My first MacBook Pro (a Nightmare)

[nateo200]

$3049 Macbook Pro. And yes, it will be worth it.

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And I didn't have the money. Someone believed in me, and bought it for me. I have a plan. Not all homeless people are bums, I just had a real bad breakdown 3 years ago and my life fell apart. Fault is irrelevant, action in the here and know is what concerns me, and getting this MBP is the big break that I needed to turn this ship about.

Good luck! There are numerous people who have your type of vision but can't pursue it because of circumstances, health issues, etc. once you get past that I don't doubt you'll make something great using your new computer. Side note thanks for your service! Its something that is not observed nearly enough.

 

[Mojo1]

The Moral Of The Story...

Put a presumably sleeping MBP in a bag and you may get a surprise when you open the bag later...

Me? I always power-off the computer before putting it away. Lion boots-up so fast I don't mind the wait... It sure beats frying an MBP!

 

[nateo200]

Put a presumably sleeping MBP in a bag and you may get a surprise when you open the bag later...

Me? I always power-off the computer before putting it away. Lion boots-up so fast I don't mind the wait... It sure beats frying an MBP!

My computer almost always cools down rapidly when I close the lid and I know its sleeping (i.e: Insomnia, Caffeine, whatever isn't running). Lion does not boot fast enough when I need to use my MacBook right away...besides no way I'm shutting down like 5 times a day commuting class to class...hell my MacBook usually is cold to touch if I close the lid in decently cold weather!

 

[saberahul]

I usually don't check if my MBP is sleeping or not as I can tell from the fan noise (yes I work in a very quiet environment); however, I have noticed that certain applications can keep it from sleeping or even wake it up. For instance, Caffeine sometimes doesn't allow my laptop to sleep (if it were always, I'd understand but sometimes?). Secondly, I use a BT headset with the computer and if I happen to turn the BT on or off while the computer is sleeping - it will wake up (I took care of this by disabling wake from BT under BT settings).

 

[revelated]

You're homeless and your main priority was buying a 2,000 dollar laptop?

Obviously it was purchased for the OP. But I am curious about the person who bought it for them. I mean, I'm not one to do such a thing unless I knew the person well and felt as though the money would not be wasted, like if I were friends with them for a while and I felt that their work ethic would eventually result in something good given the right chance...but even still, you better believe that I'd be heading for the first $299 netbook I could find. Not a $3k notebook and certainly not an Apple anything. I wouldn't even buy an iPad because it'd be overpriced compared to what I feel they need to get back together.

There's nothing a $3k notebook can do that a $299 netbook cannot, when you are at the bottom of the pole.

Logically, all one should need is (A) a $299 netbook, and (B) a $249 TechNet subscription for 1 year.

 

[GTANJ]

Obviously it was purchased for the OP. But I am curious about the person who bought it for them. I mean, I'm not one to do such a thing unless I knew the person well and felt as though the money would not be wasted, like if I were friends with them for a while and I felt that their work ethic would eventually result in something good given the right chance...but even still, you better believe that I'd be heading for the first $299 netbook I could find. Not a $3k notebook and certainly not an Apple anything. I wouldn't even buy an iPad because it'd be overpriced compared to what I feel they need to get back together.

There's nothing a $3k notebook can do that a $299 netbook cannot, when you are at the bottom of the pole.

Logically, all one should need is (A) a $299 netbook, and (B) a $249 TechNet subscription for 1 year.

My thoughts exactly. I can't see any decision like this warranting a $3,000 notebook. Seems as if the OP does not have his priorities in order. I can understand that it was bought for him and he is trying to start a business, but is it really something that a much less expensive laptop could not accomplish? Or maybe even borrowing one or using a public computer?

 

[Hyper-X]

Got my first MacBook Pro last week, in fact the first new Mac product I have owned. Top of the line late 2011 2.5ghz quadcore with 8GB RAM and 17 inch matte. I had never used Lion before, and I will say that in my experience it is not ready. I had freezing, problems booting up, and then... the nightmare.

You won't see any significant fixes for Lion until perhaps another year if it follows the same pattern as Snow Leopard. Even I'm starting to see what Apple fans aren't used to hearing where people in stores are "running back" to Windows (7). Snow Leopard's a much better computing experience IMO however you'll be without iCloud support.

Finally got boot camp working after a couple tries with Windows 7. Everything is starting to come along. I am downloading Lion updates, and do the restart. After restarting I needed to take care of something so I closed the MBP and put it in the bag confident that it would be in sleep mode. 3 hours later I pull it out and it is ROASTING hot and still trying to boot up after updating. Now it won't let me log in, it gets to the login screen, accepts the password, grey-screens and shoots me back to login.

Again issues with Lion and involving sleep.

Here's my question for you all. Do you think if I bring my MBP into the local Apple store they will replace this week old product? I don't want to reinstall, my concern is the outrageous heat and length of time it was heating in that bag (3 hours). Anyone can let me know, I'd appreciate it.

Stressed and depressed...

