Macbook Pro 2011 is so...BAD BAD BAD!

[TomJak]

I don't understand the mean tone of some people in this discussion...I just want to solve problems with my laptop. The problems are real, and many people experienced them.
I hoped someone would at least mention the big issue, when you connect the external display and macbook shuts down, the excessive amount of thermal paste etc...and the real solutions. Genies won't help I'm afraid.

I replied to your comments in red...

Idle at 50 is perfectly fine! Mine idles at 45-50, and you don't see me complaining.
3000RPM and you call the fans loud? Lol. You must have some ear problems (or fan problems). Default speed is 2000RPM, and it's audible from 4500RPM onwards.

In quiet room, 3000rpm is perfectly audible if you sit in front of the laptop. It is not unbearable, it is just barely notable, but I can tell if the fans are over 2000rpm or not just by my ear. Maybe it is you who have ear problems...


Get an SSD.
If it's too loud, get another hard drive. All hard drives make noise; stop complaining.
Still not satisfied? Faulty drive.

This is the first 2.5" hdd I can hear so loud. Replacement for other users didnt work, because they received disk from the same manufacturer (Hitachi or Seagate), and they are just loud.

If there's one thing that almost everyone loves about the MacBook Pros, it would be the display! So bright and has such deep blacks! If you want the best colors, CALIBRATE THE DISPLAY.
As for the brightness, you probably had an improperly calibrated display on your 2008, and now you think that calibration is the "correct" calibration.

I certainly had properly calibrated display. You obviously don't know anything about colors, they are not directly correlated to brightness. I just mean the amount of black is too high.

The MICROPHONE is located under the left speaker grill. Subwoofers are located on each side. The 2008 MacBook Pro is notorious for its puny volume, and the speakers on the '11 sound fine to me.

Read this: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3336
Anyway, this is not subwoofer! I doubt it can play anything below 200Hz.

CF cards are sooooooooo '94. I remember using one like.....I don't even remember when, it's been too long!
Apple's keeping up with technology. Seems like all of your "pro" friends are using outdated equipment or refusing to move on with their old CF cards.

Tell me a single pro DSLR which doesn't use CF card. In Express card slot, you could have USB 3.0 or eSATA. Now we have Thunderbolt, which so far is not used by any external hdd and it will be expensive as hell.

No, you're just angry that you have to adjust to higher quality parts and configurations.
Stop complaining, adjust. If you don't like it, visit the Genius Bar.

 

[shoppy]

MY 17" 2011, the speakers are impressive for a laptop. The screen is simply stunning, it is whisper quiet and the temp barely rises above 49 degrees. It is one of the fastest and quietest machines I have ever used.

 

[416049]

So I upgraded from Macbook Pro 15" late 2008 (original unibody), I thought the new 2011 model would be so great...BUT it is a total crap!

There are so many problems, everybody just complains all over the internet...
So I just thought I'll write a list of all the issues with the new Macbook Pro for potential buyers or owners who would like to share their own issues or solutions. So here we go:

1. OVERHEATING AND FAN NOISE
This is well known issue, yet Apple stays reluctant to it. My idle temps are never below 50C, but when I for example watch youtube, it goes way up and fans start to spin up to around 3000rpm. It is really noisy and annoying!
It may be a problem with thermal paste, bad heatsinks, fan control, whatever...
My old 2008 machine was dead silent.

2. HDD NOISE
The 500gb hdd in my machine is soooooo noisy all the time, it is even louder than the fans. I have Toshiba, but I read that also the Hitachi models are so loud. Moreover, when you push the enclosure above the disk placement, the noise is less pronounced. Like a cheap China crap...
Again, 2008 machine was silent...

3. DISPLAY PROBLEM
Many people complain about the display quality - some have yellow tint (Samsung manufacturer), some blue tint (LG). I have Samsung. My biggest problem though is not the color tint, but CONTRAST. The blacks are too strong, everything is soo dark, all my photographs, everything. This may be solved by calibration, but is this really ok with 1800EUR or 2000USD machine?
And I believe the maximum brightness is also not as strong as my 2008 model.

4. SPEAKERS
OK, so speakers now have subwoofer, which is positioned on the left side of the laptop...that means the sound is much louder on this side! WTF? Anyone heard about stereo imaging at the Apple?
Anyway, 2008 Macbook Pro played much much louder and the sound was BETTER! More bass and clearer! So speakers with subwoofer are worse that old speakers without it????

