Macbook Pro woes - ideas on what the problem is?

[MikeF]

Remove the battery and try running it directly from AC.

[Stephanie]

cyclemax wrote:
Sounds like RAM issues. See this Apple Support Article.

Applesupport

I had read that one - mine doesn't do the three tones - only normal start up chime. After going black, I can get it to restart and boot up (I can log in & it will load the desktop) but it always spontaneously restarts again.

[IronMac]

The reason I thought that it might be overheating is that I have a PowerMac G4 QS which had a similar symptom of it restarting spontaneously. I thought it was a RAM issue also but, finally, gave up and sent it to repair guy. The QS came back with a new fan because the old one was totally clogged with cat hair.

[Jimmypoo]

Whenever I start it - I watch my G3/400 Pismo run tiger (10.4.7) and from day 1, the little fan has NEVER
worked. So even though MenuMeters will show a full spike in CPU use, and 3/4 red graph, it has never yet
shut down, coughed or so much as freaked out - it always seems to scale back CPU use to cool down and
remain stable.

Incredible little machine. I wish there was a PATA SSD for it - even the 64GB variety -- between that and
the 1GB of RAM (same with the iMac DVs from 400-600MHz) it would make a nice addition, despite no
USB 2, but at least there is USB 1.1 and FW, and the Pismo has the PCMCIA slot - which still opens lots
of doors to it for direct board access --- if only it were worth the $$$ to do it....

[decay]

i think OWC has PATA SSDs, JP...

[Stephanie]

Ok - I took it to the Apple Store tonight. Yeah, I could have done more work to diagnose it myself (and taken out the RAM, etc.), but the store happens to be close to a restaurant I wanted to go to...and I felt like celebrating tonight (hence wanting to go to the restaurant). So, I figured, ok, I'll make an appointment, find out what's wrong & go from there.

Thanks to all who said bad RAM. It was. 5 minutes for them to diagnose it. I'm certainly glad it was just RAM, as opposed to another bad logic board.

[sekker]

Santa Rosa MBPs are still covered by Apple extended warranty for the mother board.

If it's. It RAM, I'd take it in.

[IronMac]

They did diagnose it as bad ram. Good news then!

[Stephanie]

IronMac wrote:
They did diagnose it as bad ram. Good news then!

Yup - very good news!!!!

[decay]

was it Apple RAM, and was it covered?

3rd party RAM with a lifetime warranty isn't hindered by that 3-year limitation like Apple RAM.