My PB just died!

[kretzy]

Ok, so I was just using my PB and all of a sudden the screen went black and it went into sleep mode. I tried to get it to wake with no success. I then tried to turn it off, again with no success. So I took the battery out, replaced and rebooted. Everything is ok now, but it freaked me out so much. Does anyone know why this may have happened?

I don't know if this is of any consequence, but at the time it died a had a few apps open and was using IE (gross I know, but I have to use it for an online uni app).

Is there some way I can check if there's anything wrong?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[BurtonCCC]

It all goes back to Microsoft's secret program to try to randomly shut down Macs. Read into it.

Daniel.

 

[kretzy]

Ok, I'm getting very worried now. A little while ago it just did the same thing as I mentioned in my original post. It's also been randomly going into sleep mode, but I am able to wake it.

I'm not used to there being any problems with my PB, so I have no idea were to start looking for the problem. Should I do a clean out and re-install of OS X? Or is it more likely to be a hardware issue?

Please, any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[nylon]

Make sure you backup as soon as possible!

 

[kretzy]

Make sure you backup as soon as possible!

I will! I've already backed up all of my uni stuff to my USB drive.

 

[dr_lha]

Did it sleep (i.e. did the white LED start glowing) or did the screen simply go black and you weren't able to wake it.

If it is the latter, I had the same thing happen on my PB repeatedly. It turned out to be due to bad RAM, and replacing the SODIMM fixed the issue.

 

[kretzy]

The screen went blank, and the LED came on. But from there the only way I could get it to do anything was to take the battery out. My initial thought was the RAM also. Is there any way to check if that is what is causing it?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[dr_lha]

The screen went blank, and the LED came on. But from there the only way I could get it to do anything was to take the battery out. My initial thought was the RAM also. Is there any way to check if that is what is causing it?

If the LED actually came on and started glowing, then it might be due to your power manager. You should try resetting your PRAM:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Were you running off AC or battery when this happened?

BTW to test if the problem is a RAM issue, pull out the extra SODIMM. Did you upgrade the RAM in this laptop yourself?

EDIT: I actually meant PMU reset, but that is linked from the page I linked above.

 

[kretzy]

Thanks dr_lha! I will give it a try and see what happens.

To answer your other questions, I was running off AC at the time.

I did upgrade the RAM myself, but that was just under a year ago. It may have gone faulty since then though. It'll be hard to test if that is the cause though, because everything is running fine atm.

 

[dr_lha]

Thanks dr_lha! I will give it a try and see what happens.

To answer your other questions, I was running off AC at the time.

I did upgrade the RAM myself, but that was just under a year ago. It may have gone faulty since then though. It'll be hard to test if that is the cause though, because everything is running fine atm.

In my case a simple reseating of the RAM fixed the problem. I guess it worked its way lose somehow as a result of being lugged around. That said, my computer was just going blank, no sleep light.

 

[kretzy]

Ah ok, I get it now. I'll give it a go when I finish my assignments.

Thanks again!

 

[kretzy]

Ok, so I reset the PRAM and PMU and everything seemed fine. But in the last hour it has randomly gone to sleep twice. At least this time it wakes up when I press the eject button.

Just to make sure, when I reset the PMU, the Apple site says that the clock should be reset, this did not occur. So did the PMU reset or not?

I will try the RAM thing as soon as I can get a screw driver small enough to open up the case. I really really hope this doesn't turn out to be a major problem.

Thanks again for any advice!

 

[MattyP]

When you reset the pram it also reset your power saving options, which might make it o to sleep every 15 minutes or so. You might just need to change the sleep options in your preferences

 

[kretzy]

When you reset the pram it also reset your power saving options, which might make it o to sleep every 15 minutes or so. You might just need to change the sleep options in your preferences

I thought of this as a possibility, but the thing is, I've not stopped using it at all so it hasn't been "inactive". I double checked the power settings and I have it set to "never put to sleep". Thanks anyway

I might add that it happened again about 10 minutes ago.

 

[yoda13]

Mine started doing stuff like that about a month ago. Then it progressed into kernal panics from time to time too. It turned out to be the RAM, and once I replaced it, no problems. Yours sounds to me like bad ram too. My Apple Store verified it for me, just to be sure.

 

[kretzy]

Mine started doing stuff like that about a month ago. Then it progressed into kernal panics from time to time too. It turned out to be the RAM, and once I replaced it, no problems. Yours sounds to me like bad ram too. My Apple Store verified it for me, just to be sure.

Well I hope it's nothing worse than that. Is there some way they can test each stick or will I just have to replace both of them (I have 2x512)? Thanks for the advice!

 

[dr_lha]

Just to make sure, when I reset the PMU, the Apple site says that the clock should be reset, this did not occur. So did the PMU reset or not?

Check your "Date and Time" preferences. If you have "Set date and time automatically" checked, then the computer will have set it's clock off the internet during the boot-up/login procedure, so you won't have noticed the clock being wrong.

 

[dr_lha]

I thought of this as a possibility, but the thing is, I've not stopped using it at all so it hasn't been "inactive". I double checked the power settings and I have it set to "never put to sleep". Thanks anyway

I might add that it happened again about 10 minutes ago.

Have you ever used the program "Monolingual". If not, don't worry about it.

 

[yoda13]

Well I hope it's nothing worse than that. Is there some way they can test each stick or will I just have to replace both of them (I have 2x512)? Thanks for the advice!

Well, they tested both of mine for free by switching sticks, using some of their own, etc. until they had determined that both were bad. I had to replace both of them. Although I didn't do it at the store, as they quoted me some outrageous price of 600 bucks for two gigs. But they tested both sticks for free. I think that you should have that done.

 

[kretzy]

Have you ever used the program "Monolingual". If not, don't worry about it.

Not that I know of. Also thanks for the advice about the clock thing.

Well, they tested both of mine for free by switching sticks, using some of their own, etc. until they had determined that both were bad. I had to replace both of them. Although I didn't do it at the store, as they quoted me some outrageous price of 600 bucks for two gigs. But they tested both sticks for free. I think that you should have that done.

That's good to know, I'll try and pop in to the local reseller tomorrow!

Thanks again for all the advice - I feel like such a n00b that it's a bit

 

[iGary]

Hold down "CMD-OPT-O-F" on boot.

Enter: reset-nvram, and then reset-all

I assume you've done a proper backup.

If you get really desperate - do this.

 

[dr_lha]

Not that I know of. Also thanks for the advice about the clock thing.

S'OK. Monolingual has been known to cause weirdness with people's power settings, which is why I asked.

 

[TDM21]

You try testing the ram with hardware diagnostics. Grab the restore DVD that came with your PB and hold down ALT while booting. That will test the RAM and see if anything is wrong.

 

[yoda13]

I did that, but it didn't catch the bad ram. They had to use a more thorough testing procedure that they had at the store.

 

[kretzy]

I'll give both things a go tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks again to everyone!