All these "problems" with the new 2011 MBP

Hi all,

To preface this post, I have never used an apple product before (not an iphone, ipad, etc) so I am very new to all this.

I'm looking at buying the the new MBP 17" 2.3 Quad. I will be replacing the HDD with a hybrid ssd (hope this wont be an issue with warranty, etc)

The issue I have before ordering is... I keep reading all these issues with the new MBP's with the screens freezing, really loud fan noise, heating issues...

I haven't really seen anything on these forums in relation to these but the apple forums are full of them.

Is this an issue with only a select number of macs or all of them? Or is it NOT an issue?

Thanks in advance for any info!

 

I think they didn't make the fans spin up fast enough and soon enough. The only "Screen Freeze" I've ben able to do is when the 6750 is running and I'm pushing the machine really hard, it can lock up the whole machine if the temp stays around 90º C for a few minutes. If I manually up the fans to max speed myself and not let the machine do it automatically, then it never has a problem.

And when you have a tiny little package like this with a lot of high heat producing items in it... fans and fan noise is common. its not any louder than any previous models fans.

swapping hard drives or memory will not change the machines warranty, unless they see you broke something while changing it.

 

enjoy your new hair dryer

 

1.) No screen freezing here.

2.) The fan gets a little louder than the 2010's when under load, but I'm finding the CPU stays cooler than the 2010's as well. I'll need to do more testing to verify that, but my CPU hasn't hit 90C in OS X. Flash would do that on my 2010, never mind video transcoding.

3.) No heat issues here. The temps are in line with last year's model if not slightly cooler.

as with anything with lots of parts and systems, "ymmv". go for it and best of luck to you.

 

since I blow dry my hair quite frequently... I know my 17" 2011 sounds no where near anything like that, but thanks for playing. It's barely louder than my 2010 13" MBP, and about the same as my 2008 15" MBP.... and really no louder than my 2006 Macbook Pro 15"

I think some people are having issues because they are using smcfancontrol, or Fan Control or some other program, and they migrated it over from an old machine, and its running wrong. I know when I first started using it, it would still let me spin my fans up to 6200 rpm like the old machine did, but its only supposed to be 5500 rpm on this model. It was also only spinning up one of the fans, not the other, and making the machine appear to be extremely hot and not cooling properly. i deleted the smcfancontrol plist and re-set it up, and it works great now. With me manually controlling the fans all within spec'd speeds The machine never gets over 85º, and its no louder than any other laptop with 2 fans spinning at 5500 rpm.

 

same here.

I just wish that were true under Windows.

 

Another thing to think about in terms of heat (which has already beed discussed) is that the MBP line is house in aluminum. That isn't the best insulator and will actually transfer more heat faster than typical notebooks (which are made of plastic). The common complain that I come across from non-MBP users is that they complain about the heat yet they are sitting there with a 1" thick plastic HP or Dell. I know someone with a rather nice aluminum Sony Vaio (I think it is around 13-14") running last generation's Core i processor (or maybe a Core 2 Duo) and it gets about just as hot as my 13" Core i7 MBP.

 

Go to apple store and ask them to launch some sort of heavy gaming benchmark — there you go you will hear that hair drier yourself. I actually find it really quite, didnt crash for me yet.

Another thing to note is that 13 inch heating =/= 17 inch heating. 17* cooling is way better.

I am not putting notebook to my knees when i use it but most people who do indeed may find it a bit hot (like any other gaming notebook really). If you are one of those i suggest to try Macally shell (i am using it for protection, its actually quite convenient). And it never gets hot. It looks rather silly but black vinyl with an image on top of that help with that a bit. And then again, i am just one of those who like to protect his investment from scratches / hits -)

 

Somebody said somewhere that browsing a forum for computers (of any sort) is like going to a hospital looking for healthy people.

If you have issues with the computer you buy, there's almost always a way to sort it out (returning, warranty, software fix, etc).

 

LOL!
Haven't seen a more true statement in awhile.

The fact of the matter is, every company is going to have a few lemons out there. And perception is reality in the minds of consumers. Chances are, people wouldn't think twice about the perceived issues if they didn't see forum posts about it. Obviously, that's not true in all cases, but you get the idea.

I'd say that if everything fits the bill, pull the trigger on it. Applecare will take care of the rest.

 

Investment? You consider your rapidly depreciating Macbook an investment?

