MacBook Pro Problems - March 18, 2006
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
posted by Sahas Katta in Hardware & Reviews
on 3/18/2006 at 12:11 PM with Comments (60) & TrackPings (1)
Search
Share This
Recent Posts
- November 2008 - Wii/PS3/360 Games
- Microsoft Updates The Zune
- Logitech MX 1100 Mouse Reviewed
- Acer Aspire One Review
- Nvision 08: A Future Of 3D Gaming
- Nvision 08: Audi Navigation
- Nvision 2008: Keynote
- Lenovo Taking IdeaPad S10 Pre-Orders
- MS Office Ultimate Deal Is Back!
- The Official PS3 Wireless Keypad
Categories
- News
- Site News
- Software
- Tips & Tweaks
- Deals
- Podcasts
- Hacking
- Reviews
- Business
- Entertainment
- Hardware
- Gaming
- Autos
- Mobile
- Internet
- Accessories
Archives
- November 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- View All +
Subscribe
Write a Comment.
60 comments.
Terc says
I read visit your site daily, but I was a little dissapointed with this review. The front row issue has apparently been addressed. Critisizing for a touchpad issue that would be fixed by taking it to an apple store is really not fair either. I’m no mac fanboy, and that hissing issue bothers me still, but maybe you could be a little more fair.
sahas says
Hey Terc, we just wrote our experience with this unit. I was not aware that the front row issue has been addressed. Please provide a link to more information on that, we always want to be informed on what we write. I also seen a few articles on some “Mac blogs” that stated that there were a lot of touchpad issues, so I assumed I was not alone. We are getting our MacBook replaced as soon as we can & when we do we will be sure to put up a new review. If you see any other discrepancies with this post please let me know & I’ll be happy to fix it.
Terc says
Here’s a link for you. Sounds as though it’s exactly the issues you were having. http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1536
as far as the touchpad, you’re right, I’ve missed those. I’ve been pretty excited about the intel macs, now that xp is running on them I’ve been looking into getting one. Just wanted to say though, thanks for such a great site.
-Terc
Zac says
Another issue that I have heard about and seen is a big problem with the magnetic power cord. This cord seemed to burst into flames on someones Macbook. More info here at Gizmodo
Scott Stevenson says
This sounds like maybe it’s a defective/damaged unit more than “Rev A” issues? Hissing sound aside, the machine is fast.
Todd says
Hissing sound aside, the machine doesn’t feel any faster than my 12 inch powerbook. And also hissing aside, that doesn’t explain my wi-fi connection getting dropped repeatedly, my mouse freezing up constantly when I have “ignore accidental trackpad input” enabled, and the 50/50 chance that when I try to wake my MacBook up from sleep, that it won’t wake up and I have to force-shutdown, then restart. On top of that, five system crashes, just sitting idle doing nothing, in five days. That’s more crashes than I’ve had in the last 1-1/2 years with my Powerbook. Sorry, but lets be fair and say it like it is. Lets not kid outselves into thinking this is some kind of magic MacBook. It has plenty of issues, and honestly, using apps doesn’t feel fast, like we have been told this processor is supposed to do to everything. Launching Mac Mail opens the Mail window almost instantly, which feels faster, but then it is frozen up for a while until you can do anything with it! So, that’s not faster. Lastly, like someone said above, the 15 inch MacBook Pro is 3 inches wider than the 12 inch Powerbook. Before you say, duh, 15-12=3, remember that this is supposed to be diagonal. The MacBook is really large. Too large to pick up with one hand, like a book, and walk around the house, like you can the 12 inch Powerbook. It’s too big for a middle-size laptop. It honestly feels like a 17.
On the positive side, the screen is very nice. But that’s really about it for the positives. Sorry, but true.
I’ve returned two MacBooks so far. Both had the same problems.
Mx says
I’ve been searching for reviews of the MBP, but found very few that were detailed and balanced enough to form an educated decision. So, I decided to take a plunge and buy one, test it out for some time and then decide if I want to keep it.
