[ultra-V]

In the last day, my PowerBook has developed the annoying habit of suddenly shutting off with no warning. I'll be in the middle of doing something and *snap* off it goes. No sleep light - completely off. It'll start back up fine - taking a while as it does post-crash diagnostics, I assume.

The first couple times, I was on a somewhat low battery, so I thought it was thinking the juice was lower that it was, but it just did it while plugged in and fully charged. It used to occasionally go to sleep without warning, but I never worried about it because I could wake it back up.

Any ideas why, or should I just take it in?
Thanks!

[romeosc]

Do you have any firewire devices connected?

I had a firewire cable that if you moded it shorte (I guess?) and would shutdowm imediately! After throwing away cable no more problems!

[ultra-V]

I do have one connected at the moment, but did not last night when it first started happening.

[analogika]

See if you can provoke the shut-off by tapping the case, or ever-so-slightly flexing it.

It will be very difficult to track down this problem exactly.

[wilsonng]

[QUOTE=ultra-V]In the last day, my PowerBook has developed the annoying habit of suddenly shutting off with no warning. I'll be in the middle of doing something and *snap* off it goes. No sleep light - completely off. It'll start back up fine - taking a while as it does post-crash diagnostics, I assume.
/QUOTE]

Better to take it in. I had a fairly similar problem where my PB would just sleep for no apparent reason and it would stay in sleep mode. If I woke it up, it would promptly go back to sleep again in 5 seconds.

In my case, the reed switch that tells the PB to sleep. This switch is activated whenever the lid is closed.

In your case, maybe something with the Power button?

These are things that a normal personal wouldn't be able to diagnose. it sounds like something that is best left in the hands of a certified Apple service technician.

Just make a backup of all your important files

before you turn it in.

[C.J. Moof]

I've seen 2 667's in the office exhibit this behavior. The first was fixed by tightening the loose torx screws underneath the keyboard, nearest the palm rest- it's never done that again.

The second one has been tightened, loosened, screws removed, RAM rearranged, chickens sacrificed and everything else I can think of, and it still suddenly goes out or kernel panics under no repeatable circumstances. Some days you can run up the stairs with it running and plop it on the desk and it won't miss a beat, but 2 hours later a fly lands on it, and POOF, it's done. On this one, I wish there was AppleCare.

[threestain]

I have occasionally had this happen to my 1GHz TiBook too. No idea why, and no explanation. Fortunately it doesn't really happen often!