Macbook shutdown woes

When using the battery, when it gets below 30% or so it ramdomly shuts down. No warning about low battery, just shuts right down.
Mark wrote on :

I've had my macbook since September but because I usually use it plugged in I haven't noticed(that much) this problem.

When using the battery, when it gets below 30% or so it ramdomly shuts down. No warning about low battery, just shuts right down.

I tried re-setting the SMC but to no avail. What exactly is the procedure about getting this fixed? it does it everytime without fail.

Am I supposed to take it to the Apple store? call up Apple or what? The nearest Apple store is quite a bit away from me.

Jaimie Vandenbergh replied on :

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:05:24 +0000, Mark mark@redacted.invalid wrote:

I've had my macbook since September but because I usually use it plugged in I haven't noticed(that much) this problem.

When using the battery, when it gets below 30% or so it ramdomly shuts down. No warning about low battery, just shuts right down.

I tried re-setting the SMC but to no avail. What exactly is the procedure about getting this fixed? it does it everytime without fail.

Try this - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

If that doesn't work, call Apple.

Cheers - Jaimie
Chris Ridd replied on :

On 2007-01-31 02:12:21 +0000, Jaimie Vandenbergh jaimie@redacted.invalid said:

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:05:24 +0000, Mark mark@redacted.invalid wrote:

I've had my macbook since September but because I usually use it plugged in I haven't noticed(that much) this problem.

When using the battery, when it gets below 30% or so it ramdomly shuts down. No warning about low battery, just shuts right down.

I tried re-setting the SMC but to no avail. What exactly is the procedure about getting this fixed? it does it everytime without fail.

Try this - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

There's also an SMC firmware update which may help:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304308

If that doesn't work, call Apple.

Unless they've changed, they will offer to direct you to your nearest authorized service shop (which will ship it to Apple for you). They've opened Apple Stores since then though...

Cheers,

Chris

Mark replied on :

Chris Ridd wrote:

On 2007-01-31 02:12:21 +0000, Jaimie Vandenbergh jaimie@redacted.invalid said:

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:05:24 +0000, Mark mark@redacted.invalid wrote:

I've had my macbook since September but because I usually use it plugged in I haven't noticed(that much) this problem.

When using the battery, when it gets below 30% or so it ramdomly shuts down. No warning about low battery, just shuts right down.

I tried re-setting the SMC but to no avail. What exactly is the procedure about getting this fixed? it does it everytime without fail.

Try this - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

There's also an SMC firmware update which may help:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304308

If that doesn't work, call Apple.

Unless they've changed, they will offer to direct you to your nearest authorized service shop (which will ship it to Apple for you). They've opened Apple Stores since then though...

Ok, thanks guys. What is best practice regarding taking your machine to an AASP for repair, I don't fancy leaving my laptop with all my personal details on with anyone. All my passwords, details, porn etc

What do you recommend?

zoara replied on :

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:52:01 +0000, Mark wrote:

Ok, thanks guys. What is best practice regarding taking your machine to an AASP for repair, I don't fancy leaving my laptop with all my personal details on with anyone. All my passwords, details, porn etc

What do you recommend?

Generally, don't bother - techs will not care enough to spend time digging through your machine. You won't get in trouble for having porn on your machine (it's incredibly common).

To avoid any potential human curiousity you can create a temporary account - with admin details - and give them that. They can still get at your stuff but it makes it just tricky enough that they won't idly stumble across it.

Next level up is to (temporarily?) hide your most-personal stuff on encrypted disk images (make sure you secure-empty the trash!).

For the most paranoid, you can wipe the disk completely (doing a multi-pass erase for the truly paranoid) and reinstall from scratch. Goive them a completely clean machine.

Whatever you do, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUPS. They could end up wiping your disk or giving you an entirely new machine. They specifically state that there are no guarantees regarding you getting the data back in the same state you dropped it off.

-zoara-
mark replied on :

"zoara" me17@redacted.invalid wrote in message news:18141asnhilup.1ca8g52vmup6c$.dlg@redacted.invalid

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:52:01 +0000, Mark wrote:

Ok, thanks guys. What is best practice regarding taking your machine to an AASP for repair, I don't fancy leaving my laptop with all my personal details on with anyone. All my passwords, details, porn etc

What do you recommend?

Generally, don't bother - techs will not care enough to spend time digging through your machine. You won't get in trouble for having porn on your machine (it's incredibly common).

To avoid any potential human curiousity you can create a temporary account - with admin details - and give them that. They can still get at your stuff but it makes it just tricky enough that they won't idly stumble across it.

Next level up is to (temporarily?) hide your most-personal stuff on encrypted disk images (make sure you secure-empty the trash!).

For the most paranoid, you can wipe the disk completely (doing a multi-pass erase for the truly paranoid) and reinstall from scratch. Goive them a completely clean machine.

Whatever you do, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUPS. They could end up wiping your disk or giving you an entirely new machine. They specifically state that there are no guarantees regarding you getting the data back in the same state you dropped it off.

good advice, thanks

zoara replied on :

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:33:15 -0000, mark wrote:

"zoara" me17@redacted.invalid wrote in message news:18141asnhilup.1ca8g52vmup6c$.dlg@redacted.invalid

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:52:01 +0000, Mark wrote:

[snip]

Whatever you do, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUPS. They could end up wiping your disk or giving you an entirely new machine. They specifically state that there are no guarantees regarding you getting the data back in the same state you dropped it off.

good advice, thanks

Let's just say I have plenty of experience in sending machines back to Apple.

-zoara-
Rexx Magnus replied on :

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:52:01 GMT, Mark wrote:

Ok, thanks guys. What is best practice regarding taking your machine to an AASP for repair, I don't fancy leaving my laptop with all my personal details on with anyone. All my passwords, details, porn etc

What do you recommend?

When I took mine in, I couldn't be bothered with deleting stuff - I just made a new user, installed SMCfancontrol (to prove that the fan was stuck) and made that one auto log in - making sure to keep all of my main user stuff hidden.