Random Restarts?

Hi,

So I just bought a nearly unused 15" Macbook Pro (Late 2010: Dual 2.8Ghz Core i7, 8GB of RAM, HR-Antiglare display).

I absolutely love this thing, but after a few hours of casual use I experienced a "random restart". Basically it looked like a kernel panic only instead of asking to "hold down the power button" it restarted on its own, and after rebooting gave me a message about an "unexpected restart".

I know this could be a plethora of different things, but any ideas on what might be the cause? Thanks in advance.

Since you just bought it, I would just wipe the drive and reinstall OS X clean from scratch. There is simply no telling what the prior owner did with it, installed on it, and so on. Troubleshooting this just isn't worth the effort, especially since it "could" be hardware-related. If it continues after a clean install of OS X, then that would confirm it's a hardware problem.

If it is the i7 that model came with Snow Leopard OS X.6.3. Got the system install discs? If so do as louishen advises. And run Repair Disk before doing the install. And 'barely used' computers are like motor vehicles only driven by a sweet little old lady.

It was a fresh install of OSX from a reputable seller on eBay so I'm not worried about that.

As for being "barley used", this thing only had 15 battery cycles on it so I know it wasn't used (which I thought was strange for a computer worth almost $3000 when it was new).

I'm a geek and I would really love to keep this thing given the amazing condition, but I guess I should just return it and chalk it up as "too good too be true".

Well unless the system discs were included in the sale sounds like this reputable seller has done an illegal install.

As for being "barley used", this thing only had 15 battery cycles on it so I know it wasn't used (which I thought was strange for a computer worth almost $3000 when it was new).

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That's not a dependable indication of usage. I sold a 2008 MacBook just last year that had only 22 battery charge - recharge cycles on it, but I can guaranty that it was used extensively. I used that MacBook at home hooked to a large monitor and primarily on AC most of the time.

harryb2448 said:

Well unless the system discs were included in the sale sounds like this reputable seller has done an illegal install.

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Probably, although assuming he is just using the same disc for a bunch of machines its not really relevant to my problem in this situation. I meant reputable as in he doesn't have a history of selling machines with hardware issues and/or problems out of the box. Whether it was a completely "legal" install, I doubt that is what is causing a random restart.

Also I know this forum can be uptight about piracy, but its also possible he has one of these: Apple - Mac - Apple Software Volume Licensing

chscag said:

That's not a dependable indication of usage. I sold a 2008 MacBook just last year that had only 22 battery charge - recharge cycles on it, but I can guaranty that it was used extensively. I used that MacBook at home hooked to a large monitor and primarily on AC most of the time.

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True thats possible, but after taking off the back panel there wasn't a spec of dust in there so I really think it was rarely used. Either way though, lightly used or not, I'm mostly just wondering if anyone has had random restart problems with 10.8 and DualCore i7 machines from 2010 or if this is unique to my machine?

Either way though, lightly used or not, I'm mostly just wondering if anyone has had random restart problems with 10.8 and DualCore i7 machines from 2010 or if this is unique to my machine?

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We've had numerous posts about random restarts both on MacBook Pro and iMac machines. I can't remember off hand if any of them involved the Dual Core i7 CPU.

I do know that random restarts can be difficult to track down and isolate. Usually some kind of hardware problem is involved. Apple's resolution for that kind of problem if it's continuous and unresolvable is to swap out the logic board.

Beta1 said:

Probably, although assuming he is just using the same disc for a bunch of machines its not really relevant to my problem in this situation. I meant reputable as in he doesn't have a history of selling machines with hardware issues and/or problems out of the box. Whether it was a completely "legal" install, I doubt that is what is causing a random restart.

Also I know this forum can be uptight about piracy, but its also possible he has one of these: Apple - Mac - Apple Software Volume Licensing

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I very seriously doubt the volume license applies to resales of used Macs. Regardless, the advice isn't really going to change. Until you do a clean reinstall of OS X (preferably the version it shipped with since your Mac may be "buggier" with Mountain Lion at this stage), you won't know if it's hardware or software. Even if it's hardware, the only thing that can really be done is check the RAM. If it's 3rd party replacement RAM, that could be the problem. It's also the only hardware problem you are even capable of addressing on your own by replacing it.

chscag said:

We've had numerous posts about random restarts both on MacBook Pro and iMac machines. I can't remember off hand if any of them involved the Dual Core i7 CPU.

I do know that random restarts can be difficult to track down and isolate. Usually some kind of hardware problem is involved. Apple's resolution for that kind of problem if it's continuous and unresolvable is to swap out the logic board.

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Yeah that was sort of my fear, no more AppleCare makes that a costly replacement

lifeisabeach said:

I very seriously doubt the volume license applies to resales of used Macs. Regardless, the advice isn't really going to change. Until you do a clean reinstall of OS X (preferably the version it shipped with since your Mac may be "buggier" with Mountain Lion at this stage), you won't know if it's hardware or software. Even if it's hardware, the only thing that can really be done is check the RAM. If it's 3rd party replacement RAM, that could be the problem. It's also the only hardware problem you are even capable of addressing on your own by replacing it.

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Yes I agree, but since someone was questioning the sellers legitimacy I figured I'd bring up that its not impossible it was a legal install (not that it matters).

And yeah I ran memtest in single user mode, and checked for disk errors in single user mode, but both came back OK. For whatever reason I can't get Apple Hardware Test to run so I guess I will go to the Apple Store and have them check it out for me this weekend.

As mentioned before, I was mostly just wondering if this is a common problem with these models of MBP and 10.8.