macbook shuts down

ok so i think there was a thread somewhere about this.

well it happened twice already in the last 24hrs and the macbook is only about 2-3 wks old. actually i cant really describe the problem as i dont use the macbook. my gf just told me that it just shut off when she was playing chess/checkers.

i dont want to take it to the store just yet...alteast not until we sorta figure what causes it. i know that theres a few updates that she still need to DL and will try that tomorow and see what happens. also not sure if its heat related as hers doesnt seem to ge too hot, but what is the program that everyone uses to check thier cpu temp? and is it free?

is there anything else i should try to do? and it cant be something too complicated as i still dont know my way around OS X

 

Have her run this automator script
http://www.automatorworld.com/archives/maintenance/

It will repair her permissions as well as anything else if its wrong, I had this issue a while ago and after running this the problem went away.

 

ok i'll have to try it tomorow.
but 2 questions: 1)i just downloaded it and its zip file. can the OS X handle zip file or do i have to unzip w/ my comp?
2) i dont know how to install and uninstall on OS X

 

The OS can handle zip files without any needs for third party programs.

As for this Automator script, its just a script that runs when you click on it, it'll open up and say what its for, just click ok and then it will ask to reboot when the script is done, and click ok again.

Just know the whole process takes about 10-12 minutes, so please be patient.

 

ok the shutting down thing is happening more frequently...atleast between yeterday and today. on top of that it also takes a few times for it to turn on again.

i tried to run that automator script but dont really understand it. does it just run in the background? i selected everything that was available and clicked ok. nothing seemes to happened and then it shut down again (after like 5 min). not sure if it shut down b/c of the problem or if its b/c it was done doing what it was doing. but when i turned it on again there was this text file called maintenance result. so is that it?

 

It runs in the background and it takes like I don't know 5-10 minutes to do it, and then it reboots your computer to finish the maintenace. After you start up again it should be fixed.

If its not, then you need to call AppleCare.

 

ok so its been a couple hours now and so far no random shutting down. so i guess that automator script solved it? so can you just give me the basic on what it did? dont understand all this permission and stuff w/ OS X.

also can i delete that maintenance result test file? and i guess i should just keep that zip for next time this happens?

 

Well, permissions are basically what tells the program what it can and cant do, and what it has access too, generally if it gets messed up it can cause problems such as hanging, crashing and etc.

It doesn't happen often, but if it were to happen at all it'd most likely be after installation of a problem or some form of system update. The file thats left on your desktop is a log, you can go into it and do Apple + F and type 'correct' in the search field to see if anything came up, and if it did than its most likely it found and corrected the problem. However that log only covers one part of the maintenance.

You can delete the log it leaves behind, and yeah keep the zip around. It's not often something like this happens either. Anyways I would say its probably a good idea to get UpdateWasher from Apples OS X downloads site, and run that after you do updates, as it will clean up any mess left behiind and make sure everything is correct. use the 3.5 script if it continues.

I'm not sure if both scripts do the exact same thing.

Anyways if its been a few hours already, it most likely fixed it. Enjoy!

 

thanks...you've been alot of help. too bad i cant really enjoy the macbook as the only time i can really use it is when she takes it to me when something is wrong

 

ok im bring this back up only b/c it happened again. it would just shut down and not turn on for awhile. we did manage to finally get it to stay on long enough to run that automator script again. as before, it seemed to fix it.

since this is the 2nd time that it happened, do you think i should just take it back to the apple store? would they take our word for it, even though it seems to run fine for now? also should i say something about running that automator script?

 

If you have an Apple Store near you, take it in. They are usually very understanding and try to make everything right.