New MacBook Pro Quality Issues?

[dyn]

What's the benefit of encrypting your disk? It's not like any ordinary person will be able to crack your password.

They don't need to crack any password if you don't encrypt your disk because the contents of that disk will be wide open. Simply put the machine into target disk mode and you can pull anything off of it without using credentials. The only way to prevent that is to use whole disk encryption (in this case that would be Filevault) AND use a firmware password (which makes it a lot order to put the machine into target disk mode). This is very useful for when your notebook gets stolen (with it being a very mobile device this is a rather real risk).

This is not something you use to prevent the government from snooping on your disk (they have many other resources to do that) but simply to prevent people from accessing your data in case your notebook gets stolen. In case a company is ISO 27001 certified it is actually mandatory to encrypt disks in notebooks for that very reason (risk of theft and thus leaking data). There are other certifications which also require you to do this.

And I think Apple limits the number of attempts. Let alone decrypt the disk. Unless you have something to hide on the state level? Tax evasion or a huge stock of bitcoin.

Turning on Filevault will create a special key that is used to encrypt the data. You can save it somewhere you deem safe. I remember there was also the option to save the key with Apple. Only in case of the latter will Apple be able to decrypt it unless they have a backdoor in Filevault (which I doubt since it is using AES256).

 

[WhiteWhaleHolyGrail]

They don't need to crack any password if you don't encrypt your disk because the contents of that disk will be wide open. Simply put the machine into target disk mode and you can pull anything off of it without using credentials. The only way to prevent that is to use whole disk encryption (in this case that would be Filevault) AND use a firmware password (which makes it a lot order to put the machine into target disk mode). This is very useful for when your notebook gets stolen (with it being a very mobile device this is a rather real risk).

This is not something you use to prevent the government from snooping on your disk (they have many other resources to do that) but simply to prevent people from accessing your data in case your notebook gets stolen. In case a company is ISO 27001 certified it is actually mandatory to encrypt disks in notebooks for that very reason (risk of theft and thus leaking data). There are other certifications which also require you to do this.


Turning on Filevault will create a special key that is used to encrypt the data. You can save it somewhere you deem safe. I remember there was also the option to save the key with Apple. Only in case of the latter will Apple be able to decrypt it unless they have a backdoor in Filevault (which I doubt since it is using AES256).

How do I engage the firmware P/W?

 

[danieleilertsen]

I am having many problems with my macbook pro 15 with touchbar (Best spec).

1. Everytime I "log on" the display flickers. Found out it goes away if I turn off filevault.

2. When watching a movie, connected to a tv via hdmi adapter I got from apple, the picture goes away (it turns completely black on the tv) every couple of minutes. The black screen lasts about a half a second before showing the normal movie picture thats running. Tried different files. Happens every time.

3. The battery life is crazy short. Been using safari, on 100 prosent battery from start, and now 20 minutes later we are down to 73 %. 2 hours and 55 minutes left. Come on!

4. When I try to move a file in finder the track pad is not able to move it. Its like the track pad doesn't recognize my left finger when i am holdning it down.

Tried reinstalling sierra.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Yeah... Tim Cook didn't read that. And "Head customer support dude" is one of hundreds in various call centres.

That email address is a message dump that's run by Customer Service. It's normal practice in any large public-facing company: tens of thousands of people try to contact a major CEO a week. Even his real internal email will be prefiltered by staff. as that alone will be in the thousands.

Your credulity shows it works. The smoke and mirrors made you think you got special treatment. You didn't.

Will you let people feel good. People like to feel special.
[doublepost=1480212765][/doublepost]

I am having many problems with my macbook pro 15 with touchbar (Best spec).

1. Everytime I "log on" the display flickers. Found out it goes away if I turn off filevault.

2. When watching a movie, connected to a tv via hdmi adapter I got from apple, the picture goes away (it turns completely black on the tv) every couple of minutes. The black screen lasts about a half a second before showing the normal movie picture thats running. Tried different files. Happens every time.

3. The battery life is crazy short. Been using safari, on 100 prosent battery from start, and now 20 minutes later we are down to 73 %. 2 hours and 55 minutes left. Come on!

4. When I try to move a file in finder the track pad is not able to move it. Its like the track pad doesn't recognize my left finger when i am holdning it down.

Tried reinstalling sierra.

I think you need to just wait it out tbqh. I had a similar issue at first and by the next week I was getting 10+ hours with my machine. I'm on 94% left with 9:35 remaining.

 

[danieleilertsen]

Will you let people feel good. People like to feel special.
[doublepost=1480212765][/doublepost]
I think you need to just wait it out tbqh. I had a similar issue at first and by the next week I was getting 10+ hours with my machine. I'm on 94% left with 9:35 remaining.

Thanks. I am hearing allot of battery life issues. could be software. but what about nr 2 and 4?

 

[AdonisSMU]

Thanks. I am hearing allot of battery life issues. could be software. but what about nr 2 and 4?

I don't understand the question.

 

[cityboy-100]

I walked into the Apple Store and walked out with a silver 13" 3.3ghz/16gb/512gb MacBook. It was easy to set up and I transferred over some files, but since then I've had the following problems:

• Display artifacts/glitching when opening from sleep
• The case bottom doesn't line up with the main case on the left side near the hinge. It seems sloppy or rushed or cheap.

It's not a defect, but the battery life is noticeably not as good claimed/like the previous 13". It's still too early to tell what It will be like, but it's nothing like my 2013 13" MBP. I believe my Spotlight indexing is done.

