~ MacBook [Aluminum] Owner's Thread

[VSMacOne]

Let's try something

I've noticed something on my MBs... When i leave my house I put the laptop to sleep and in 10 minutes I plug it back in and turn it on... The magsafe shows the green light, and all is good. After a few hours, the battery drops down to 99% and later drops lower, and the magsafe is still green, not charging the battery.
Is this normal?! Please try doing this and post... I'm curios at what percentage it would start charging again?!

 

[rs7]

I've noticed something on my MBs... When i leave my house I put the laptop to sleep and in 10 minutes I plug it back in and turn it on... The magsafe shows the green light, and all is good. After a few hours, the battery drops down to 99% and later drops lower, and the magsafe is still green, not charging the battery.
Is this normal?! Please try doing this and post... I'm curios at what percentage it would start charging again?!

I believe it starts to charge when it falls to 95 or 96%

 

[ubercool]

So, speaking of 'customer service'... what was the outcome with your battery... inquiring minds want to know.

I have to deal with this upon my return to San Francisco. Right now I'm distracted enough (I'm in Paris and on my way to the Maldives), but the battery definitely makes it not much more than two hours typically, which I know is not right. I will call Apple on Dec. 1.

all the negative comments keep making me swing further down the Air path

OK, let's repeat this one more time, since it obviously can't be stated enough times. DO NOT take feedback in this forum as a proxy for the quality of the MacBook. Most people only join this forum to complain or ask feedback about some issue. Apple's repair rate, you can google J.D. Powers' customer satisfaction survey, is below industry average.

Repeat, many more people are very happy with their fine MacBook, me included, than are unhappy with it. This is the best notebook on the market today bar none. You will quickly run into HD capacity/slow performance/limited ports issues with the MBA. And that's after you spent at least $200 more than you would with a MacBook.

 

[MacsBestFriend]

I've only bought from Apple, either in one of the stores or online so I have no experience there. But with every new purchase you have phone in support for 30 days I believe, unless you buy AppleCare, then it's unlimited phone support for 3 years. So if dead pixels showed up I'd call Apple Support and tell them to arrange a return for a new one. If you are wondering about dead pixels showing up months later, than maybe you should buy AppleCare. I'm sure MacMall posts their return/repair/issue policy on their web site. See what they say about enforcing Apple's warranty should a problem arise.

I don't know about me being a "goto" anything on reliability. I've just had great experiences with all of my purchases. My only possible near miss is a Macbook Pro bought refurbished about 1 1/2 years ago. It does have AppleCare and if my recurring issue happens one more time, we were told it would be replaced with a new laptop. So, I really have no complaints.

I have seen that the strong forceful people get the company to bend a lot more than less aggressive customers and that everyone I have dealt with really wants to please their customer.

Are you just preparing to make a purchase or are you already having a problem?

I'm probably going to buy on Black Friday and save a nice 150-200 bucks + no tax. I just am confused about whether my local apple store will service the computer or if i can only get help if i call....

 

[KyPosey]

being as this is my first mac, ive been SUPER impressed by the help the Apple store has given me, and the fact that ive been trying to do simple tasks that would take me 900 steps on a pc and it takes me 1 step on a mac.

Ill NEVER go back.

 

[VSMacOne]

I'm probably going to buy on Black Friday and save a nice 150-200 bucks + no tax. I just am confused about whether my local apple store will service the computer or if i can only get help if i call....

Apple store should help you no matter what. It doesn't matter where you bought it, it's still a brand new macbook. I bought mine from Best Buy but when I had to deal with Apple Care they asked me if I could take it into an Apple store, regardless of where i purchased it form...
Especially if you plan on purchasing Apple Care, you'll be covered.

 

[kenshinu]

Getting my second MacBook soon, dispatched.

Am unimpressed with Apple's customer support. Took me about 5 calls to Apple to get them to sort me out with replacing the MacBook (one person tried sending me to a Curry's to get it fix =/). After they had it they decided instead of giving me a new one I wanted a refund =/ So I've had to purchase a new one and now to sort out the AppleCare I purchased for the other MacBook. The person who I talked to said that Apple would contact me to sort this out. Will be ringing them up once I get the new MacBook if they haven't talked to me by then.

Great laptop, poor service, poor QC. Expected better tbh.

 

[frogcat]

I just ordered my Alumbook.

You know what would be sweet?
If someone tried painting the keys gray.
Well maybe it'd just look a lot like HP's mini note.
Still someone should try.

 

[CoreyMac]

I just ordered my Alumbook.

