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)
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60 comments.
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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
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