The configuration I got was: MBP 2.0 / 1GB / 100GB. Here’s my $0.02:
The presentation, look and feel are great initially. The casing is sturdy, the keyboard is excellent, and the trackpad and mouse button are great. Some of the softare is quite neat (e.g. expose, search functions, remote controllable audio/visual), and some freeware is great (e.g. QuickSilver, TinkerTools). The usability / productivity turned out to be less than anticipated.
I was very well aware of the “whine” issue, and researched it enough to find out that it its various variants it is related to a faulty inverter for the display and a faulty logic board used with the Core Duo. Some users have reported getting Apple to tacitly acknowledge the problem and begin replacing the faulty components.
In practice, the notorious whine can be an issue, depending on how sensitive your hearing is, and/or when your MBP was manufactured. People who haven’t yet lost hearing in the upper register (e.g. women and younger men) can hear the whine very well and are quite irritated by it. Older people and those desensitized by 5-hours a day of iPod use cannot.
I’m in the former category, and find the “whine” or “hiss” to be at a particularly irritating frequency that makes it rather unbearable, despite its low overall volume.
I had to download QuietMBP to silence the machine. This is probably the best / least processor intensive “fix” that’s been documented in the user community. However, it does decrease the battery life by about 30 minutes. This is out of a total of 2.5 - 3 hours on average display brightness, bluetooth off, wireless internet on. (I had conditioned the battery as per instructions.)
In use, whether plugged in or on battery power, on whatever performance setting, with much less than 10% average processor intensity, the laptop still got quite hot. Around the area where the screen meets the laptop it was simply too hot to touch. Elsewhere, the keyboard and palm-rests were hot enough to make my hands sweat constantly, leaving visible salt deposits over the silver surface.
Finally, I’d like to say a few words about using Mac OS for professionals and others that are considering switching from Windows XP.
I had used a Mac in 1990’s, and didn’t mind it at all - actually preferred it to a PC. Since then, however, most of my professional experience/use (I’m in science/technology/academics) has been mostly on Windows (95 and XP). The majority of programs I are available or have equivalents on a Mac, with a few notable exceptions: Microcal Origin, AutoCAD, and some others. My workhorse applications are Word, PowerPoint, and Acrobat. Despite being well aware of the benefits of the TeX variants for typesetting, and the great advances in the OpenOffice applications (all of which I have tried and use on occasion) if you collaborate with enough people, Word and PowerPoint are indispensible; that’s just a fact.
I found that about half of my PowerPoint slides are not displayed properly on the MacBook Pro. The problems range from having the text garbled and plot labels misplaced, to colors mixed up and some plots / figures not showing up at all. These issues carry over to Word as well. In general, I’ve experienced multiple problems with conversion of slides and Word documents to PDF on the Mac. While the PC experience is by no means trouble-free in that regard, I’ve gotten a pretty good understanding of what happens and have gotten very good results on Windows. Less luck on the Mac OS. If you deal with these programs regularly, you’ll find that switching over can be a major hassle. Furthermore, if you collaborate with enough people that don’t use a Mac (which seem to make up about 90% of computer users), this will be a problem.
Another usability issue that is also highly user-dependent, is the display / text rendering. The technical term is Anti-aliasing (feel free to google for an explanation) and it can either be a non-issue, or drive you nuts. The short of it is that to me, the text on a Mac always looked “fuzzy”. I learned to fiddle with the anti-aliasing settings in the OS to minimize this effect, and recommend a program called TinkerTools for greater flexibility with the settings. (Among other things, it lets you relocate the Dock.) Still, the display quality falls short of the glossy offerings by Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and matte displays of IBM and… well, pretty much everyone else in the business.
The connectivity and synchronization options are fairly limited for switchers, and I feel that Microsoft and Apple are equally guilty of this. Still this doesn’t help solve the problem. For example, chances are that your SmartPhone device won’t sync easily with a Mac, and your MS Outlook calendar and contacts cannot be read by MS Entourage (made by the same company, mind!) or iCal. I found Mark/Space - a $40 program that let me transfer my Outlook info from my Audiovox SMT5600 SmartPhone. Since the phone syncs seamlessly with Windows, it served as my vehicle for porting all the vital info.
