mid-2014 MacBook Pro now has freezing/abrupt shut down issues

[Rizvi1]

My 15" mid-2014 MacBook Pro has been working well since I bought it new 5+ years ago. But in the past couple months, it's now started abruptly freezing, and then shutting down after a few moments, or just shutting down without the freeze. The trigger seems to be some sort of graphically intense process like having a bunch of web pages open and kicking on a video, or video editing. Usually this will all be accompanied by the fans kicked to high gear. If I just do simple stuff it'll be fine. It also seems like it's worse when it's on battery vs when I have a power adapter connected.

I know it's not an OS or Data issue because I have two partitions, both running two different OSes, one Mojave and the other High Sierra and the problem happens on both.

I've done the SMC reset and the NVRAM (or PRAM) reset. No help.

I came across this vid Fix Thermal Throttling on Your Mac?! by Snazzy Labs where he discussed using thermal paste as a way to boost performance, but didn't mention as a way to stop what seems to be some sort of overheating issue. I asked as a comment on this and Snazzy Labs responded:

"Might be a bad GPU. If you’re able/willing, install Windows and then HW Monitor to get real GPU temps and you can be sure it’s just throttling before you open it and replace everything to no resolve if it’s a faulty board."

The computer otherwise is working fine and I Really don't want to replace if I don't have to. But assuming it's a faulty board, what kind of cost would I be looking at? And how does hard drive, RAM, etc all work? Are they all attached to the board?

 

[Rizvi1]

I posted this in question in the apple support forum as well and got a reply telling it seems like it could be battery and then there were some suggestions. The person said to check the battery health
since power issues can affect system performance and even throttle the CPU.

The original battery was changed in May 2018. It was this Temark battery from Amazon (Amazon's choice) that I purchased. As I mentioned earlier, a big note about the freezing/shutting down issue is that this does happen on both the Power Adapter AND the battery. But it does seem to happen on the battery more. So I'm not sure that this means this could be a battery issue.

That's said, there's another issue which I think is unrelated where which will occasionally occur where the computer shuts down and when I try to turn it on, it tells me to put the computer on the charger and when I do, it show there's plenty of battery life left. It coincidentally happened again today after I ran the diagnostic and was going to be put into safe mode to send the results to Apple). Here's a 30 second video of this problem in action: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BC3qToyhaJtyHGmn8

While that Apple Diagnostic report I just mentioned says the battery needs to be replaced soon ( https://photos.app.goo.gl/nv9pgC7V4JpgQ3pVA ), when I look at the System Information, it does say the battery is normal ( https://photos.app.goo.gl/9oC271SUwqtYn7Hd8 ). Regardless, I've sent a message to Temark via Amazon on this.

I did also download and run EtreCheck and saw that there were no Major problems found, but minor issues included unsigned files, system modifications, heavy I/O usage, 32-bit apps, and limited drive access. The person who replied suggested Etrecheck in case the same bad app on both partitions was causing the problem, but again, it would be a pretty big coincidence for BOTH partitions to have the same bad app(s) causing the freezing/shut downs, especially since one partition just has a purpose to see if I can run the next OS properly before I commit the main partition to it.

I've attached results of the etrecheck for anyone who can interpret it.

 

[nickandre21]

I noticed the same when my original battery's health had declined, would happen on power outlet as well as the battery. It does look like your capacity has gone down, while it will still show normal. For me few months prior it started randomly showing check battery error as well as the same error in diagnostics, some days the error would just vanish and show normal, kept using it till it got puffed up.
I think temark batteries are rated for 500 load cycles at the least try checking with warranty if you do have. Download coconut battery to check the battery health stats. Does console have any crash logs?
if the fans and heatsink have not been cleaned in a while cleaning them should help

 

[Rizvi1]

Just wanted to give an update on this. Unfortunately, post battery replacement, I’m still having this issue.

Here’s a quick summary on what’s occurred over the past few months:


I posted both here in macrumors and in this post apple discussion board. There was someone there who was very responsive and gave some good guidance. I took the Mac to the Apple Store and they were going to do the battery replacement for $199 which I thought was fine. They also said they would look into other possible issues for the problem.

But then right after dropping it off they called me up and said since the battery had already been changed by someone who wasn't them, they couldn't do anything with it. They said the only option I could do with them would be to do a top case replacement which was $600+. They gave me some other service vendors and I Tried calling them, but they were all saying it would be same top case replacement around the same price.

