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MacBook suddenly power off or freezes.

Hey,

just got a new MacBook on ebay, the seller already said that it freezes sometimes or restarts unexpected. But he doesn't know if its RAM or Logic Board.

I have 14 days returning policy by the way ;)

I switched RAM and HDD (there was a 320 Gig HD installed, used the old one from my "destroyed" MacBook (this time it worked and I checked the screws thousand times ;) ). But it still freezes randomly. Then I need to restart sometimes 9-10 times (mostly it freezes right after pressing power Button, the Optical Device (CD) doesn't try to spin up) and then it works for 2-3 hours, then it goes mad again. The seller hasn't explained that the CD Device is not working properly (I need to PUSH insert CDs, but they are ejecting well)...

Anyone can help me? Can it really be the LogicBoard? I mean what should be damaged? just a loose cable?

Or is it PRAM Battery wich is damaged or empty? It saves time when not on Power, but that and Resetting SMC mostly fixes (Or creates) the boot Problem

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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As you already tried swapping out the RAM, it could be anything from a bad motherboard to a faulty CPU/GPU. I'd check temperatures with iStat just to be sure it's not something related to a bad thermal paste application or faulty heatsink (heatpipes can leak and become useless if they have blemishes or have been bent), other than that, it might just be a dud. :-D

A dead PRAM battery will not cause any freeze during use, so I'd call that out.

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11 Comments:

what do you mean with "dud" ? :D Checking temperatures now, they are about 54 degrees Celsius.

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Okay, just started the MacBook and it shows a CPU1 Temperature of 50 degrees celsius - is that right?? Cant believe it. Was very cool and also feels very cool now

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Here are some more Temps:

http://img7.imagebanana.com/img/r07s4y29...

(Recorded 5 minutes after turning on)

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By "dud" I meant a faulty item. :)

Temperatures recorded the second time look very high on the CPU side as they've been taken just 5 minutes after a cold boot, were you heavily taxing the system? If not, I think we might have an answer. Try checking if the fan is spinning up properly and hot air is coming out of the back, as the vents could be clogged. If everything seems normal, get some thermal paste and reapply it to the heatsinks.

Anyway, if the price wasn't a bargain accordingly to the laptop's status, the patience and time involved in troubleshooting it might not be worth it, so do consider using the return policy by taking it back to the seller.

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mhhm yeah it worked beautifully from yesterdays evening until half an hour ago. 9-10 restarts (even I paused 30 minutes between two restarts one time) now it seems to work again.

I got a kernel Panic but it seems it hasn't been logged in Console or /Library/Logs/Diag . . . saw something about "system check" but system auto restarted 2 seconds after it

Should I maybe try it with one RAM slot in use? Maybe its faulty RAM Slot (RAM changed already)

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