I cannot identify a single issue that was the deal-breaker for me. Rather, the combination of high-pitch noise, heat, poor battery life, file conversion issues, and the hefty price tag made me return the computer. Perhaps the most irritating aspect of the experience is the blithe manner in which Apple Geniuses and the tech persons on the phone tended to dismiss my (politely worded) concerns.
As of now, I’m back to my 3-pound ultraportable with a 133 dpi x-brite screen and 7 hour battery life. After nearly 2 years of heavy daily use the keyboard is finally starting to feel a bit cramped, and I’ll have to get myself a bigger laptop… Sony SZ and ThinkPad T43 come to mind, and I’d welcome any recommendations :-)
FIX: Apologies… one paragraph above unintentionally conflates the issue of anti-aliasing and screen quality. (Couldn’t find the edit function.) What I meant to say was that I haven’t been able to find a good solution to the text rendering problem on the Mac OS (and many people seem to have the same issue).
Only somewhat related to that is the issue of the contrast ratio on the typical matte LCD and the newer glossy versions. I find the latter far superior, for both graphic-intensive uses, and for text editing.
Jonathan says
I think you’re just unlucky. I have had zero of the problems that you have had with your Macbook, and neither have any of my friends and other people I know that have order one. It sounds liked you decided you were going to find problems with it before you even received it. By the way, if anybody wants the truth, its takes approx. 1.5 seconds to open iTunes on a MacBook.
Brian says
I had my MBP for all of three days and had massive failure - after 3 weeks they finally replaced both the faulty logic board and the LCD screen. No apologies from Mac, poor customer service - the whine is annoying. Not half as fast as promised. I am now fighting to return it.
Lance says
As I mentioned on TUAW: The left side of my MBP has a very quiet but noticeable fan-like whirl on all the time. I took it in to SF “Genius” Bar and they said that it is either the fan, processor, or hard drive - couldn’t say which!!! - and completely normal. All of their power books have the same noise they told me and all their new MBP’s. An irritating bunch there. They also give out the lie to potential customers of MBPs that the machine is only hot because they have to stay on all the time in the store (”since 9 AM …etc”). Unbelievable!
My MBP also accesses (briefly spins up) the optical drive when you turn it on, restart, wake from sleep, or load iDVD.
Both noises are soft and I guess tolerable, but at this high-end cost shouldn’t have to be tolerated.
Klaus says
I have a MacBook Pro since three weeks: I am very satisfied. Maybe this is of newer production and has already some of the early issues fixed.
Compared to my iMAC G5 and the IBM ThinkPad notebook I use at work it feels very fast. Also, it is the most silent computer of all three (yes: there IS noice).
I can confirm it is getting warm, but for me this is no issue (still below my “pain” threshold but at the limit to use it on the lap).
Trejkaz says
“For example, chances are that your SmartPhone device won’t sync easily with a Mac…”
You’re kidding, right? My Sony Ericsson P900, which I had endless trouble syncing *at all* on both Windows and Linux, synced out of the box with iSync. I don’t think this is a terribly mainstream phone, either. On the contrary, UIQ phones seem to be mostly ignored in the software market.
Dave F says
I have the same spec MacBook Pro and with photoshop and iPhoto open, iTunes opens in under 2 seconds, and Safari is almost instant. It’s stunningly fast.
Alex says
I removed the whine in my macbook this way:
open the terminal an copy/paste the following 2 lines:
mkdir /backup
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext /backup
type your password, reboot…
The whine disappear on my macbook.
bye
alex
Alex M says
hi
i have had a macbook pro now for just over 2 weeks, i am now sending it back. The main problem i have with it is the fact that the airport extreme is very temperamental, also it overheats very quickly usually within 10 minutes and it begins to burn. I have experienced any other problems as well such as the use of the built in webcam, i bought it under the belief that i would be able to use it in conjunction with instant messaging programs such as msn or aim, however it is only able to do this with apples own instant messaging program which isnt a fault of apple it is a problem with having a built in webcam if anyone is cosidering buying a macbook pro.