You know what would be sweet?
If someone tried painting the keys gray.
Well maybe it'd just look a lot like HP's mini note.
Still someone should try.

grey keys? I assure you it would look worse than black keys. This wouldnt be far off from the few requests of white keys on this thing.....both would look bad.

 

[ubercool]

being as this is my first mac, ive been SUPER impressed by the help the Apple store has given me, and the fact that ive been trying to do simple tasks that would take me 900 steps on a pc and it takes me 1 step on a mac.

Ill NEVER go back.

Yea, and this week, for the first time ever I must add, I accidentally opened a spam message and was staring at a virus executable. I then laughed knowing that it could do no harm to my Mac. It's so good to have left the Dark Side, although I still use it to play Spider Solitaire and for Quicken.

To all newcomers, the first post contains a list of recommended software with links that you might find useful, plus visual instructions on upgrading RAM.

 

[tsa1]

I just replaced the Airport Extreme with TimeCapsule 2 weeks ago. Extreme worked smoothly without a hitch. I had to call Apple Support for some tweaking to get TimeCapsule configured, only because my Verizon Fios cable modem also has wireless capabilities and it was interferring with the set up. They had to transfer me to a more experienced tech, but it didn't take but a few extra minutes to get it working. It's worked flawlessly and now I don't have to manually initiate any backups on my 3 Macs. To answer your question... both. It's a matter of what you can afford or if you need the back up feature.

With both you can plug a printer in and then use it wirelessly. I already have a wireless printer and it too was easy to set up on either network. I have no problems with any of my Macs finding it.

You'll be happy with which ever one you get. Now that I have a left over Airport extreme I was thinking of putting it at the other end of my house to extend my signal. Don't need to. I have a strong signal all over my property, even on my patio.

Well that's good to hear, I thought that the airport extreme was different and inferior to the airport found in time capsule as far as range and throughput or whatever. I think I'm going to go with a time capsule now though. Thanks for the info!!

 

[PeterQC]

I've noticed something on my MBs... When i leave my house I put the laptop to sleep and in 10 minutes I plug it back in and turn it on... The magsafe shows the green light, and all is good. After a few hours, the battery drops down to 99% and later drops lower, and the magsafe is still green, not charging the battery.
Is this normal?! Please try doing this and post... I'm curios at what percentage it would start charging again?!

It's normal. The battery is designed to do that. It will only charge at around 95%. It's to protect the battery. If it goes lower, is that you are doing intensive task that require more energy then what the power supply can give.

 

[MacLadybug]

Did my first restore with TimeCapsule!

Well that's good to hear, I thought that the airport extreme was different and inferior to the airport found in time capsule as far as range and throughput or whatever. I think I'm going to go with a time capsule now though. Thanks for the info!!

Piece of cake!! So easy. I had some cleaning up I wanted to do so I reinstalled the OS first, then when everything was done I booted from the install disk, went to "utilities" on the menu bar, choose restore from TimeCapsule and that was it. It restored 65GB of music, apps, and data in around 2 hours. I think that's amazing.

By the way, all my house cleaning gave me nearly 7GB more space. Not that I needed space, but I like to have all the useless junk gone that I don't use.

 

[Winter Charm]

being as this is my first mac, ive been SUPER impressed by the help the Apple store has given me, and the fact that ive been trying to do simple tasks that would take me 900 steps on a pc and it takes me 1 step on a mac.

Ill NEVER go back.

Yes!!! i know just what you mean... and whats better is that OS X knows HOW to organize your files so that you could find them (not that you need to - search function is in da top right)... but OS X is AWESOME... i cant even say the word "windo__" because it is such a joke of an operating system, that i start laffing everytime i say it

 

[The Samurai]

Yes!!! i know just what you mean... and whats better is that OS X knows HOW to organize your files so that you could find them (not that you need to - search function is in da top right)... but OS X is AWESOME... i cant even say the word "windo__" because it is such a joke of an operating system, that i start laffing everytime i say it

Not trying to be a fanboy here, but I totally see where your coming from as i've had similar experiences.

I hate using the Windows machines at my university now - I sometimes do stupid things on the university machines i.e. taking the mouse into the 'hot corner' in order to activate spaces - only to remind myself that I am indeed using a Windows machine

I love how OS X just comes together. Everything from iLife to its features is amazing. Most importantly, it's made life easier for me. Although I had no issues with my previous Dell - this new Mac system has simplified a lot of things which in essence saves me time... time is money, indeed it is.

