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Intel Macs - Goodbye stable computing for now?

amin

amin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I have been using PPC Macs for years now and recently bought my first two Intel Macs, a Mac Pro and a Core 2 Duo iMac. With these Intel Macs, I have learned about kernel panics - can't really blame the Macs though since the KPs occurred while using beta software to emulate Windows. Even without installing that beta software however, I've noticed these new Macs lack the rock solid stability I've come to know and love with my Powerbook. New universal binary apps quit unexpectedly from time to time. Other times they simply freeze. These incidents are very uncommon, but they are disturbing the notion I hold of OS X being 100% stable.

I'm sure these are simply growing pains which will pass as the UB apps are updated and polished. Did such growing pains occur with the switch to PPC? Anyone else been feeling the same way? If not, perhaps one of my apps is a trouble maker.

Addendum - Before you attack me for this thread starting post, please read my short post below which clarifies what I am talking about.
 
I have a macbook and a mac pro and never had a kernal panic or any crash for that matter ever. Might want to have your systems checked out.
 
amin said:
I have been using PPC Macs for years now and recently bought my first two Intel Macs, a Mac Pro and a Core 2 Duo iMac. With these Intel Macs, I have learned about kernel panics - can't really blame the Macs though since the KPs occurred while using beta software to emulate Windows. Even without installing that beta software however, I've noticed these new Macs lack the rock solid stability I've come to know and love with my Powerbook. New universal binary apps quit unexpectedly from time to time. Other times they simply freeze. These incidents are very uncommon, but they are disturbing the notion I hold of OS X being 100% stable.

I'm sure these are simply growing pains which will pass as the UB apps are updated and polished. Did such growing pains occur with the switch to PPC? Anyone else been feeling the same way? If not, perhaps one of my apps is a trouble maker.
Click to expand...

I have not had ONE kernel panic in 5 months on my Intel iMac, and this is with DAILY use as an audio production machine.
 
Mind you, this transition is much smoother than the transition between 680x0 and PPC. There were bugs galore then, and even then the transition took a much longer time than this one.
 
A mountain is only solid until something stronger knocks it down. For some to be 100% stable 100% of the time is hopeful wishing. I new to the mac world, and to be honest i have not had not one problem with my computer. I have a macbook with a 2ghz and 1 gig of ram. Its a wonderful machine, i cant believe that i've waited this long to enjoy this type of computing. Its a wonderful experience. But if my macbook was to act up a little or if a program was to crash, i would denounce the chipset or the code behind the OS itself, maybe it was just a bad program, or the system simply made a mistake which they do, even though they aren't humans... but they were built by humans they cant be perfect even though macs seems that way most of the time. I was a long time windows user and while i cant sit here and lie about how my xp machine crashed all the time, i have noticed a difference. It seems like xp chases its tail a lot. Its functions and certain programs that have such little use the eat resources. I like the mac because it simply gives me what i want or need with the option to have more. If the computer crashes restart it, if a program hangs, force it to end and try it again, the world of computers is fickle place.
 
Yes, there are growing pains. No, it isn't 100% stable, but even on PPC. Bootcamp is beta, Macs aren't perfect (again, even the PPC ones), but most Intel are fine. You're just having some bad luck with yours. Other people don't have any issues with their Intel Macs, so your assertions are pretty much ridiculous.

I don't know why I keep clicking on these threads where someone has some issues and automatically assumes everyone else must be.
 
amin said:
I'm sure these are simply growing pains which will pass as the UB apps are updated and polished. Did such growing pains occur with the switch to PPC? Anyone else been feeling the same way? If not, perhaps one of my apps is a trouble maker.
Click to expand...

This is a remarkably smooth transition actually.

Parallels is prob the app that kernel panic'd. Just have to avoid it for now.

arn
 
pianoman said:
no problems here! (on an Intel Core Duo MBP)
Click to expand...

Ditto my MBP has been perfectly stable (for what I do), much more so than the Power Mac dual G5 it replaced.
 