Overall i have not been best pleased with this purchase and do not reccomend to anyone buying a unit till all of these problems have been addressed!
Trejkaz says
You may have missed the news Alex M, but most of these issues *were* addressed in Rev.C and later. Mine is apparently a Rev.E so it has no major issues, just the whine. If yours is earlier then replace it. But don’t warn people off if the problems have already been fixed in any model they’re likely to obtain.
Ronnie says
Let me say how happy it was to see this thread. I’m on my second MacBook Pro, as the first was returned to the Apple store, and when they saw what was happening (it was so bad that I didn’t even have to worry about it not doing what it does at home). The Genius Bar guys shook their heads, said “yeah, there’s something wrong with this” Replaced without question.
So I get my second MacBook (typing from it now in the Apple Store), and I have some of the same problems. Same exact issues as Todd above relative to the system crashing. I leave the laptop on, go to lunch, and have to reboot when I come back because it will not ‘wake up’ via mouse or key input.
Powerpoint: WHERE DO I START? Abysmal. If you have any graphics of size, it takes up to 20 seconds to advance between slides. Was the same with previous MacBook. And when the Tech guy here tried the presentation I had on another MacBook in the store, same issue. I’m about to buy Keynote, as I can’t wait around for Apple/MS to fix this…
Thanks
Charles says
I just bought a brand new Macbook and was very disappointed with the quality of the unit - the lid with the display portion of the cover was actually warped (gap where 2 quarters would comfortably fit in) and neither Apple or the reseller will replace it - even though I just took it out of the box. Is this quality and customer service you would expect from Apple?
Very disappointed customer.
Davor Pavuna says
I confirm that MacBook Pro that I received in SWITZERLAND around March 30th has all aforementioned problems like: does NOT wake from the sleep and you have to force start the system (10.4.6.).
I didn’t notice any problems with Powerpoint but didn’t test it … the DVD drive often swirls … NO, it is not lighteningly fast either …in short, the Apple representative told me they will accept it back as apparently there are some faulty series !?!?!
Anthony Roy says
I have had my MacBook Pro for 1 week - using it professionally as a consultant, on 14 hours a day, running latest OSx release, latest firmware, etc. Here is my feedback:
1) Noise- very slight noise when on battery power, have to put my ear on the machine to hear. Quietest laptop I have ever had, and I have owned 1 Dell, 3 IBM and 1 Toshiba.
2) Speed: Universal binary apps (mail, address, keynote, pages, etc) are very fast and smooth. Open office on X11 is quick and responsive once loaded. Word/powerpoint/excel are not faster than on a typical older machine - quite usable, but not any faster. I think when the universal binary version comes out they will be much faster, if the other apps are anything to go by.
3) Wireless: still working out the configuration issues but successful to both public hotspots and my older linksys router at home. Takes a bit of trial and error to determine which settings both ends like - I have had similar config issues with every single wireless device I have ever used. Works fine once set up.
4) sleep issues: none.
5) Lid fit: not great, 1.5mm space on one side, due to slight bow in base, lid is true. Worth swaping for ? nope.
6) Heat: warm on bottom, top is fine. My old Dell used to heat up right under your left hand!
7) Overall as first time Mac user, great machine, cool apps, and if I need a windows program — now I have BootCamp.
My advice: what apps do you use? if available in UB, go for it. If not, wait until the apps come out. the purpose of the machine is to do stuff.
Gary Sanderson says
I’ve just bought a Rev D (I believe) MacBook Pro with serial number starting W8611. It’s a standard spec 2Ghz/1GB machine and although I had already read many comments about the various ‘issues’ I thought I’d go ahead anyway.
I had no real issues with heat or backlight/TFT brightness but on the first evening of using it in a quiet room did notice a background ‘hiss’. Did a bit of digging around blogs etc and narrowed it down to the logic board hiss rather than the TFT/inverter problem.
