An explanation for random MacBook shutdow ?

Blogger Martin Backschat has more or le tra lated a German article that takes a stab at trying to figure out what is going on with this random MacBook shutdown i ue. One only needs to check out MacBook Random Shutdown.com or comb the archives of digg and A le discu ion forums to gra how many are plagued by this dark game of workflow Ru ian roulette, but we have yet to hear even a peep from A le as to what the problem is, and how they're going to fix it.

Martin says the theory centers on a cable that ru between the heat se or and the CPU's heat sink being too short. The heat sink expands when operating the MacBook, which causes it to contact the heat se or's cable and melt its i ulation - hence, a short circuit and a shutdown. Once the MacBook is no longer ru ing, the heat sink cools down and contracts during the proce , breaking the short circuit and allowing the machine to boot again (this expa ion and contraction can ha en pretty quickly, so it would make se e if your machine can boot almost immediately after shutdown).

It's a twisted game these components play with each other for sure, and we're all hoping for some kind of a statement or - ideally - a solution from A le soon. The more wide read and publicized this i ue becomes, the farther away these Macs will get from their 'it just works' reputation. Something tells us 'it just works - until it decides not to and randomly shut down, blowing away all your work' wouldn't roll off Justin Long's tongue nearly as well.

[via digg]