My Macbook keeps shutting down

mprop

Hey,

I bought a macbook second hand, have had it about 3 months, its coming up to three years old.

I have been using it for word docs, photoshop, final cut pro and downloading movies, tv shows etc via transmission.

Two nights ago I was downloading some torrents and the mac shut down by itself. I restarted and it seemed fine, I left it and came back and it had turned off again.

It then go to a stage where it was turning off and trying to reboot but only booting for a few seconds before turning off again. I rang apple and went through a few things (took battery out, pressed power for 5 seconds, put battery back in, turned on, pressed alt,cmnd, r &p until I got the bing twice) but this didnt work.

Eventually I got it to come on long enough for me to remove transmission and the torrents I was downloading but it is still turning itself off, it can take 5 mins or 10 mins but it turns off. I got enough time to check for updates there, there was one and I downloaded it. I also used the disk utility which said it was fine.

Apple said they can take it in but if its not a hardware issue they cant fix it. I am completely smitten with it (my first mac) and I dont want to lose it for a week to get it back with the same problem, can anyone help me?

Unfortunately I do not have the systems disks however I have asked the friend I bought them off to send them up to me.

Thanks!

muggyog

Sounds like your MacBook is overheating and going into thermal shutdown to protect itself. You can install a temperature sensing program to confirm this. You will have to clean/repair your fan which is probably blocked with dust. This problem has been here before!