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2011 New MBP and my Genius Bar appointment

S

suckatcomputers

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 23, 2011
105
0
I think the greedy/shady people in my town are pissing the Apple Store employees off. I know that people make Genius Bar appointments and request exchanges or try to turn it into the "one on one" learning sessions, but it seems that it's gotten to point where it has pissed off the workers.

I've been having a problem with Safari and little delays as I use other programs. My 2011 was not performing as well as my 2010.

I walk in for my appointment with my 2011 MBP in my Apple bag because it's convenient, and JUST IN CASE I need an exchange (so I don't have to drive back home and come back). Almost every worker gives me the evil eye.

The guy I had my appointment with was decent for the most part, but every problem I described to him, he responded in a strange defensive manner. Every answer included "that's normal," "happens to mine too," and then "run some tests at home, it might be your router..." I felt he assumed I was going to demand an exchange.

I finally had to put my foot down and I told him that none of this is "normal" because my 2010 was great with my router, my roommates' computers work fine and I also reset my router, and FINALLY I had to show him a couple posts on THIS FORUM to show him some of us have better built/non-defective machines and some of us DON'T! His face turned red in embarrassment because he knew I got him. Being the nice guy that I am, I apologized, but I let him know, "I know your managers have probably been getting on you about exchange/return requests but don't make assumptions until I, in any way, hint at an exchange."

All in all he was a bit pretentious and blabbered off on tangents about computers, and I was disappointed I got this guy when I saw that a very helpful guy who helped me before just walked in. Advice: ask for your favorite employee, even if you have to wait.

Anyway: this guy reset the configuration on my router and of course my Safari was perfect at the store. I got home and my Safari gave me the same problems. Any suggestions for my Safari delaying on page loads and "you are not connected to the internet". I keep having to turn my Airport off and on and then works fine until I get the message again 10 minutes later...
 
Forgive me if I am wrong but if Safari worked perfectly at the Apple store using there Wireless then that would indicate (to me) that there is nothing wrong with the MBP.

The issue sounds like it is with your router / isp. Have you done a full factory reset of your router? Tried changing any of the settings on it.

It is possible that your router is the cause of all your issues
 
Massive conspiracy to get you to buy an Airport router. Sucks but that finally cured all of my home issues with cheaper DLinks and Netgears.
 
suckatcomputers said:
Anyway: this guy reset the configuration on my router and of course my Safari was perfect at the store. I got home and my Safari gave me the same problems. Any suggestions for my Safari delaying on page loads and "you are not connected to the internet". I keep having to turn my Airport off and on and then works fine until I get the message again 10 minutes later...
Click to expand...

So basically everything he told you was THE TRUTH?

Oh good sweet Jesus. Call the press! Alert the media! :eek:
 
Hate to say this OP.. but he was right. (as another poster indicated) Bottom line is, if your product worked correctly at the store wirelessly, it's your router.

Yes I know. It is annoying, frustrating to deal with a compatibility issue don't get me wrong there, but there is not much anyone at Apple can do about it, unless they start supporting third party devices, which won't happen.

Providing technical support for various ISP's and seeing countless "strange" wireless symptoms is not uncommon. Wireless is full of many variables, including range, interference, drivers, router compatibility, etc. Have you tried connecting directly to your router with an ethernet cable? What about another web-browser like Firefox?
 
Just curious - but have you tried using different DNS servers? If I'm having a weird DNS problem I usually double check it by slapping 8.8.8.8 in the DNS to see if that clears anything up.
 
Awjvail said:
So basically everything he told you was THE TRUTH?

Oh good sweet Jesus. Call the press! Alert the media! :eek:
Click to expand...

Do you look to help or needle people?

Let me clarify: My 2010 MBP worked fine. My roommates (1 of them has a 2009 MBP) have no problems with our router. I can't figure it out.

Get back to me when you rid yourself of selective attention and want to help me out with my issue. Thanks.
 