I've had two kernel panics, both caused by early Parallels betas. Otherwise this Core Duo iMac feels rock solid.

This is my first Mac so I have nothing to compare to, except for various Windows and Linux machines, which had varying degrees of stability, but none beat the iMac.
 
Thank you for the responses. I think I ruined my point by mentioning the kernel panics. Those were due to early adoption of Parallels beta.

What I am observing is actually much more subtle. One or two times (out of many) Capture One (universal binary RAW processing application) has quit on me. This has never happened on my PPC Macs. iWeb quit unexpectedly on me once. Never happened on my Powerbook. Once or twice on each Intel Mac, an app has frozen (no reboot restarted, just a force quit) - an extraordinarily rare occurrence on my Powerbook. Memtest finds no fault with either Intel Mac. None of these are serious problems, but the experience is just a touch less reassuringly one of perfect stability than that on the PPC platform.

I believe those of you who say this transition is much smoother than previous ones. I do think there are some subtle bumps, but all in all it's quite impressive how few bumps there actually are.
 
amin said:
Thank you for the responses. I think I ruined my point by mentioning the kernel panics. Those were due to early adoption of Parallels beta.

What I am observing is actually much more subtle. One or two times (out of many) Capture One (universal binary RAW processing application) has quit on me. This has never happened on my PPC Macs. iWeb quit unexpectedly on me once. Never happened on my Powerbook. Once or twice on each Intel Mac, an app has frozen (no reboot restarted, just a force quit) - an extraordinarily rare occurrence on my Powerbook. Memtest finds no fault with either Intel Mac. None of these are serious problems, but the experience is just a touch less reassuringly one of perfect stability than that on the PPC platform.

I believe those of you who say this transition is much smoother than previous ones. I do think there are some subtle bumps, but all in all it's quite impressive how few bumps there actually are.
Click to expand...

those bumps are due to software not hardware. the ppc code is stable because they had a longer time to test it. intel code hasn't been in production very long. if you don't like to return your intel macs and don't upgrade.
 
I've had my intel iMac since day 1 and I've had my mbp for a month now and never had one problem. i'd try not to blame apple because of your betaware.
 
I get the occasional kernel panic (maybe a twice a year) and frozen computer (have to physically reboot) every other month or so, on my iBook. My point being, likely there are more issues with the new Intel models, however, the PPC models were not 100% stable either. And for both PPC and intel, individual milage may vary...
 
At least one visible or invisible kernel panic every two days here on the Intel Macs. I re-installed my MBP since it came back from repair and I had a kernel panic within two days of that. Happens especially when shutting down, sleeping or in browsers. It's a bit of a joke.
 
Coming from a Macbook Pro user, with a buddy with a black macbook as well, We've seen no problems whatsoever with the intel hardware.

My Macbook Pro is just as stable as my old 2.5ghz G5 Powermac (FOR SALE...PM Me if interested ;-) )

Some of these "MAJORZ INTELZ PROBLEM WIZ MAH COMPUTORZ" threads are getting a little lame....

Anything computer wise can have a fault, if theres a problem ,that's why you've got your warranty...If you have a problem, you take it back to the apple store, or arrange a collect...if you get poor service from repairs, then you complain to apple, if they don't resolve it, then post to a forum whinging about it....

Intel is fine, is not poor quality, and apple support in my hardware problem experiences in the few years I've had apple products has been exceptional.
 
But there are definite incompatibilities... VPN definitely created non-stop kernel panics on my new iMac C2D. Otherwise I love it.
 
Wow, I am getting attacked over nothing! I never blamed Apple, and I never said other people were having the same experience as I. I was simply checking to see if others were having the same experience. Very likely my minor issues are due to the specific software I am using rather than OS X. However, now that I have rid myself of Parallels and Boot Camp, the issues that remain are not due to beta software. I am not using any beta software. It must be challenging for developers to have rock solid first generation universal binary apps. Capture One is a good example.

Anyway, I try to raise a simple point of discussion and a bunch of people attack me, and one even suggests I return my new Macs 😕. Some of these responses are truly mindless.
 
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