Chosen Solution

I’ve got the same MBP here, same exact problem as these folks MBP turns off Randomly Without Warning Anyone been able to actually nail down the cause and permanently fix the issue? Or is this possibly something that Apple should legitimately be covering under a recall? Update (12/02/2016) I’m on my laptop right now trying to reply to this thread - and it’s shutting down on me just the same. Sometimes I can’t get more than 45 seconds after it boots up before it shuts off again. It’s quite embarrassing when I go on site to a client and I’m constantly saying “Hold on, gotta boot up again.” I have also reinstalled, reset SMC, done everything I can aside from tear it down and check for any issues … Apple also says no problems at all. That’s obviously not the case. Unfortunately there’s no diagnostic issues at all. We ran through everything mentioned above (except PRAM reset, see below), not one single anomaly. It’s just, when the MBP decides “it’s time to die”, I can’t keep it running for more than probably 2 minutes without it completely shutting off. Typing seems to facilitate the problem, but even when I am using the unit through an SSH session, it still exhibits serious system failures. Update (12/02/2016) As noted above, I had not reset the PRAM (only the SMC), so I did that this morning, and I am still waiting to see whether or not that is actually going to provide me with a solution. I only use the MBP when on site with clients. So I will know soon whether or not I have any success with this. But it gets quite embarrassing in front of clients when I’m like, “Yea, sorry, my $2,000 MBP doesn’t work for more than 45-60 seconds at a time. Please excuse me while I reboot. Also, for your recommendation regarding new workstations … Probably, uh, I want to say Apple but I’m going to go with Dell.” (No, I would never go with Dell, especially if they want Apple. But I embarrass myself, my company, and my Apple products when they perform at an embarrassing level.) With our MBP from late 2013 (manufactured in 2014), we never had this problem until upgrading to OS 10.10. And since 10.11, and 10.12, it has become progressively worse. At my most recent client meeting I had to hard shutdown my laptop 17 times, lost vital notes from client discussions each time, and this was all within a 75 minute period. Please reference my previous interactions with Apple regarding an issue I didn’t believe was the cause/problem of the consumer, G4 PowerBook Memory lawsuit: https://laz.paravis.net/apple_complaint. Apple has a tendency to blame consumers before they actually acknowledge a problem that was a result of their own engineering deficiencies. Maybe it’s to see what they can get away with, or maybe it’s that their quality control needs a bit of a refresh. But the bottom line … Three years old (my MBP is about 2.8 years old) is not a legitimate period of time for a consumer product to exhibit “normal wear and tear” and become completely unusable. That’s just a joke – barely outside of the hardware warranty … And I take VERY good care of my hardware. What are your thoughts? I’m definitely going to update my post with my results after resetting PRAM, but to be honest, I don’t expect that to be a fix. Anyhow, there are attorneys out there drooling from the mouth to sue Apple for the way they treat their customers. I love Apple, and always (probably always) will … But I’m not one who appreciates getting blamed for their own engineering mistakes. Sometimes, that extra $0.04 per unit for a bump in quality for a particular metal alloy is really the difference between a product success and product recall. I love your analogy about the cars. It really is like that. But my poor little laptop is used so rarely, I couldn’t see it even needing a tune-up. I’ll get the thermal paste and sort that out, as well as the potential dust-bunnies and see how it goes. I ordered the proper screwdriver but they sent me one that was far too small instead of the right size. Thanks again for your reply, Dan. Have a wonderful weekend. Update (12/04/2016) I seem to have spoken too soon about a fix! Typing this from my phone, since the laptop won’t stay working long enough to finish a proper sentence. So back to square one … Going to get the right size pentalobe screwdriver and check for dust bunnies and reapply thermal compound to the CPU heatsink. Big issue though, but at least we have a new symptom! When I put it to sleep earlier this morning, the fans stayed on indefinitely (until I hard-powered off). They just kept blowing and blowing - and it was COLD air, not even warm. So overheating seems to be a bit of a long shot at this point. I’ll update again after I have a chance to open it up. Bummer!

For reference from the other Q: It sounds like you may have multiple problems here: First lets reset the SMC logic so the level of charge the battery has is correct Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC).I would download this little gem to better monitor the battery coconutBattery 2.8.I would also download a good temp & fan monitoring app like Temperature Gauge Pro. While there are others this one is the best one I have found. Now with the better diagnostic software running what is it telling you? Is the battery worn out? Is the charging circuit having problems? Is the temp running high and the fans not working? Given the age of your system you may need to clean & reapply thermal paste on the CPU & GPU chips heat sink and clean out the dust buildup thats in the system. But for now lets see what the new tools are telling us. Snap a few screen captures and post them here so we can see whats up.

I cannot say for sure since I don’t have it on my bench to test and confirm, but I think your laptop is suffering from one of the following:

  • Intermittent backlight unless you are sure the laptop is definitely shutting off completely, not just switching off the light of the screen (flash a light behind the Apple and see if something appears on the screen).
  • Intermittent shut off from overheating, needs cleaning and/or new CPU heat compound and/or new heat sink and/or new fan.
  • Intermittent power failure due to a board level issue: failure of some component that intake power from main power rail and produce secondary yet critical power rails.
  • Intermittent GPU failure in which case it is better to have it replaced as the cost may exceed the cost of a new/used board.

After getting to the point where my MacBook Pro won’t stay powered on for more than a few minutes at a time, I finally broke down and went to the Apple Store. After 6 months of progressively worse and random shutdowns, thousands of dollars in lost time and revenue, and abject, utter frustration . The Genius Bar “guru” ran a bunch of tests, and of course, my computer passed all with flying colors. They told me to leave it and they’d open it up to diagnose further. Finally they told me that one of the screws that holds the heat sink in place has snapped and I need to replace the motherboard! A brand new motherboard when the computer is less than 3 years old and in mint condition? I was floored. I paid almost 2k for this computer, and now have to pay another $600 to fix an obviously faulty part?! I’m beyond livid at Apple and it’s BS.