[Andrew Stephens]

Cos it does have some bad habits.

Openng the lid when it's sleeping and your fingers slip so the lid closes again always causes it to switch off.

Going home in the evening and quitting most of my open apps causes them all to stop responding so they all have to be force quitted, every day!

The fans are always always on, and boy are they noisy.

How stable AREN'T Indesign and Illustrator

Tabbing between apps takes at least 20 seconds, all the time

An install of the OS only lasts aroud two weeks before a kernal panic destroys so much of the system it needs reinstalling again

I'd like to be able to have more than one days uptime before things become so unstable and/or slow that I have restart.

All in all this is the first Mac I've had that I have absolutley no attachment to. It makes my life so difficult in small annoying ways.

/rant

[brother337]

How long have you had your MBP? Honestly, these don't sound like "little things" at all.

Have you run a full hardware scan? There might be a physical problem with your 'book.

I have a C2D and my fans aren't an issue, but I can't speak for the volume of the CD MBPs.

However, the constant kernel panics are a bad sign and 20 seconds to tab between apps sounds unusually excessive, though that might depend upon how much ram you have and if you're running 7 multimedia-type apps at once.

Regardless, your user experience sounds pretty extreme. If you still have the disks that came in the box, I'd highly recommend running a full hardware scan.

[slpdLoad]

Then do something about it. That is not normal behavior. Call up Apple support.

[larrinski]

Sounds like a MAJOR problem to me too... Maybe bad RAM. Take it in for a check up. It is probably under warranty.

[neyoung]

my machine does none of that. Since you have problems again after an OS reinstall, it sounds like a hardware problem.

[analogika]

your machine is ****ed up, and it's probably no the software.

What does the Apple Hardware Test say?

[zaghahzag]

yeah your machine is broken. None of what you describe is remotely normal. My machine had similar symptoms and it had some bad ram which apple promptly replaced.

Call them up. They'll get it fixed up for you.

[Leonard]

I assume he's joking or trolling, because I've never had a Mac that does any of that... well except when I screwed up my HD's directory, but I fixed that.

[cagljevic]

It doesn't sound to me as though his hardare is functioning properly, which all of you were quick to point out. What is interesting is how it takes about 2 weeks for kernel panics to surface. In my experience it is usually related to the systems ram. Did you install any aftermarket ram in your system? I have had a difficult time in the past with such upgrades and those usually resulted in kernel panics. The tabbing between windows delay would suggest you are running low on ram and is using your hd as swap. Laptop drives are slower than the usual desktop variety, but not so much to cause 20 seconds of delay. I would target the ram first to see if that is what is holding you back.

Mark

[peeb]

Yep - not normal - take it back to Apple and demand a fix / replacement.

[Tenacious Dyl]

Just like everyone else says, those aren't "little things" and those aren't characteristic of a macbook pro.

I had a 17" MacBook Pro, and even when I was doing video projects on it, where it would encode for multiple hours, with multiple apps open, I never had Kernal Panics result, crazy fans going on, or applications that stopped responding. Call apple / take it in.

[firefly]

I could add to this list of annoyances from experience with my MBP:

Apps unexpectedly quitting a bit too often

Hatred of Rosetta (Office is slow slow slow)

'Update Prebinding' hogs the machine for about 3 minutes every time I boot up

Boot Camp isn't reliable - then again it's beta...

Superdrive is a bit picky about some discs

Generally seems like the RAM-feasting Intel code needs some time to mature. At least things will be better for most once Adobe CS3 comes along.

[Andrew Stephens]

Hello

Thanks for all the input. I did home in on the RAM first off and indeed one chip did eventually fail, causing the mac to fail to boot at all. I swapped it out for some good quality Crucial RAM, so I now have 1gig of Apple original source and 1gig of crucial ram.

Kernal PAnics have subsided but still crop up from time to time. Interestingly it has developed a new foible. When I wake from sleep the screen looks like it is behind a thick grey fog, everything is dimm and blurred, then 5 or 6 little dots march along the bottom of the screen and it wakes up.

Still suffering from perpetual crashing while sleeping. Each night I have to struggle through closing apps off (or more accurately force quitting apps that stop responding when asked to quit - Illustrator and InDesign are by far the worst for this though Safari is good at it too), then when the mac finally sleeps the fans fans kick in. A hour later at home they are still running full blast and the mac is in fact not asleep but off.

Other than this it's still dog slow and the spinning beach ball has become my new best friend.

ah well. I'm going to try running some kind of graphic app that keeps track of memory etc (used to use ipulse ages ago) and try to see what's happening. I do have an indicastor of home stressed the cpu's are but even when it's totally bogged down and spinning like crazy the cpu's are only running at around 16/20%. I used to be able to get my old Ai book up to 80 odd% on big jobs but this one is never over 20%, and yet it just doesn't want to fly!

[peeb]

Originally Posted by Andrew Stephens 

Hello

Interestingly it has developed a new foible. When I wake from sleep the screen looks like it is behind a thick grey fog, everything is dimm and blurred, then 5 or 6 little dots march along the bottom of the screen and it wakes up.

This means it is waking from hibernation - the state of the computer has been saved to disk, most likely because the battery ran completely down.

I'll repeat, your computer is not behaving normally - take it back to Apple and insist they fix it, it is broken.

[Simon]

Dude, for the love of God, take it in. It's faulty. You're just wasting your time.

[Andrew Stephens]

I know...I know Im just dreading the 2 hours on the phone with Apple going through all their steps before they decide to take it in! And having to dig out an old mac to use in it's place while it's away!

Thanks all

[peeb]

Bite the bullet.

[buddy1065]

I would never use phone support if I am able to take it in, even if the store is a bit distant from me.

[CaptainHaddock]

Going by my own experience, you will not have to spend much time on the phone with Apple; they seem pretty quick and willing to take your word for it when you have hardware issues.

I have a new Macbook Pro with none of the issues you described*. A fully functioning MBP is definitely worth having!

*Except that Illustrator is a buggy program that will crash often no matter how good your Mac is.

[Andrew Stephens]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaddock 

*Except that Illustrator is a buggy program that will crash often no matter how good your Mac is.

That's so very true. Roll on CS3 - can't come fast enough!

[quattrokid73]

my CD MBP has none of those behaviors. dont be hesitant to go see Apple in person. I had a persistent sleep issue with my computer and I booked with the Genius Bar and they fixed it within 10 minutes and explained some useful stuff to me as well. Although it may be different bringing something in for repair, the staff at the King of Prussia Apple Store by me are always helpful--Not saying your store is like that, but it MIGHT be.

[peeb]

They almost certainly will be. The Apple Stores are all about user experience.