Computer problem

[sofiaviolet]

Ever since getting a new battery for my laptop (the old one being rather swollen, to the point of interfering with the trackpad in its upward expansion, for several months), I've been experiencing random reboots.

I can't be sure of the immediate cause, because it always happens when I step out of the room, to get myself a snack or something. This morning, I left to pee, came back and started getting dressed, and then heard the little startup noise.

My suspicion is that it has something to do with requiring my password to wake it up, as I had no problems between getting the new battery and turning that feature on. I've now turned that feature off and will see if I can go a week without my computer restarting itself when I look away. However, I post this in case anyone has any better ideas.

The laptop in question is a Macbook from mid to late 2007, running 10.6.6. (Actually, maybe it's related to the most recent software update. I can't remember whether I turned on "require password to wake" before or after updating to 10.6.6, and I can't remember which of those was just before I started having issues.)

Comments

[pinesandmaples]

My Macbook has always done that when it experiences a bounce or jolt. Something related to the safety features built into the hardware. There is also the log out after 60 minutes of inactivity fix.

Also, your battery was swollen because the computer was overheating. The new one will do the same if you let the computer continue to overheat. That's another safety feature; the battery swells instead of exploding.

[sofiaviolet]

I'd be very surprised if it were getting jolted - it does this while sitting flat on my desk. If something were to shake the house badly enough to rattle the computer, I would expect to feel it in other rooms as well.

I would also be surprised if the computer were overheating - well, no, I wouldn't be surprised if it were overheating, it does run very warm - but I don't think there's any way short of an external cooling system to get it to run any cooler. I have been using it flat on my desk since February, and the battery problems didn't start until a while later.

I've never modified "log out after 60 minutes of inactivity" - it has always been disabled. But I toggled it on and back off again just in case.

[pinesandmaples]

Macbooks run hot. They always have. To make the computer slimmer, Apple took out a fan or two.

[sofiaviolet]

That was rather dumb of them. You'd think they would at least try to keep things under battery-breaking temperatures, even if their laptops still would render the average testicle mostly useless. :\