got your C2D MBP? please tell us....

[MacIllini]

BootCamp - Windows XP help

A little off topic but I'm new to Macs..

RE: BootCamp - Windows XP

tried slipstreaming Service Pack 2 into Windows XP on a single CD, then tried to install and I keep getting the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. Can't get disk out now and can't switch back over to MacOS. Eject button and Function keys don't work during start up

Help anyone?

 

[projectle]

hold your mouse button at startup and the disc will eject.

You can also hold Option at boot up to select which drive to go to in case everything is severely f'ed up.

 

[ivc]

DELIVERY
Below is the delivery dates for my new custom MBP, shipped to Norway. Custom built stock 15-inch, 2.33GHz, 2GB, 256 VRAM, 120GB harddrive config with only english instead of norwegian Mac OS X.

Ordered: Oct 28th, 12.28am
Shipped 1: Nov 2nd with Flextronics/Kuehne+Nagel flight from Shanghai to Netherlands
Shipped 2: Nov 8th 01.37pm with TNT from Netherlands to Norway
Delivered: Nov 13th 12.49am by TNT to my house

Tools:
Flextronics: https://www.iec-logistics.com/apps/tracktrace/trk_tracking.asp (use Internet Explorer and APP for customer reference code)
Kuehne+Nagel: http://www.apecode.com/appletrack/
TNT: http://www.tnt.com/webtracker/tracker.do (select reference number)

For all these tracking sites, use the reference number that you can find on the track page in your the apple store order.

ISSUES
Regarding any issues Ive descovered, the screen seems somewhat uneven on the right side and the speaker balance is seems off center, probably due to heavier bass on the right speaker.

Production week: 44 Production number: 2400 Ordered: Oct 28th
Screen manufacturer: 00000610 Model: 00009C60
Harddrive: Hitachi 120 GB PMR

Im thinking about doing a return of this if people start to see better screens on later batch numbers. What do you think?

 

[projectle]

If there appears to be a flaw in the system, then by all means voice it early so that it does get resolved. Then, all of us with systems that have yet to be shipped can get it resolved and not have to deal with it ourselves.

Or, perhaps that is just a little wishful thinking that they would somehow resolve these issues (ones that appear to be popping up fairly often it appears) in the next week or so that it will take them to get around to my order.

Sure hope that they do not delay me again, as that would be unpleasant.

 

[brikeh]

ISSUES
Regarding any issues Ive descovered, the screen seems somewhat uneven on the right side and the speaker balance is seems off center, probably due to heavier bass on the right speaker.

Production week: 44 Production number: 2400 Ordered: Oct 28th
Screen manufacturer: 00000610 Model: 00009C60
Harddrive: Hitachi 120 GB PMR

Im thinking about doing a return of this if people start to see better screens on later batch numbers. What do you think?

What about the "grainy" issues? Do you have that?

 

[Regaj]

If there appears to be a flaw in the system, then by all means voice it early so that it does get resolved. Then, all of us with systems that have yet to be shipped can get it resolved and not have to deal with it ourselves.

Or, perhaps that is just a little wishful thinking that they would somehow resolve these issues (ones that appear to be popping up fairly often it appears) in the next week or so that it will take them to get around to my order.

Sure hope that they do not delay me again, as that would be unpleasant.

Yes, it's wishful thinking to believe that Apple - or any manufacturer - is going to make frequent small tweaks to their assembly process. Just like they don't release a new OS release for every little bug they identify. In either case they collect the changes they wish to make into a single "package" and do them at very discrete - and relatively infrequent - points in time. The only exception to that would be if a truly major problem were identified, something which would justify the costly shutting down of an assembly line. I'm betting there were no more than 2-4, or thereabouts, manufacturing line changes during the entire 8-month lifespan of the 1st gen MBP.

If it's a quality issue relating to a separately-sourced part - a keyboard or screen, for instance - than that can be QC'd separately from the assembly line process, but even then it's not going to happen on a frequent basis. The OEM manufacturer of the part has the same can't-afford-to-change-the-line-very-often issues that Apple does.

There are two bottom lines:
1. Weekly assembly line changes are not happening. People with week 45 machines are almost certainly getting the same parts and assembly as week 43 machines.
2. Machines with real problems remain a very small percentage. Reading these forums gives a distorted perspective on that. I think it's funny, for instance, that people actually _search_ for problems. Like the guy who asks where exactly on his screen he should be looking for uneven illumination. He can't see it on his own, but by damn he's going to find it!

 

[caralck]

I ordered the 15 inch matte through education (i had talked with the apple folks and since I'm a resident, I'm still technically a student). And yes, I meant portland, Oregon. My package is now in indiana. Seems like a waste of travel time from alaska to indiana and back to the northwest. I'm still happy though since I was told ship date Nov 13-15 with delivery date 18-22. I'm hoping that since the ship date was the 13th, they won't do a crummy deliv day of the 22nd...although I think my mom may be here by then so it may be better.

