MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Owner's Lounge

Just thought I'd try and get a thread going specifically for the Unibody 15". Currently there is only the late 2008 Unibody edition, but I guess in the future we can compile information on newer releases.

I'm hoping we can share all kinds of information regarding this wonderful machine, and that this is a place to ask specific questions, compare feedback, or give tips to users and prospective buyers alike. Feel free to post your questions and/or advice, or failing that, just give a shout out if you're a proud owner...

 

So no previous version macbook pro owners are allowed ?

:*(

 

what?

at one point its like you want to make a Unibody 2008 MBP lounge... then in the actual post its like you want to make some old MBP with X1600 video (as in the link) group because it doesn't exist... or something? yet your sig shows you have a unibody one...? which one are you talking about?

 

I want the unibody JUST for the display port and the 24" LED!

I think all MBPRO owners should be invited into the thread here...

 

But then wouldn't it defeat the purpose of the Apple Mac OS X forum for NBR? I tried making one of these, but never caught on and was to generalized... Not trying to bash, troll, etc., just a thought...

 

owners lounge eh? any drink specials?

 

Yes i am currently Serving appletini's

 

Sorry about that. The term "MacBook Pro" seems to get automatically linked to a page of the 'old MBP' within this forum (who makes these defaults?). I relinked to an identification article for the Unibody 15".

 

This thread isn't intended to be exclusionary. It's just that, in other parts of the forum, for example here, i found threads that I thought added depth to certain specific issues for a laptop model. I'm not trying to troll, and I'm not suggesting that the specificity of a thread should override the openness of the Mac OS X forum. Perhaps older MBP's could have their own thread?

There's been talk about the flickering/uneven backlighting for this version of the MBP, but also the Unibody chassis, dual graphics card build, and many other new features warrant, in my humble opinion, a place to compare user experiences. The specific subject threads tend to disappear from the radar, and I thought this might help. However, this is a forum, and ultimately members response will decide whether this is a helpful concept or not.

 

Well now that we are doing this, I'd like to bring up a few issues to my fellow unibody friends.

1) Keyboard shininess. I am extremely paranoid of getting the shiny stains on my keys. It got to the point where I would wash my hands before using the laptop. So I bought the moshi clearguard. However, while typing on the gaurd isn't too bad, typing without the gaurd is better, but I am scared of the shininess. Have you gotten any signs of this?

2) How do you transport your MBPs? My incase sleeve for the old MBP, the zipper would rub against the outside...so I am looking for a better way to carry this.

That's it for now...

 

In reply to 1, I haven't tried the Moshi Clearguard. In my opinion, it's part of the normal wear of the keyboard to have fingerprints. I think over time, the fingerprints will themselves find a balance. I use the included microfibre cloth and a hot breath to clean the outside of the unibody (and the screen). So far, so good...

As for 2, I use a Travelpro 15" laptop bag which came with a roller-suitcase I bought. Works fine for the moment, though I am thinking about getting a tight-fitting sleeve in order to have double-protection.

 

I do find the keyboard on the unibodies very cheaply made. There's very little reassurance when I type on them and they feel very hallow as well. I also agree on the shineness. I understand that its wear and tear like everything else, but I didn't get the same perception on other keyboards going back a number of years. I feel that Apple, in making them more asethetically pleasing, lowered the quality.

As for traveling, I don't travel often, but I have a Booq bag backpack which is specifically made for 15" MBP.

 

I am using a Radtech Sleevz slip cover with the Shinza Zeroshock III sleeve (memory foam). Its really a great, secure, and efficient means to transport the unibody MBP.

 

mine are getting quite shiney fast, but then again i type a lot on it... and i dont mind if they get a nice badge of typing honor...

but..

I dont find the keyboards cheaply made at all. I love this keyboard sooo much better than my old MBPs keyboard, which too has gotten dark marks on it from typing...

 

I also see my keys getting very shinny after months of use. Oh well, at least they clean up ok so far.

I just toss the laptop in the truck of the car when I travel -------------- NOT

Truth is -- I have a leather travel briefcase I use when the MBP goes out of the house or office. I need room for both documents and the laptop.

Good post there Homme8080

 

Woo hoo! Just came home a couple hours ago to see my new unibody mbp delivered. Now, my old penryn mbp really has to go

 

Sorry, I think NBR had a hiccup while I posted the above.

 

delete......

 

delete......

 

Mine's just been shipped! Got an e-mail from apple a few mins ago \o/

 

Congratulations to dibara2003 and Captain Fail: I hope your MBP's give you many hours of pleasure.

Today I'm finally going to partition my HD and install Vista 64bit. I'll post back to see how this went. On a side note, did any other owners have issues with the fitting of the battery latch for the unibody? After taking possession of my unit, I noticed a few days later that the edge of the battery cover under the Kensington lock slot was bent fractionally outwards. After being bothered about it for a few days, I took the MBP to my reseller who is also one of the few authorized Apple service centers here in The Netherlands. I was, in an odd way, relieved when one of the technicians told me that I was not the first person to come back for this problem. In fact, he said he had seen it a lot worse. After adjusting the four screws along the middle segment of back, he managed to align everything well. However, he said if the problem reoccurred, they would renew the entire back panel.

