Apple Computer is offering a firmware update that the company claims will help alleviate random shutdown issues with its MacBook notebooks.

The Cupertino, Calif., computer maker posted the update—MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1—on its Web site Oct. 26. The update, according to Apple, will help a MacBook's internal monitoring system and stop the computer from shutting down at random.

"The SMC Update improves the MacBook's internal monitoring system and addresses issues with unexpected shutdowns. This update is recommended for all MacBook systems, including those that received warranty repair," according to the company's posting.

In August, the Web site macbookrandomshutdown.com began calling attention to the fact that several users of MacBooks had experienced problems with their notebooks.

The site is now receiving about 5,000 visitors a day and has totaled 100,000 page views since it launched on Aug. 15, according to site creator Matthew Swanson, who lives in Atlanta. Swanson started the site after his wife bought a new 2GHz MacBook for her business. About a month after the purchase, the MacBook began suffering from what Swanson calls "RSS"—Random Shutdown Syndrome.

After looking at the update, Swanson said he finds it interesting that Apple is offering a firmware update to fix what had been thought to be a hardware problem. The only thing we can think of is the firmware update will allow the MacBook to bypass recognizing there is a physical issue and let the OS continue running without 'randomly shutting down'—so our question is, Does this really fix the underlying problem?