You said the guy got defensive with every problem you explained to him. Just how many problems do you have with the machine?
 
pctomac2011 said:
Hate to say this OP.. but he was right. (as another poster indicated) Bottom line is, if your product worked correctly at the store wirelessly, it's your router.

Yes I know. It is annoying, frustrating to deal with a compatibility issue don't get me wrong there, but there is not much anyone at Apple can do about it, unless they start supporting third party devices, which won't happen.

Providing technical support for various ISP's and seeing countless "strange" wireless symptoms is not uncommon. Wireless is full of many variables, including range, interference, drivers, router compatibility, etc. Have you tried connecting directly to your router with an ethernet cable? What about another web-browser like Firefox?
Click to expand...

Thank you and MMV and fehhkk. I wish he was as helpful as y'all. He told me to reset my router and "run some tests." If he told me compatibility might be an issue, it would've been helpful, but maybe he wasn't sure because I told him my 2010 MBP worked fine with it. Ethernet works fine and I'm also not far from the router when this is happening with the wireless connection.

I would rather not download another browser if not needed. I guess I'll try Firefox.
 
Oi, what about me :p

Is there any objects blocking the line of sight of the router (ie is it behind anything)

I have had this cause me trouble in the past.

Also have you changed the channel the router is broadcasting on?

Router's firmware upto date?
 
suckatcomputers said:
Thank you and MMV and fehhkk. I wish he was as helpful as y'all. He told me to reset my router and "run some tests." If he told me compatibility might be an issue, it would've been helpful, but maybe he wasn't sure because I told him my 2010 MBP worked fine with it. Ethernet works fine and I'm also not far from the router when this is happening with the wireless connection.

I would rather not download another browser if not needed. I guess I'll try Firefox.
Click to expand...

Dude, get Chrome. It's better than them all now
 
sydenham said:
You said the guy got defensive with every problem you explained to him. Just how many problems do you have with the machine?
Click to expand...

I told him about the loud click noise, even when the movement is not sudden or accidental jerks. This was the one that made me upset when he answered, "normal, happens to me too." It's not "normal" because 2010 wasn't that sensitive, and after reading HELPFUL posts on this forum, it seems that the SMS is more sensitive on the 2011s.

Also when I put it to sleep with "Command+Option+Eject" the screen doesn't softly go to sleep like my 2010. It's more sudden and it's worse when I lift the screen or hit the space bar to wake it back up. It looks like I turned on an old Zenith TV; very abrupt. On my 2010, it would slowly, easily brighten up.

I also have half-second delays when opening up programs, just browsing on Safari, going back and forth from window to window, etc, at a low-CPU usage.
These are minor problems that may not be concerning other people because the 2011 may be their 1st Mac, therefore they accept it as "normal." These "little" issues concern me because I have NOT transferred my files or downloaded any programs yet.
 
Mik3F said:
Oi, what about me :p

Is there any objects blocking the line of sight of the router (ie is it behind anything)

I have had this cause me trouble in the past.

Also have you changed the channel the router is broadcasting on?

Router's firmware upto date?
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I did not overlook your post! THANK YOU MIK3F!

I use the router my cable company, At&t, gave me. All I've done was reset it by shutting it off (unplugging) and on. How do I restore factory settings on this At&t router?
 
suckatcomputers said:
but it seems that it's gotten to point where it has pissed off the workers.
Click to expand...

One can only wonder why. LOL!

Call your internet service provider. They'll be able to test the signal up to the router. Maybe you've got a freaking squirrel/gopher gnawing on a line somewhere.

Edit:

How do I restore factory settings on this At&t router?
Click to expand...

There should be a tiny hole in the back. Insert a paper clip or pencil tip and keep it there until the lights go out.

All the more reason to call AT&T. It's what you pay them for.
 