Did anyone else have this problem? Sometimes I feel that the back panel directly above the battery cover flexes a little too much. I try and hold the machine along the sides, it feels much sturdier there.

 

Deleted.

(Odd thing, I could not see my newest posts in this thread. Have now reset my CP options to show newest posts first, and it all works again.)

 

Nice! Congratulations! Make sure to take good care of that thing...

 

congrats to you both. you'll enjoy them a lot

 

Finally partitioned my hard-drive with Bootcamp yesterday and installed Vista 64-bit Business. Everything went well. I opted to give 60Gb to the partition, and I have around 39Gb free space leftover after installing Vista, AutoCAD 2009 (x64), and NOD32 Antivirus.

When I logged back into OS X, I panicked for a moment because the partition was labelled "Untitled" and I could not rename it. However, I discovered that you simply need to give the C: drive a name from within Vista, and then OS X will pick it up (I opted for symmetry and called mine "Windows HD").

Other small points that maybe someone has tips about:

- I installed the Bootcamp drivers, and set the touchpad settings for one-finger and two-finger operationality to the same that I use in OS X. However, the two-finger right click does not work. I tried the Apple Update service from within Vista, but it only suggests downloads of Safari and Quicktime. Did anyone get their touchpad to work perfectly in Vista?

- The graphics card switching is not possible on Vista, but thankfully the 9600M GT is loaded. I'll have to learn to accept reduced energy performance in Vista (or is there a way to activate the switching option?)

- I have installed the MacFUSE and NTFS-3G utilities on OS X, and I can read and write to the Windows partition. However, when I tried to copy a simple jpeg to the 'Pictures' subfolder in my user profile 'Documents' directory, I get an error message. Copying directly to the Documents directory, however, is not a problem (or any other lower root directory). Any thoughts as to why this is happening?

- Keyboard backlighting: Strangest thing is that when I log onto Vista, I can never completely turn off the backlighting of my keyboard. The Bootcamp drivers work, in that I see the same icons for keyboard-light adjusting as on OS X, but for the lowest setting (no bars), I still have a very slight illumination of the keys. If I log onto OS X afterwards, the same level is there, until I re-adjust the levels, and I see the bar move from completely empty, to one bar, and then I set it back to no bars. Only then does the backlighting turn off completely!

Any thoughts one these points are much appreciated!

 

When I logged back into OS X, I panicked for a moment because the partition was labelled "Untitled" and I could not rename it. However, I discovered that you simply need to give the C: drive a name from within Vista, and then OS X will pick it up (I opted for symmetry and called mine "Windows HD").


Homme8080

You saved me on this one. I was trying to manage this volume with a name and nothing I did would let me name it as you did.
After reading your post, I immediately went to the windows c drive and renamed it. ----- Worked perfect
Thanks ------

 

I've enjoyed the first week with my MBP. As a recent convert it is so nice to just enjoy my system for a change. I don't foresee any reason to return to Windows in my future.

 

I have vista ultimate 64 bit and Linux Mint 6 on my MBP as a triple boot.... its kinda nice having multiple OSes.

The Windows drivers for the touchpad aren't the best, I'm hoping there will be an update. You can right click in Vista with the touchpad though, but you have to use 3 fingers and click instead of just two (after drivers are installed)

switching the video card would be awesome, I use the 9400 almost all the time except when playing games... but i haven't found a way to do it.

I'll have to play with backlighting some time when i have a chance to reboot... I never noticed that problem. I know my backlight on my keyboard was totally off last time I was in Windows, but I never adjusted it, it may have been off before I rebooted into Windows.

 

Aw, come on, you can't use Mint! . Try Fedora, you'll like it much better. Yeah, the drivers aren't the best, but I see an improvement as time goes on.

 

I don't want to see this thread go...so I'll just say something in regards to the whole keyboard shininess issue I had.

I have decided to throw away the Moshi Cleargaurd keyboard protector because typing on it is getting annoying.

I have come to the realization that I bought my laptop to use it and not obsess over its well being. If my keys start to get a little shiny, so be it. Im not going to sacrifice functionality for cosmetics (although some people would argue I already did by purchasing a Mac...lol).

 

Dam$ the torpedos !!!!!!!!!
That's telling them -----Go get em Tiger

 

What torpedos? Whos the tiger? What?

 

Has anyone found a stable wireless driver that doesn't make the sound skip and pop in boot camp?

 

No problems with sound or wireless for me in Boot Camp. Are you running Vista 64-bit? There have been alot of problems with Vista 64-bit.

