New to Apple - Very Disappointed

[Counterfit]

I am a new switcher as well, and things have been going down hill week by week. I find my self calling Applecare 2 times a week and not getting results.

I am really starting to think that I need a total replacement for my machine. Check out todays newest problem ...

I'd bring that into a store and show them if I were you. (Assuming you have one in the area).

I'm sorry if I came across badly, I didn't mean to.

No worries, you didn't

I didn't want to reinstall the os as the machine was brand new, only a day or so old.

Sometimes, the factory OS install is corrupted, so stuff might not work right. It doesn't happen very often though.

 

[kevin.rivers]

I am a new switcher as well, and things have been going down hill week by week. I find my self calling Applecare 2 times a week and not getting results.

I am really starting to think that I need a total replacement for my machine. Check out todays newest problem ...

What version are you using of Coconut Battery? The one from Macupdate has issues, i think it is listed as 2.4, get 2.2 from the site.

EDIT: I went back and looked at the image, you have that 2.3 version. It gave me problems on my Powerbook

Grab 2.2 from here http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/ it is universal as well

 

[Boggle]

For some reason i am skeptical of this previous comment unless the PCs were running Linux.

I've never seen the blue screen of death either. IBM PS2/30 1984. Acer laptop 1994 (yes the IBM last 10 years ppl, all i did was play space quest, kings quest and use word perfect) Dell Dimension desktop 1996 Dell Inspiron 2800 in 2000, Dell Dimension 8600 2003.

None of that stopped me from buying my macbook this week.

 

[solvs]

I'm sorry if I came across badly, I didn't mean to.

Better than most new frustrated users. What's funny is that your experience in other OSs may be your biggest problem. You know so much about Windows you're used to doing it that way. You'll have to unlearn a lot. Your experience in UNIX may be a boon however.

I didn't want to reinstall the os as the machine was brand new, only a day or so old.

You should have. That's the first thing I always do. Not saying there's anything wrong with it, I just don't like the standard install, I like to customize it myself. Gets rid of a lot of the minor issues I seem to have otherwise. Then update everything right away and repair permissions.

Careful with some 3rd party software too, but things like Onyx and Witch seem to fix more issues for me than cause.

 

[IJ Reilly]

If there's nothing wrong with the factory install... oh, alright, I give up already.

No, I don't. Just kidding.

Fix things that are broken. Trying to fix things that aren't broken is just asking for trouble. Hard crashes of OSX, especially multiple hard crashes, are an almost sure sign of a hardware problem. Treat it as such.

 

[livingfortoday]

Yeah, my first Intel iMac had a bunch of software problems and instability that was clearly related to the hardware, though it took a while for Apple to acknowledge that and accept it for return. I would definitely return this computer for a replacement.

 

[MACDRIVE]

You just jumped in at the wrong time if you're expecting the perfect experience that most of us talk about - most likely regarding our PPC Mac's

May I very politely ask what PPC stands for? I Googled it and got all kinds of strange translations.

 

[xy14]

May I very politely ask what PPC stands for? I Googled it and got all kinds of strange translations.

It's the name of the processors called powerpc (aka g4, g5). for some reason, people find it hard to type the whole 7-letter-long word so they shortened it to 3.

 

[dontmatter]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm sorry if I came across badly, I didn't mean to. It is just that I've been looking forward to this for a long time and not then getting the experience I expected is difficult.

Hint: you didn't come across badly. You were very polite. But people here are passionate that Macs are the be all and end all, and if something points to that not being true, which it isn't, they feel the uncontrollable need to defend the mac. Personally, my mac has been a bit more buggy than I think it needs to, but i find that fixing problems is almost always easy enough, and the problems are not that bad, despite my lack of any technical expertise except trial and error. But see, there I go, needlessly defending the mac as the vastly superior world, when I've never spent much time in windows, anyway.

 

[dontmatter]

Just look after the machine and it should be fine. I have one which has been booted for over 2 years now.

seriously? unless it's a server, you ought to shut it down sometime. Not just that it can't hurt the system, but it's a lot of power to keep a computer on that whole time. If you don't shut it down at night, at least do when you go on vacation to use a little less electricity.

 

[firsttube]

man ! ctrl-click on the app in the dock and select force quit. so much easier

The dock sucks, actually. I've been using macs for 16+ years, and the dock is the worst part of the gui to interact with. The command, option, escape key combo makes the force quit window appear immediately, whereas control clicking on the dock will actually give a spinning beachball of death quite regularly. Using the keyboard (and kb shortcuts) is much faster for me than using the mouse for most tasks, force quitting apps being one of them. I'm sure many people will agree with me as well.

ft

Edit: By the way, my favorite app launcher so far is Quicksilver. Quite an amazing app.

