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

[Multimedia]

Why Didn't You Insist They Keep It Back?

I'm so happy

I got my macbook pro a couple of days ago and returned it in less than 24 hours coz of some werid sounds that were coming out of the keyboard and the screen.
Dudes at the the retailers refused to give a replacement (of course) but after insisting they offered to give me a refund and not a replacement. weird, huh?
and so I have to wait a few days before we make the exchange of the money (refund) for the computer official.

And so eventhough i still have the computer in my hands, and have been guaranteed to get my refund in a couple of days, I am thinking right now in heading to another apple retailer to pick up another macbook pro.

I think I should wait a few days before actually buying a new macbook pro, but I can't wait. It's would suck to end up buying this new one and then getting a call from the first retailer saying that they will no longer give a refund despite being promised to get it.

very nice first experience with Apple.

I would have insisted they take it back and not leave the store with it and get a receipt in writing.

 

[MacAdmin]

Actually for all of us who ordered the 17" and have been patiently waiting...

while hearing that all of the 15" machines are being delivered for the past two weeks...

it will be really nice to see ours delivered while those who ordered the 15" wait awhile

seriously...we hope they all start shipping sooner...could it be a delay due to short supply of the 2.33?

I agree hopefully they both start shipping soon we've all waited long enough, and you may be onto something with the 2.33 supply, but I think Ive seen people post about receiving 2.33 machines ordered after mine.
In defense of us anxious 15s the apple store shows 1-5 days on the 15 and 7-10 on the 17, We knew from the get go that the 17's were a few weeks out from the announcement. Theres really no reason other CTO's ordered after mine should be shipped already, I think they are pushing edu purchases back.

 

[vectormasked]

I would have insisted they take it back and not leave the store with it and get a receipt in writing.

I could actually drop by this store on my way to the other retailer, and ask them to give me something in writing stating that I am getting my refund.

it's on my way to the other retailer so It wouldn't be a problem.

 

[gmanrique]

OK, any Canadian having this experience...

Nov 4, 2006
9:29 AM Clearance delay MISSISSAUGA, ON
9:22 AM Clearance in progress MISSISSAUGA, ON
9:15 AM Clearance delay MISSISSAUGA, ON
7:25 AM In transit MISSISSAUGA, ON

Package available for clearance

2:48 AM Departed FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN
12:47 AM Arrived at FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN

 

[YS2003]

Nov 4, 2006
9:29 AM Clearance delay MISSISSAUGA, ON
9:22 AM Clearance in progress MISSISSAUGA, ON
9:15 AM Clearance delay MISSISSAUGA, ON
7:25 AM In transit MISSISSAUGA, ON

Package available for clearance

2:48 AM Departed FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN
12:47 AM Arrived at FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN

It seems your baby has been mis-routed from Mississauga FX terminal to their mother-of-all hub Memphis. That happens with FedEx.

 

[damienvfx]

Will apple upgrade my harddrive in the future?

Will Apple upgrade my harddrive in the future if I take it and pay for it? Or am I stuck with this one harddrive as long as I have this particular macbook pro?

 

[Zadillo]

Will Apple upgrade my harddrive in the future if I take it and pay for it? Or am I stuck with this one harddrive as long as I have this particular macbook pro?

Apple might not do the upgrade themselves, but there are plenty of third party companies that could probably upgrade the hard drive for you.

I think the one sticking point at this point is the "noise dampener" that people have noticed Apple is using now. It seems like in the future it might be necessary for someone to come up with some third party noise dampener to stick on a replacement hard drive.

Although I haven't heard whether or not it would cause a problem if you just put another hard drive in your MBP without the noise dampener. At worst it shouldn't be any noisier than the previous MBP's.

 

[Multimedia]

Yes Apple Can Replace Your HD, But At Considerable Expense

Will Apple upgrade my harddrive in the future if I take it and pay for it? Or am I stuck with this one harddrive as long as I have this particular macbook pro?

Apple or any of their service agents can replace a HD later. But it's cheaper to get the one you really want to begin with.

 

[gmanrique]

??

It sounded the other way, actually. It is now in Mississauga but in delay due to customs or something like that. If went from Memphis to Mississauga.

I hope it arrives soon because I am having second thoughts. I ordered the Stock 15"/2.33 Ghz/120 GB HD/2MB RAM, bust should have probably gone for the CTO 15"/2.16 Ghz/160 GB HD/2MB RAM and keep the extra cash (cad$270) since it seems the processor and extra VRAM does not make that big difference, and I would have ended up with the extra 40 GB HD.

It seems your baby has been mis-routed from Mississauga FX terminal to their mother-of-all hub Memphis. That happens with FedEx.

 

[Zadillo]

Apple or any of their service agents can replace a HD later. But it's cheaper to get the one you really want to begin with.

That's true, although if you do decide to get a stock model now, one benefit at least is that later on when you put a new hard drive in it, you can take the old one and get an inexpensive external chassis for it and have a nice external hard drive to use. It at least helps make up for some of the costs of upgrading later.