For the journal club, it was the DREAM trial article in The Lancet about Rosiglitazone preventing progression to diabetes in folks with impaired glucose tolerance.

Now it's time for AM report at the hospital (we discuss a clinical case and try to come up with the diagnosis)

 

[ivc]

What about the "grainy" issues? Do you have that?

Yes, there is a destinct grainy pattern. Looks like the pixel next to the other is maybe 1% lighter, although they should be the same solid color. Have tried to clean with water and its not going away.

Another thing I noticed is that the viewing angle is pretty narrow from 3 feet away from the screen. If I roll the screen back and forth I can clearly see that the screen has a gradient range where the screen is at it brightest. Its worse than on my 3 year old samsung 17-inch standalone screen.

 

[dillacom]

Well one month and 1 day later I am awaiting the arrival of my MBP tomorrow. If I didn't have to order through the EDU channel I wouldn't ever again! Granted when I ordered my Mac Pro They had been out a month or so and it shipped in only 2 weeks. But to wait a month after seeing a ton of people get their MBP in a week really tourqes a dude off.

 

[brikeh]

Yes, there is a destinct grainy pattern. Looks like the pixel next to the other is maybe 1% lighter, although they should be the same solid color. Have tried to clean with water and its not going away.

Another thing I noticed is that the viewing angle is pretty narrow from 3 feet away from the screen. If I roll the screen back and forth I can clearly see that the screen has a gradient range where the screen is at it brightest. Its worse than on my 3 year old samsung 17-inch standalone screen.

Oh crap....this is why I sent mine back. What the hell is wrong with Apple?

 

[iW00t]

Oh crap....this is why I sent mine back. What the hell is wrong with Apple?

Making money?

Don't know about you, but there is an unsavory satisfaction that can be derived when you put $50 LCDs into $2500 laptops.

 

[Lushian]

I don't know why, but I loved that post. For some reason though I feel as if I've just taken your whole family history.

For what it's worth, my MBP was made the same week as yours and I'm loving it.

What're you reading for journal club? The Sea Urchin Genome paper just came out in Science...should be a good read.

Would you mind telling me where do I find the numbers and week of production that you are all mentioning here.
Thanks

Luciano

 

[miniguu]

Would you mind telling me where do I find the numbers and week of production that you are all mentioning here.
Thanks

Luciano

Look at your serial number in the Apple Menu>About this Mac>click on the text below "Mac OS X" until you see the serial.

The 3rd and 4th numbers are your build week. Eg. Mine is W8644XXXXXX, which means mine was built in week 44. Hth.

 

[Farside161]

Odd, I ordered a 2.33, 2GB, 160GB Glossy on the 4th and am typing from it now. Did you order Matte?

The more pertinent question may be, '15" or 17"?'.

My order was for a 15'' Glossy/2.33/2GB/160GB. But I did order with an educational discount, from a local retailer (The Mac Store). I have been hearing reports of delays placed on educational orders so maybe thats it.

 

[Daverinfl]

My order was for a 15'' Glossy/2.33/2GB/160GB. But I did order with an educational discount, from a local retailer (The Mac Store). I have been hearing reports of delays placed on educational orders so maybe thats it.

Mine was exactly the same...15'' Glossy/2.33/2GB/160GB but ordered online with an educational discount. I ordered the 4th and had it delivered the 10th. Have you checked back about the status with the store?

 

[stashmanguitar]

Finally got my MBP... a full two days before expected delivery. I ran Xbench to see how it's running. Here are the results:

Results 97.66
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.4.8 (8N1037)
Physical RAM 3072 MB
Model MacBookPro2,2
Drive Type Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00
CPU Test 110.96
GCD Loop 264.02 13.92 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 129.28 3.07 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 77.65 2.56 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 85.86 14.95 Mops/sec
Thread Test 220.18
Computation 198.22 4.02 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 247.61 10.65 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 120.25
System 124.53
Allocate 110.38 405.34 Kalloc/sec
Fill 128.46 6246.18 MB/sec
Copy 137.99 2850.15 MB/sec
Stream 116.26
Copy 106.31 2195.86 MB/sec
Scale 111.87 2311.15 MB/sec
Add 124.83 2659.11 MB/sec
Triad 124.23 2657.67 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 118.28
Line 119.51 7.96 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 141.98 42.39 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 136.08 11.09 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 132.38 3.34 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 83.61 5.23 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 178.69
Spinning Squares 178.69 226.68 frames/sec
User Interface Test 255.58
Elements 255.58 1.17 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 31.40
Sequential 44.61
Uncached Write 21.95 13.48 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 70.02 39.62 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 57.32 16.77 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 80.72 40.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 24.23
Uncached Write 8.26 0.87 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 51.66 16.54 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 68.52 0.49 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 98.52 18.28 MB/sec [256K blocks]

This is almost double what my PB scored on the same benchmark. Hope this helps someone.
I ran this on battery, but had the energy settings on better performance. Don't know if it changes anything.

