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~ MacBook [Aluminum] Owner's Thread

ubercool said:
I'm going to keep it. I checked SeatGuru to see if my seats had power adapters and they were supposed to, but good ol' United did not have them at either seat, which can be quite a bummer on an 11-hour flight. At least this way, I have about seven hours available if I crank everything down, which is plenty of time to play Spider Solitaire non-stop. :p :D
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I just thought of this because you mentioned Spider Solitaire... Are you running Windows when you're getting such crappy battery life? If so, the below average battery life is explained, because Windows doesn't have as good power management as OS X...
 
MooneyFlyer said:
I can regularly get 5+ hours, sometimes more. The key for me was that I had to get rid of all of the sync server processes. They were eating around an hour or so.

For my 5+ hrs I go to "plane mode":
- Low/lowest screen
- "productivity apps"
- all radios off
- I disable Time Machine (haven't figured out if this does anything form me yet)
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what are sync server processes and how did you disable them? that sounds like something i'd like to do :)
 
MooneyFlyer said:
I can regularly get 5+ hours, sometimes more. The key for me was that I had to get rid of all of the sync server processes. They were eating around an hour or so.

For my 5+ hrs I go to "plane mode":
- Low/lowest screen
- "productivity apps"
- all radios off
- I disable Time Machine (haven't figured out if this does anything form me yet)
Click to expand...

Same usage pattern here, but I only get 3:30 max, which loosely timed is pretty accurate. :confused:

Anyway, for those of you thinking that you can bait Apple, there's no way to get past their "guidelines." I could, of course, package up the old one in the new box and return it, with some problems since I bought it abroad, but since the old battery does *better* than the new one, that's also an unproductive strategy. :(
 
VSMacOne said:
I just thought of this because you mentioned Spider Solitaire... Are you running Windows when you're getting such crappy battery life? If so, the below average battery life is explained, because Windows doesn't have as good power management as OS X...
Click to expand...

You're right, I have seen a slight decrease in battery life cranking up VMware Fusion. This may explain the shortfall, I will do some experimentation and report back. :)
 
ubercool said:
You're right, I have seen a slight decrease in battery life cranking up VMware Fusion. This may explain the shortfall, I will do some experimentation and report back. :)
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Oh there you go... VMWare will definitely suck some life out of your battery!
Klondike Forever is a good Solitaire replacement that I use, and I would recommend Quinn (Tetris) and Tilt (ADDICTING!!) .. Let me know if you like any of these. They might be able to provide you with fun AND better battery life on those long flights.. If you're anything like me and can't sleep worth of crap on long flights, than I definitely understand why you depend on your laptop!! :D hehe..
 
stevejobbers said:
what are sync server processes and how did you disable them? that sounds like something i'd like to do :)
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I think this is something that was turned on with Entourage. If you are free of Entourage, I'm guessing you are happy. It could also have something to do with me.com.

I believe SyncServer is the process.

Also, yes, VMWare does eat power.
 
VSMacOne said:
Oh there you go... VMWare will definitely suck some life out of your battery!
Klondike Forever is a good Solitaire replacement that I use, and I would recommend Quinn (Tetris) and Tilt (ADDICTING!!) .. Let me know if you like any of these. They might be able to provide you with fun AND better battery life on those long flights.. If you're anything like me and can't sleep worth of crap on long flights, than I definitely understand why you depend on your laptop!! :D hehe..
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Thanks for the tip! I just did some googling and found a great Spider for $10: Sol Basics. Has multiple undos, including stack deals, like the Windows Vista version! I now can play on the plane without sucking power. :p :cool:
 
ubercool said:
Thanks for the tip! I just did some googling and found a great Spider for $10: Sol Basics. Has multiple undos, including stack deals, like the Windows Vista version! I now can play on the plane without sucking power. :p :cool:
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YAY!! Victory! Now make sure to post and let us know what battery life you're getting without Windows..
 
I was able to get windows xp sp3 installed with the most up to date bootcamp version in my macbook 2.4 ghz by the help of my friend. 1st week it worked okay with windows but now its starting to have problems. Everytime I boot my macbook on windows it takes more than 5 min to take me to the desktop screen. The screen is usually all black right before it takes me to the windows desktop. Right now its taking more than ten minutes and I have been so fed up with it I just turned my macbook off. What is the problem with this? Has anyone have any similar issues.
 