I downloaded and tried the QuietMBP prog which sorted it completely but I also read somewhere about a firmware update which can be found here:
[Bad Link Removed, Try http://www.apple.com/support/ ]
Ran this and the after the reboot it reported I had version 1.0.0 and the hiss was completely gone.
Hope this helps some of you folks.
Regards, Gary.
Gary Sanderson says
Apologies but it seems I may have jumped the gun a little there. The problem hasn’t been fixed by the update at all - my Apple wireless mouse which I started using after the update and just stopped using was actually ‘fixing’ or hiding the problem.
Using the mouse does make the machine silent though :-/
Jack says
Has anyone been able to run AutoCAD in XP on a MBP yet? Currently I have an Imac G5 at home and a Dell Inpirion for the sole purpose of drafting. I haven’t yet bought a MBP because I am waiting to see if others have had success with AutoCAD.
Also, I have to say that I think that some of the comments on this site are a little harsh. In my opinion you have to expect that there will be bugs in the initial releases of any hardware; if you really want a flawless machine then wait a few months…
Jon T says
I have just had one week with my MacBook Pro and reading all the above comments I may not have bought it had I read this 10 days ago! All I can say is that I am completely and utterly delighted with it. Using Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Bridge, iLife, Safari, Mail, NoteTaker and all is well. It is silent (but hot), it has synced with my Treo and all my diaries, and 3,000 names and addresses are all up to date on both machines. If anyone is deliberating, I would say go for it. These bugs being talked about here are short lived and this machine is a dream. It is by far the best computer I have ever used, laptop or desktop, and I just love it it to bits.
Marc says
Has anyone had problems with the new magnetic power cord on the powerbook, mine worked fine for the first 2 weeks , now it won’t charge without lots of pressure being put on the connection point?
Amy says
I am a Graphic Designer and needed a new computer as we were hiring someone else for our department and gave her my tower. I did some research and everyone told me not to buy the macbook pro. Well, I bought it anyways, and I LOVE IT! I am having an issue with it right now but I need the disks which I left at work and then it will be fine. I do not have any hissing problems. Only thing I noticed is that it does get hot, but not too hot, at least not yet :) Everyone I talked to told me that I would not be able to run the adobe products on it. I have had absolutely no problems with this machine as far as that goes either. Only issues I have are with airport and trying to get onto my servers from work, I need to download an smtp (or something like that) and we’re going to do that tomorrow and that should fix that one. I absolutely love my macbook pro. I wish I would have waited two weeks and I could have got the 17″, but other than that its faster than my tower was, and I can take it with me anywhere. Its an awesome computer. As with anything new, and old, there are always a few that have problems, and it seems to me that those problems are posted more than the praises. So this is a macbook pro praise report. I got the 2.16GH and 2GB hard drive, its very fast and reliable. My power cord has not caught on fire on me, I don’t have hissing problems, i love the LCD screen, its very bright and crystal clear. I highly recommend this machine!
Fred says
I have a new MBP and when I try to hook it to my projector and show Powepoint slides it will not show the slides correctly then turn off. I have sent it to Apple and they have replaced the motherboard and the video card, but it still occurs. Does anyone know if this is a software or a hardware problem?
Surgeon says
Hi, experienced a very weird event to my MBP, the screen went fade out on the right side! .. i took it to customer service, they said it was the lamp! and they imediatly order a display 4 replacement.. after a while, curiously after i upgrade firmware, the screen became brighter on the faulty side! and all looks okay now!…this is really weird! i hate to go here and there and see this thing happening!.. Its really sad because i did not experienced much of the hissing and noise, etc… only the heat thought! .. about the Apple remote, that happened to me also! the problem is the remote! they changed imediatly 2 a new one, works fine now.. the menu takes no more than 2 seconds to respond now… I also tried to install windows on the MBP, and it works great, but i had some issues afterwards regarding data that was beeing influenced or somewhat corrupted, maybe by beeing in the same disk.. maybe was the formating mode “i used FAT” like: a stickie note that i wrote before installing windows.. after install Win and go to osx, Stickies.app took around 4 min to load and accessing disk!!! impressive huh?…weridly after i deleted the note and run stickies, it was fast again “3seconds loading!. i deleted windows now.. i guess i will wait 4 the new OSX for that.. not reliable still “i think!”… Hey! thats what you get when you are the Lab Rat!
