I Love My MBP but...

some of you might remmember me asking questions about the mbp, well i ordered one, and ive had it for a few days now. However, i have noticed some things that i hope are normal, because i did not experience them with my old dell latitude.

the first one is the screen. There is alot of light leakage at the bottom which is very noticable during booting up (up to the point of being somewhat embarassing actually). Also, the viewing angles are not that good (i have the matte screen).

second is that it doesnt play DVDs. for example, i tried playing Finding Nemo but it wouldnt play, the spinny thing would come for a while, and then i would be forced to eject it. Same happens when i use front row to view DVDs.

and finally, the core2duo (mine is 2.33GHZ with 2gigs of ram) tends to lag. At first i thought it would be because i hadnt broken it in yet, but it still tends to do that when opening say two applications (i.e. safari and garageband). by lagging i mean that the spinny thing comes for a little while. Also, my dashboard lags (takes a little while for the clock and weather to show) too, especially after start up. And it tends to lag once in a while when i open applications folders.

Edit: and there is a low hissing sound (kinda like sizzling) that comes from the top left speaker area (kinda sounds like the fan is going but with some other stuff) when it is in use for a while when plugged in.
otherwise it's a beautiful laptop that is a pleasure to use!

 

Guess u got a lemon...

 

That is highly unusual - have you had a chance to check/update to the latest firmware & other updates? Also, is the DVD region 1 or region-free? Did you check to see if it reads another DVD?

 

That isn't highly unusual at all. I know 3 people who have had to return their MBP.

 

Don't tell me that...I just got my refurb yesterday..oh boy! Have yet to get the time to check it out.

 

I've read more issues with the screen on the MBP than any other complaint. Of course forums are full of complaints so it's hard to know what percentage of the MBP's are defective. So from what I've gathered the 17" laptops are very prone to this light leakage, and the 15" less so. It just depends on what lcd you get (samsung being the best) or so i've heard. I observed two 15" MBP's first hand and was unable to determine if I was being picky, or if the screens really did look...unevenly lit. I moved my head from side to side, up and down, peaked around the side..tried to surprise the mac...pretended I wasn't looking at it and tried to surprise it again.. nothing worked and I came to the conclusion that it was my point of view that determined the effect, which led me to one conclusion. They aren't as nice as the old G4s were, but still aren't bad. But they aren't awesome either. For some reason I still want one

 

problem is i bought it online from apple, so there's no where i can go to have someone take a look at it (no apple stores near me at all).

can stores like futureshop do anything?

 

Call them up, i think u should have telephone support still. Hope they dun act like Homer, Mr Burns...

 

I hope you don't try to deal with them by phone...take it somewhere if you can.

My workplace bought 10 iMacs (not notebooks) with AppleCare from my University on the Educational Plan one year ago. One was dead on arrival--Apple refused to replace it, telling me to go back to the Computer Shop (even though it was a custom order and the Shop quoted me two weeks to replace it).
3 others have since required repair. Each time it is like pulling teeth to get Apple to respond. The last time (earlie this month) I called and asked for service...they told me to take it into an authorized shop. When I told them I paid for on-site service (it's a medical office and I can't just go running around to shops..and I don't like to leave machines in a shop with confidential records on it) they told me that 'we don't send out service people just because the customer asks for it. You have to have it diagnosed by a technician'. By the way, the Ethernet board was faulty (the 2nd computer to come down with this).

Good luck with Apple service!

 

The Dashboard issue isn't a problem. It has to update online, that's why it takes some time. Also, it doesn't connect to update untill after you open it (launch it).

My advice, and I know this sounds like a windowish kind of solution; Do a fresh reinstall of osx and try again. Regarding the DVDs, what software are you trying to open it with? Are you sure it's not in Divx format? I recommend VLC, you can get it from free from www.pure-mac.com.

Just to be on the safe side, install istat pro. It's a widget that manages processes and heat of the machine. Maybe it's a ram issue. This widget would also verify that.

Good Luck.


Link to IStat Pro:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html

Stick it on your dashboard and monitor it.

 

There's no problem calling them. They have one of the best support teams any manufacturer has. And they're not based in India or China!

 

The problem with DVD playback is that you have not set the region on the DVD player. when you put a DVD in DVD player should ask you to choose a region. Once you choose you should not have anymore problems.

 

What so many people seem to forget is that there are authorized service providers that can also help you, not just the Apple Store.

I'd advice you to call AppleCare and then see. Sorry I can't be more verbose, have to run to catch a bus