What to Do When Mac Suddenly Shuts Down
There are times when your Mac will suddenly act unnaturally and behave abnormally. It’s not an enjoyable experience when this happens but in truth, any computer can experience issues. This includes high quality machines like Apple Macs. In some cases, it can be a small issue that can be simple to solve. However, in other cases it could be a serious device malfunction.
For instance, it could be that you accidentally dropped your Mac or spilled water on and short-circuited your motherboard. In which case, you will need to take your Mac for repairs. In fact, it is often for such reasons, that Mac owners are advised to invest on a protective laptop sleeve, as it does well to protect your device from any unexpected accidents. This is especially applicable to those who are constantly on the move, eg. campus students, or remote workers.
Either way, it is usually good to have some idea of how to solve the issue should something ever arise. And in some cases, one of the issues could be that your Mac has suddenly turned itself off without warning. Now, this is not a very common issue, but when it does happen it can be quite alarming and frightening. And chances are if you re reading this article then this is what has just happened to you. In which case, we are going to show you how you can quickly get your Mac back in working order.
Now, if your Mac suddenly shut down while disconnected from the wall charger, then chances are you are confused and worried. One of the first things that may come across your mind is whether your battery just died or not? Considering that the Mac was unplugged, it is possible that your battery just run out or perhaps your charger was not charging your Mac as well as you thought before.
However, in some cases, your battery may not be the culprit and it could actually be a software glitch that is causing the problem. This is actually an issue that a few Mac users have been seen online complaining about. As their devices just suddenly shut down immediately after being disconnected from the power source. And despite the battery being fully charged, the problem still occurs. In such cases, you end up with a Mac that can only remain active if connected to a wall charger, which can be a very stressful affair. After all, you can’t exactly carry a Mac around with you using a macbook pro leather sleeve if it’s constantly plugged in. It wouldn’t be much of a laptop, in that case, now would it?
Moreover, what usually makes the issue so disconcerting to begin with, is that there are rarely any warning signs before the problem shows up. As stated before, it’s possible that this could be due to a bad power cable that isn’t changing properly. Or a bad battery. This can happen either due to age degradation or perhaps you have been overworking your battery by charging to many external devices using your Mac.
In such cases, if you own an iPad for instance, then it is recommended to use an usb c hdmi hub. These hubs are useful in that they expand your iPad’s connectivity ports from just one to several. This means you can now directly charge your iPad. And also connect external devices, eg. storage drives, keyboards, monitors, at the same time. Plus, it will avoid any unnecessary stress on your Mac by using it as a charging station. However, even with that, Mac battery’s tend to tell you in advance that they need to be replaced, if they have an issue, so this can often be ruled out as a cause.
Solutions To Fix The Problem
While you may not be able to pinpoint the root cause of the issue very easily, don’t fret. As you can still solve the problem and get your Mac back up and running by using one of the solutions below.
- Check Your Battery Health
If you experience an unexpected shutdown, then the first thing is to check and confirm hat the battery is not the culprit. You can always check to see it’s working condition by heading to About This Mac > System Report > Power. From there, you should be able to see what the battery’s condition is. If the status says something other than Normal, then you may just need to replace your battery. Additionally, it’s possible that your Mac charger was not sufficiently charging your battery well enough. In which case, we would suggest investing in a new wall charger from a reliable brand like Lention. The USB-C chargers that they manufacture are not only universally compatible, but also highly dependable. Moreover, they are multi-functional and also fast-charging. Plus they also come with safety features to prevent risks of any power surges or blowouts damaging your Mac.
You can also opt to perform a hardware diagnostic check to confirm that all the hardware on your Mac is functioning correctly. You can do this by shutting down your Mac and then restarting it. Once the Apple logo shows up, hold down the D button, until a start-up prompt appears, then flow the provided instructions.
- Reset SMC
Another common reason why your Mac is behaving so strangely could be due to your SMC. If you don’t know what that is, it is the chip in your Mac that handles all the basic functions of your Mac eg. keyboard lighting, display brightness, power management, etc. So, it could be that a fault with the chip is causing your Mac to shut down unexpectedly. In which case, you can reset it by plugging in your power cable first. After which, simply hold down the Shift + Power + Control + Option buttons for roughly ten seconds. Once you see the light on your power cable change color, you will know that the reset was successful. This in turn should hopefully solve the issue completely.
If not, then you may need to take it to a certified repair shop for further assessment.
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