Bernard says
Have a MacBook pro and installed Adobe Acrobat 7.0 standard…, it work fine for 2 weeks but when I tried using it last week, just after I made the last apple recomanded update, my computer frooze I did a hard boot,… and it did not want to restart without freezing up instanly…, called Apple and they told me to reload os X, which I did, that seamed to fix the problem, but then when I tried to used my acrobat, the compuer frooze again.. remove the sofware so that I would crash my computer again, but just notice today that after my reload, the last security up date had to be redone, therefore making me doubt that the update was responsible for my problem…
My Question is, is this a Mac Book Pro problem or a Acrobad problem ??
Sotiri says
I’m a Graphic Designer using a MBP, yes I have the hissing and the heating issues, but what REALLY p*sses me off is when using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS2. One will always crash! Any other designers having CS2 crashing issues on their MBP? Also, CS2 runs damn slow compared to my old G4 desktop. The MBP is suppossed to be 4x faster… but I’m not seeing it, all I see is the spinning colour wheel… a lot!
mastermoe says
Sotiri, CS2 is slower on the MBP than the PowerBppk because the application does not support the Intel processor yet. It’s running through Rosetta which translates all the instructions back and forth; hence the coloured wheel you’re seeing quite often. Adobe’s next photoshop version should support the Intel processor.
Rayjay says
Hi, I have the MBP and I am having a problem with Flash Professional 8. Flash on the MBP runs really slow. Can anyone help me? Besides that I like my MBP. I do have problems with the heat and sometimes it might lag in front row, but that’s it. Thanks if anyone can help.
Rj
Victor says
After reading countless (ok, probably 30) different websites with reviews and general comments about the Macbook Pro/nonPro, it all comes to the same conclusion: this is the first release of a new technology, and as such, it has a lot of bugs that will be corrected over time.
Apple created an outstanding product which improved anything they had before (which does not mean it is revolutionary, as many other computers perform the same tasks since a while ago).
The fact that there are so many people complaining about the same issues is the biggest proof of this. There are (very luck) users who have not faced the heat/noise problems and try to invalidate whoever that does. These issues exist.
I was very close to purchase a Macbook Pro, and disregard the issues. I decided not to be a paying tester (we seem to be part of the Beta Generation, as much of the mainstream software and hardware on the Internet is either in Beta or Gamma phase).
Yes, Windows is buggy, but at least when you purchase it you know it before hand, so you go for a reduced price device and are prepared to work around it.
Apple is offering a fairly overpriced product with which you have to gamble whether the device you take out of the box will be the faulty one or not. I am certain this will change, as it did with their Powerbook (up to date a very good product).
Trejkaz says
I see the trolls have arrived in force. People, this is June now. It’s no longer, as Victor puts it, the “first release of a new technology”. My own MBP, obtained in April, was no longer a “first release”, and exhibited only the whine (a problem which isn’t limited to Apple’s products — my Palm Tungsten T3 had the same issue, and Palm had the same opinion as Apple on the matter. In any case, I can’t imagine the kind of brain damage I would have to incur in order to think buying any Windows-based solution was anything other than a really bad idea.
Sotiri says
a “windows-based solution” is an oxymoron
Victor says
As usual, the problem starts when you marry to a single type of technology. If I were to believe that either Windows or Mac OS X are the single most reliable option in the computing market, I’d show I have a serious brain damage and would demonstrate my lack of knowledge about computing.
Apple themselves are pretty aware of that, considering that they decided to allow Windows as part of their systems. That was definitely a good move.