 

No, 32-bit XP. I think it might be due to my video/sound drivers. At first when I upgraded to LV2G drivers that caused the sound/video to choke really bad at some points. Then I found an updated broadcom driver which didn't completely resolve the issue, but made it almost unnoticeable. I can't seem to find any newer network drivers so I was wondering if anyone else has had the same problem. Worst case scenario I'll just deal with as it's not bad at all.

 

I think you should use DOX new drivers, or just use NVIDIA's stock notebook drivers. I've always had a good experience with DOX, but I'm also liking NVIDIA's. For the wireless driver, if the Broadcomm driver doesn't do it, I have no clue what would. Sorry!

 

I'm using an Airport Express at home, and I have experienced no problems yet with networking via Vista Business 64-bit. What sound issues have you been having? "Choking" means, failure of audio altogether?

 

I second that ToshibaDude: it's all about how you use your machine. In time, it will become a part of 'your' MBP. Life has scratches, dust, and once in a while a knock. You shouldn't keep $2000+ of power in a vacuum-like environment. Let it loose!

 

With the old broadcom drivers, I would get choppy audio and video anytime the wireless card was accessed. I did some research and some other people were having similar issues. I actually found an app that traced the interrupts so that any time the wireless pinged local access points I could hear the audio choke. With the updated drivers, it's now limited to a few popping sounds, but nothing major. I can still see the interrupts, but it's much less noticeable from an audio/video perspective.

 

you should try the new broadcom drivers..i had the same problem and used the new broadcom drivers and changed my nvidia driver to 179.48. now, theres almost no audio crackling and vista freezing.also update to the latest realtek hd drivers if you continue to experience these symptoms. hope this helps.

 

Thanks, do you have direct links to those drivers? The broadcom site can be a pain to navigate if I remember.

 

Hello all I just got my Macbook Pro 15 in 2.4ghz I am first time Mac user after having a Compaq which is 7 years old along with the increasing problems of Windows XP
I bought it on Feb 10 and I want to know if I can use a third party USB 4 gig thumbdrive with jpgs ,music files made on a Itunes for windows up to 1gb

I have used the Application Dropbox to upload those files from my PC to use on my mac but I afraid to . Any suggestions except for using Parellel, or Boot Camp

Kirk

 

Hi Kirk, Congratulations with your new MBP. I'm not sure why you're afraid to connect your USB thumb drive? Jpg's should be no problem; what kind of music file formats are you using? I personally am not a big fan of Itunes, but I think that if you could play your files on a Windows system, it should pose no problems on OS X.

By 'thumbdrive', do you mean USB memory stick? They usually just run on OS X. You may have to check whether the disk is formatted in NTFS or FAT file format. If the former, you will only be able to read files from within OS X. If you want write files, copy them first onto your Mac HD, and then reformat the thumbdrive in FAT using the Disk app in the Utilities folder.

I hope this helps and that I understood your problem correctly...

 

Hello I did that when i got the computer the usb 4gb thumbdrive I used worked well or so i thought . I tried to get the files off of the drive but it did not operate correctly so i took out the drive literally without unloading it and shortly thereafter I downloaded some things from the Internet. The computer went to sleep one night and did not come on and I had to reboot by the power button and then it would not start I got this louding beeping noise but it did not boot up.
So I think ,not sure ,it had something to do with how I used the thumbdrive and the Apple Genius guy told me it could be a hardware issue
I eventually had to get another Mac when it failed after I got the first one back home with the same problem.
Now I am wondering if I did that with the improper unloading of my thumbdrive.
Sorry for the long explanation since I am very anxious about causing the same problem
Thanks and talk to you soon
Kirk

 

I used Redhat, then Fedora when it came out for years.... Its pretty good, at least back when I used it... but I love Linux Mint, its awesome.

 

Yeah it's was pretty good. OpenSuSe was the toughest for me to code, but I'm not here to hi-jack the thread and talk about Linux though...

 

kftrainer: you should always unmount a drive from within the Finder (you'll see an eject icon next to the drive in the 'Devices' list). Perhaps if you supply the name and model of the USB thumb-drive that was causing you trouble, others here may be able to help you better... If I were you though, I'd buy a new one which is compatible with the MBP. I'm currently using a Cruzer Titanium 16Gb, and after having removed the U3 software and reformatting to FAT, I can use it easily between OS X, XP, and Vista 64 bit (only drawback is the maximum file size of 4Gb on FAT, but I don't have any files that big).

Hope this helps you...

 

thanks for the info the thumbdrive is a 4 gig made by Matsunichi and it is USB as well

 

As posted elsewhere on this forum, I thought I would add the link to this thread as I think it's required viewing for all 15" Unibody owners... A disassembly feature with pictures of the Unibody's interior parts. Enjoy...

 

Quick question: to date, no one has figured out how to offload PhysX computations to the 9400 while leave graphics to the 9600 under Boot Camp, correct? I remember reading conflicting reports from Nvidia as to the hardware's capability. Anything ever come of it?