 

[TazmoStarkana]

I walked into the Apple Store and walked out with a silver 13" 3.3ghz/16gb/512gb MacBook. It was easy to set up and I transferred over some files, but since then I've had the following problems:

• Display artifacts/glitching when opening from sleep
• The case bottom doesn't line up with the main case on the left side near the hinge. It seems sloppy or rushed or cheap.

It's not a defect, but the battery life is noticeably not as good claimed/like the previous 13". It's still too early to tell what It will be like, but it's nothing like my 2013 13" MBP. I believe my Spotlight indexing is done.

Email tcook@apple.com about it and bitch as much as you can about QC issues. That's what I do and tell everyone else to do. He receives and reads them. Nothing will change until you bitch as loud as possible.

 

[kb3tzt]

I must be one of the lucky 1 in a 1000, as my 13" was taken off line and put through quality control tests. how do I know, it came with 4 charge cycles on the unit, which was factory sealed. called and apple verified it so. so this leads me to believe that they all were drunk out of their cores on hard cider, as my little guy has serious display and usb-c issues when waking up from sleep. only when attempting to wake up from external keyboard connected through apple dongle will it grumble and cry. no issues when using external blue tooth keyboard. Like I said, I'm lucky... mine was tested... god only knows if it failed what it would be like. waiting for a. call back from apple, as it could be a port issue. god forbid it is a os issue, I mean apple would not push through a faulty operating system...lol. only gates himself would do that!!

 

[Brookzy]

QC could be better. My first one had major issues with the screen, and my second one came pre-blemished for me. Not serious enough to warrant a replacement but annoying that they can get bashed on something in the factory and just get passed along the production line like nothing happened.

 

[dyn]

How do I engage the firmware P/W?

The following article tells you all about it: Use a firmware password on your Mac.

 

[Pootmatoot]

Email tcook@apple.com about it and bitch as much as you can about QC issues. That's what I do and tell everyone else to do. He receives and reads them. Nothing will change until you bitch as loud as possible.

He doesn't. CS do.

 

[jcarlson]

@jcarlson: there are fans in the machine which could make that clicking noise. Is that noise happening at certain times/occasions? SSD is all electronics so that can't be making clicking noises like you are describing but those fans could. As well as the trackpad (if you rest your wrists on it, I wonder what happens).
The discolourations are rather difficult to see on that image. The quality of the image is so bad that the poor image alone could be the culprit. By the looks of it I think it is just the common reflection of some sort of light source in it.

@dyn The image quality is poor on purpose. Discoloration was the wrong word. What I was trying to illustrate is the inconsistent backlight brightness. I've altered the image to make this more obvious, as the original photo didn't sufficiently convey what the naked eye could see.

As for the clicking, it seems to have subsided, but it's also been loud in my office lately, so perhaps I can't hear it.

 

[throAU]

I just received my brand new Late 2016 15" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I'm noticing a couple issues that seem a bit off for a $2,800 machine... anyone else noticed these?

First, the machine occasionally produces a faint clicking noise. It sounds exactly like the clicking of a mechanical hard disk drive head seeking. But that's impossible with an SSD, right?

You'd think SSDs are silent, however my 2015 Retina 13" makes noise, as does the Surface Pro 4 i have at work, as does the Elitebook 820 G2 i have at work also.

They can make noise occasionally. It's faint though. Maybe it is interference through the speakers. But i know what you mean and yes its SSD related.

 

[TazmoStarkana]

@dyn The image quality is poor on purpose. Discoloration was the wrong word. What I was trying to illustrate is the inconsistent backlight brightness. I've altered the image to make this more obvious, as the original photo didn't sufficiently convey what the naked eye could see.

As for the clicking, it seems to have subsided, but it's also been loud in my office lately, so perhaps I can't hear it.

Did you noticed if you put pressure on the display with your thumb, almost half the screen discolors? It gets slightly darker tint around the area you press, and on my display almost tints half of the display, though it fades out from the epicenter.

 

[deadserious]

Im on my second late 2016 MacBook 15" fully maxed out laptop and I cannot process video with Adobe Premiere Pro. I too have the flickering after entering password and after a few minutes of processing video files my screen locks, shows bright colors, and then computer restarts. Same as my first one. This is a systemic problem and I cannot believe apple didn't catch it before deployment.

 

[0905893]

I've had issues with an electrical buzzing coming from under my keyboard. It's only audible if you put your ear right next to the keyboard. Has anyone else had this issue with the new tbMBP? (15")

 

[kb3tzt]

Im on my second late 2016 MacBook 15" fully maxed out laptop and I cannot process video with Adobe Premiere Pro. I too have the flickering after entering password and after a few minutes of processing video files my screen locks, shows bright colors, and then computer restarts. Same as my first one. This is a systemic problem and I cannot believe apple didn't catch it before deployment.

hate to say this, but your issues sound like adobe not getting along with Sierra. is the software up to date???? i had a similar issue with lightroom and windows 10. machine only went wonky when trying to load and process photos. I wish the new pros came with el captain. all my software worked fine with that. upgrade to Sierra after all the software has updates.

 

[deadserious]

hate to say this, but your issues sound like adobe not getting along with Sierra. is the software up to date???? i had a similar issue with lightroom and windows 10. machine only went wonky when trying to load and process photos. I wish the new pros came with el captain. all my software worked fine with that. upgrade to Sierra after all the software has updates.

Software is all up to date but I'm not sure its adobe specific. When I first start up the computer and after I enter my password the bottom third of my screen flashes lines and snow for a fraction of a second. Doesn't look right. Something is up with the graphics card I think. The computer gets super hot on my lap too after a few minutes of video processing.