Intel Core Duo is a recent technology that will take some time to be as stable as the Pentium M. When Apple did the move to Intel from PowerPC, part of the “justification” (as if they need to justify what they do to anyone) was the heating issues of the core. They mentioned themselves that PowerPC would never be able to manage the heat as good as Intel. That is what shows this is a first release, because Mac OS X still cannot handle properly that issue whereas Windows already has experience in this (a MacBook Pro running Windows does not suffer the same problems that Mac OS X).
If there is people who believe they should pay (a rather large amount of money by the way) to test Apple products in their first generation, good on them. Myself I prefer to wait for the next generation (when there will certainly be value for money, after all that people who went ahead and purchased the product already dealt with most of the issues) that will be fully compatible with Mac OS X and even with Windows (as by them Boot Camp won’t be in beta anymore) and other Operating Systems.
Trejkaz says
Aaaahahahahaha. Boot Camp a good idea? Don’t make me laugh. It’s a great idea, as long as you never want to get back into OSX ever again.
Victor says
And you payed premium price for a product still in Beta and without most of its applications available for it to run on it natively, now that’s a smart move.
Trejkaz says
I don’t particularly care if 100% of the applications I never use aren’t able to be run natively.
Tusz says
It seems like theres a lot more problems with the macbook pros than with the macbooks. Am i right or am i right? i havent gotten my macbook yet but i ordered it two days ago. do you think that it wont have too many problems with it. I hope its ok.
sahas says
Honestly, my experience with both the MacBook Pro and Macbook have been negative. We purchased both of them to review and both of them had issues. We surely can not say that these products are bad, because if they were Apple wouldn’t be in bussiness today. But both machines we got had overheating issues and the Macbook had tons of system failures, WiFi card malfunctioning, and the list goes on. However most of these issues are claimed to have been fixed. I suggest that if you get a Macbook, make sure you test everything out in the first few days and if you find any issues you’ll still have a chance to return it.
Jesse says
I got a MacBook Pro 1.8GHz several months ago. I’ve used PC’s most of my life, although my first computer was Macintosh Plus.
While I’ve had a couple problems people have described, none of them have bothered me very much _except_ the HEAT issue. It’s infruiating that my hands sweat if I use the computer for longer than 15-20 minutes. In fact, my entire body starts sweating and I feel like I need to turn down my A/C after a while! No joke. It’s obviously due to the heat transfer into the metal casing. While the debate over this being a defect or not can be argued for eternity, it is _highly_ annoying and inexcusible for a laptop which costs this much.
My only other complaint is the fact that Adobe products (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc.) are not yet universal binaries. I use these products constantly for my job and their performance is absolutely horrid. While I was aware this would be an issue until Adobe releases the next version of these programs, it is very disappointing.
Otherwise.. I love it.
With sweaty palms,
Jesse
Trejkaz says
Won’t they let you exchange it? My MBP doesn’t have anywhere near that level of heat. The only thing it warms up is the underside.
sotiri says
Mine heated up so much it left burn marks on my hands… I took it back to Apple 4 days ago and still haven’t heard back from them. I’ll post their response when I get it.
Amy says
I have a comment on all the complaints about the adobe products. I am using the macbook pro and I don’t have any problems with any of these things you guys are all talking about and I’ve had mine since it was only 15″ display. If you guys are using the adobe products and they are crashing when you open more than one of them, well thats because you have more than one open and rosetta doesn’t like that all too much. But I have the 2GB hard drive, and the only time my programs crash is when I run microsoft programs, if I have word or excel or powerpoint open, then everything else crashes, but if I don’t have those open…its smooth sailing. I work with photoshop, indesign and illlustrator open at the same, and acrobat all while listening to my itunes and messing around in iPhotos, no problems at all, until I open the microsoft software. Doesn’t seem to me that the problem is adobe and the intel chip, i think its adobe and microsoft b/c i had that problem with my tower also.
I highly recommend having the 2gb processor though, when I went to the mac store, there was a lady there that uses the adobe products as well and everywhere else I looked it up said the same thing, as long as there’s enough processor speed, it should run fine (and it does), the problem is when it runs through rosetta it bogs down the processor, so if you have enough ram and processor speed, its smooth sailing.