 

[drake]

seriously? unless it's a server, you ought to shut it down sometime. Not just that it can't hurt the system, but it's a lot of power to keep a computer on that whole time. If you don't shut it down at night, at least do when you go on vacation to use a little less electricity.

PCs have this thing called "sleep mode" . No need to turn the computer off.

 

[kingtj]

Reinstall the OS?

Coming from a long-time PC *and* Mac background, this is really something I don't quite understand with OS X and Macs.

All too often, I've seen cases where a new Mac seems to come pre-loaded with a defective/mangled version of OS X - right out of the box.

Like you pointed out, wiping the drive and re-loading OS X from the system restore/recovery CD's or DVD's often clears up odd problems like "beach balls of death" or apps that freeze up the machine mysteriously when they're run. (Assuming it's not a hardware problem like bad RAM or a failing hard drive.)

I have to say, I've *never* encountered this a single time with a Windows system. I'm sure it's happened before to somebody, but I've never heard of it. If the OS is pre-installed, it should be perfectly functional and properly set up so you just power the machine on and start working with it.

Makes me wonder exactly what Apple's procedure is for imaging drives on new Macs before they go out the door.

I'm afraid this push by Apple to get more Windows users, is a real problem. They don't know the Mac or OSX so they have issues, and it sours them. Being a long time Mac user first thing I would have done was reinstall the OS. It sounds like this person has no hardware issues.

 

[plinden]

I guess I'll just repeat have to this one more time.

These day, people don't get BSOD's with XP because the default behaviour is to restart on a system crash. This is set in Control Panel/System/Advanced/Startup and Recovery settings/Automatically restart. Most people don't change this.

That's not to say some people don't get system crashes, but it's this that accounts for the reports of XP being more stable. You get what you pay for and if you pay for a well-designed Windows system, you'll have less trouble than with e.g. an eMachines. A lot of people didn't get BSODs in pre-XP Windows. Im 20+ years, I have had several machines that never crashed, but one that crashed two or three times a day ... a Compaq laptop, incidentally.

That was almost certainly a hardware problem, probably accounted for by the cup of coffee I spilled over and into it. It wouldn't run Windows eventually, but I got two more years life out if it when I installed Linux on it, and it never crashed with Linux. That shows Windows instability ... Windows just wouldn't run on that machine without crashing, and my last Dell desktop (which lasted well for 4 years) will no longer run Windows for more than an hour without reporting a corrupt explorer, but it still runs Linux with no issues.

Like I've said before, human nature being what it is, it's easier for people to remember sitting looking at big blue screens and they forget about random restarts especially if they don't happen very often.

 

[dr_lha]

99.9% of crashes in Windows are due to bad drivers, rather than bad hardware IMHO. If you buy a cheap PC, it will come with cheap/no-name components and that usually means poorly debugged and supported drivers that cause the machines to crash.

In the case of Macs, as all the hardware is controlled by Apple, the drivers as they exist should always be of the best quality. This is the benifit of not running on a grey box.

These days however, if you buy an expensive PC, you shouldn't have too much problems with XP crashing as the components will be top branded with good drivers.

Personally I don't have XP crashes too often on my Dell Laptop, but it often refuses to wake from sleep, meaning I have to reboot it.

 

[dr_lha]

I have to say, I've *never* encountered this a single time with a Windows system.

I've never encountered it on a Mac either. So what does that prove?

 

[bankshot]

These day, people don't get BSOD's with XP because the default behaviour is to restart on a system crash. This is set in Control Panel/System/Advanced/Startup and Recovery settings/Automatically restart. Most people don't change this.

While this is true, the suggestion that this is the sole reason for fewer reports of BSOD is pure anti-Windows FUD. Your statement makes it sound like XP is just as unstable as 95, 98, or ME, and it's just masking the crashes with a little trick. The fact is that Windows XP (and 2000) is far more stable than its predecessors, to the point that on good hardware with correct drivers, it truly crashes no more often than OS X, Linux, etc.

Hey, I hate having to defend Windows, almost as much as I hate having to use it. But insinuating that Windows still crashes all the time is just as bad as insinuating that Macs are just overpriced toys that can't do real work. I have to call that out. If it wasn't your intent, then there was a problem in my interpretation.

As always, anecdotes do not make a statistical sample, but my personal experience is that I have not had any crashes with Windows 2000 or XP in over 3 years of using them. None. Yes, I turned off the automatic reboot almost immediately. In contrast, my Macs have crashed at least 1 or 2 dozen times in that time period. Of course, I use the Macs a lot more, and I connect a lot more foreign hardware to them (probably 2/3rds of crashes were USB or FireWire related - still Apple's fault, but I don't connect the same devices to Windows machines because I only use them as little as absolutely necessary!). So none of this is conclusive except to say that both are remarkably stable and both could still use improvement.