VSMacOne said:
YAY!! Victory! Now make sure to post and let us know what battery life you're getting without Windows..
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the first timing yesterday was awful. I used my iPhone to time it accurately and all I got was 2:06 with my original battery. I will try to calibrate it again and redo the test. For some odd reason, I get much better times after I repair permissions/check the HD for errors. I guess I just have a very poor MacBook, battery performance-wise. :(
 
Just got myself a new Macbook yesterday. Upgraded from a C2D 2.16 White Macbook. Maxed out the credit card and got the higher spec model with the light up keyboard. So far I'm pretty impressed. It runs cooler and makes a lot less noise than my old Macbook.

The only thing I'm not sold on yet is the trackpad. I really don't like the loud click noise it makes compared to the button on my old Macbook. I'm still trying to remind myself that I can click anywhere, although towards the bottom seems to require the least amount of pressure.

I just need to find something to test out the graphics capabilities. I have World of Warcraft but I'm a little hesitant to cough up money for a subscription.
 
hailst0rm said:
Just got myself a new Macbook yesterday. Upgraded from a C2D 2.16 White Macbook. Maxed out the credit card and got the higher spec model with the light up keyboard. So far I'm pretty impressed. It runs cooler and makes a lot less noise than my old Macbook.

The only thing I'm not sold on yet is the trackpad. I really don't like the loud click noise it makes compared to the button on my old Macbook. I'm still trying to remind myself that I can click anywhere, although towards the bottom seems to require the least amount of pressure.

I just need to find something to test out the graphics capabilities. I have World of Warcraft but I'm a little hesitant to cough up money for a subscription.
Click to expand...

You can still go in preferences -> trackpad, then check Tap to click, so you don't have to fully press the trackpad to click, if the noise bothers you too much!



I uploaded some pictures of my MacBook, taken with my DSLR Canon EOS 400d, hope you enjoy them :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/ssjsolidsnake/MacBookAluminium?feat=directlink
 
Buskape said:
You can still go in preferences -> trackpad, then check Tap to click, so you don't have to fully press the trackpad to click, if the noise bothers you too much!
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Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of that. I'll give it a go and see how I get on.
 
Me too!

cogsinister said:
Yeah, go for tap to click, i hardly ever have to click the trackpad....
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I do use it the same way. Love the trackpad, think it's my favorite feature as well.... then there's the fact that the whole notebook is so light; super light; stealth light... or is it the beautiful display... or the fact that the keys light up! I just love it... I love it all.
 
Whenever i use another laptop now i always find myself trying to do the gestures lol. And it sucks cuz they dont work haha..stupid windows
 
JamesGorman said:
Whenever i use another laptop now i always find myself trying to do the gestures lol. And it sucks cuz they dont work haha..stupid windows
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lol i know what you mean. AND my thumb starts hurting now after about an hour on a windows laptop, because of the clicking.. :D
 
VSMacOne said:
lol i know what you mean. AND my thumb starts hurting now after about an hour on a windows laptop, because of the clicking.. :D
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I hate how a regular track pad is sooo small also.

BTW I wish I got into that TV show House (noticed you avatar). I saw a few shows and it seems good.
 
Just wanted to post this... I installed Vista on my MB 2.4 tonight, downloaded Steam and was playing some CS:S. My stock 2.4 handled the game like a champ with all the settings maxed, at 1280x800. I was impressed! No slow down at all. For an integrated card, I am very happy! :cool:
 
SuperSnake2012 said:
Just wanted to post this... I installed Vista on my MB 2.4 tonight, downloaded Steam and was playing some CS:S. My stock 2.4 handled the game like a champ with all the settings maxed, at 1280x800. I was impressed! No slow down at all. For an integrated card, I am very happy! :cool:
Click to expand...

I am amazed how well my MB runs Vista under bootcamp, even with only 2 gig of ram i get a 5.3 score in the Vista performance thingy, and the whole o/s runs like the wind !!!

I am also well pleased....
 
cogsinister said:
I am amazed how well my MB runs Vista under bootcamp, even with only 2 gig of ram i get a 5.3 score in the Vista performance thingy, and the whole o/s runs like the wind !!!

I am also well pleased....
Click to expand...

I was planning on doing that, but now I'm leaning more towards XP, since it's not as RAM intensive as Vista... I dunno...
 
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