And what do you think about SD card adapter? It is Macbook PRO, and all the pros I know uses CF card, including me. So why SD??? Express card was so much better.

I think Apple is kidding us, or is this really the best laptop out there?
I want to send my machine to service, but I really doubt they will replace the disk, thermal paste, speakers and display. Simply, because there is no alternative...they are not faulty, it is just flaw in design.

I am really disappointed.

The time it took you to write this post and find is probably about the same it would have taken you to return it. Also since you think your 2008 is oh so superior why bother replacing something that isn't broken...

And what do you think about SD card adapter? It is Macbook PRO, and all the pros I know uses CF card, including me. So why SD??? Express card was so much better.

There are some SD cards that get pretty high speed also SDXC cards are also supported where in the future you will be able to store 2tb on it, show me a cf card that will do that...

 

[mcphee7]

Thank you all for the answers, I appreciate that.

Well I'll try to solve my issues with Apple directly, but I don't expect any miracles.

I googled all of the issues a lot, and there are hundreds of pages in forums describing exactly the same problems as I experience. Sadly, many users says the replacement isn't the solution, because you get different machine, but with same issues. You can google it too if you are interested.

I don't know if there are really flawless macbooks or if I just got the worst of all. I just know that when I open it in the night in quiet room, the harddisk immediately draws my attention...it is just noisy. Same with the speakers and other issues.

Regarding the display, I will of course calibrate it when I have time for that, but the point is, it is absolutely useless for viewing photographs...they are just soooo dark, the black is too pronounced. I can see a lot of details in shadows on my NEC display (and that is IPS, which has problems displaying dark tones) and when I look at them on my macbook, they are totally dark...I wonder how other users may see my photographs on their macs!

I didn't want any flame, just to summarize all the well known problems of new Macbooks Pro.

Here lies the problem. You should know by now that you can google anything you want and you will see hundreds of pages of stuff that people are dissatisfied with. If you live by the ramblings of people complaining about products on the Internet, you would never buy anything. Its usually the case that when something goes wrong, that person will complain about it on the Internet. When a consumer just gets a product that they expected, they keep quiet and just get on with it.

I suggest you keep away from the crap that's filling your head on the Internet and judge the machine on what you personally expected. If the standard falls short then you have the option to complain to the people that matter and it's not the people on the net.

Take it back to the store and raise the issues with them and you might have a favourable outcome.

 

[TomJak]

The time it took you to write this post and find is probably about the same it would have taken you to return it. Also since you think your 2008 is oh so superior why bother replacing something that isn't broken...



There are some SD cards that get pretty high speed also SDXC cards are also supported where in the future you will be able to store 2tb on it, show me a cf card that will do that...

In the future you will be able to store 200tb on hdd, so whats the point...built in SD card reader is just stupid. Express card or eSATA port would be so much better.

OK I just quit this discussion, because so far everybody tells me how perfect the macbook is, so probably users who experience the same problems as me doesnt go in here. Thanks everybody for their replies, I just wanted to be informed in advance what to expect when I will ask apple to repair my computer. Didn't want any flames. I want my Macbook to work properly, not to return it.

 

[Prodo123]

I don't understand the mean tone of some people in this discussion...I just want to solve problems with my laptop. The problems are real, and many people experienced them.
I hoped someone would at least mention the big issue, when you connect the external display and macbook shuts down, the excessive amount of thermal paste etc...and the real solutions. Genies won't help I'm afraid.

I replied to your comments in red...

You rant about things that are either normal or things you don't want to adjust to, and you want help without adjusting.
Your temperatures are fine. Post about overheating again when your computer idles at 60-70.
Hard drives are mechanical, like fans. They make noise. Get over it. If you have a 7,200RPM drive, that makes more noise than their lesser 5,400RPM counterparts.
You're either hypersensitive to noise, or you have something clogging your fans. Clean them, or take it to a Genius Bar.
Your 2008 display is improperly calibrated. Spend $80 on a screen calibrator and let that show you the accurate calibration instead of your biased eye.
And you must be insane to think CF cards are superior to SD cards. There's 128GB Class 10 SDXC cards, and there's 128GB CF cards. Which makes more sense to carry around and use inside of a camera?
Your speakers probably have something wrong with them. Take it to a Genius Bar.