I then reached out various vendors on yelp and other stores and found a few vendors who said they could do the OEM battery replacement for a range $150-$200. I finally went with someone who came off the most confident on both doing the battery replacement and trying to figure out what the problem was - if it was beyond the battery.

Finally had this all done last week. The good news was that before they started the battery replacement work, they were able to do the get the computer to crash in the very specific way I Deal with. Where it freezes abruptly, the fans kick into high gear, and then the computer turns off. When you turn it on, it doesn’t give you the “this computer just restarted because of a problem” like you see happen with a Mac when it normally restarts.

A sure fire way to make the crash happen which is to run the Epic Games installer for Mac ( https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/download ). So I told them about that. And they also had their own stress tests.

So they saw that issue, opened it up, and saw that everything else was mostly ok. They did say the battery wasn’t adhered properly which maybe could have been a cause on something, but can’t say with full confidence. So was the short life of this battery due to the Temark or installation? Did the battery lead to whatever the ultimate problem I’m dealing with is? Those answers aren’t known.

They did a new battery and did the stress tests again and did see the same crash. They told me the options they had now was try to repair the logic board ($400) or replace with a new one ($450).

I think at this point, I’m going to avoid that and go for a new computer. Sure I’m out $185 for this new battery, but hopefully this means I’ll have a more reliable back up. The battery replacement hopefully means that I won’t have the battery issue anymore where the computer won’t start saying it’s a low battery but once I put it on the charger, it turns on and clearly shows the battery has plenty of life ( as I demonstrated in this video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BC3qToyhaJtyHGmn8 ).

FWIW I did get a good run with this computer. I bought it Sept 2014 iirc and for $2299 w/ the student discount - and that was the high end one. It went almost 5 years without issues. I’m really dreading getting a new computer because these prices are rough.

 

[Paranoidmedia]

Just wanted to give an update on this. Unfortunately, post battery replacement, I’m still having this issue.

Here’s a quick summary on what’s occurred over the past few months:


I posted both here in macrumors and in this post apple discussion board. There was someone there who was very responsive and gave some good guidance. I took the Mac to the Apple Store and they were going to do the battery replacement for $199 which I thought was fine. They also said they would look into other possible issues for the problem.

But then right after dropping it off they called me up and said since the battery had already been changed by someone who wasn't them, they couldn't do anything with it. They said the only option I could do with them would be to do a top case replacement which was $600+. They gave me some other service vendors and I Tried calling them, but they were all saying it would be same top case replacement around the same price.

I then reached out various vendors on yelp and other stores and found a few vendors who said they could do the OEM battery replacement for a range $150-$200. I finally went with someone who came off the most confident on both doing the battery replacement and trying to figure out what the problem was - if it was beyond the battery.

Finally had this all done last week. The good news was that before they started the battery replacement work, they were able to do the get the computer to crash in the very specific way I Deal with. Where it freezes abruptly, the fans kick into high gear, and then the computer turns off. When you turn it on, it doesn’t give you the “this computer just restarted because of a problem” like you see happen with a Mac when it normally restarts.

A sure fire way to make the crash happen which is to run the Epic Games installer for Mac ( https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/download ). So I told them about that. And they also had their own stress tests.

So they saw that issue, opened it up, and saw that everything else was mostly ok. They did say the battery wasn’t adhered properly which maybe could have been a cause on something, but can’t say with full confidence. So was the short life of this battery due to the Temark or installation? Did the battery lead to whatever the ultimate problem I’m dealing with is? Those answers aren’t known.

They did a new battery and did the stress tests again and did see the same crash. They told me the options they had now was try to repair the logic board ($400) or replace with a new one ($450).

I think at this point, I’m going to avoid that and go for a new computer. Sure I’m out $185 for this new battery, but hopefully this means I’ll have a more reliable back up. The battery replacement hopefully means that I won’t have the battery issue anymore where the computer won’t start saying it’s a low battery but once I put it on the charger, it turns on and clearly shows the battery has plenty of life ( as I demonstrated in this video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BC3qToyhaJtyHGmn8 ).

FWIW I did get a good run with this computer. I bought it Sept 2014 iirc and for $2299 w/ the student discount - and that was the high end one. It went almost 5 years without issues. I’m really dreading getting a new computer because these prices are rough.

Did you resolve the issue - I'm sorry but i am new to this forum and i have the solution for you - If you already
fixed the issue without - replacing the logic board and replacing the battery then kudos because those two commonly suspected solution is false. Anyways if you need help with this issue you can reply.

