Macbook randomly shuts down?

R

RPS

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Hey guys,

it's been years since I've been on this forum, but I'd like to ask you guys a question. I've been sick in bed for a few weeks so I've been getting the most out of my '06 MacBook watching TV shows and whatnot online.

Since a few days I've had random shutdowns (note: not unexpected freeze windows, just the computer is off immediately for no reason) during playback of any flash videos, no matter which browser. That's all I can tell so far. How weird is that? I checked activity monitor, no weird things going on, the Mac isn't overheating, I can tell from its warmth and lack of noise.

Anyone else ever have this happen to, or know what the problem could be? I'm a 10+ year Mac user and consider myself to be a fairly pro user, but have never experienced it just shutting down all by itself while doing nothing fancy...

Here's the setup:
Mac OS X 10.6.4
Latest version of Flash
Black Macbook 2GHz C2D
2GB RAM

Edit; I notice everytime I start the MacBook back up, the sounds level is all the way down, like 0%. What's going on here?
 
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Are you experiencing these sudden shutdowns while running on battery power? Perhaps your battery reads something like 33% left, then suddenly turns off?

Does this happen if you run off of the power adapter?

If you're running on battery power while this happens, this could be symptomatic of a failing battery, or a battery that no longer holds a good charge (and, hence, the battery level indicator in Mac OS X may be inaccurate).
 
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Hi, thanks for the quick reply! Actually, no it happens both when plugged on to the charger and when plugged off. It actually seemed to take longer to occur again when I tried to watch a clip on battery power.

But it's happened quite a few times now, and always while watching video content online. I don't watch too many stuff from the harddrive nowadays, so wouldn't know if that would spawn the occurence as well. It's got to have something to do with the video then, right? Instead of the battery? Like, software instead of hardware?
 
I'm a tech, so I'd take it apart and watch for the fan to be turning and check for dust buildup in the machine. After verifying the fan and cleaning internally I'd test again. If still has the same symptoms I'd remove/clean off the heatsink and remove the old thermal paste and reapply some fresh paste. If its still happening after that, I'd have to assume the GPU is having heating up and shutting down, most likely permanently if its been dirty inside for a while. You can probably run the AHT and see if any failures show up.
 
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In the past, on two different Powerbooks, that random shutdown thing meant Logic Board was failing.
 
I just downloaded the iStat widget and it tells me my fans aren't running (0rpm). The system is at 74 degrees celcius so I guess that's what's been causing my Macbook to shut itself down, the heat. I already called a local repair shop and they tell me putting 2 new fans in will cost me up to 220 euros all in. Any advice on if I should do it, or should I sell the Macbook and go buy a new one? Thoughts?
 
Try to find a shop that doesn't want to sell you two fans :D
MacBooks only have one fan, unless you actually have a MacBook Pro. Even MBPros don't all have two fans.
Did you restart your MacBook after installing iStat?
It should recognize the fan properly, but a restart should assure that.
 
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Hehe thanks for the advice DeltaMac ;)

Anyway: problem is fixed! It turns out it was in fact the fan not working properly, fan has been replaced, MacBook runs perfectly again!

Edit: a tech guy I know actually put in a working fan out of some old broken macbook, so it was all free of charge as well and only took like 5 mins!
 
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