix it?
Thanks,
Apples in Bangkok
Penguinwrangler said:
Was that around the time when the firmware update came to adjust the fan behaviour? If so, then your GFs MB has the same description as mine.
I'd check the Macbook documentation for contacts for technical support. If they don't have retailers anywhere nearby, I'm fairly positive tech.support will arrange a transportation for the mac.
Rovman: Umm, can't remember was there a paperclip involved, it was the theory that the heat sensor cable touched something-or-other when the machine heated up. I disapproved of the theory because my MB does RSS only in the first 10 minutes of use.
i dont mean to start an argument here, but i cant resist asking. why is it that people are so hateful of windows and its crashing errors, and act like macs are on such a higher level, when they can obviously have problems too. sure windows has its fair share, but you also hear more about it because there are simply far more users.
i think OS X is very stable and wonderful to work with, but lets not be blind
anyway, i am glad to hear they are close to a solution to this. it must be so frustrating!
i think OS X is very stable and wonderful to work with, but lets not be blind
anyway, i am glad to hear they are close to a solution to this. it must be so frustrating!
whats the Problem Description people are getting on their EZ return label? Mine says 688 - No Power/No Light but I explained to the lady that it would attempt to turn on, the little light at the bottom would light up for a second, and then shut right back off most of the time sometimes it would get all the way to the desktop and then shut off. Did she enter the right thing into the system since it doesn't say random shutdown in the description? After I got off the phone with them it of course turned on and stayed on for a good while. I really hope they don't recieve it, turn it on and it happens to stay on for a good while and they ship it back.
Hopefully that is just the description they use for random shutdown and it'll be fine.
Hopefully that is just the description they use for random shutdown and it'll be fine.
mperreault said:...I called applecare and they walked me through a series of steps... Taking out the 3rd party RAM and HD I'd installed... it kept doing it anyway... they replaced the machine for me...
My new one has worked without a hitch!
Good luck with yours..
-matt
They just replaced the machine? How did you manage that? How long ago was that? Maybe it was a while ago and they wanted to disect your machine to try and figure out what the problem was? What country are you in?
I wish they would just replace my machine I really don't like having a hard drive that had its power cut off so many times like that.
macbook in for repair
I brought in my week 22 macbook to the Apple Store here in Santa Clara, CA with a few articles/forums stating the problems. I mentioned to the macGenius that after some careful research and testing that I fallen victim to the random shutdown syndrome. Immediately, he said...
genius: Okay, we'll have to send this out for repair and should take 7-10 days.
me: So you've had a number of Macbook owners that have taken their computer in for the same problem? any success stories of the ones that were returned back to them repaired?
genius: Yes, I've had several bring it in for the past few weeks and still haven't received any of those repaired macbooks as of yet.
me: do you have any info on what they'll be replacing/repairing?
genius: they will replace the logic board.
me: i've read that replacing the logic board will not do me any good, but maybe something in relation to the heatsink should solve the problem.
genius: yeah, they place some tape to something of that degree if it is heat related.
Well, I'm guessing if other macbook users who have sent in their computers for repair due to RSS have been delayed. Probably due to a shortage (caused by a large percentage of those affected by RSS) or maybe even waiting for the shipment of parts that play a role in repairing the macbooks.
I hope to get my computer back in a weeks time, but I doubt it.
I brought in my week 22 macbook to the Apple Store here in Santa Clara, CA with a few articles/forums stating the problems. I mentioned to the macGenius that after some careful research and testing that I fallen victim to the random shutdown syndrome. Immediately, he said...
genius: Okay, we'll have to send this out for repair and should take 7-10 days.
me: So you've had a number of Macbook owners that have taken their computer in for the same problem? any success stories of the ones that were returned back to them repaired?
genius: Yes, I've had several bring it in for the past few weeks and still haven't received any of those repaired macbooks as of yet.
me: do you have any info on what they'll be replacing/repairing?
genius: they will replace the logic board.
me: i've read that replacing the logic board will not do me any good, but maybe something in relation to the heatsink should solve the problem.
genius: yeah, they place some tape to something of that degree if it is heat related.
Well, I'm guessing if other macbook users who have sent in their computers for repair due to RSS have been delayed. Probably due to a shortage (caused by a large percentage of those affected by RSS) or maybe even waiting for the shipment of parts that play a role in repairing the macbooks.
I hope to get my computer back in a weeks time, but I doubt it.
~160 Apple stores x ~5 Genuises per store (a guess) = ~800 Geniusescookedwords said:
How hard is it for Apple to get them all on the same page?
I had the same conversation today, but the Genius at my store said that they'd replace JUST the heatsink.