Umm, what was the original topic of this thread again?

 

[balamw]

PCs have this thing called "sleep mode" . No need to turn the computer off.

No, but you should apply any critical security updates on any OS, many of which do require reboots.

EDIT: XPSP2 is pretty stable. I've had only very occasional BSOD's on XP and they have been much easier to recover from. They have been due to incompatibilities between drivers one was due to McAfee and another due to a Neo update. In my experience with the two Macs, I've yet to experience a kernel panic and only had to reboot the iMac once due to Front Row becoming non-responsive.

B

 

[/dev/toaster]

What version are you using of Coconut Battery? The one from Macupdate has issues, i think it is listed as 2.4, get 2.2 from the site.

EDIT: I went back and looked at the image, you have that 2.3 version. It gave me problems on my Powerbook

Grab 2.2 from here http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/ it is universal as well

Its not the software reporting things wrong, its a battery that went bad already. The system profiler is reporting the same. That battery lasts about 2 minutes. Enough to boot the machine, login ... and turn it self off.

Luckly, I bought a second battery not too long after I bought the machine. So, right now I am using the new battery.

I am not sure which I am more pissed about right now, the fact the battery went dead or Apples support. Short version of a very long story. The day the battery went dead, I was leaving for back home that night. (Nice 5 hour plane ride, you need 2 batterys) I called Apple support who suggested going to an Apple store to do an exchange. Which sounds like a great normal solution. Except for the fact that I need an appointment to do an exchange! Beyond that, I was told that there are no appointments avaiable until the following week. I tried getting a manager on the phone, but the guy hung up on me instead. When trying to call back, they didn't answer the phone. I tried for an hour, then they started hanging up on me.

I have never had that kind of treatment trying to get a replacement for a faulty product. Some of Apples policys and methods honestly make NO sense.

So, now I am back home for a few days ... the nearest Apple store is 2 and a half hours away. Apple care won't send a new battery until they can inspect the old bad one.

 

[alnikopol]

MacBook problems

My brand-new Intel Dual Core MacBook acquainted me with the Mac world via a Kernel Panic the second time I've booted the machine, and a total system freeze just after making the software updates. Now I'm following your advice, installing the OS from scratch. But I must say I've expected something elese from a Mac.

 

[smwatson]

Do you have OSX 10.4.7? (if thats the latest) because alot of people have had problems with that.

 

[alnikopol]

Do you have OSX 10.4.7? (if thats the latest) because alot of people have had problems with that.

I've got the MacBook shipped 2 days ago. To be honest, I have no idea what OS it had, but the Install Disc is 10.4.6. I reckon the factory OS was the same version.

 

[DeVizardofOZ]

I just bought a Macbook and I agree with you 100%. I knew going in there was going to be a transition for me to switch to Mac from PC. I knew there would be a lot of "that's not how it works on my PC" as I was tinkering and playing around with it in the first few days.

But because the Mac is so much user friendly I picked up on things very quickly. I've had it for 3 days now and I feel rather comfortable using it. I haven't done much advance work on it and there are a few things that I miss that my PC does that my Mac can't but overall I will probably never own another PC after this. I am hooked.

If I had the luck the starter of the thread had I would probably feel the same way.

Could you explain WHAT it is that OX can't do vs WINdoof? I am going to switch, once APPLE gets their act together and delivers flawless machines... Also waiting for the Merom and 800 Mhz frontside bus..

Just to rap it up I like to say that all the issues with new Macs really turn me off. Bad hardware, bad service, that can't be it, Mr Jobs. I have friends who have the third screen change on their PB17", with all those issues on new products I conclude that the quality control of ASUSTEC/APPLE is worth POOP

 

[alnikopol]

After making the install from scratch, thought is a good idea to try an update. Well, think again, the most interesting part of the update wouldn't go, due to digital signature check failure. This has nothing to do with my machine, but it's still pissing off.

Second, Safari went down 2 minutes after opening it. OK, it can happen, but why? I didn't do any fancy installs, just the OSX as it came from the DVD.

 

[nospleen]

After making the install from scratch, thought is a good idea to try an update. Well, think again, the most interesting part of the update wouldn't go, due to digital signature check failure. This has nothing to do with my machine, but it's still pissing off.

Second, Safari went down 2 minutes after opening it. OK, it can happen, but why? I didn't do any fancy installs, just the OSX as it came from the DVD.

I had that same digital signature failure... I ended up downloading it directly from Apple's site. I heard they pulled the original 10.4.7 download, so maybe that is the cause.