Major MacBook Frustration!!!!

[Bongolo]

Hi all,

I am getting very frustrated with the MacBook and Apple's false advertising & lack of comments regarding the MacBook issues !

The Story:

A while ago, after reading about Boot Camp and in need of a new laptop, I decided to take a look at the MacBook as it seemed to be the perfect size for my needs.

The idea of being able to run XP on a legendary reliable & well designed Macintosh and to use the best Virus / Crash free operating system in the world was indeed a very exciting one!

I took the plunge and bought a MacBook.

I was immediately delighted with the fabulous look & usability of the Black MacBook...

All was very good for the first few weeks, a bit hot (45 > 50C) but absolutely perfect in size, stability and I finally realized why every mac user raves so much about OSX ...

Then all of the sudden, the damn thing started shutting down for no reason, out of the blue on both OSX & XP. The problem got worst and worst and after searching in Google, I discovered that this was a common problem with Macbook users.

I took it back to the Apple Store and upgraded to a MBP.

The MBP was great but too big for me to carry around, so it is now sold.

Still in need of a laptop and having experienced a working MacBook, I thought surely only a small percentage of them are affected and purchased a second one.

I had it for 5 days now and I'm having nothing but problems! First of all the book gets very hot! (65 > 70 with peaks up to 93!!) Also the fan is very noisy, I never noticed it before on the previous machine.

Sometimes it starts with a black screen and I have to press alt apple p r to start it again.

The machine doesn't recognize most of the CDs/DVDs I insert and just eject them ... And now, to top it all, the machine just shut down for no reason!!!!!!!!

This is a week 32 machine!

I don't know what to do any more! Apple market their machine on how reliable, crash free they are and as a first time user, I am indeed very unimpressed and frustrated!

Is there any MacBooks working correctly out there????

What should I do??

All I want is a working machine that runs at a reasonable temperature, doesn't make excessive noise and does what it says on the box...

Please advise.

Many thanks.

/Bongolo

 

[nospleen]

I think they had a firmware update that makes the fans run more. I may be wrong though...

 

[Sweener88]

I think the only thing we can say is to take it into your nearest apple store and explain to them everything you have just told us. I think this is just bad luck though and im sure apple will help you out if you go there in person (nothing gets done over the phone).
Good luck, welcome to the mac community and sorry for your troubles.

Sweener

 

[JurgenWigg]

My macbook works just fine. no crashes, no random shutdowns, all except this one CD works just fine with it (see most recent thread), and it usually runs <60 degrees C.

 

[Fleetwood Mac]

The MacBook lines haven't been sorted out yet. I still believe that most machines must be problem free, because I check all MacBooks I get the chance to at stores (not a bad one yet), and have a friend who now has a problem free MacBook as well.

That said, some people continue to be very unlucky. If processing power isn't a huge concern I'd suggest you get a PowerBook G4 (up to 1.67ghz) or an iBook G4 (up to 1.42ghz). Both are excellent machines (fewer problems), relitivley up-to-date, and should be much cheaper than Intel alternitives. You can get used ones anywhere, and new ones at some stores.

Good luck. Its really too bad you started off on the wrong foot as far as Macs go.

 

[Skeeball236]

del

 

[plinden]

Polls/anedotal evidence seems to point to around 20% of the MacBooks with major (needing repair or replacement, like a bad logic board) or minor (annoyances like a whine) issues. That means 80% working perfectly.

So the chances of you getting two in a row with issues is 1 in 25. Getting two with major problems will be lower probability, but still not insignificant.

You should take your latest one in to get it looked at.

My wife's MacBook is working perfectly.

And to put some perspective on this, the industry average for laptops with problems is about 17%. Also, 41% of the first generation 15" aluminium 1GHz PowerBooks needed to be repaired in their first year, so all this talk about Apple's quality control going down isn't correct. It's just more people are buying Macs so there are quantitively more problems.

 

[coffey7]

My macbook white 2.0 does not moo or make loud noises but I have trouble with burning dvds. It crashes all the time when burning using toast. The xp side works fine using free burn software. The errors did say it was an osx problem. I'm about to take it to the store where I bought it and see if they can fix it.