Many many problems with a new MBP 15. Is it normal? Thanks!

[fra39]

Hello everybody,

last April I bought my first Mac, a Macbook Pro Retina 15 inch. Being a photographer I was much looking forward to trying it, also because I have always heard good things about how stable and reliable Macs are. Unfortunately I am quite disappointed as there are several problems that I experience almost daily, even if I do not use this macbook very much (around 1-2 hours per day on average)

Issues with the display/power button:

• The display randomly turns off while I am using the mac. In order to turn it on again, I have to press the power button or to close and reopen the lid. Sometimes I have to do this several times in order for the display to work again. This happens around once a month on average
• I cannot turn on the mac when it is sleeping or when I open it shortly after having closed it. In these cases I have to wait a few minutes and then try again. This happens around 3 times per month on average

Issues with the touchpad/mouse:

• Clicking on the touchpad randomly stops working. In these cases with the touchpad it is only possible to move the cursor but clicking works only with the mouse, a restart is necessary. Since upgrading to OS X 10.9 this has not happened again but previously it used to happen around once every two month (and since I do not use the touchpad much I suspect it happened more but I just did not notice it)
• It randomly loses the connection with the magic mouse for some time. This happens around 2-3 times per month

Freezes/crashes:

• Copying files to/from a USB drive (I tried several models) is totally unstable, as the operation randomly breaks up and sometimes I end up with grayed out folders with a “X” on them. Copying files to/from a time capsule disk almost never works correctly, in some cases I even ended up losing data when moving files. This is so bad that I dont use the move command anymore but every time I copy and then manually remove the files I copied after verifying the operation has worked correctly
• More rarely the Mac freezes, not even the cursor moves anymore and the only solution is shutting down with the power button. This happened 3-4 times in total

Photoshop-specific issues (this is the software I use 90% of the time on the Macbook):

• Photoshop frequently crashes, especially when using the Google Nik Software Plugin. This happens around 2-3 times a week and is very annoying as every time I lose some work
• The Photoshop menus just go blank. This happens around once a month on average and last time not even restarting the Mac solved the issue
• Saving files to a time capsule disk in Photoshop causes each and every time the mac to become unresponsive and shutting down with the power button is the only solution. I gave up using the time capsule with photoshop

All these problems are very annoying, especially considering that this is not exactly a cheap laptop! I would like to know if you experience the same issues or if there is maybe something wrong with my machine, also considering that it is still under warranty...
I even tried to check the system console to see what the cause of these issues may be but unfortunately I find tons of data there that do not tell me much

Thank you very much and happy holidays!

 

[JeffiJers]

Skimmed through your post, all your issues appear to be software related and not hardware.

If I were you, I would install osx fresh and do not restore anything from a back up. Reload all your files and programs. Tedious work yes, but I would be shocked if it didn't cure all your problems.

My magic mouse disconnects from my 15R 3-4 times DAILY. My wireless key board and track pad never do.

Edit: since it is under warranty you could ask for apple to do the above task. Just bring it into them and explain all this.

 

[Shmanky]

I was much looking forward to trying it, also because I have always heard good things about how stable and reliable Macs are. Unfortunately I am quite disappointed as there are several problems that I experience almost daily, even if I do not use this macbook very much (around 1-2 hours per day on average)

I only have a little more experience with Macs than you do. The only thing I can say is that each unit that Apple sells is slightly different, even within the same product. These things aren't identical to each other. So each user will have a slightly different experience. Some users will get a flawless unit and have no problems. Other users will get a unit that has problems. Sounds like you got a problematic unit. So we can't say that these problems are typical because the units are not the same. Some people can go through 5 units of the same product and report how each was slightly different. This is usually with hardware and your complaints are more about the software but I think it's the same situation.

 

[raptor402]

1. Do you use Google Chrome? Chrome causes display blackouts on 2012 rMBPs. My father has the same and was experiencing 2-10 blackouts a day. However, functionality would return automatically in a few seconds.

2. Even my Magic Mouse disconnects every now and then, but never while using it. Heck, it just happened 15 minutes ago while I was using the laptop on my bed.

3. The crashes are quite inexplicable. My best guess would be a major software issue.

4. a. The photoshop issue might be related to the plugin. Since only photoshop is crashing and not any system processes, the cause is most likely within photoshop.
b. The time capsule issue might be due to a major software issue in the core OS. Most likely not related to photoshop.


I suppose your best call, as recommended above, would be to reinstall the OS and then reinstall all your applications one by one. Copy back only the data that you need.

If you have trouble backing up your files do the USB drive issue that you mentioned, create a live Linux bootable disk (GParted) and use that copy your files.

Best of luck.

Regards
Raptor