Your issue is a warranty issue. They'll try to fix it first before they exchange for another unit. It does make sense since blindly giving you another unit just so you end up in the same situation does NOT help you. Blue-shirt Apple techs are usually a joke, they rarely know how to troubleshoot properly and unlike Windows, there's not many good (software) tools. When the first thing they do is rely on "repair disk permissions" to be the fix-all solution, that's like taking a Windows PC to a shop to have the tech perform a disk defrag first to address your problems.

Just make sure that (assuming) you have data that you need to offload, do it then take the MBP to a shop for service. That way if they ask you if it'd be okay to reload the OS completely, they can start from a fresh slate to see what else could be wrong.

 

[HellDiverUK]

So you didn't read his entire post before criticizing him? Way to go, brainiac

Well, I did. I can also read between the lines, and I can spot a troll a mile off. Fail.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Well, I did. I can also read between the lines, and I can spot a troll a mile off. Fail.

Obviously not. OP clearly stated he didn't close the MBP until after it restarted. It doesn't restart until after all the updates have finished. Therefore, unless he outright lied (which would benefit no one), he couldn't have closed the MBP in the middle of updating.

 

[miniConvert]

Urgh, it's so horrible when you spend a lot of money on a product like this and it turns out to be a dud.

My first Mac Mini fried itself within 24 hours. Apple had me doing reinstalls etc but eventually the thing couldn't even eject the CD. I returned it for a full refund and ordered again and here I am some 30 Macs later without a dud since.

Got to put this one down to bad luck I'm afraid Get a new one and start loving it - I've just bought the new 15" MacBook Pro to replace my 4yo one and, christ, it's incredible. I had been a bit 'meh' about Lion, an upgrade on all my other Macs, but using it as a fresh install on this has turned me around. Just incredible, the whole lot. Stick with it, good luck

 

[tcphoto]

There is no doubt that Apple will most likely exchange the MBP. But, if you are homeless, why would you buy such an expensive item? The $3000 required to buy the MBP could get you into an apartment, feed you and allow you to pursue a job. It just seems ridiculous to spend so much on a luxury item when you don't have a home.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

But, if you are homeless, why would you buy such an expensive item?

*sigh* Another person who hasn't read the thread before responding...

 

[womble2k2]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

For the MacBook to sleep, the sleep and associated power and I/O processes need to be running. So if you close the lid before all system processes are running, behaviour will be unknown. This is common across all OS's.

Lion was designed for the latest hardware so you should have freezing issues. Did you port a large number of files onto the HD, or install a lot of applications? If so, the background file journaling may be taking up processing power but you shouldn't encounter freezes. Have you installed any device drivers or software that wasn't designed for Lion?
Finally, if you live close to an Apple Store, make an appointment at the genius bar. I've never known them to be unable to resolve an issue. They'll generally discuss all the options with you, and guide you through installing things to get back up and running. You'll be deleting Win7 in no time!!

 

[Irock619]

My first MBP was a nightmare as well. They gave me a whole new computer after I had 3 separate issues with the computer in just 3 weeks of owning it. I think you have to have 3 separate issues before they will just give you a new machine, but you are within the 14 days so just return it and buy a new one. Or let the geniuses attempt a warranty fix.

 

[Takashi]

Got my first MacBook Pro last week, in fact the first new Mac product I have owned. Top of the line late 2011 2.5ghz quadcore with 8GB RAM and 17 inch matte. I had never used Lion before, and I will say that in my experience it is not ready. I had freezing, problems booting up, and then... the nightmare.

Finally got boot camp working after a couple tries with Windows 7. Everything is starting to come along. I am downloading Lion updates, and do the restart. After restarting I needed to take care of something so I closed the MBP and put it in the bag confident that it would be in sleep mode. 3 hours later I pull it out and it is ROASTING hot and still trying to boot up after updating. Now it won't let me log in, it gets to the login screen, accepts the password, grey-screens and shoots me back to login.

Here's my question for you all. Do you think if I bring my MBP into the local Apple store they will replace this week old product? I don't want to reinstall, my concern is the outrageous heat and length of time it was heating in that bag (3 hours). Anyone can let me know, I'd appreciate it.

Stressed and depressed...

Ditch Windows 7. Get a PC to do a PC's job.

It's your first mac so obviously you have no idea how to use the computer. A mac is not the same as a PC. Chances is that you screwed something up when you were messing around with bootcamp.

Return your computer and get a cheaper PC or buy a PC laptop (for much less) and keep the operating system separate from each other.

Lastly, stop making additional threads about your misfortune. We don't need to know and be reminded of it. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1281290/

 

[Queen6]

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13706184#post13706184

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1281290/

Form you own conclusions, if you are lying about serving then you deserve all you get, some put in the time, some sacrificed everything for what they believe in...

I'm excited to get a new 2.3 ghz 17 inch MBP next week. I have Time Machine backups on my current 10.6 Macbook on a USB HD, so is moving my settings and applications as simple as running a time machine on the new MBP? I know the MBP will have 10.7.

Somehow I doubt that you fall into this category...

 

[Nick McEnjoy]

I don't know if it costs money to see a genius or whatever, but if it does I'm screwed. I live in a homeless shelter, I am a 36 year old homeless veteran who got this machine to start a business and change my life. I am so friggin bummed out right now.

It would take you a lot of effort to operate this thing properly before it can change your life.
I would start with something cheaper and simpler.