Macbook pro blacking out

[remadepreacher]

My late 2012 pro with retina is going dead temporarily. If I am playing music (usually on youtube), it stops, the screen goes black, fans aren't running, and there is no sign of life. Pushing keys or pad, including power key brings no response. Same with holding power key. But then everything comes back on. Happening maybe a couple of times a day. At first it would stay blacked out from 10 to 30 seconds. Sometimes that's lengthening now to 20 minutes or more. Then you most often need to push power to start up but the short times may only need a key pressed to be back in business.

The unit has had some issues. Couple of years ago the logic board needed replacing, then the battery and SSD. I couldn't afford Apple's prices, so these were done with after market help. The unit runs warmer than it should but not real hot. I cleaned the fans up (I'm a watch technician, so used to taking things apart) but it didn't make much difference. so I installed SMC fan controller.

Before the blackouts, I was having signs of possible malware so did a clean install. First I installed High Sierra so I could continue to use Office for Mac 2011. The blackouts were getting worse so I tried upgrading to Catalina two days ago — made no difference. Since then upgrade programs are freezing up more often. I just started up the next day after a long black out and Firefox, Music, and App Store were all frozen upon opening. Several minutes wait enabled closing them.
Anyone tell me what is going on?

 

[Lifeisabeach]

It's hard to say what's happening. To start, since you think you have malware, download DetectX and run that. It's free to use for home users. Next, download Etrecheck and run that. It will give you a rundown of major and minor issues. If you can post a list of those, we can look them over to see what it has to say.

Some other troubleshooting that can be done would be to reset the SMC; use Onyx to run some routine maintenance and cache cleaning tasks; and maybe boot into safe mode and see if you are able to run the MacBook without it blacking out.

 

[MBAmtloin]

there are a lot of things you can do to check to see the condition of your laptop.
here are a few:
see if an older OSX runs smother, just see before throwing away or repairing the MacBook.
and i read youtube loves hogging cache space on out Macbooks, which can be a problem with the fans, so iTunes or another music app might help.
i would perform non-RAM dependent tasks just to see if your laptop is functioning.
of course zapping the PRAM and SCRAM will help reset your MacBook.

keep us updated, we like these machines!

 

[remadepreacher]

It's hard to say what's happening. To start, since you think you have malware, download DetectX and run that. It's free to use for home users. Next, download Etrecheck and run that. It will give you a rundown of major and minor issues. If you can post a list of those, we can look them over to see what it has to say.

Some other troubleshooting that can be done would be to reset the SMC; use Onyx to run some routine maintenance and cache cleaning tasks; and maybe boot into safe mode and see if you are able to run the MacBook without it blacking out.

I've seen no sign of the malware after the clean install. Will check out how to reset the SMC and Onyx.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I've seen no sign of the malware after the clean install. Will check out how to reset the SMC and Onyx.

I wouldn't take it for granted. If you infected yourself once, you can do it again. It's trivial to double check. Links to DetectX and Onyx are in my signature. SMC reset:
How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

 

[remadepreacher]

Ok, there's a new clue this morning. I was sitting and it blacked out again when the power supply came off. It came back in half a minute and showed 1% power, even though it had been plugged in. I notice it did not seem to charge as quickly as usual so I closed it up and let it charge a while and it was back to charging speed. I'm going to try two things. 1. I'll stay off youtube awhile and see if it is charging well again. 2. My wife has the same model so I will switch the power supply.

 

[MBAmtloin]

these MacBooks are great, fun and intuitive but have sub par power supply system, I am on my 3rd this year since 2010.
hopefully this is the problem.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Ok, there's a new clue this morning. I was sitting and it blacked out again when the power supply came off. It came back in half a minute and showed 1% power, even though it had been plugged in. I notice it did not seem to charge as quickly as usual so I closed it up and let it charge a while and it was back to charging speed. I'm going to try two things. 1. I'll stay off youtube awhile and see if it is charging well again. 2. My wife has the same model so I will switch the power supply.

Hmmmm.... so you are thinking that the power brick isn't charging your MacBook fast enough while using it? That's a distinct possibility. Is it the original or a 3rd party? Another possibility is that the battery is going belly up. Either of these sound most likely the problem at hand. Download coconutBattery and see what it has to say about the health of your battery.
coconutBattery 3.8.2 - by coconut-flavour.com

 

[remadepreacher]

Hmmmm.... so you are thinking that the power brick isn't charging your MacBook fast enough while using it? That's a distinct possibility. Is it the original or a 3rd party? Another possibility is that the battery is going belly up. Either of these sound most likely the problem at hand. Download coconutBattery and see what it has to say about the health of your battery.
coconutBattery 3.8.2 - by coconut-flavour.com

Thanks, Life, for recommending coconut. It shows the battery status to be good. It also shows exactly what is happening with charging. When I first started coconut it showed the power supply was charging at about 24 watts. But bend it's wire around a bit and it drops to as low as 9.66 watts then remaining at 16-17 watts after straightening. With youtube playing, I suspect the power consumed is a good bit more than the lower amount.

Thanks all for contributing to the conversation.

 

[remadepreacher]

Oh, and I know the cause of failure in the power supply. My wife tends to use hers in bed and it gets caught under the covers. I've tried to reminding her to pull the covers off and not pull on the chord but she still does it.