is this many issues considered normal?

[Tim018]

so ive had my macbook for a little over a year and some days its the best computer on the planet, others, i hate it. I need to purchase cs5 here fairly soon and I need to pick what platform I'm going to buy it for. I figured id run down the list of issues with this computer and my experience with the osx platform to see if its normal and see what your guys advice is...

fyi its a 2008 2.53ghz umbp 15"

hardware:
-hard drive failed after two months (apple replaced for free)
-had power adapter split between brick and cord (free replacement)
-had one battery go bad (apple replaced for free)
-now have a second battery go bad, it says "service battery" and will jump from say 60% to 10% to 40% in a matter of twenty minutes
-the mouse button only worked half the time when i first got it (works fine now)
-snow leopard never gets more than 2.5 hrs of battery life (advertised as 5hrs)
-as im typing this message its at 75c for no apparent reason (check activ moniter, its normal) however, yesterday during heavy photoshop work it was only at 55c
-if the computer so much as budges when burning/reading a disk it will put circular scratches around the disk and destroy it instantly

if anything, im very happy with how willing apple has been to replace all the things that have broken, but it still seems excessive, especially for how expensive it was...

software:
-always had issues with smb, i can connect to our office (win) computer and share files and all of a sudden, POOF its gone, ip doesnt exist, any files i was moving were corrupted, and i cannot reconnect till the win machine is restarted. really frustrating since all the other win users can connect but i suddenly drop out and cant work.
-switching between 9400m and 9600 usually causes a lock up and requires a hard reset, then it will switch (this started prob 6 months old or so)
-cs4 was literally unusable, id had new errors and issues on a daily basis. cs5 for the most part has been awesome. however, i installed the update to photoshop (12.0.1) and suddenly it is dog slow.
-for some reason with most programs in the adobe suite if i have a program (such as finder) behind photoshop and then i open a new program (such as mail) it will bring the finder window above photoshop and then opens mail on top of that. then as soon as i close mail the finder window will then go back behind photoshop and photoshop will come back to focus.
-generally seems unreliable, ive had ALOT of beachballs lately for no apparent reason...usually with finder
-"windows runs better on a mac" ...um, no. windows 7 runs very hot and none of the function keys work becuase boot camp crashes instantly. so i have no keyboard/brightness/volume/music controls

while this may seem like a rant, the reason ive kept this computer till now is because when it does work, its the most brilliant thing on the planet. coming from a toshiba vista laptop prior to the macbook the macbook seemed like god, 4 hr battery, "just worked," great design etc. when this computer works its great, i wouldn't touch windows with a 40 foot poll, however; as of right now with as much hardware and software issues ive had, ive found i cant rely on it for daily work and it is my single source of income. when i buy cs5 im not sure if i should go back to windows due to unreliability of this computer. i would really appreciate some feedback on if all the issues im experiencing are normal and what i should do when it comes to staying or switching off the mac platform...thanks

tim

 

[mrsir2009]

The battery life your getting is normal, since your using flash and all.

Most of the hardware failures were replaced by Apple for free, so that wasn't too bad.

Your software issues don't seem to be too normal. Abode CS4 runs fine on my iMac, haven't used it on my MBP yet though. Beachballs aren't too normal either. I'd see Apple about the software stuff

 

[kny3twalker]

Have you considered a low level format of your hard drive? Then installing snow leopard and windows 7 fresh.
Besides the DVD drive issue, every other remaining issue is a software issue.
I know nuke and pave takes a while, but I have "repaired" quite a few older windows machines and they would run great afterwards.
As far as cs5, I would get the version that performs the best, which is likely the windows version.

 

[Kahalu'u Bob]

It sounds to me as though you have had some bad luck. I've had five Macs now, and nothing quite like what you have experienced. Having said that, I have had several problems with my 2007 15" MBP, all addressed promptly by AppleCare.

I'm not sure you can tell anything from anecdotes, or MacRumors, or personal experiences (which can be idiosyncratic). If you look at reports that claim to be statistically valid, Apple always scores remarkably well. And I must say, they seem to try hard to fix the issues that I have had, although again, that is only anecdotal.

The problem with any forum is that you are getting an inherently biased view of the product, and no view of the competing product. If everything you have described is both true and normal, that still says nothing about what Dells or Toshibas or other products may offer: they may be worse!

So, not much reassurance from me, I'm afraid. I base my judgment on Consumer Report, and other similar impartial sources, which seem to rate Apple highly. And my personal experience, which, like yours, is that when the Macs work, they are really wonderful!

Aloha and best wishes!

 

[pjcforpres2020]

Have you considered a low level format of your hard drive? Then installing snow leopard and windows 7 fresh.
Besides the DVD drive issue, every other remaining issue is a software issue.
I know nuke and pave takes a while, but I have "repaired" quite a few older windows machines and they would run great afterwards.
As far as cs5, I would get the version that performs the best, which is likely the windows version.

The Mac version of CS5 is far superior to the Windows version. The Windows versions is clunky(Magic wand, for example, does a better job in the Mac version than the Windows version, and there are many other things). Windows seems to be slower at many tasks, as well. And that is comparing a 2008 iMac versus a 2009 PC that has about 2 times the power as the iMac.

 

[MikeinJapan]

If it is a late 2008, apple just said they would rep,ace mine for an i7 as I was having loads of GPU issues. I never had any other issues.

 

[kny3twalker]

The Mac version of CS5 is far superior to the Windows version. The Windows versions is clunky(Magic wand, for example, does a better job in the Mac version than the Windows version, and there are many other things). Windows seems to be slower at many tasks, as well. And that is comparing a 2008 iMac versus a 2009 PC that has about 2 times the power as the iMac.

That's good to know. I figured adobe would have spent more time on windows development since the flash hatred began at apple.
This should make the decision for the tread starter much easier.

 

[Tim018]

Alright, thanks for the replys you guys, I think what ill do is do a wipe of the entire hdd (bootcamp and all) and then do a clean install of sl and make sure to install everything in order (os-updates-adobe apps-other apps) and report back how it goes...thanks for the suggeustion kny3twalker. ive usually used the "erase" function through disk utility on default settings, is there a better setting to use to completely wipe it?

 

[xi mezmerize ix]

I've never had any of these problems (Knock on wood).

 

[kny3twalker]

Alright, thanks for the replys you guys, I think what ill do is do a wipe of the entire hdd (bootcamp and all) and then do a clean install of sl and make sure to install everything in order (os-updates-adobe apps-other apps) and report back how it goes...thanks for the suggeustion kny3twalker. ive usually used the "erase" function through disk utility on default settings, is there a better setting to use to completely wipe it?

Disk utility will work but I believe you can use disk utility to write the entire drive to zeros. This should be similar to restoring the drive to new condition.