I was having some of the same symptoms when I first got my MBP. It's the first mac I've owned btw but what I did was change the DNS addressed to googles (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). Also, I turned IPv6 off because this always caused problems on my Windows PC and now everything works great. Safari doesn't hang anymore and it's a whole lot faster. I think it had something to do with Comcast's DNS servers.
 
mmduluth said:
I was having some of the same symptoms when I first got my MBP. It's the first mac I've owned btw but what I did was change the DNS addressed to googles (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). Also, I turned IPv6 off because this always caused problems on my Windows PC and now everything works great. Safari doesn't hang anymore and it's a whole lot faster. I think it had something to do with Comcast's DNS servers.
Click to expand...

Sounds very useful. Certainly worth a try.
 
suckatcomputers said:
I told him about the loud click noise, even when the movement is not sudden or accidental jerks. This was the one that made me upset when he answered, "normal, happens to me too." It's not "normal" because 2010 wasn't that sensitive, and after reading HELPFUL posts on this forum, it seems that the SMS is more sensitive on the 2011s.

Also when I put it to sleep with "Command+Option+Eject" the screen doesn't softly go to sleep like my 2010. It's more sudden and it's worse when I lift the screen or hit the space bar to wake it back up. It looks like I turned on an old Zenith TV; very abrupt. On my 2010, it would slowly, easily brighten up.

I also have half-second delays when opening up programs, just browsing on Safari, going back and forth from window to window, etc, at a low-CPU usage.
These are minor problems that may not be concerning other people because the 2011 may be their 1st Mac, therefore they accept it as "normal." These "little" issues concern me because I have NOT transferred my files or downloaded any programs yet.
Click to expand...

As far as I know the screen turning on and off abruptly is very normal. I've had machines since 08 do this. I'm pretty sure LED backlit displays are simply quicker to respond.

Second, you simply might have a hard drive issue instead of an SMS issue. It makes a click noise, AND you get half-second delays when opening programs (which is bottlenecked by the hard drive). It could even be a perfectly normal hard drive, and just makes different noises than what you're used to.
 
axu539 said:
As far as I know the screen turning on and off abruptly is very normal. I've had machines since 08 do this.
Click to expand...

The method of the screens turning on and off and the way they change brightness has changed throughout the Unibody line. My original 2008 has no fading whatsoever -- sleep and wake up is just on or off. Same with brightness -- it jumps up and down as it steps through.

My new 2011 fades while doing both things. A quick fade for sleep on and sleep off and a quick fade between brightness levels. I was surprised to read OP's complaint that it seems abrupt when to me, the 2011 has fading where my other one did not.
 
TheHoff said:
The method of the screens turning on and off and the way they change brightness has changed throughout the Unibody line. My original 2008 has no fading whatsoever -- sleep and wake up is just on or off. Same with brightness -- it jumps up and down as it steps through.

My new 2011 fades while doing both things. A quick fade for sleep on and sleep off and a quick fade between brightness levels. I was surprised to read OP's complaint that it seems abrupt when to me, the 2011 has fading where my other one did not.
Click to expand...

This is interesting. I haven't seen the fading since my old PowerBook G4. Is your 2011 an antiglare screen or a glossy screen? Maybe the display model has something to do with the behavior.

Just fyi, my 11" MBA is also very abrupt in sleeping and waking.

I sold my '08 MBP a couple weeks ago, and will be getting my new '11 MBP later this week. I'll report back here if I remember.
 
axu539 said:
This is interesting. I haven't seen the fading since my old PowerBook G4. Is your 2011 an antiglare screen or a glossy screen?
Click to expand...

Both of my unibodies are glossy. My wife's 2009 13" does not fade either.
 
test for the best DNS servers

Just replacing your IPS DNS servers with Google'S servers is a hit or miss solution, and it may actually not be the optimum DNS for your location/hardware. Try downloading namebench, available at the link below, to test for the optimum DNS servers for your system.
http://code.google.com/p/namebench/downloads/list
This is worthwhile even if it is not the direct source of the issues you are having.
Your issues may be router related, etc. but this solution will optimise the DNS servers regardless.
Good luck, and if all else fails, send me the offending 2011 model, I will send you my 2009 model in return. ;););)
 
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