Why Does My Laptop Keep Shutting Down in the Middle of My Session?!?!?

Amie

Amie

Mac Convert for Life
OK, this has happened to me three times in about four months: I'll be in the middle of surfing the 'Net (I use Firefox) and I have plenty of battery juice and, suddenly, I get a blank screen. No warning, no error message, no "I'm shutting down now," nothing. Just a black screen and my computer has shut down. I press the power button and boot it back up and get the message from FF "Your last session crashed. Would you like to restore your session?" I press "Yes." Everything's fine again. What's causing this???
 
Amie said:
This is a battery replacement (the original Apple battery finally died) which I bought from OWC in May 2008, so it's only a little over a year old. So, I don't think it's the battery.
Click to expand...

You might want to download:

coconutBattery (free)
http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/

and check to see what it says about your laptop's "current battery capacity." If it's down to something below about 85%, your battery is shot. Even though your battery is only a year old, it may have sat on the shelf for many years before you purchased it, and degraded.

Other thoughts:

You don't have a PRAM battery problem, because iBook G4's don't have PRAM batteries.

If your laptop is overheating, that can cause a shutdown.

If you have something set in your Energy Saver System Preferences pane to automatically shut down your computer, that could be it.
 
Amie said:
This is a battery replacement (the original Apple battery finally died) which I bought from OWC in May 2008, so it's only a little over a year old. So, I don't think it's the battery.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I have not heard of many people having good experiences with 3rd-party batteries. While some may swear by them and laud their savings over Apple's more expensive batteries, and while some may have had great experiences with them, my impression is that they're hit-and-miss. My first inclination would be to contact OWC and explain to them what's happening with their replacement battery and see what they have to say.

Does the computer act normally when connected to an AC outlet?
 
MacBooks have many more sensors than iBooks, and iBooks will not output much temp info.
If the OP has an iBook, then iStat Pro will not show fans and temps, other than hard drive temp, which may or may not be too helpful.
 
Randy Singer said:
You might want to download:

coconutBattery (free)
http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/

and check to see what it says about your laptop's "current battery capacity." If it's down to something below about 85%, your battery is shot. Even though your battery is only a year old, it may have sat on the shelf for many years before you purchased it, and degraded.

Other thoughts:

You don't have a PRAM battery problem, because iBook G4's don't have PRAM batteries.

If your laptop is overheating, that can cause a shutdown.

If you have something set in your Energy Saver System Preferences pane to automatically shut down your computer, that could be it.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info. Unfortunately, I can't download CocoBattery because it requires 10.4 or later. I'm running 10.3.9. Is there an app similar to CB that will run on Panther?

ElDiabloConCaca said:
Unfortunately, I have not heard of many people having good experiences with 3rd-party batteries. While some may swear by them and laud their savings over Apple's more expensive batteries, and while some may have had great experiences with them, my impression is that they're hit-and-miss. My first inclination would be to contact OWC and explain to them what's happening with their replacement battery and see what they have to say.

Does the computer act normally when connected to an AC outlet?
Click to expand...

I debated for a long, long time on whether or not I should buy my battery from a third party or just pay the extra money and buy it from Apple. I went with OWC because so many Mac users told me great things about them.

Yes, my laptop acts normal when charging, and it does hold a full charge, then the light turns green. Everything seems fine in that area. I was thinking (maybe) it could be a calibration problem? It's been a month or two since I've calibrated my battery. Do you think this could be the culprit?

djackmac said:
Download istatpro http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashb.../istatpro.html to monitor your fans and temps. Its a very useful dashboard widget. I was having kind of the same issue with a macbook I had been restoring for myself. Turns out it was a dead fan all along.
Click to expand...

I don't have widgets; I'm running Panther. I don't think it's a temperature problem; my computer stays nice and cool even when I use it for hours on end.
 
Randy Singer said:
Try:

Battery Health Monitor (free)
http://www.sonoragraphics.com/batteryhealth.html
Click to expand...

Randy, thank you so much! You are a gem! And now that I've downloaded Battery Health Monitor, I can see that the original capacity was 100% and the current capacity is only 74%. That's after only one year. Not good. I wrote the company I bought it from and they replied and said that the battery is just over one month after warranty expiration, but they have cleared it with management and will send me a new one. Yay!
 
Amie said:
Randy, thank you so much! You are a gem! And now that I've downloaded Battery Health Monitor, I can see that the original capacity was 100% and the current capacity is only 74%. That's after only one year. Not good. I wrote the company I bought it from and they replied and said that the battery is just over one month after warranty expiration, but they have cleared it with management and will send me a new one. Yay!
Click to expand...

They *better* send you a new battery! They sold you an old/tired battery.

I'm really glad that things turned out well for you.
 
I just wanted to thank all of you for helping me. And, yes, it was the battery. I now have the new one and there hasn't been one incidence of my laptop shutting down without warning or acting wonky in any way.

And, Randy, thanks again for telling me about Battery Health Monitor. With my new battery, BHM reads:

Current capacity: 102% (5,096 mAh)

Charge cycles: 2% (7)

And the battery life remaining bar is completely full.

Much better than the readings from my previous battery, right? :)
 
Amie said:
I just wanted to thank all of you for helping me. And, yes, it was the battery. I now have the new one and there hasn't been one incidence of my laptop shutting down without warning or acting wonky in any way.

And, Randy, thanks again for telling me about Battery Health Monitor. With my new battery, BHM reads:

Current capacity: 102% (5,096 mAh)

Charge cycles: 2% (7)

And the battery life remaining bar is completely full.

Much better than the readings from my previous battery, right? :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update! I'm glad that all is well.
 
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