# "Are you sure you want to shut down your computer" randomly appearing



## computerdolt (May 11, 2010)

I'm a lawyer and have has may MacBook Pro since last December and it has been rock solid. This morning it decides that it will not start up and crashes after the grey apple logo screen appears. For some reason it seems to start up fine if I hold down the power button the entire time through start up. 

I use this computer strictly for work and have installed very few applications on it, but all of a sudden it will ask if I want to shut down my computer, and if I don't hit cancel it will shut off within three seconds of the message appearing. Are there any safe diagnostic tools I could run to determine if I have some sort of problem? Or is this simply some king of hardware malfunction associated with the power button?

thanks


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## computerdolt (May 11, 2010)

I found out what is going on with my computer. I was getting frustrated because, if I used the washroom or went to greet a client in the waiting room, the computer would be off when I returned. The same is the case during start up. If I pressed power and waited for the computer to turn on, it would always make it the same amount of time before it shut itself off. I brought up the dash board and timed how long it took from the time I removed my hands from the keyboard until it shut off and it was always 10 seconds exactly.

Any idea how to get into the power saver settings and correct this? Aside form that, is this symptomatic of a known virus?


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

You could try resetting the SMC: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964


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## computerdolt (May 11, 2010)

Yes. I've tried all of the more rudimentary fixes available. I'm running on AV power right now without any problems (for far), but I need to be able to work using battery power especially if I am on the run or in the courthouse.

Any idea how to fix this sort of issue? It seems to be some sort of system setting or power saving mechanism that's gone wrong. I think I have the OS X disk here, but I don't want to lose anything by re-installing or doing a system repair. Unfortunately I neglected to set up the time machine when I bought the computer.

Any suggestions?


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

If you are running now, and have an external HD, you can enable Time Machine anytime.

Depending how full your HD is, the newer Disk Utility can do non-destructive partitioning. You could create another partition, install a clean OS and see if the problem still occurs. (Depending on disk usage you can also use this to backup, re-install, and restore.)

Are you saying this only happens when using battery power?


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## computerdolt (May 11, 2010)

I have no external HD at the moment, but will be getting one in the future.

Yes, this only happens when I'm on battery power. It may happen when on AV power, but the screen takes a very long time to dim, so it has never been a problem.


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