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My MBP just shut down and won't turn back on!

E

evaporateddwarf

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 26, 2010
107
1
I was just playing Rome: Total War Barbarian Expansion, and my 2011 MBP just shut down. I assumed it was because the battery died (it was at 59% when I started about 30 minutes earlier). After plugging it in, the ssd (I'm assuming) makes a funny noise, and the computer tries to turn on. The apple logo comes up and it makes the A pitch, then it shuts down. It kept trying this until I held the power button down and it stopped trying.

What's going on? Should I let it sit on the charger for a while and start it up, or is something else going on?
 
evaporateddwarf said:
I was just playing Rome: Total War Barbarian Expansion, and my 2011 MBP just shut down. I assumed it was because the battery died (it was at 59% when I started about 30 minutes earlier). After plugging it in, the ssd (I'm assuming) makes a funny noise, and the computer tries to turn on. The apple logo comes up and it makes the A pitch, then it shuts down. It kept trying this until I held the power button down and it stopped trying.

What's going on? Should I let it sit on the charger for a while and start it up, or is something else going on?
Click to expand...
Are you sure you have an SSD in there? It shouldn't be making noise. Did you order your MBP from Apple with the SSD BTO option, or install one yourself?
 
If it won't boot up:
Be aware that Macs are designed to shut down if temperatures are sustained at an unsafe level, which can happen when running some GPU/CPU intensive games. I don't know if that applies to your case or not, but keep an eye on temps in the future. Many have run as hot as 105C without shutting down. Anything under that and you should be fine, temperature-wise.

If it wasn't temps and your MBP unexpectedly shut down while showing battery time remaining, reset the SMC. Also, calibrate your battery to make sure that the readings are accurate. Instructions for both in the following link. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
 
Last edited:
After it sitting for a bit, it started back up. It was the battery. However, that sound is still being made now when I restart, and it has never done that before. I made a quick recording from my phone. It won't let me attach it here, but if one of you pm's me your email, I can send it to you there.

EDIT: It could be the optical drive turning on, but after rebooting just now, my computer froze after opening safari, and I had to shut the computer off by holding the power button down.
 
Likely the noise is from the dvd - if so, just eject it.

The behavior you saw is normal. When you run your mac out of battery completely, it will not want to boot up again until the battery has a minimal charge in it.
 
Jaimi said:
Likely the noise is from the dvd - if so, just eject it.

The behavior you saw is normal. When you run your mac out of battery completely, it will not want to boot up again until the battery has a minimal charge in it.
Click to expand...

The odd thing is I don't have a DVD in the drive. I downloaded the game from direct2drive, and am running it off of the ssd.
 
evaporateddwarf said:
The odd thing is I don't have a DVD in the drive. I downloaded the game from direct2drive, and am running it off of the ssd.
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter. Your DVD drive will test itself when the MBP turns on regardless if there is a disc in the drive or not. Just let the battery charge up for a little bit before trying to turn it on.
 
Issue w/ game?

I'm not sure this is an issue with your computer, as essentially the same thing happened to me while playing Rome Total War, except my computer did turn back on.

Everything on my MBP was fine, including a battery that's just two months old, until last night when I was playing Rome Total War and my computer just quit. I restarted the machine, fired up Rome Total War and as soon as the game loaded, the computer quit again. Then I realized my charge was stuck at 96% and my System Profiler says I have a battery, but that's not charged and does not contain a charge. Sure enough, as soon as I take the MBP off its charger, it dies.

And any time I try to play Rome Total War, downloaded from the App Store, my computer shuts off.
 
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