 

[VSMacOne]

General question for Alu MB users running iStat pro... Do you see your Airport card listed under the Temps items in iStat? This is bugging the mess out of me and I want to see if it's happening all across the board for Alu Mbs.

 

[ubercool]

General question for Alu MB users running iStat pro... Do you see your Airport card listed under the Temps items in iStat? This is bugging the mess out of me and I want to see if it's happening all across the board for Alu Mbs.

No, not on my MacBook, it's not even an option in prefs. Where exactly is it located? Care to post a screendump?

 

[VSMacOne]

No, not on my MacBook, it's not even an option in prefs. Where exactly is it located? Care to post a screendump?

look at my thread... i'm trying to get to the bottom of this

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/605833/

 

[cellocello]

Just got my new MacBook, so I figured I'd chime in .... I love this little bastard!

My first Mac too!

 

[macusagi]

Hi, first post on my first here.
This website has been so useful and I'm now enjoying playing with my Macbook.

 

[Macintosh Sauce]

Impressive!

I am typing on my new Aluminum MacBook - 2.4 GHz. All I can say is that this is one impressive Mac IMHO. The trackpad takes a few minutes to get used to, since there is no separate button anymore. Once you do though it is quite easy to use. I love the backlit keyboard - I forgot about it until I turned off my light and then I saw the screen dim and the keyboard light up. Very cool indeed...

 

[dmanrevived]

I got the 2.0 aluminum macbook a few days ago. I love everything about it except for the screen. I have the 9C8C panel, but I'm not loving it.

I find the viewing angles to be pretty horrible for dark images. If I'm watching a movie with dark scenes, the bottom would be noticeably lighter. If my lower my eye level relative to the screen, the dark areas at the top of the screen would turn that weird, inverse lightness.

Is it like that pretty much across all the new macbooks? If so, it'd probably save me a trip back to the apple store tomorrow to check the other units out and maybe exchange mine.

 

[ubercool]

I got the 2.0 aluminum macbook a few days ago. I love everything about it except for the screen. I have the 9C8C panel, but I'm not loving it.

I find the viewing angles to be pretty horrible for dark images. If I'm watching a movie with dark scenes, the bottom would be noticeably lighter. If my lower my eye level relative to the screen, the dark areas at the top of the screen would turn that weird, inverse lightness.

Is it like that pretty much across all the new macbooks? If so, it'd probably save me a trip back to the apple store tomorrow to check the other units out and maybe exchange mine.

Well, most notebooks suffer from light leakage, which is what you're seeing at the bottom, some more than others. And as has been reported, off-angle viewing is not the best on this generation of screens, probably for a reason: no need to buy "privacy screens."

And like that old joke goes, when asked why it hurts when the patient does "that", the doctor tells the patient, "well don't do that again then."

 

[tubbymac]

So I finally got number 5 in. Apple care replaced mine for me because of some issues and it seems like I have the same Toshiba HDD like the previous one, and I can still hear it humming and chirping (every once in a while). DOES ANYBODY ELSE HAVE THE TOSHIBA HDD AND NOTICING THE SAME OCCURRENCE?!?!?

My Macbook has a Toshiba stock 160 gig drive in it and the thing is very quiet. No hum at all. Seek noise is very low frequency and barely audible. I can hear the drive park if I put my head close and listen to it, but again it's got a very low frequency character to it so it isn't annoying.

I got the 2.0 aluminum macbook a few days ago. I love everything about it except for the screen. I have the 9C8C panel, but I'm not loving it.

I find the viewing angles to be pretty horrible for dark images. If I'm watching a movie with dark scenes, the bottom would be noticeably lighter. If my lower my eye level relative to the screen, the dark areas at the top of the screen would turn that weird, inverse lightness.

Is it like that pretty much across all the new macbooks? If so, it'd probably save me a trip back to the apple store tomorrow to check the other units out and maybe exchange mine.

Welcome to the discerning screen quality club. Our members are a rare breed it seems as most Macbook users can't see the problem Far as I know there's only two main panels, the one you have, and the one I have which is the 9C89. Both have the black level problem. There's no way to get an even black level across the whole screen. My workaround has been to avoid black as much as possible. White and anything close to white looks great on this thing.

On the off chance you do go back to the store and get a replacement that fixes the problem, I'd definitely like to know. If somebody who can actually see the terrible black levels manages to get it fixed, I'll have hope for the one small mar on this almost perfect notebook.

 

[chrisiw]

Does anybody know if this screen is the same as the ones used on the "White MacBook" as my white MacBook screen is not the best I have seen but it is not too bad, and if I ever upgrade I would not want a screen that was not as good as the one I have now