2011 MBP-15 2.3 -- I think it's going back

[73CortinaV8]

Too many irritations considering this thing cost me 2600 bucks.

I bought this to replace an aging 4 year old Thinkpad T60. I love the form factor, I love the screen, I mostly love the keyboard

Hard drive vibrates like crazy and hums and makes this weird click if you move the machine around at all. I've never seen a laptop vibrate from the hd like the dvd player was going full speed. Edit: the clicking is probably the sudden motion sensor parking the heads. My thinkpad has something similar but it doesn't sound the same. The vibration is still unexplained.

The fans at the lowest speed 2000 rpm are louder than the core2duo thinkpad's fans on full blast

Video playback is glitchy if you try to do anything else. for instance if I have a youtube video playing in one safari window and then open a new one the video glitches pretty badly. My weak old thinkpad never does that. I could have 5 videos playing and it would still be smooth. Yes, I have whatever latest updates, and yes, this is with it plugged into AC.

It doesn't always go to sleep promptly if I close the lid. Sucks to wait around for a couple of minutes to snooze so I don't cook it when I put it in my bag.

This isn't really the fault of the hardware, but whatever version of macos on this thing is primitive compared to Windows 7. 7 is just so smooth and fluid and almost reads your mind. (which is amazing, considering Vista was such a POS) macos is just... clunky. Yeah, I could install 7, but I'm not going to shell out $200 to Mister Softee after giving 2.6k to the Steve Jobs Future Philanthropy Fund.

The speakers sound tinny compared to the thinkpad. Not sure how this is possible since the mac's speakers look twice as big. Then again thinkpads have always had excellent speakers. Just not very loud.

Headphone jack - The lowest volume setting is almost too loud. The 2nd lowest is definitely too loud. Middle volume would probably blow out the headphones. Why? These are good headphones, too - not some junk.

One good thing - the issue I had with the trackpad being uneven resolved itself. After some number of clicks, the depressed side leveled out.

So yeah - this is a lot of fairly petty stuff. Any of them alone (or even a couple) would not have been a deal breaker. But all together considering what this thing cost is not acceptable to me.

I think I'll just keep using my old stinkpad for now, and wait for the new macos to come out and for SSDs to drop more in price and then maybe I'll buy another macbook pro.

Kinda sad to see it go. It is very purdy.

Am I being dumb?

 

[mehanika]

Deleted

 

[BJonson]

If you can hear your fans when they are spinning at 2K rpm then you have broken fans. Send it back and try another one.

 

[TheFarmer]

Am I being dumb?

No. If you don't like it return it. I have a 2011 2.3 15" also and I don't have any of the problems you are having.

The new Thinkpads with Sandy Bridge processors are starting to roll out, if you love'em so much (I don't blame you, I've had two in my lifetime); go and get'em!

 

[Hansr]

Hard drive vibrates like crazy and hums and makes this weird click if you move the machine around at all. I've never seen a laptop vibrate from the hd like the dvd player was going full speed. Edit: the clicking is probably the sudden motion sensor parking the heads. My thinkpad has something similar but it doesn't sound the same. The vibration is still unexplained.

The fans at the lowest speed 2000 rpm are louder than the core2duo thinkpad's fans on full blast

Sounds like you got a massive lemon right there. I have the 2.2 and have neither of those issues. Maybe it got smashed in transit or in manufacturing but these are massive hardware issues. Get it replaced with an identical machine, if you don't like that one then return it for a refund.

 

[JasonH42]

Too many irritations considering this thing cost me 2600 bucks.

I bought this to replace an aging 4 year old Thinkpad T60. I love the form factor, I love the screen, I mostly love the keyboard

Hard drive vibrates like crazy and hums and makes this weird click if you move the machine around at all. I've never seen a laptop vibrate from the hd like the dvd player was going full speed. Edit: the clicking is probably the sudden motion sensor parking the heads. My thinkpad has something similar but it doesn't sound the same. The vibration is still unexplained.

The fans at the lowest speed 2000 rpm are louder than the core2duo thinkpad's fans on full blast

Video playback is glitchy if you try to do anything else. for instance if I have a youtube video playing in one safari window and then open a new one the video glitches pretty badly. My weak old thinkpad never does that. I could have 5 videos playing and it would still be smooth. Yes, I have whatever latest updates, and yes, this is with it plugged into AC.

It doesn't always go to sleep promptly if I close the lid. Sucks to wait around for a couple of minutes to snooze so I don't cook it when I put it in my bag.

This isn't really the fault of the hardware, but whatever version of macos on this thing is primitive compared to Windows 7. 7 is just so smooth and fluid and almost reads your mind. (which is amazing, considering Vista was such a POS) macos is just... clunky. Yeah, I could install 7, but I'm not going to shell out $200 to Mister Softee after giving 2.6k to the Steve Jobs Future Philanthropy Fund.

The speakers sound tinny compared to the thinkpad. Not sure how this is possible since the mac's speakers look twice as big. Then again thinkpads have always had excellent speakers. Just not very loud.

Headphone jack - The lowest volume setting is almost too loud. The 2nd lowest is definitely too loud. Middle volume would probably blow out the headphones. Why? These are good headphones, too - not some junk.