No one's mentioning the big issue, because there IS NO ISSUE. You see a lot of complaints on these forums, because it's like a community-run tech support forum. All you will see here is problems and solutions. Most people who own MBPs don't even post here because there is no problem.

The "big issues" you mentioned don't even apply to 10% of MacBook Pro users. Most Mac laptops are used without external monitors, or they run in conjunction with them instead of running in clamshell mode.
The excessive amount of thermal paste IS NOT A PROBLEM unless it really starts to overheat your laptop (to over 100 degrees Celsius) or it scorches your privates.
Real solutions can be found through the search function of this forum.

In the future you will be able to store 200tb on hdd, so whats the point...built in SD card reader is just stupid. Express card or eSATA port would be so much better.

OK I just quit this discussion, because so far everybody tells me how perfect the macbook is, so probably users who experience the same problems as me doesnt go in here. Thanks everybody for their replies, I just wanted to be informed in advance what to expect when I will ask apple to repair my computer. Didn't want any flames. I want my Macbook to work properly, not to return it.

In the future, you still won't be able to:
Fit 200TB hard drives into a point-and-shoot as a removable storage medium
Fit an ExpressCard slot onto an already-packed machine (unless they shrink the standard once again)
Make spinning hard drives as durable as SSDs

With SD cards, you will always be able to:
Take them out easily
Carry them easily
Store a lot of data easily
Save space easily
Store a lot of data safely

 

[randomrazr]

your whining more than i do with my macbook pro previous issues and thats sad LOL

 

[Prodo123]

your whining more than i do with my macbook pro previous issues and thats sad LOL

https://forums.macrumors.com/search/?searchid=24231074

ROFL YOU'RE RIGHT

 

[TomJak]

You rant about things that are either normal or things you don't want to adjust to, and you want help without adjusting.
Your temperatures are fine. Post about overheating again when your computer idles at 60-70.
Hard drives are mechanical, like fans. They make noise. Get over it. If you have a 7,200RPM drive, that makes more noise than their lesser 5,400RPM counterparts.
You're either hypersensitive to noise, or you have something clogging your fans. Clean them, or take it to a Genius Bar.
Your 2008 display is improperly calibrated. Spend $80 on a screen calibrator and let that show you the accurate calibration instead of your biased eye.
And you must be insane to think CF cards are superior to SD cards. There's 128GB Class 10 SDXC cards, and there's 128GB CF cards. Which makes more sense to carry around and use inside of a camera?
Your speakers probably have something wrong with them. Take it to a Genius Bar.

No one's mentioning the big issue, because there IS NO ISSUE. You see a lot of complaints on these forums, because it's like a community-run tech support forum. All you will see here is problems and solutions. Most people who own MBPs don't even post here because there is no problem.

The "big issues" you mentioned don't even apply to 10% of MacBook Pro users. Most Mac laptops are used without external monitors, or they run in conjunction with them instead of running in clamshell mode.
The excessive amount of thermal paste IS NOT A PROBLEM unless it really starts to overheat your laptop (to over 100 degrees Celsius) or it scorches your privates.
Real solutions can be found through the search function of this forum.



In the future, you still won't be able to:
Fit 200TB hard drives into a point-and-shoot as a removable storage medium
Fit an ExpressCard slot onto an already-packed machine (unless they shrink the standard once again)
Make spinning hard drives as durable as SSDs

With SD cards, you will always be able to:
Take them out easily
Carry them easily
Store a lot of data easily
Save space easily
Store a lot of data safely

I use CF in my camera and I store data on my disks. I dont need 128GB cards...and 128Gb is really small for a disk. Still dont see any point in having sd card reader built in, if the space is so precious in macbook pro.
Of course I calibrated all of my displays with Eye One Pro calibrator, uncalibrated 2011 macbook has excessive amount of blacks. Thats it.
If I spend a lot of money for laptop, I don't want to solve such a problems like noise, bad displays, badly balanced speakers and so on. And you just wont hear of those until you buy the laptop.

