Tuesday night I finally had some free time and decided to install Vista Ultimate on my Macbook. My Parallels install of XP MCE 2005 is getting full and I needed to reinstall anyways. Well would you know my luck, less that 12 hours after I installed Vista, Apple releases a Vista compatible version of Boot Camp. Thank god its just an updated driver CD and I don’t have to repartition and reinstall.

I just wish Parallel’s supported Vista on a Boot Camp partition so I didn’t have to reboot but the only two things i really need Windows for is to watch Netflix streaming movies and Comic Collector Live. Its only a matter of time for Parallels supports it and I can wait.

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year. 2006 looks to be a great year, HD looks to be taking off with LCD HDTVs prices dropping faster than Paris Hilton in a homemade video. Xbox360 (finally on shelves), Playstation 3 and Revolution all dropping this year, should make it exciting in the gaming community. Hope PSP finally gets some �killer app� games as mine has been just sitting collecting dust. I have no use for $20 UMD movies. I really have no idea why UMD movies are so popular, why on earth would anyone want to watch a full length film on a screen that small is beyond me. I don�t think they are a bad idea, I�m just dumbfounded as to why they are more popular than games on the PSP. I have a couple of goals this year, first being to buy my first Mac, the plan is to pick up a Intel MacMini when they get released. I want to completely switch over to Mac for my desktop. Tho this might not happen because Windows Vista will be out this year and I�m going to definitely be all over that. I�ve really been trying to make MCE work in my home and want to see what they do in Vista MCE. Its not quite there yet in MCE 2005 for me, but I�m hoping with Vista and xbox360 it will finally be what Ive been looking for.

That was my first post of 2006. Let take a look back.

• 32″ HD LCD TVs can be found for $500 now
  Nintendo Revolution is now the Nintendo Wii
  PSP never got any “killer apps” and UMD died a horrible death
  Bought my first Mac but it was a Macbook and not a MacMini
  Made a complete switch to Apple
  Really have no interested in Microsoft Vista any longer
  Vista and Xbox360 have been replaced with me waiting for the Apple iTV now

Parallels Desktop for Mac was updated today to RC build 2.2.1884 and adds Mac Pro support, Leopard compatibly and Windows Vista support as a Guest OS. A full list of all the updates can be found here. I’ll be installing Vista RC1 tonight to check out how well its supported.

[Download here]

My Macbook has RSS, and I’m not talking about Really Simple Syndication. My 3 month old Macbook has recently started randomly rebooting itself. Random Shutdown Syndrome. It started 2 weeks ago, July 6th to exactly, out of no where. Outside of the discolored palm rests, the machine has been flawless.

For me it all started while I was installing Tiger on an external Firewire drive. Happened about 5-6 times that day, most of them in a row. I couldn’t get the system to boot until i reset the PMU. Since then I was installing Vista pre-RC1 using Boot Camp and it rebooted on me during the install there too. I can be surfing the web, reading rss, listen to music, or nothing at all. All of a sudden, BOOM! black screen. Hit the power button then BOOM! black screen again. This goes on for 3 or 4 tries before it will boot up usually. Right now I’m getting about 5 shutdowns a week but last night alone i had 3; 2 while inside Windows Vista.

It happens for while using Vista, OS X on 2 different internal drives, OS X on an external firewire so its not the operation system or software. I’ve used two different hard drives and two different set of memory chips. Does not matter. I did not have the problem prior to 10.4.7 but the update has nothing to do with it. The SMC firmware update, while helping my Macbook to run cooler, did not help or make it worst.

Here are come steps you can take to eliminate all troubleshooting:

1. If you have upgraded your RAM and/or Hard Drive, change them back to the stock components.
2. Back up your data and do a fresh install of Mac OS X from your install DVD.
3. Do a PMU reset. This involves removing the battery, disconnecting the AC adaptor then holding the Power button down for 5secs. replace the battey and connect the power supply back then restart the machine
4. Try resting the PRAM. Option-Command-P-R during startup until you here the chime 3 times.
5. With the battery and/or AC adaptor connected, hold down the Power Button for until you here a loud chime. This seems to help me when I cant get the system to boot.
6. After all this, startup a Terminal window and run the command “yes > /dev/null” then start another Terminal and run the same command. Let this run for about 15mins. Your Macbooks fans should kick in during this time. This will strain the CPUs and a lot of times you will get a shutdown during or shortly after this.
7. If your still having random reboots after all this, contact Applecare for a repair.

I’ve done all this and have yet to contact Applecare. My Macbook is my only computer and I reply on it for work and personal. I’ve been trying to find a older G4 machine, iBook or Mac Mini to hold me over while this would be away getting repaired but apparently Mac’s hold their value very well. I can’ seen to find anything reasonable to hold me over. So right now I’m kinda stuck and not sure what my next step is. According to the forums over at Apple, replacing the logic board doesn’t work and the problem will resurface. I had mine for 3 months before it started so who knows if people who aren’t having issues after a board replacement will see problems down the road.

I am not alone in this issue either.

Here are some links to others having the same problem:

• The Apple Blog
• The Apple Files
• www.macbookrandomshutdown.com
• Apple.com Fourms
• O’Grady

These are just a few. If anyone else is having this problem, drop me a comment and let me know how you made out or if anyone has a good deal on a Mac I could use as a replacement while this is back at Applecare, let me know.