Has anyone ever had the Apple Store do a hard drive upgrade? I'm wondering if they will do that and if so what they would charge for that (and also if you would have to buy the HD from them, or if you could take your MBP and buy your own hard drive and have them do it).

 

[Multimedia]

Take It Back And Insist They Take It Today

I could actually drop by this store on my way to the other retailer, and ask them to give me something in writing stating that I am getting my refund.

it's on my way to the other retailer so It wouldn't be a problem.

I would take your bad one with you and insist they take it back right then and there. Otherwise they may be tricking you into keeping it longer than their refund period so they don't have to give you one.

Why can't they give you an immediate refund anyway? What's their excuse for the delay?

 

[vectormasked]

I would take your bad one with you and insist they take it back right then and there. Otherwise they may be tricking you into keeping it longer than their refund period so they don't have to give you one.

Why can't they give you an immediate refund anyway? What's their excuse for the delay?

Their excuse was that the persons authorized to give the refunds and write cheques and stuff was not in, as this person apparently does not work in this branch.
They said they'd call me on monday or tuesday to get the refund give the computer back.

As to the replacement they were not willing to give me a new one because they were afraid that i would just keep taking computers back.

 

[dtsdts2323]

Initial Impressions on MBP C2D

I just got a 15.4" Matte MBP C2D. I have posted my initial thoughts and observations on my blog at http://www.crossforward.com/blog. Hopefully that would be of some use. If you have any specific questions or things you want to know just drop me a comment and I will do my best to follow-up.

 

[T0mmyGunZ]

ok im always confused by external hard drives, so here are a couple of questions:

can you combine your external hard drive with your laptop drive to make one giant drive? like a 160gb laptop drive plus a 300 external for 460 gb total?

for backup drives how do they work? do they backup your data every hour or something you set it to?

any other info is appreciated

 

[GraceMolloy]

for those of you doing a Fresh Install, How much space should I be seeing as used with just the OS and default programs installed?

ie, iWork, iLife, OSX,

Reason I ask, I loaded about 7Gb of Programs, and about 15 Gb of music/podcasts/etc and I'm down to 109Gb Free.

This is a 160 Drive with 149.05Gb (usable) showing in Sys Info.

Ok, decided to do a reinstall just for laughs. 10+GB OS, for starters. 7-8 versions (translations) of Office for OSX at 390MB a piece, + 2 GB worth of print drivers, + Language packs, etc etc etc.

No wonder I was already running low on Space.

What I just did should help a lot though.

 

[Multimedia]

FW/USB2 HDs + Retrospect Backup Software

ok im always confused by external hard drives, so here are a couple of questions:

can you combine your external hard drive with your laptop drive to make one giant drive? like a 160gb laptop drive plus a 300 external for 460 gb total?

for backup drives how do they work? do they backup your data every hour or something you set it to?

any other info is appreciated

You can hook any number of FW and/or USB2 HDs off your MBP and each shows up as a separate volume. Easiest & Cheapest way to build them is to buy big ones raw from Fry's - 400GB are only $100 each on sale days - and buy the FW/USB2 cases for around $40 each - I like Acomdata Brand and put the raw drive inside - very easy to do yourself.

1. Hook it up
2. turn it on
3. you will get a dialog box asking you if you want to initialize it...
4. click on the "Initialize..." button
5. that launches Disk Utility automatically
6. click on the unmounted drive icon below your system volume in the left column
7. click on the "Erase" Pane Title
8. Volume Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
9. you name it anything you like
10. Press the ERASE button and in a few moments it mounts on your desktop as a separate volume ready for use.

NOTE: Always Unmount and Power Down before unplugging them from your Mac. You could lose all your data if you spontaneously unplug a FW drive from your Mac while its still mounted and powered on.

Retrospect Express HD 2.0 Backup Software is available from EMC and everywhere for $50 or less.

 

[uv23]

Nov 4, 2006
9:29 AM Clearance delay MISSISSAUGA, ON
9:22 AM Clearance in progress MISSISSAUGA, ON
9:15 AM Clearance delay MISSISSAUGA, ON
7:25 AM In transit MISSISSAUGA, ON

Package available for clearance

2:48 AM Departed FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN
12:47 AM Arrived at FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN

Yep, exactly the same as me, coming to Calgary. It's stupid and inefficient but I don't think anything to worry about.

 

[Beau]

15" 2.33 C2D Shipped!

15" 2.33, 2GB, 160hd, glossy

Ordered: Nov 1 at 10pm pst
initial ship estimate: Nov 6
initial delivery estimate: Nov 14

actual ship: Nov 4
new estimated delivery: Nov 8

Not bad.


Nov 4, 2006 2:38 PM Picked up SHANGHAI CN Package received after FedEx cutoff

2:38 PM Left origin SHANGHAI CN

8:36 AM Package data transmitted to FedEx

 

[Cockroach]

NOTE: Always Unmount and Power Down before unplugging them from your Mac. You could lose all your data if you spontaneously unplug a FW drive from your Mac while its still mounted and powered on.