 

[MacBpro]

If I were you.. I would return it and it should be still under warranty.... no reason to suffer

 

[Prodo123]

I use CF in my camera and I store data on my disks. I dont need 128GB cards...and 128Gb is really small for a disk. Still dont see any point in having sd card reader built in, if the space is so precious in macbook pro.
Of course I calibrated all of my displays with Eye One Pro calibrator, uncalibrated 2011 macbook has excessive amount of blacks. Thats it.
If I spend a lot of money for laptop, I don't want to solve such a problems like noise, bad displays, badly balanced speakers and so on. And you just wont hear of those until you buy the laptop.

If your calibrator says it's right, it's probably more correct than you. If it says it has an "excessive" amount of black, then you probably had excessive amount of white on your OLD display.

Most consumer cameras use SD cards. It makes sense to integrate a card reader because most people won't want to plug in a dongle. Which is easier to fit inside a super thin laptop, a SD card reader or a CF card reader?

If you use CF in your camera, deal with it. The rest of the world has moved on. Even the CF standard is developing to become non-backwards compatible.

 

[VMMan]

That is just BS. It is the nature of subwoofers that it doesn't matter where in a room they are, because we humans cannot locate where sound with such low frequency comes from. What ever the trouble is with your speakers. The subwoofer cannot be responsible for one side being louder.

+1

Once I read the OP complaining about the subwoofer and that he perceives directionality, I realized this guy is just looking for things to complain about. Unless the guy is not human with a distance between his ears that is magnitudes greater than any human being could ever be, there is zero chance of him detecting th subwoofers position.

 

[hooneyrob]

As other's have said, take it back and get something else.

I do agree, when the fans spin up (playing games etc) the machine is way too noisy - my 15" 2.2 gets complaints from others in the same room. It's like a vacuum cleaner. (OK, maybe not that bad but you get the idea)..

I also agree about the hard drive - it's the main cause of noise.. I now have an SSD and when the fans are just on idle, the laptop is almost silent.

I like the blacks / screen and never use the internal speakers, always have headphones. I would have thought any laptop speakers are going to be poor to be fair..

I love the MacBook and have had other 'expensive' laptops and they always have issues in one way or another..

 

[stevemiller]

@TomJak,

I'm switched from a late '08 to an early '11 mbp, and i have been nothing but pleased with the upgrade. I say that not to dismiss your problems but to re-assure you that problems are probably more a case of QC and not inherent limitations to the hardware.

Some points to note, my '08 had a 7200 rpm hd, and the drive whir did stand out to me in quiet environments. So I opted for an SSD and its been wonderfully silent.

Similarly, I went for the high res screen in the '11, which may or may not be inherently better quality than the standard option, but has been an improvement over my previous screen, which exhibited backlight bleed.

Finally, the temps on my new comp are on average lower, i'm sub 50ºC using it on my lap, vs my much warmer '08 on anything other than a table.

I'll grant you the loss of the express card is a shame if you were making good use of it before. But the consumer-y shift is something we'll have to live with, and for me at least it hasn't hasn't been too much of a problem.

Anyway, I'd really push for a trade-in if you still have the option available, as there is is no reason your machine shouldn't be a great step up.

 

[jamisonbaines]

My 15" doesn't have any of the issues you mentioned.

CF cards were cool in like 2004 but every camera I use today (& in the past 3 years) uses SD.

 

[TomJak]

+1

Once I read the OP complaining about the subwoofer and that he perceives directionality, I realized this guy is just looking for things to complain about. Unless the guy is not human with a distance between his ears that is magnitudes greater than any human being could ever be, there is zero chance of him detecting th subwoofers position.

OMG have you looked at the link I posted above? Even Apple admits the right speaker is louder.
I own a very expensive audio system, it took really long time for me to built, I know what subwoofer is and how human perceive sound. The poor thing in macbook pro is not subwoofer, it is just like midrange speaker. You can definitely locate midrange! I dont expect my macbook to be an audiophile speaker machine, but deliberately shifting the sound to the right??? Why? Just why? The sound is not better with the subwoofer, nor louder.

Please just stop writing here if you dont know what are you talking about.

Now again the display. I will take some pictures if you still dont believe me.
Im just wasting my time here...

 

[VMMan]

Im just wasting my time here on Earth among human beings...

above edited

Most normal people expect that any product could be a dud and will exchange it rather than make a post like yours on a forum, especially with a title using words in caps "BAD BAD BAD".



