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reemas · May 2, 2004, 01:47 AM

I just got a new 15 inch recently. Im new to macs and its nice, but the thing is FIRE hot. after an hour of garageband or anything, even safari, i can almost burn my skin with, is that normal?

also, garageband isnt as smooth as i'd hoped. i got the fully decked out 15 inch with 512 DDR RAM. any ideas how to improve performance?

lastly, if apple makes such quality products and is compared to "bmw" or other high end products, why a lousy 1 year warranty? why not 3 years if these parts are so good?

Justin216 · May 2, 2004, 08:15 AM

First off, 512 Ram doesn't really cut it for OSX. Think of upgrading to a gig of ram. On your warranty issue, you can get 3 year warranty, which is purchasable within one year of your computer purchase, AppleCare. Hope this clears up your issues.

claughery · May 2, 2004, 09:25 AM

All I can say is... HAVE A LITTLE FAITH... I know it will take some adjusting to... BUT you will be rewarded...
Also- Go for the 1gb of ram :-)

BrunoBruin · May 2, 2004, 12:07 PM

Originally posted by reemas:
also, garageband isnt as smooth as i'd hoped. i got the fully decked out 15 inch with 512 DDR RAM. any ideas how to improve performance?

GarageBand is a noted hog. It's the ONLY application that makes my PowerBook fan come on. Make sure you have downloaded the updater (I believe you should be at version 1.0.1, run Software Update if you're not), and also make sure your processor preferences are set to "Highest." (System Preferences > Energy Saver > Options)

bcaslis · May 2, 2004, 12:20 PM

A couple of things, is this on AC or battery? It shouldn't get that hot on battery. The second thing is go to System Preferences -> Energy saver. Under options you can set performance to things like reduced, automatic, or highest. If you have it set to highest than it will run much hotter. Not also that you can put in different settings for battery or AC.

If you are running CPU intensive apps you can run highest but don't be surprised that it runs hot. For many things however automatic will be fine and the machine will run much cooler.

sbc · May 2, 2004, 01:01 PM

How are are we talking about here? I'm getting a bit skeptical here. I've used a Dell 600 and over a couple of hours I could feel the unit getting warm (left wrist area) but never got uncomfortable. Is the heat on the 15" to a point where its cumbersome?

bcaslis · May 2, 2004, 01:26 PM

I'm assuming the original poster is talking about the bottom of the PowerBook. All the aluminums can get warm/hot on the bottom if running full tilt for a long period of time. However under normal use they are cool/only slightly warm most of the time.

0s and 1s · May 2, 2004, 01:41 PM

First off, is the AC or the battery running? Second, are you using the laptop on top of a bed???

reemas · May 2, 2004, 04:49 PM

hi.
it gets hot on the bottom and i was running mainly off battery but i was switching to ac occasionally. ill try other preferences and see how it goes. for the most part its usually warm, but with garage band it was BURNING hot. i had to put a pillow on my legs otherwsie i'd be posting from the hospital.