MBP 17" (2009) - Problem Thread

[crazylegsmurphy]

Hey All,

I have seen that a few are getting their notebooks, but the have issues such as video cards not working and minor scratches and dings. After having to send back 3 iPhones due to quality control issues I am VERY leery about this being my second Apple product.

I really hope it comes perfect out of the box (no dead pixels, scratches, bows, hardware issues), but I am curious to hear what has happened so far to some of you.

Secondly, I would like to hear about how Apple dealt with the issue. I have read a few have sent the notebooks back and waited for a replacement. I personally don't agree with this as Apple should send you a new one BEFORE you have to send the other one back.

For those who sent theirs back, what, if any compensation did Apple give you?

And finally, what did you do with all your data? Did you take the HD out and wait for the new one, or did you send all your data back to Apple?

Thanks!

 

[zergslayer69]

I'd also like a reponse to this. I'm pretty sure Apple might not deliberately leaf through your personal stuff. But I also wouldn't doubt if they go poke around "harmlessly". While I don't have plans for some top secret weapon, I don't want totally random strangers looking through my stuff.

 

[Mark2000]

Hey All,

I have seen that a few are getting their notebooks, but the have issues such as video cards not working and minor scratches and dings. After having to send back 3 iPhones due to quality control issues I am VERY leery about this being my second Apple product.

So you don't even have on yet and you want to talk about the problems it has? If you distrust Apple so much don't buy their machine. If people have specific, actual problems then they should post a new thread about it and there should be in depth research. A thread like this is just a bitch and moan outlet. Sounds dull and pathetic.

 

[Minimoose 360]

Well I have to tell you I have extensively checked mine and I have had no issues. I also went through calibrating my battery and such.

- No scratches or dings out of the box
- No backlight bleeding at all
- Battery life is truly amazing. I'm 3 cycles in at 100% health. With the AirPort off and lowest brightness, I get 8:38 of battery time. With AirPort on and medium brightness I get about 7:35. These are on the 9400m.
- No troubles with the 9600 or switching back and forth
- Incredibly cool and quiet for such a big/powerful notebook. My fans never get above 2000 unless I boot up Photoshop or something. Temperatures are very cool.

The ONE THING I noticed is that the space bar dips a little about 3/4 from the left side due to my ergonomics where I hit it while typing. They might have made it a little sturdier, but it's only noticeable with the keyboard backlight on and barely at that. Not really a problem at all.

 

[angemon89]

I'd also like a reponse to this. I'm pretty sure Apple might not deliberately leaf through your personal stuff. But I also wouldn't doubt if they go poke around "harmlessly". While I don't have plans for some top secret weapon, I don't want totally random strangers looking through my stuff.

My cousin and I tested the Apple store employees on this issue when they were replacing his iMac's screen. We totally wanted to see if they actually looked through your stuff so we put a some porn on the desktop and they touched not one of the files. When he got it back we looked at the recent items and it was exactly the same as when he turned it in.

 

[Sir Cecil]

My cousin and I tested the Apple store employees on this issue when they were replacing his iMac's screen. We totally wanted to see if they actually looked through your stuff so we put a some porn on the desktop and they touched not one of the files. When he got it back we looked at the recent items and it was exactly the same as when he turned it in.

If that's your mentality, I expect that was the only example of mature content on your hard drive.

 

[angemon89]

If that's your mentality, I expect that was the only example of mature content on your hard drive.

Not my hard drive, my cousins. And even if it was mine I doubt they would be enticed to click on something titled "accounting homework," because that's about how "mature" my hard drive gets.

 

[jmark]

Mine is as cosmetically-perfect as anything I've ever see from Apple.

No dead/stuck pixels.

Power button is very slightly recessed (not flush as was my earlier 15" unibody MBP), but for all I know that's the intended design.

The lower corners of the screen have a *small* amount of backlight bleeding (visible on a dark background), but it's nothing like the "stagelighted" monstrosity I was seeing on the 15" screen.

I'm guessing the most common problem will be the out-of-the-box screen calibration. People are seeing that in the Apple stores, and saying the screen is "dim" or "blue". It's easily fixed by doing a calibration.

 

[kastenbrust]

Mine is as cosmetically-perfect as anything I've ever see from Apple.

No dead/stuck pixels.

Power button is very slightly recessed (not flush as was my earlier 15" unibody MBP), but for all I know that's the intended design.

The lower corners of the screen have a *small* amount of backlight bleeding (visible on a dark background), but it's nothing like the "stagelighted" monstrosity I was seeing on the 15" screen.

I'm guessing the most common problem will be the out-of-the-box screen calibration. People are seeing that in the Apple stores, and saying the screen is "dim" or "blue". It's easily fixed by doing a calibration.

How would you recommend doing a calibration? I find my colour..ok but id like to know what you do. (Unless you have some kind of external calibration device) 🙂

 

[jmark]

How would you recommend doing a calibration? I find my colour..ok but id like to know what you do. (Unless you have some kind of external calibration device) 🙂

I just calibrate "to taste" using the calibration tool in the Displays preferences, since I'm not doing anything particularly color-critical on this computer.

