OT: MacBook randomly shuts down..

[Andre Garzia]

Hello Chipp,

I have a story to tell about MacBooks and Random Shutdown Syndrome.
This was a huge issue for macbooks and macbooks pro during their first
revision. It's a defective motherboard. It overheats, the heat sensor
fails to work as expected and some other sensor then is all alarmed
and shutdowns the mobo before everything breaks.

It happens mostly during boot (when the temp is higher) or during CPU
intensive tasks when the heat rises. This can be fixed by replacing
the motherboard and the heatsink and the heat sensor with new ones.
This is all covered by applecare.

Golden Rule #1: whoever got the gold, makes the rule.

Always buy applecare, in the US, applecare users have special
treatment, it's not just a warranty extension, it's a whole new
service experience.

Now, onto my story. I had this problem. I've identified it and went to
the main authorized repair service in Rio de Janeiro, it's also the
most famous apple shop in here. I've explained the problem to their
technician who then proceeded to tell me that I did not understood
well about computers and that they had professionals in there who
would tell me what it really was.

After weeks, they told me they were going to replace the heat sink.
The computer stood at the repair shop for TWO MONTHS while the heat
sink was imported. I got fed up, phoned apple hot line, shouted curse
words in four languages, next day the machine was ready, it lasted
three hours at my house. It came with an empty hard drive (they erased
it) and they replaced the optical drive (why?! it was working when I
left it there). The machine was not fixed and was shutting down
randomly.

I went back, they said they'd look into it. After some weeks, they
said that they needed to replace the heat sensor and the mother board
which is exactly what I said they needed do in the first place. The
machine sat down there for TWO MORE MONTHS then they replaced the
parts.

So in the end what we learned, apple service in brazil is a joke! If I
had not applecare, I would be in even worse position. If your macbook
is one of the first revisions, you may have a bad motherboard,
replacing it with a newer one will solve things.

if you need more info google for: "random shutdown syndrome macbook"

Use your applecare and demand a fix.

Cheers
andre