Jesse says
A follow-up to some of the comments left after mine:
First off, everything I’ve read is that the heat issue I’m referring to is fairly typical for the MBP. However, if what Trejkaz says is true (that some don’t heat up except on the bottom), I may consider bringing it to an Apple store to see what can be done.
Regarding the Adobe comment from Amy above, I think there is half misunderstanding in my complaint and half of what you say I totally disagree with. For the first part, the Adobe products never crash on me (I never said they did). I said the performance was horrid and this is due to them not being universal binaries. They literally aren’t made to run on the Intel processor. The difference in speed between the 1.83GHz MBP and 2GHz MBP is negligible at best. I have 2GB of ram. Perhaps if you’re doing basic home-photo altering type stuff it runs fine for you, but I’m a professional graphic/web designer and perhaps I demand more. I use the identical Adobe products on my 3-year-old PC and they easily run twice as fast, with half as much RAM and a comparatively slower processor. The fact that Adobe products run horribly (meaning running MUCH slower than they should) under Intel-based Mac’s is one of the biggest complaints out there and happens to be my #2 if not my #1 complaint. I choose to do design work on my (somewhat) ancient PC instead of my brand new expensive MBP because of the performance, which is ridiculous.
All other programs I’ve updated to universal binaries from their previous PPC-based incarnations run nearly 2x as fast.. I can’t wait.
Chris says
I have had experience with 4 MBP’s now the newest ones only get half as hot as the first ones. (I can set the thing on my lap)
The battery died in my MBP within 4 months. the first signs extreme heat,
power failure,
airport cuts in and out,
noisy as hell,this started at 3 months
finally would not power on without being plugged-in.
I got a loner from the store while it was in for repair. It didn’t get too hot or have any of the original problems, but it scratched
1/2 the CD’s I put in to rip to iTunes.
When I got mine back (scratched up) it seemed fine for two weeks, now all the original problems are starting up again power failure airport loss heat, and they had replaced the battery.
It sickens me that I spent over $3000 on this computer including the warranty for a machine that has had more hardware problems than all the PCs’ I’ve owned combined.
The other two MBP’s I’ve used Where my Brothers. I talked him into a MBP before my problems aroused. He got a newer model and didn’t have the battery problems, but he got kernel errors. apple replaced it after 3 trips to the apple store. his newest one seems fine though he has not had it long enough to know for sure.
SO 1 in 4 problem free! NOT WORTH BUYING NOT YET!
PS: great OS. MY first apple leaps and bounds better than XP, the HARDWARE is CHEAP JUNK IN A PRETTY PACKAGE
Amy says
I wasn’t necessarily commenting on your complaint [jesse] just in general. I am a professional graphic designer/marketing director and I have no problems what-so-ever with my MBP, just offering my advice for those who want to buy them now…..I am doing WAY more than just home photo retouching…anyhow, just trying to give the macbook pro some praise. Its getting slammed on here and I think its a great product. From what I hear CS3 is set to come out in the spring so the adobe problems should go away for those who have them, fairly soon.
dana says
I got my macbook pro in july and it works great, i use adobe cs2 all the time and it only quits itself very occasionally otherwise it is fast. My one gets really hot, leaves read marks on my legs for 30 mins afterwards, i dont hear the fans come on either unless they are reallly quiet and on all the time so i dont notice them. Wondering if i have faulty fans. i do ha e hissing noises etc but not so loud really. i love it though, it works great!
Jesse says
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
Trejkaz says
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.
tusz says
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!
Luc Beaudoin says
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.
Hatchimoto Mishimuri says
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.
Luc says
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.
Trejkaz says
LOL @ the idea of a class action lawsuit because one guy decided to put his power cords in a dirty place.
Gregory Stein says
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. ???
Rachel says
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.
Trejkaz says
Pro-tip: if you feel something getting hot, don’t keep it on your leg until it burns you.
Rachel says
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.
1 trackback / pingbacks:
Skatter Tech » Apple - 17″ MacBook Pro (April 24, 2006)Leave a Comment