I do the expert-mode stuff normally (the "matching of the apple to the lines" steps), but then take the white point way down and turn up the gamma to 2.2.

On this new 17" unibody, I definitely ended up setting the white point lower than I normally do.

 

[Quu]

Mine was one of the first shipped out after the 19th Deadline (Got it on the 20th of February) and its been perfect. At first the Ambient Light Sensor didn't seem to work but I repaired permissions and reboot and it started working perfectly and has been fine ever since.

No Dings
No Backlight Bleeding
No Scuffs, Marks
No Dead Pixels
No Hinge Weakness
Closes 100% evenly
Enters/Exits Sleep perfectly
No Dust Under Screen
No Fingerprints under screen

I've only had 2 issues, the Ambient Light Issue which I fixed and with Aperture not realising that I had done a migration from my old 17" MacBook Pro to my new 17" MacBook Pro. Making it unable to find my photos (It kept telling me that they were stored off-line on my old Hard Disk). I fixed the Aperture issue by renaming the Hard Disk in OS X to the same as my old Hard Disk (Which was no issue for me).

So both my issues were Software related and they were easily fixed. I think honestly its just very bad luck that you had to return 3 iPhones - You have to remember that people who have a product that is perfect are unlikely to use a Forum to talk about it. Forums especially this one is filled up with people who are having issues but they are only a very tiny minority of the overall consumers who received units from Apple. I only post here about my good one because I frequented the forum before mine even arrived.

In-fact it may do you well to take a look through the 17" Delivery thread (which is like 80 pages now?) and see how many users in that thread (probably 100 unique users) are actually reporting back issues, if they aren't its reasonable to assume there unit arrived perfect.

 

[NATO]

How would you recommend doing a calibration? I find my colour..ok but id like to know what you do. (Unless you have some kind of external calibration device) 🙂

I use SuperCal, works great for me and is easy to use.

Don't forget that after you calibrate, if you change to the other graphics chip, it will be using the default calibration, so go into System Preferences and change it to your new calibration so both are the same.

 

[bronksy]

minor scratch

Hey all,
i got the 2.93 and noticed there's a small bit of the case where it looks like the edge of the lid has been 'rubbed' i can see some shiny metal its tiny but annoying..

Also.. i've notied some mild flicker on battery using the low power gfx card..
and sometimes.. very occasionally there's a few grapghical glitches that seem only to affect the window im looking at.. like the remnants of some letters being left behind in a chat window once it scrolls upwards.

I'm thinking thought that its due to some incompatibility with the gfx card and the apps? dunno?

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

So you don't even have on yet and you want to talk about the problems it has? If you distrust Apple so much don't buy their machine. If people have specific, actual problems then they should post a new thread about it and there should be in depth research. A thread like this is just a bitch and moan outlet. Sounds dull and pathetic.

Actually what I am trying to do is get a sense of what some users are finding as issues so I can check for them when I get mine. I just made a genius appointment yesterday for yet my 4th iPhone with cracking plastic, so you can understand why I am wondering about something that cost me $3200.

You have to understand, I am coming from being a PC user since the 1980's and so it's a little frustrating when I finally try to "switch" and it's nothing but problems.

To be honest, the ONLY reason I got the MBP 17" was because of my job. I need to be able to test in both environments and getting a Mac just seemed like the easiest. I'm not insanely happy about the cost of the machine to begin with, but I'm more concerned with what are common issues with the MBP 17" and how Apple deals with it.

With that said,

Thanks for the replies people, keep them coming. Your feedback is helping me create a good list of things to run through when it arrives in a bit.

 

[philips]

Actually what I am trying to do is get a sense of what some users are finding as issues so I can check for them when I get mine. I just made a genius appointment yesterday for yet my 4th iPhone with cracking plastic, so you can understand why I am wondering about something that cost me $3200.

You are comparing apples and oranges.

This are two different - unrelated - product lines.

Apple, like any H/W manufacturer, has some share of problems. Overall, Apple has good track record of (first of all) quality and fixing the problems under warranty.

P.S. "iPhone with cracking plastic". What are you doing with it, people? are you sitting on it or what? or keep it in pocket with key ring?? This is high-tech device - not nuke-proof brick-like Nokia.

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

P.S. "iPhone with cracking plastic". What are you doing with it, people? are you sitting on it or what? or keep it in pocket with key ring?? This is high-tech device - not nuke-proof brick-like Nokia.

Nothing, I baby my electronics. They keep cracking on the thin parts of the plastic (between the bezel and the headphone jack for example).

It's cracking through normal use, and I have only had this phone since Oct.

This are two different - unrelated - product lines.

I am hoping you're right. I can't understand why some are getting scratches right out of the box. I understand dead/stuck pixels as I have had to send 3 Dell monitors back for this reason, but what I am really worried about is the problems my friends have had.

Logic boards crapping out, batteries dropping down to 20 min charge. Things like this. I got Apple Care, but like I said above, I'm more concerned with data.