Nah, that won't happen. I've done it many times when reading data from the disk (not writing) and it has never been a problem. You just click OK to the alert box and carry on with your life.

 

[Daverinfl]

Finally fed up with the retail stores...I was going to settle for the 120GB HD if it would be faster. Clearly it is not, so might as well get the computer I want.

Just ordered:
MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.33GHz
Part Number: Z0DQ
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
Accessory Kit
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
MacBook Pro 15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive 6x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

Ships by: Nov 07 - Nov 09
Delivers by: Nov 09 - Nov 17

Of course I'm using the edu discount so let's hope that doesn't slow it down too much!

 

[Multimedia]

I Have Lost Entire FW Hard Drives By Not Dismounting & Powering Down Before Unpluging

Nah, that won't happen. I've done it many times when reading data from the disk (not writing) and it has never been a problem. You just click OK to the alert box and carry on with your life.

My experience is different than yours and have lost all the data on more than one FW HD by not unmounting and powering down before unpluging. USB2 is different. You can unplug them without even unmounting and never lose data. FW is more fragile for some reason.

 

[DHagan4755]

After a few weeks of toiling I bought a 2.1GHz MacBook Pro last night at the Apple Store near me. It's great, but I have one nagging problem...the display. When I look at it from more than arm's length the display looks OK. When I use it and when I typing on it, the left side of the screen is brighter the the right, and I feel like my eyes have an astigmatism or something. This morning I took it back to the Apple Store and asked the genius and he said it looked OK to him. Of course he said if it gets any worse, bring it back in. I'm not trying to get all bummed out over it, but I had a lousy display on one of the first MBPs along with all of the other problems they had (battery, speaker, etc.). Returned, refunded. Then when the 17-inch MacBook Pros came out I had a horrible display where the whole thing was overrun with uneven illumination and a high-pitched whine. Returned, refunded. I am really starting to regret getting this C2D MBP. I am really having buyer's remorse and think I should have gone with my initial gut thought of getting a Mac Pro and 20" CD. I am really thinking that Apple's pro laptops are crap right now. Help...

 

[Multimedia]

Then Return The MBP And Wait 1.5 Weeks For Nov. 14 Mac Pro Release

After a few weeks of toiling I bought a 2.1GHz MacBook Pro last night at the Apple Store near me. It's great, but I have one nagging problem...the display. When I look at it from more than arm's length the display looks OK. When I use it and when I typing on it, the left side of the screen is brighter the the right, and I feel like my eyes have an astigmatism or something. This morning I took it back to the Apple Store and asked the genius and he said it looked OK to him. Of course he said if it gets any worse, bring it back in. I'm not trying to get all bummed out over it, but I had a lousy display on one of the first MBPs along with all of the other problems they had (battery, speaker, etc.). Returned, refunded. Then when the 17-inch MacBook Pros came out I had a horrible display where the whole thing was overrun with uneven illumination and a high-pitched whine. Returned, refunded. I am really starting to regret getting this C2D MBP. I am really having buyer's remorse and think I should have gone with my initial gut thought of getting a Mac Pro and 20" CD. I am really thinking that Apple's pro laptops are crap right now. Help...

If you really don't need the portability, the Mac Pro is a much better way to go. I'm planning on buying the new 8-core Mac Pro as soon as it ships. It will cost a little more tricked out to 10GB of RAM. But not much compared to a tricked out 3GB, 200GB 17" MBP. If you are already in remorse, I would return for refund and wait for the 8-core announcement I think will be November 14th. Next version may ship with two 1GB sticks.

 

[funjon]

Actually for all of us who ordered the 17" and have been patiently waiting...

while hearing that all of the 15" machines are being delivered for the past two weeks...

it will be really nice to see ours delivered while those who ordered the 15" wait awhile

seriously...we hope they all start shipping sooner...could it be a delay due to short supply of the 2.33?

More accurately, those of us who ordered 17" macbooks a scant few hours after the apple store reopened have had to sit here and listen to people who ordered on Oct 30th or so have their MBPs show up. Which is frustrating beyond all belief.

Unfortunately the apple stores here in the Bay Area don't have any 17's (and wont until at least Nov 10th, according to Palo Alto and Valley Fair anyway), so I'm resigned to waiting. I would really like to see a weekend ship date, as I am going out of town Nov 10th, and I have a bad feeling that's when my macbook will show up at work.

 

[DHagan4755]

I have always had great luck with Apple desktops but I like the ability of having my work with me wherever I go. I have been burned by so many of Apple's notebooks (not physically, but by manufacturer's defects) it is a wonder I keep buying Apple. I have owned many Apple desktops with no problems, but I can only list one Apple PowerBook out of the many that I have had to go through that did not have problem and that was the last Ti rev 867MHz.