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Despite all the articles of defective Mac Book Pros, we decided to order one. We were disappointed when we saw how many problems the unit had. The first problem encountered was the loud hissing sound, which occurs when the LCD‘s brightness was turned up all the way and the CPU wasn’t being put to work. The sounds didn’t seem too bothersome at first, but became extremely irritating after working with it for about 30 minutes. The biggest problem we ran into was with the touchpad. The touchpad on the unit we received was smashed in the top and was pushed off to the right. It wasn’t noticeable at first glance, but after working with it awkwardly for a few minutes we could tell that something was wrong.
With all the reports on its awesome performance, it was hard to believe how slow our 2.0GHz Dual Core Processor with 1GB of ram was running. For some reason it took us over 10 seconds just to launch iTunes with no other programs running. Apple’s new Front Row application was also quite slow and buggy. After pressing the “menu” button on the remote a few times, nothing happened. But after about five minutes it suddenly started to take in all the previous actions we had given it, making it go crazy. The computer also kept saying the DVDs we put in were corrupt until the 3rd time we restarted the machine. Apple has a lot of work to do with this.
With so many issues, I suggest that to anyone who plans to purchase a MacBook to wait until a “rev. b” is released. A new version soon should be expected soon if too many units are running into these problems. Note: Apple may have some big announcements on April 1, 2006, which is their 30th anniversary.
Links: MacBook Pro | TUAW Report
Recent: A Faster MacBook Pro
I took my MBP into the Apple store today just to see what they’d say.. and not surprisingly, the “Genius” gave me Apple’s official line on these issues, saying the heat is within normal specs, etc. This was even after we let it run with the CPU at 100% for 30 minutes (it was very warm). When I wouldn’t let the issue go, explaining it’s not acceptable that a laptop I paid over $2400 for in May would make my hands sweat all over the computer and make my body temp rise to the point I needed to adjust the A/C, he finally told me: “A lot of people are really pissed off about this. To be honest, they all get hot. There’s not much we can do.” He _did_ offer to send it off and see if they can “fix” anything, and I might take him up on that when I get back from a trip to NYC this week.
Amy — I understand your desire to give the MBP some praise and I don’t disagree. As I stated before, I love almost everything about this computer _except_ the heat issue and the fact Adobe products run like sh*t. I’m a bit surprised you think the performance is acceptable if you do web/graphic design for a living, as my 3 year old much-lower-spec PC runs all my Adobe products _much_ faster, as did the Dell laptop I replaced with this MBP. Perhaps I have high demands, but for what I paid for this laptop, I feel I’m entitled to that. I could have paid half as much for a PC that runs Adobe products faster and doesn’t have the heat issues. Besides, this blog post is called “MacBook Pro Problems”, so it’s natural that’s what we’re focusing on. I love the MBP enough that I want to stick it out for the Adobe updates and see what I can do about this heat issue..
The “genius” told me getting something like this pad may help with the heat issue, but I’m really skeptical..what do you guys think?
http://tinyurl.com/2k6f3q
To be fair, the fact that Adobe products don’t run as well as they might is actually the fault of Adobe. You can add it to the list of other issues with their software, the most annoying of which is that in Illustrator, you can’t scroll sideways using the same method you would use to scroll in any other application.
You must all be on drugs
ive had my macbook for tw weeks and have had none of the above problems
if i open EVERYTHING, and let it run for a few hours, it gets a little hot but it is quiet, cool, fast, hasnt crashed. i love it. You must all bbe really unlucky or just super picky!
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How do you know which rev you have? I assume it’s somewhere in the “about menu”. My airport is extremely flaky. It cut out after about 10 min too, but I think the cut only lasts a short while, but long enough for my server to boot me out and cause me to need to log back in.
Also, I’m not impressed by the display, but I hear it is a very common problem with other displays that use a common chip.
I have two MacBook Pro laptops, and have had serious problems with both mag power cords. Apple needs to go back to te drawing board on this. The connector collects dirt and the connectors simply stop working. One of the cords pulled out of the connector and I had to attempt to repair it myself since it was one week past warranty and a new one is so expensive. Looks like a class action lawsuit coming if they’re not recalled.
I haven’t run into the other listed problems. However, I have lots of trouble waking this unit from sleep. I have found that opening and closing the cover often resolves the issue. Sometimes I have been able to resolve it by unplugging and replugging USB devices.
LOL @ the idea of a class action lawsuit because one guy decided to put his power cords in a dirty place.
I bought a MBP 3 weeks ago and was a little disappointed with service both in San Franciso and Atlanta. I now have problems with the “Chess” feature. It opened up fine the first two times and now closes after my first move. ???
The first MBP I purchased came with a major system failure. After a half an hour on the phone with Apple tech support they agreed with me that I had gotten a bad machine. So I’m now on my second MBP and have had a few issues.
1) It got extremely hot and burned my leg. It also burned the power cord. They agreed to replace the first power cord but they said that the “laptop” was not meant to be used in the lap and because I was using it wrong by using it in my lap that they were not liable for any harm that has come to me.
One work to Apple Computer — McDonalds –when you knowingly make a product that harms people then you become liable for that harm.
They’ve had issues with their power supplies for years, I should know I worked at Apple for seven years. A coworker of mine had his house BURN down because his power supply overhead and caught fire. Apple does these things and knows about the problems but they have almost as many lawyers as they do engineers.
So beside my laptop burning my leg, I have had the computer get into a mode where it comes to halt, takes very long to restart and is not usable. Again, (being a former quality engineer) have tracked this down to the heat. When the unit is heating up and the fan is spinning (this is in a 68 degree F room), the system just cannot cope. It’s clear this unit has major problems and in searching the internet I’m not alone.
It’s not going to be long apple before you burn some child with your product and then the public will care enough about your dangerous product to take action.
Pro-tip: if you feel something getting hot, don’t keep it on your leg until it burns you.
Yah I would agree Trejkaz. Unfortunately I have a high pain tolerance and didn’t notice until I put away my laptop and noticed my leg was very hot and burned. The burn only lasted a week but still, I would hope they would have worked out their heat issues by now.
Rachel: I have a white macbook. It gets hot underneath but it takes quite a while to become so uncomfortable that you have to move it. It just stays VERY warm. Well, at that temp, it burned my daughters leg. It has been 2 months and it still wont go away. She said it was warm but not hot. Well, I have contacted apple and they took a “report” and have not called me back. TWICE. I am worried that this could be permanent damage. I do not want to be one of those people that sue. I want Apple to own up to the problem and show some concern. Any suggestions?
I was watching A DVD on Friday on my MacBook Pro; I paused it & closed the lid. When I opened it again in a couple of hours, the screen looked like someone shot it with a bullet. Apple accused me of closing the lid with something inside which I did not. They will not fix it. Does anyone know any recourse for me?