 

[sidsharmaz]

Did you resolve the issue - I'm sorry but i am new to this forum and i have the solution for you - If you already
fixed the issue without - replacing the logic board and replacing the battery then kudos because those two commonly suspected solution is false. Anyways if you need help with this issue you can reply.

Hello,

Could you help me please?
Facing the same issue for a few weeks now.

Was able to find a webpage to fix the problem but didn't have the adapter at that moment and now the webpage is nowhere to be found.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Audit13]

Hello,

Could you help me please?
Facing the same issue for a few weeks now.

Was able to find a webpage to fix the problem but didn't have the adapter at that moment and now the webpage is nowhere to be found.

Thanks in advance.

Does your MacBook shutdown only when it has finished loading the OS and logging or does it happen before and after the desktop has loaded?

Does it shutdown when you install an OS from a USB drive?

 

[Paranoidmedia]

Hello,

Could you help me please?
Facing the same issue for a few weeks now.

Was able to find a webpage to fix the problem but didn't have the adapter at that moment and now the webpage is nowhere to be found.

Thanks in advance.

Hey! I hope this helps - run this program - this is a patch that was not released by apple - i ran this and it my freezing and black screen issues were resolved. I got this patch online. Instructions are available at: https://realmacmods.com/product/macbook-pro-nocrash-utility/ - here you go hope it helps!

 

[Paranoidmedia]

Hello,

Could you help me please?
Facing the same issue for a few weeks now.

Was able to find a webpage to fix the problem but didn't have the adapter at that moment and now the webpage is nowhere to be found.

Thanks in advance.

I used this so i hope this will do the trick for you - Run this program - this is a patch that was not released by apple - i ran this and it my freezing and black screen issues were resolved. I got this patch online. Instructions are available at: realmacmods.com (it's the no crash utility patch) - here you go hope it helps!

 

[Paranoidmedia]

Please update me if it worked for you and just pass along the patch to someone in need.

 

[sidsharmaz]

Does your MacBook shutdown only when it has finished loading the OS and logging or does it happen before and after the desktop has loaded?

Does it shutdown when you install an OS from a USB drive?

It's an absolute abrupt shutdown, 5 seconds after the screen goes blank (while the white Apple logo at the back of the screen is lit up for 5 seconds.
It may happen right at an idle state, or during performance intensive work.
Tried a few games as well, but it is not necessary that it shuts down during high CPU or RAM usage.

 

[Paranoidmedia]

It's an absolute abrupt shutdown, 5 seconds after the screen goes blank (while the white Apple logo at the back of the screen is lit up for 5 seconds.
It may happen right at an idle state, or during performance intensive work.
Tried a few games as well, but it is not necessary that it shuts down during high CPU or RAM usage.

Yes it shuts down abruptly - at first i thought it was the battery - then i thought it was overheating - BUT the solution was that the logic board needs to be patch by even distribution of task and power consumption. The patch that i sent to you should help. I got this patch online. Instructions are available at: realmacmods.com <click on the No Crash Utility>

 

[Audit13]

It's an absolute abrupt shutdown, 5 seconds after the screen goes blank (while the white Apple logo at the back of the screen is lit up for 5 seconds.
It may happen right at an idle state, or during performance intensive work.
Tried a few games as well, but it is not necessary that it shuts down during high CPU or RAM usage.

It's possible that your MacBook is a model affected by a CPU bug in that the CPU cannot handle certain power states dictated by the OS. I had a mid-2014 15" MacBook Pro that had the bug. It would never shut down when installing an OS, restoring a TM backup, or using Internet Recovery. As soon as I logged in, it would suddenly shutdown regardless of the battery level and whether a charger was connected.

Is your MacBook running a Samsung SSUAX drive? If it is, try a Samsung SSUBX in the MacBook. I did this because the SSUBX has a slightly higher power draw than the SSUAX. The SSUBX is a PCIe x4 drive while the SSUAX is a PCIe x2 drive.

 

[Rizvi1]

Hey! I hope this helps - run this program - this is a patch that was not released by apple - i ran this and it my freezing and black screen issues were resolved. I got this patch online. Instructions are available at: https://realmacmods.com/product/macbook-pro-nocrash-utility/ - here you go hope it helps!

oh man I wish I saw this post in time. I traded my computer in towards a new MBP and it was a total wash because I had a dead pixel on it that I didn't know about before I sent it in. Because the computer was crashing there was no point in holding onto it. If there was a way to fix that I could have gotten some life out of it.