Macbook Pro from HELL


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*sigh* I guess all good things must come to an end. I was once the owner of a beautiful Macbook Pro, but now that the warranty has run out I have one that doesn't go to sleep when plugged in, has a battery that lasts MAYBE an hour, a screen with a weird white spot on it (almost looks like someone is shining a flash light on it from far away) and an installation of Snow Leopard that is slowing down like Windows does... It's odd, I get more beachballs than DOA:Beach Volleyball.

Oh well I guess.

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*sigh* I guess all good things must come to an end. I was once the owner of a beautiful Macbook Pro, but now that the warranty has run out I have one that doesn't go to sleep when plugged in, has a battery that lasts MAYBE an hour, a screen with a weird white spot on it (almost looks like someone is shining a flash light on it from far away) and an installation of Snow Leopard that is slowing down like Windows does... It's odd, I get more beachballs than DOA:Beach Volleyball.

Oh well I guess.

Did you get Apple care? if not, why not? are you seeking assistance? have you tried re-callibrating your battery? clean installing Mac OS X? are you even interested in being helped beyond just complaining?

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I forgot to mention the dead fan, that's my own fault for not getting that fixed while it was under warranty though.

And I'm venting, not complaining. I love my computer, I just wish it still "just worked", not going to preclude me from replacing it with another MBP when it comes time.

I know how to clean install, but since I'm also an idiot and don't do proper back ups I don't relish the thought of saving everything I have to. Continuing in that vein, I should really learn to organize my files better so that if I were to have to format again I could easily port them to a hard-drive and know where everything is. I also don't have my install disks anymore, I lost them in the move so I'm SOL.

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I forgot to mention the dead fan, that's my own fault for not getting that fixed while it was under warranty though.

How far out of warrenty is it? I assume you don't have apple care?

And I'm venting, not complaining. I love my computer, I just wish it still "just worked", not going to preclude me from replacing it with another MBP when it comes time.

If you're not venting or complaining then why post the thread in the first place?

I know how to clean install, but since I'm also an idiot and don't do proper back ups I don't relish the thought of saving everything I have to. Continuing in that vein, I should really learn to organize my files better so that if I were to have to format again I could easily port them to a hard-drive and know where everything is. I also don't have my install disks anymore, I lost them in the move so I'm SOL.

Even if you could do a clean install the bork fan would would result in over heating which would screw things up; maybe you could be lucky and ring up the local Mac shop, explain the situation - maybe drizel some BS about how some events occurred and you couldn't bring it in when it first appeared then they might fix it for free or a tleast only charge you for the labour or fan itself.

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Sounds like a few issues at least, worst of which is a faulty logic board. Out of warranty? Bummer. Only thing to do is buy another.

maybe you could be lucky and ring up the local Mac shop, explain the situation - maybe drizel some BS about how some events occurred and you couldn't bring it in when it first appeared then they might fix it for free or a tleast only charge you for the labour or fan itself.

Good luck with that. I worked at a local mac shop and while we were sympathetic, if it's out of warranty it'll cost you a decent penny, even to replace a fan (if that's the only issue, which it doesn't sound like it is).

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How far out of warrenty is it? I assume you don't have apple care?

If you're not venting or complaining then why post the thread in the first place?

Even if you could do a clean install the bork fan would would result in over heating which would screw things up; maybe you could be lucky and ring up the local Mac shop, explain the situation - maybe drizel some BS about how some events occurred and you couldn't bring it in when it first appeared then they might fix it for free or a tleast only charge you for the labour or fan itself.

I said I'm venting. Focus on the issue rather than picking me apart for making a forum post.

I did as you suggested before, the Apple Store in Winnipeg agreed, as long as I had showed the receipt. I showed them the receipt of where I bought it etc, and they ordered the part. I then moved to Ontario and it never got fixed. The computer has overheated ONCE, and it just shut itself off. That was playing Red Alert 3 about 4 months ago. Since then, no heat issues as the temps stay pretty low, the highest is in the low 60s under full and heavy load. The sleep issue seems to often happen to these computers but doing nothing suggested has worked to solve it short of a format. The magnet is fine, I've reset the power management dealio and still no dice.

More or less I just expected less long term problems with this computer, that's all. All in all, formatting once a year is better than every three or so months, which was my average time before... The only other niggle is that the hard drive in this computer is getting louder. Fast quietish clicks, the typical hard drive worn in sound but not the OMG I'm dying sounds.

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I said I'm venting. Focus on the issue rather than picking me apart for making a forum post.

I did as you suggested before, the Apple Store in Winnipeg agreed, as long as I had showed the receipt. I showed them the receipt of where I bought it etc, and they ordered the part. I then moved to Ontario and it never got fixed. The computer has overheated ONCE, and it just shut itself off. That was playing Red Alert 3 about 4 months ago. Since then, no heat issues as the temps stay pretty low, the highest is in the low 60s under full and heavy load. The sleep issue seems to often happen to these computers but doing nothing suggested has worked to solve it short of a format. The magnet is fine, I've reset the power management dealio and still no dice.

More or less I just expected less long term problems with this computer, that's all. All in all, formatting once a year is better than every three or so months, which was my average time before... The only other niggle is that the hard drive in this computer is getting louder. Fast quietish clicks, the typical hard drive worn in sound but not the OMG I'm dying sounds.