Also, here is the OP's original statement about speakers:

OK, so speakers now have subwoofer, which is positioned on the left side of the laptop...that means the sound is much louder on this side! WTF? Anyone heard about stereo imaging at the Apple?

You clearly indicate the sound is LOUDER on the LEFT because of the subwoofer. Then you above complain it is an issue of the RIGHT speaker being louder:

I dont expect my macbook to be an audiophile speaker machine, but deliberately shifting the sound to the right??? Why? Just why?


You are a troll.

 

[TomJak]

above edited

Most normal people expect that any product could be a dud and will exchange it rather than make a post like yours on a forum, especially with a title using words in caps "BAD BAD BAD".

----------

Also, here is the OP's statement about speakers

OK, so speakers now have subwoofer, which is positioned on the left side of the laptop...that means the sound is much louder on this side! WTF? Anyone heard about stereo imaging at the Apple?

You clearly indicate the sound is LOUDER on the LEFT because of the subwoofer. Then you above complain it is an issue of the RIGHT speaker being louder. You are a troll.

sorry I meant right of course. It is louder because of "subwoofer". That was not the point, the point is, new speakers are worse than older. This discussion has no point. I wrote my problems, they are there...it is not a matter of replacement or bad hardware. It is just how is the new macbook pro built. Ill try to replace it, maybe the temps will be lower and hdd also. Now Im just browsing web with no flash and have 70C. Cool...

 

[Prodo123]

sorry I meant right of course. It is louder because of "subwoofer". That was not the point, the point is, new speakers are worse than older. This discussion has no point. I wrote my problems, they are there...it is not a matter of replacement or bad hardware. It is just how is the new macbook pro built. Ill try to replace it, maybe the temps will be lower and hdd also. Now Im just browsing web with no flash and have 70C. Cool...

System Preferences > Sounds > Output > Balance
Problem solved.

As for your temperature, get gfxCardStatus to see if you're using the Radeon or not.

 

[TomJak]

Almost every program uses Radeon...even Firefox, anyway I am on external display usually.

Balance may solve this, but have in mind that it sounds louder because it plays more frequencies than the other one without subwoofer. If I change balanace, I will probably just make trebles in left speaker more loud and midrange in right less loud. That is why I said that the design of the speakers is so stupid...you just cant make a stereo speakers which are not equal.

System Preferences > Sounds > Output > Balance
Problem solved.

As for your temperature, get gfxCardStatus to see if you're using the Radeon or not.

 

[Prodo123]

Almost every program uses Radeon...even Firefox, anyway I am on external display usually.

Balance may solve this, but have in mind that it sounds louder because it plays more frequencies than the other one without subwoofer. If I change balanace, I will probably just make trebles in left speaker more loud and midrange in right less loud. That is why I said that the design of the speakers is so stupid...you just cant make a stereo speakers which are not equal.

If you use any of the applications like uTorrent or Chrome, they use the Radeon. Quit them completely.
gfxCardStatus will let you manually select which graphics is being used.

SHUT UP, STOP COMPLAINING, AND TAKE THE LAPTOP TO THE GENIUS BAR IF YOU ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH IT. This troll thread is just getting annoying.

 

[DWBurke811]

CF cards are sooooooooo '94. I remember using one like.....I don't even remember when, it's been too long!
Apple's keeping up with technology. Seems like all of your "pro" friends are using outdated equipment or refusing to move on with their old CF cards.

"prosumer" and throw away p&s cameras may use SD, but most(all?) pro full-sensor dslrs use CF. SD may be "better," and regardless of it it is or isn't, good cameras use CF.

 

[TomJak]

For the ones who dont believe how bad the mac displays are, try this:
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php

How many black squares can you see? Almost none? Right! Thats what Im talking about! And it is deliberately made by apples color profile...

 

[DWBurke811]

I can see all of them, "1" is a tiny bit iffy(like i'm not sure if i'm seeing it because i know it's there, or if i can actually see it), but other than that I can clearly see all of them.


7,1 FTMFW. I may not have a ton of vertical pixels, but my PPI is higher than the standard display on the 15", and the screen is a total BAMF; brightness, color profile, everything.

 

[Glockcubed]

I am totally happy with my 17". A few bugs from the Lion update, but no overheating, display is great, Really no complaints at all.