One good thing - the issue I had with the trackpad being uneven resolved itself. After some number of clicks, the depressed side leveled out.

So yeah - this is a lot of fairly petty stuff. Any of them alone (or even a couple) would not have been a deal breaker. But all together considering what this thing cost is not acceptable to me.

I think I'll just keep using my old stinkpad for now, and wait for the new macos to come out and for SSDs to drop more in price and then maybe I'll buy another macbook pro.

Kinda sad to see it go. It is very purdy.

Am I being dumb?

Get an SSD. No vibration, far less heat, no fan noise. As for the other issues, you may just have a dud.

 

[mediasorcerer]

You are doing the right thing..

Apple is a curse, and not a blessing for us who needs Apple driven software for work/school.. Brand new lenovo models just out this week... Check em out

if its such a curse,then why are you here at this "apple" website?
like any other laptop cant be a dud, go google "dud" laptops,and see how many are out there of all different brands,ive had 5 macbook pros,and only 1 was a "dud" and it was swapped over AFTER the 2 weeks of exchange return window,tell me sony,dell,lenovo would do that.

 

[Tonepoet]

if its such a curse,then why are you here at this "apple" website?

Obviously because his work and education requires him to have an Apple for whatever reason, whether he wanted one or not, so the information on this Apple related site is useful for him. I mean like, duh... Nobody likes having to barracade themselves in the grocery store to avoid having their brains eaten out but would you really want to go through the Z-day without the Zombie Survival Handguide to provide you with such useful tips?

As for 73CortinaV8's issue I had glitchy video playback too, albeit I was using Firefox at the time. I think it was a caching problem since quitting out and reopening temporarily alleviated the problem and for me, switching over to Chrome resolved it.

If that works for you, you're able to get a refund and HDD noise is an issue, I'd strongly suggest getting a Solid State Drive upgrade. No HDD noise with blistering performance and all it costs you is a bit of space. With the 17" and higher end 15" configurations, Apple only charges $100 bucks for the upgrade to 128GB which is a relative bargain. Best upgrade you can get really.

Unfortunately, I think Apple's standard policy is to only accepts refunds on stock configurations and the 2.3GHZ processor is a built on demand upgrade...

 

[leman]

You have clearly got a defective model, demand a replacement.

 

[mediasorcerer]

only accept refunds on stock configurations? are you serious with this comment?
you really know your stuff dont you,lol.

they bloke doesnt need ssd,s ,he needs to return his macbook for another one,.simple,and he will get a new one if he does too,

 

[Tonepoet]

Unfortunately yeah, I'm quite serious. There've been various reports on the subject on these very forums.Here's one such instance just for an example. I'd find several of the others but I'm really quite too lazy right now. It probably counts as a personalized product under the store's return policy. It's quite a lame policy really but hey, don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger!

 

[Hansr]

if its such a curse,then why are you here at this "apple" website?

No need to go all 'hostile fanboy' on him, that doesn't benefit anyone.

Unfortunately, I think Apple's standard policy is to only accepts refunds on stock configurations and the 2.3GHZ processor is a built on demand upgrade...

Nope obviously they can't differentiate based on that, the same sales laws still govern the transaction. The only difference is that the BTO ones are generally not accepted for a refund/exchange at brick and mortar Apple Stores and it would need to go through the online store.

 

[Tonepoet]

That's a rather interesting but inspecific little factoid. Which specific laws govern this and what jurisdictions are they applicable in? It's kinda hard to legally act upon the fact without this knowledge. As the Apple Online Store's policy clearly states they're not refunding any customized product whatsoever, I'm sure a lot of us would like to know more about this so we know if we can and how to respond in the event of such a refusal, assuming it is indeed a violation of the law. It could be especially helpful for the O.P. here since he might be looking for another brand of computer altogether but needs the cash to do so first.

 

[Hansr]

That's a rather interesting but inspecific little factoid. Which specific laws govern this and what jurisdictions are they applicable in? It's kinda hard to legally act upon the fact without this knowledge. As the Apple Online Store's policy clearly states they're not refunding any customized product whatsoever, I'm sure a lot of us would like to know more about this so we know if we can and how to respond in the event of such a refusal, assuming it is indeed a violation of the law. It could be especially helpful for the O.P. here since he might be looking for another brand of computer altogether but needs the cash to do so first.

If you get a refusal it's best to speak with whichever agency is in charge of consumer protection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_protection) about legal advice. In the UK it would be The Office of Fair Trading etc. Apple's 14 day return policy should be in effect for all their computers, be they BTO or not.

A lot of global retailers make up all sorts of rules about their return and exchange policy which are not legally enforceable in all their locations. Also they need to be clearly viable when you buy the product that's why you need all those click here to agree to this and that TOS etc when checking out of online stores.

Also as an example most countries laws state that a warranty should cover the acceptable usage term of a product but gives the seller the discretion to create a binding contract where the buyer forgoes this right, which is basically the EULAs and sales policies that Apple uses. But in some countries one sided sales agreements like that are not legal and if you're willing to spend the money on legal battles you can therefore argue that the warranty should be 3,4,5 years etc for a computer and there is president for people having done this. But obviously the legal costs is not worth it at the end of the day.