That is really surprising about the temperates given that I am on a MacBook Pro 13.3 Inch where the cpu will average around 38 degree's celsius when doing some basic surfing but can go all the way up to 90 degrees celsius when doing some encoding according to iStat Pro (which then suddenly fires up the fans after a couple of seconds - which I think there is a peak that the CPU can remain at for a certain length of time before fans eventually kick in).

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Right fan is at 2000rpm, left is at 0rpm.

Highest temp is GPU diode 64

lowest is enclosure bottom 30

CPU is at 55,

GPU Heatsink is 55

Heatsink A is 54

Heatsink B is 40

GPU A is 55

ITunes, Safari (3 windows 10 tabs), Preview, TextEdit and a finder window are open

As far as battery, I'm at 479 cycles, 61%

Uptime is 11days 21hrs

It still won't sleep with the power plugged in and when I boot up I need to hold Option to select Mac, even though I don't have a boot camp partition anymore... Don't know how to fix it so that my mac partition boots up automatically... It's not like fixmbr obviously and I don't know how to access the partition manager like I would on a windows box.

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You need to cycle that battery bad. At least once a month... especially if you leave it plugged in all the time. Just drain the battery completely and recharge it.

Mine has 206 cycles and 94% health. Its dropped down to 70% and 30% before and recycling it brings it back to 89% and the low 90%ishes.

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You need to cycle that battery bad. At least once a month... especially if you leave it plugged in all the time. Just drain the battery completely and recharge it.

Mine has 206 cycles and 94% health. Its dropped down to 70% and 30% before and recycling it brings it back to 89% and the low 90%ishes.

It has died all the way... As far as I know anyway. That's the last time the computer was off was when it didn't go to sleep, but I had to re-turn it on after the batt died... (rather than it sleeping with a few left) Or am I doing it wrong? I've never understood batteries... Should I kill it and then I guess let it charge completely? Maybe I missed that last time.

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I'd be willing to do a straight-up trade with you: my PowerBook G4 12" (1.5Ghz, 1.25GB RAM, 100GB hard drive, with two nearly new batteries) for your Macbook Pro, as is. :woot: :yes:

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I'd be willing to do a straight-up trade with you: my PowerBook G4 12" (1.5Ghz, 1.25GB RAM, 100GB hard drive, with two nearly new batteries) for your Macbook Pro, as is. :woot: :yes:

That and some cash for a netbook and you have a deal.

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Nothing to do with your situation, except for the fact of the title of this thread.

I have a Dell that is ACTUALLY named DellfromHell.

Original owner had gone through about the same amount of crap as you. Everything dieing after warranty expired.

I wound up with it for almost free, and have it running perfectly. Had to clean pre-installed junk off HP they bought.

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oh the old PowerPC mac's.... how I don't miss you...

I used them once before, didn't have an issue... But then again that was for a short time and was an eMac... Hm.

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I used them once before, didn't have an issue... But then again that was for a short time and was an eMac... Hm.

It's not that there is issues with them, its that software now is written for Intel arch not the PPC arch, so PPC mac's are a dead and vanishing breed

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It's not that there is issues with them, its that software now is written for Intel arch not the PPC arch, so PPC mac's are a dead and vanishing breed

UB is still pretty well supported though is it not? I know that'll die soon too though.

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UB is still pretty well supported though is it not? I know that'll die soon too though.

OSX Leopard was supose to be the last release to support PowerPC and that was a release ago now for G3 and recently with Snow Leopard for G4?

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Well looking at my Mac, it's worth 940 on Mac2Sell... So if you take the 50 off for the fan and the 100 for the battery it's like new again, nothing wrong with the screen or cosmetically so... Maybe I can get that much for it either here or on line and put it towards a new one.

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It's not that there is issues with them, its that software now is written for Intel arch not the PPC arch, so PPC mac's are a dead and vanishing breed

Other than the OS, there really isn't that much software that is Intel-only. There's still a good bit of software that is Universal. It's mainly just lazy developers who don't bother supporting PPC right now. Apple at least has a financial motive to encourage people to go to the newer machines, but other developers are actually shooting themselves in the foot by dropping support for the millions of PPC Macs still in daily use.

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Well looking at my Mac, it's worth 940 on Mac2Sell... So if you take the 50 off for the fan and the 100 for the battery it's like new again, nothing wrong with the screen or cosmetically so... Maybe I can get that much for it either here or on line and put it towards a new one.

Woah! Slightly off-topic since it concerns me and not your problem, but I've just evaluated my macbook pro and it's telling me that I could sell it for ?830, although that's using the specs off the top of my head, and so is probably not accurate (in fact, I know it's not accurate, I wasn't given the option of inputting my 19 inch screen).

Hmm, I could build a very, very nice rig with that...

Back on topic, would you get another macbook?

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Woah! Slightly off-topic since it concerns me and not your problem, but I've just evaluated my macbook pro and it's telling me that I could sell it for ?830, although that's using the specs off the top of my head, and so is probably not accurate (in fact, I know it's not accurate, I wasn't given the option of inputting my 19 inch screen).

Hmm, I could build a very, very nice rig with that...

Back on topic, would you get another macbook?

If I could get the cash together? In a second... BUT a 27 inch iMac costs about the same, so I would consider that instead... And an iPad or netbook. Only issue I would have is losing my computer for DJing

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