 

Here is my family history with apple hardware (we have 3 mac users here)
2006yr — bought a macbook for $900 — 2009 — solid it for $600
2007yr — bought a mac mini for $600 — 2010 — solid it for $550
2008yr — bought 20 inch apple cinema hd for $900 — 2009 — sold it for for $750
2008yr — bought macbook pro for $1500 — 2011 — sold it for $1100

Not to mention iphones that i sold for MORE money then i bought.
Taking into consideration how fast notebooks become bad i d say yes — apple is prolly the best investment for money out of all.

Go try to sell 2008yr acer for %70 of its base price

Thing to note:
macbook pro 2011 15 inch in US cost $2200, $1900 with student discount.
In our country — $2900, no discounts. So if i manage to buy from us (which i do) i made half grand right there.

 

I'd say they depreciate relatively slowly. I've sold machines for the same price I bought them for a few times. Never done that with any other brand.

 

Ok...relative to other companies fine, the resell is good. But computers aren't investments...you still end up losing money in the end. Do you invest in cars? No...you buy cars.

You invest in real estate, RRSPs, 401k, etc...

 

Not to go off on a tangent but my MBP was in fact an investment. It wasn't a financial investment but rather one in my future education along with increasing productivity at work. There are different types of investments. That being said, I still don't see how buying an Apple product would actually be a financial investment especially since you are going to lose money 99.9999999% of the time. Might as well just keep the money in the bank if you are looking at buying any type of computer (unless it is a running old model, such as the Lisa) as it will make more money there.

I think investment is the wrong word but rather Apple computers tend to have better resale values. For example, I purchased a Honda Civic in 2008 and one of the factors was its resale value. I didn't say I invested in the car but rather I purchased it and, if I ever plan on selling it later (which I don't see happening), I will see a greater return than if I had went with another car/company. It wasn't an investment per se.

 

So you basically understood what i mean but started out because i used the "wrong", word? wow..

But anyhow it is easily an INVESTMENT.
Why? — because investment is "laying out money or capital in an enterprise with the expectation of profit"
Granted that i work on my macbook it is an investment since i generate profit with the help of my notebook.
I dont know the right words in english but the fact that macbook will loose less money over time make it a better investment then any other notebook that can be used for same result. Not to mention risks of loosing my data to viruses that comes with win7 etc, which make its value even higher.

 

@CanadianDude

basically, Lieto is right.

Your car is also an investment. If you didn't expect the car to give you value, you wouldn't have it. In other words, the payment for your car needs to be less than the value you get out of being able to get to work.

I think you may be confusing investment vs not investment with asset vs liability.

Obviously, the return on investment of your car is not in the form of an increase in value in the car, the value is earned elsewhere but is made possible by means of the car.

again, you listed assets and liabilities (in no particular order, it's situational), but they could all be considered investments.

Another example of something that costs a lot, is an investment, and doesn't earn any money directly would be your education.

 

It's funny how I so rarely post on here despite the fact that I read these forums all the time, and now I'm going to post something (largely) unrelated to computers.

It is definitely an investment, for many of the above reasons, and also because if you assume that you are going to be spending money on a computer, and replacing it every X years, then you have an up front cost (the initial price of the computer) and a loss (the difference between what you sell the computer for, and what you purchased it for). The minimization of the second number clearly constitutes and investment.

 

thats a good point. if you definitely have to buy a computer anyway, it would make the most sense to make a choice that minimizes the true cost of ownership, which in large part (but not entirely) is based on the depreciation. you also have to consider the opportunity cost of having the up front cost tied up in the computer.

 

Can we stop with all the "investment" talk. It's quite simple: Lose money on resale? Bad investment. Gain money? Good investment.

Buying electronics is a bad investment 99% of the time.

 

there are more types of investments than ones looking for a monetary return.

 

Haha!

Talk about going on a tangent...

I've read enough from the first 5 posts (which were the only ones on topic).

Thanks and goodnight!

 

Definitely true. The correct word you guys are looking for is asset, and a depreciating one at that.

 

When you come to these types of forums you are going to hear a disproportionate amount of negative posts because the majority of people that do no have problems don't read the forums.

The majority of people that frequent these forums are people looking for help to a problem they are having and thus you will see more posts about problems.

You can count the number of people that post threads about 'I have zero problems' on one hand.

If you want a mac, buy a mac. You have a warranty if you have any problems. There are no guarantees in life.