 

[ivc]

Here is a screenshot from Powerstrip from a MPB 15-inch ordered Oct 28th.

The interesting part is "2006, ISO Week 4" which could mean that they still have stockpiles of this screen, or at least screens based on the same manufacturer batch/specs.

 

[johnzoidberg]

In general, which part of the screen is affected with "uneven" screen brightness? I read it affects lower part of the screen. It is uneven across the entire width of the lower part of the screen? Or, is it only small part of the screen?
For those who posted about the uneven brightness, have you changed the wall paper color to see if the brightness issue is not exaggerated by the color of the wall paper?

Of all 9C60 screens I've seen in person and in pictures, I've noticed that the right 1/3 of the screen is noticeably dimmer than the rest of the display. This is either a problem with the LCD panel itself, the backlight lamp, the reflective foil Apple is using, or a combination of the three. I've yet to see one evenly-lit C2D MBP 15-inch (matte or glossy) with a 9C60 screen, which all of the machines seem to have.

Whether this will bother you or not, it's all subjective. I personally would not accept a crappy display on my MBP, since my work requires an evenly-lit display. Even if I was using it for casual purposes, this uneven illumination would slowly drive me crazy.

It's really sad, because both C2D 15-inch MacBook Pros I went through were perfect. The build quality was wonderful, and the fit-and-finish was what I expected from Apple. Except the damn display looked like hell.

 

[iBorg20181]

Of all 9C60 screens I've seen in person and in pictures, I've noticed that the right 1/3 of the screen is noticeably dimmer than the rest of the display. This is either a problem with the LCD panel itself, the backlight lamp, the reflective foil Apple is using, or a combination of the three. I've yet to see one evenly-lit C2D MBP 15-inch (matte or glossy) with a 9C60 screen, which all of the machines seem to have.

Whether this will bother you or not, it's all subjective. I personally would not accept a crappy display on my MBP, since my work requires an evenly-lit display. Even if I was using it for casual purposes, this uneven illumination would slowly drive me crazy.

It's really sad, because both C2D 15-inch MacBook Pros I went through were perfect. The build quality was wonderful, and the fit-and-finish was what I expected from Apple. Except the damn display looked like hell.

Dude, you've had bad luck!

I have the "9C60" screen, and it's evenly lit, no blotches, no "graininess," no light-leakage, no pixel problems. I've had about a dozen different notebooks over the past several years, PC and Mac, and this is by far the best LCD screen I've ever seen or used.

The nature of LCD screens means a narrower viewing angle than CRT, and that's the only difference that I notice on my MBP at all.



iBorg

 

[iViking]

How can I tell if my MBP is Glossy or Matte?

Can anyone tell me if there's a way to find out if my MBP is glossy or matte without opening the box?

I want to make sure it's right before I crack open the tape.

Can you tell by the serial # or some other indicator on the outside of the box?

Thanks!

 

[funjon]

Can anyone tell me if there's a way to find out if my MBP is glossy or matte without opening the box?

I want to make sure it's right before I crack open the tape.

Can you tell by the serial # or some other indicator on the outside of the box?

Thanks!

It should be marked on the outside.

 

[BriChi]

Fix for me with this problem, "THE CURSOR DISAPPEARS"

exactly, somtimes my cursor just disappears.

I had this too, the problem went away when I unchecked "Ignore accidental trackpad input" in the "keyboard, mouse" trackpad settings in system preferences,,,,Hope this helps you guys too

 

[iViking]

It should be marked on the outside.

Marked in what way?

Clearly marked in plain English, or in some type of code or hidden SKU indicator?

 

[iW00t]

Dude, you've had bad luck!

I have the "9C60" screen, and it's evenly lit, no blotches, no "graininess," no light-leakage, no pixel problems. I've had about a dozen different notebooks over the past several years, PC and Mac, and this is by far the best LCD screen I've ever seen or used.

The nature of LCD screens means a narrower viewing angle than CRT, and that's the only difference that I notice on my MBP at all.



iBorg

Oh please shut up already. Instead of constantly upping your post count and rubbing it in for us who got affected, just go off and enjoy your MBP. We don't need to hear about it.

For all we know your opinion of "flawless" may be highly subjective too. I noticed you added a qualifier saying that "blah blah blah nature of LCD screens means a narrower viewing angle..." Not true. My NEC 2080UX+ > any CRT you got any day. I am used to that LCD. This MBP definitely doesn't come close to even half that standard.

 

[Garden Knowm]

Oh please shut up already. Instead of constantly upping your post count and rubbing it in for us who got affected, just go off and enjoy your MBP. We don't need to hear about it.

For all we know your opinion of "flawless" may be highly subjective too. I noticed you added a qualifier saying that "blah blah blah nature of LCD screens means a narrower viewing angle..." Not true. My NEC 2080UX+ > any CRT you got any day. I am used to that LCD. This MBP definitely doesn't come close to even half that standard.

?????? There are pills you can take...

Although I would recommend some excercise... and Eckhart Tolle on CD..

cheers