 

[xpovos]

So you don't even have on yet and you want to talk about the problems it has? If you distrust Apple so much don't buy their machine. If people have specific, actual problems then they should post a new thread about it and there should be in depth research. A thread like this is just a bitch and moan outlet. Sounds dull and pathetic.

The OP wants to know what problems it might have and get a feel for this model's apparent QC by asking folks who already own the machine and may or may not have run into one or more common problems. What the hell is wrong with that?

To spend that much money without asking for real-world opinions---as opposed to online/magazine reviews that somehow miraculously never encounter even the most widespread problems---would be stupid at best.

 

[quackwack]

it probably isnt a problem but the image itself, but do you guys see a feint border on the right and the bottom of the desktop if you set your background to the "earth" image?

 

[Hopsdaballa04]

I have had three 17" Unibodys, first one had a loud scratching noise from the hard drive, and the other 2 had dead pixels. I am currently without a macbook pro since they were going to make me choose between the 2 with dead pixels, so I returned the macbook and made a order online for another one.

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

I have had three 17" Unibodys, first one had a loud scratching noise from the hard drive, and the other 2 had dead pixels. I am currently without a macbook pro since they were going to make me choose between the 2 with dead pixels, so I returned the macbook and made a order online for another one.

This is the kind of junk I'm afraid of. When my monitors had dead pixels Dell did everything to make sure it was right. In fact I had 3 monitors sitting in my living room at one point before I got one that worked.

So you basically told them to suck it and just returned the laptop under the 15 day return thing and then ordered another?

The thing I am wondering is, do you have to send back the laptop before they'll send out another?

 

[Hopsdaballa04]

Yea I told them to suck it. I actually went to the apple store so I didn't need to send anything back. The genius said it was with in tolerances to have a dead pixel. I don't think that is right since it is annoying to have a dead pixel on a 2799 dollar computer. They also charged me a $279 restocking fee.

To apple's credit when I called to order another macbook pro 17", I told the person what happened in the store. She put me on hold and talked to her manager and was able to offer me a 200 dollar discount. So I am still in the hole for $79. I guess its better than nothing..

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

Yea I told them to suck it. I actually went to the apple store so I didn't need to send anything back. The genius said it was with in tolerances to have a dead pixel. I don't think that is right since it is annoying to have a dead pixel on a 2799 dollar computer. They also charged me a $279 restocking fee.

To apple's credit when I called to order another macbook pro 17", I told the person what happened in the store. She put me on hold and talked to her manager and was able to offer me a 200 dollar discount. So I am still in the hole for $79. I guess its better than nothing..

You're kidding me! That is simply not cool. I realize that there are industry tolerances for dead pixels but come on, charging you a restocking fee on top of it?

What kind of company penalizes it's customers if they don't like the product? I can tell you one thing, if I get my MBP and I have to send it back for any reason and they attempt to charge me a restocking fee, that is the last $270 Apple will ever get from me.

Does Mapple not follow the customer is always right policy, or is it the customer always has more money in their pockets and we want it policy?

Sir, I would demand that $79 credit. I would call back and explain that it's simply not acceptable for them to be screwing you out of money because you're not satisfied. Remind them they're not the only computer manufacturers in the world and there are many companies that would love to have your money.

Sorry, but this kind of thing drives me insane!

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

Also...

Check out the Apple refund policy. It says nothing about pixel tolerances at all. Who cares if it's "industry standard" if they don't state it, then it's considered a defect in my opinion and not your fault.

If they can show where it states their official policy is on dead pixels (in a place where you should have seen it before purchase) then let them keep their $79

EDIT:

It's not easy to find but.... http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1721

If you suspect your display contains a high number of pixel anomalies, take your Apple product to an Apple Authorized Service Provider for closer examination. There may be a charge for the evaluation.

Of course.....Next Mapple will charge you to breath the air in the store. 😀

 

[harodude]

Well, I seem to have the infamous "Screen Flicker", but only when the computer is running off of Battery and at lower brightness settings.

In addition, I just watched a few HD (1080p) trailers from Apples website, and noticed a dead pixel in the bottom right of my screen...
Any idea for what I should do about these issues?!


This laptop is sexy.... But I dont know if I can live with knowing there are some initial flaws!!!
At least the dead pixel isnt in the middle or something

 

[DHagan4755]

Well, I seem to have the infamous "Screen Flicker", but only when the computer is running off of Battery and at lower brightness settings.

I, too, may have this problem. At 50% in the dark, I can see some flickering every now and then. I don't know if it's a harbinger of failure down the road or not.

This laptop is sexy.... But I dont know if I can live with knowing there are some initial flaws!!!

Thankfully mine has no dead pixels. The only two things that I am slightly annoyed with is the vibration from the optical drive makes on the top case, especially noticeable when burning media and the slight "tingle" vibration I get through my fingertips on the top case and trackpad when I rest this computer on certain surfaces which I have determined is coming from the hard drive. It's a Fujitsu hard drive and I can hear its quiet whirring as I write this. I was hemming and hawing when ordering this whether or not I was going to upgrade the drive it in anyway...