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SkipperW
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MacBook Pro, random shut down
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Macbook Pro 15" Unibody Late 2008.
This Macbook Pro started having random shutdown problems and they have gotten worse to the point of making it unusable.
The shutdown is instant and it dosen't go through any shutdown sequence. They started out happening every couple of days and now it won't even finish loading the OS.
If I start up the Macbook Pro in Target disk mode and run Disk Warrior on it from another Mac, it temporarily "fixes" the problem. Disk Warrior will find some problems and fix them, and when I restart the Macbook Pro it will run for somewhere under 30 min before shutting off again; attempting to start up again sometimes works (for less time, maybe 5 mins.) and sometimes dosen't. By the third (give or take a few) it's back to not even booting the OS.
I've tried resetting the SMC and zapping the PRAM but to no avail. I've also booted it off a external HDD and it will work for a while and then it just shuts off again.
Any ideas?
Sounds like your system is over heating. You'll need to monitor your thermo and fan sensors to verify. Go to the Mac App store and download Temperature Gauge https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/temperat... or iStat dashboard widget https://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboar... Let us know what you see.
Dan,
It would seem like it might be overheating, except for the fact that it gets worse and worse - to the point that it won't even finish loading the OS. I discovered something quite odd yesterday... I read on this forum somebody else that had a similar problem (random shutdowns) that if they disconnected the battery and power, it would temporarily "fix" the problem. I tried this and it's currently working... I'm not really expecting this to be a permanent fix though. Any ideas why disconnecting the power would "fix" it?
SkipperW,
I think you reset the SMC, see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964 While I've seen strange cases with the SMC this one is new to me. I would still monitor the temp & fan sensors to see if something was started by them. I would also check the battery health by launching Apple Profiler application.
Dan,