Heat/Performance probs with MBP C2D and poor service in Apple UK Stores

[phatspider]

Hi guys

I am having a number of problems with my C2D MBP :

1) Battery lasts only about 1 and a half hours off the charger (have checked battery stats with Coconut and its had 107 cycles but is at only 70% of its original capacity)

2) MBP runs very very hot. The bottom of the case is always v hot to touch. iStat often records temps of 150+

3) Seems to run pretty slow at times - even with not a lot running.

4) Fans seem to always be on and spinning most of the time at 6000 rpm

So anyway - I booked in to see a 'genius' and explained all of the above. Laptop is only 5 months old. He looked at it, ran Activity Monitor and said mds was using about 60% of my processor and that this was caused by a program called last.fm and this is the cause of all my problems!

I explained that I hardly ever used that prog to which he then said theres other 3rd party software on there which is the cause. Basically if i want it to behave properly I should never install any software that Apple dont write. When I queried other software that Apple themselves sell, such as Parallels, Office etc. I was told the same - they're not supported and would cause hardware problems such as mine

Now this sounds like nonsense to me - but what can I do?

A

 

[DaLurker]

Hi guys

I am having a number of problems with my C2D MBP :

1) Battery lasts only about 1 and a half hours off the charger (have checked battery stats with Coconut and its had 107 cycles but is at only 70% of its original capacity)

2) MBP runs very very hot. The bottom of the case is always v hot to touch. iStat often records temps of 150+

3) Seems to run pretty slow at times - even with not a lot running.

4) Fans seem to always be on and spinning most of the time at 6000 rpm

So anyway - I booked in to see a 'genius' and explained all of the above. Laptop is only 5 months old. He looked at it, ran Activity Monitor and said mds was using about 60% of my processor and that this was caused by a program called last.fm and this is the cause of all my problems!

I explained that I hardly ever used that prog to which he then said theres other 3rd party software on there which is the cause. Basically if i want it to behave properly I should never install any software that Apple dont write. When I queried other software that Apple themselves sell, such as Parallels, Office etc. I was told the same - they're not supported and would cause hardware problems such as mine

Now this sounds like nonsense to me - but what can I do?

A

Third party software isn't supported by Apple, which makes sense. Now not all third party software should use your CPU all the time which would mean that last.fm might be stuck in an infinite loop or is an extremely badly written piece of software. Either ways, its not Apple's problem.

Anyways a persistent process using 60% of CPU will cause the bad battery life and fans on all the time. The fact is it seems the hardware is not at fault, but instead it is user error.

Don't always blame Apple for all your problems. A computer is a sophisticated piece of engineering and software.

If you don't use last.fm much, stop the program that uses this process and your problems will be solved.

 

[phatspider]

I have just removed every piece of software that isn't 'Apple' and every time I boot the MBP up the fans kick straight in at 6000 rpm

CPU usage is showing between 45 and 60% with only Safari running

Surely this can't be right?

 

[deadpixels]

I have just removed every piece of software that isn't 'Apple' and every time I bought the MBP up the fans kick straight in at 6000 rpm

CPU usage is showing between 45 and 60% with only Safari running

Surely this can't be right?

no, it's not. i have right now safari and adium runnig and my cpu use is always under 10%, most of the time under 5%.

 

[phatspider]

Hmmm- well clearly the store arent interested

So should I try ringing up?

 

[chex]

back u p your stuff and do a clean install of OSX, and then take it in and they'll have no way to fob you off

 

[Attonine]

Last.fm is definitely not the problem. I have this installed, don't use it as much as I want because of my connection, but it does not use much cpu at all.

Keep an eye on the battery. Over the past few weeks my MBP (CD, not C2D) started beachballing a bit and acting a little funky, and was hot, but aren't they all. Anyway, I needed to call Applecare because of an optical drive issue, needed to remove the battery to get the serial number, only to find that it had "exploded". If it wasn't for the optical drive issue i would not have discovered this. Anyway, removing the battery has stopped a lot of the funky behaviour, unfortunately it did not fix the optical drive.


Incidentally, this battery "explosion" occured after the power management/battery update released a few weeks ago, and I have only around 50 cycles on the battery. The Machine is almost 1 year old (purchased 9th June 2006), and in this year I have had a replacement HDD, and will be getting a replacment battery and optical drive. I'm hoping that this will be everything, the big 3! Not really Apple issues, as these three items are component parts which Apple doesn't manufacture, at the most Apple could be blamed for poor choices (only Apple know how many HDDs, optical drives, and batteries have failed, so it is difficult to judge how widespread issues are), but how exactly do you test how a new-to-market component will behave over extended periods of time, especially when dealing with cutting edge technology?


With regard the the "Geniuses" in some of the UK stores, I must admit, sometimes I do think that they don't know as much as they should, and yes, they can be a little off handed. I find persistence tends to pay off.