Random Shutdown: Possible Cause
An anonymous German IT engineer claims to have found the cause of random shut downs in Apple’s new MacBooks. The original German article was translated by Martin Backschat on his blog.
The IT engineer in question points the finger at the heat sink’s sensor cable of the MacBook, which he believes is poorly isolated. This leads to a short circuit (between the heat sink and the sensor cable) that triggers the shutdown. Upon cooling, the heat sink contracts and breaks the short circuit and the MacBook is fine again until the heat sink expands and comes into contact with the sensor cable again, resulting in a shut down.
More after the jump.
While this is an interesting theory, it goes against my experience with random shutdowns. For instance, I have suffered random shut downs when my MacBook was cold. Ok, one might argue that this could be because the isolation on the sensor cable was already worn/melted by then. But how does this explain that my MacBook ran at full power (hot) for over an hour after the initial cold random shutdown. Running at full power for 1 hour would lead to maximum expansion of the heat sink which according to the German IT engineer should cause a short circuit. But it does not.
The folks over at MacFixIt have also posted a possible cause related to electrical isolation but this time between the top case and the metal casing below it.
That said, I find it really hard to believe that electrical insulation is the only cause of the random shutdowns. An electrical insulation issue is something I would expect the Apple engineers to quickly deal with, without the need for a logic board replacement. My MacBook is as of now still awaiting the availability of logic boards which are in short supply, according to the Genius at my local Apple Store.
My thoughts: Logic boards in short supply? It definitely goes to show this is a widespread problem with repairs using up Apple’s stock of logic boards…
My take on this is that the insulation problems could be part of the problem but it definitely doesn’t stop there. However, until Apple fesses up, that’s all we have to hold on to…
Just don’t go void your warranty by opening up your MacBook to put on some insulation though. Apple will have to come up with a fix sooner or later.
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