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Never been so disappointed with an Apple product

L

lexusracin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 15, 2010
15
0
So I finally received my 13" 1.86 with 4gb ram yday. Everything is great when I turn it on. Apps load up super fast. Then I try playing youtube, hulu, and netflix. This thing cant handle HD!! The fans turn on to 6400+ rpm the entire clip/movie. They're on full blast and I cant even hear the clip. If that wasnt bad enough, the stutter is insanely annoying. I wait for it to buffer yet it still keeps lagging. Forget 1080p, I cant even watch 720p. The CPU usage is at 85%. For a lousy youtube clip!! 85%!! My biggest regret is that I got it from macmall and can't return it. My biggest fear came true. My 3 yr old MBP was a fully capable machine and I downgraded into something so outdated that I cant even play videos on it.

Any suggestions on how to make this thing bearable? All you guys claiming to be able to watch HD, how do you do it?
 
Download and install the latest version of Flash player. I can play 1080p Flash on my MBA just fine and I have the same specs.
 
Hellhammer said:
Download and install the latest version of Flash player. I can play 1080p Flash on my MBA just fine and I have the same specs.
Click to expand...

I have the latest flash player. I even tried 4 different browsers and its the same in all of them!

There has to be some setting that I'm not doing right.
 
lexusracin said:
I have the latest flash player. I even tried 4 different browsers and its the same in all of them!

There has to be some setting that I'm not doing right.
Click to expand...

Is there anything else eating the CPU then? That doesn't sound normal, my MBA can do these things just fine. Have you rebooted?
 
I have, around 15% CPU usage with 1080p youtube videos with latest Flash, and with machine like yours. Which is practically how every other person who has the same setup has it. You must be doing something wrong.
 
Has Spotlight finished indexing yet? That tends to eat an awful lot of processor.
 
just tried the "Big Buck Bunny" 1080p youtube video and CPU never went above 30% and the fans didn't even come on once

thats on a 11" ultimate
 
seb-opp said:
THIS
as your mac is new, and assuming you've only just transferred lots of data to it, its a likely cause.
Click to expand...
I agree with this theory. For some reason mine seemed to take an unusually long time to complete. Especially as compared to my other new Macs.

If this is not it, I would get Apple involved.
 
Also double-check the flash player you use is really the latest, not just that you're using "version 10", the curent one is 10.2.153.1. I think hardware rendering support came in 10.2, everything earlier than that will be dead slow and can't handle 1080p playback for example.

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

EDIT: Just tried it myself, takes about 20% on my 11" 1.6 (total cpu usage with all running apps was about 30-35%)
 
Last edited:
Lets ask the obvious question....

What else did you upgrade/install.

Did you update the OS to 10.6.7 through the system update? Look for threads on this ...
 
You MacBook Air has a faster graphics processor than your 3 year old MacBook Pro and only a slightly slower CPU, so it should be fine once Spotlight indexes everything. Also, be sure you did install Flash 10.2 and not 10.1, though it is now out of beta and thus I think it should be set automatically.

Did you use Migration Assistant to move over your data and settings? If so, perhaps you copied over a setting or utility that is preventing hardware acceleration from working properly. Or perhaps you are running content that isn't optimized for GPU acceleration. Maybe send us a link to a video that isn't running properly and we can see if it works for us.
 
So after reading this thread I decided to take a look at what my 13" ultimate is doing. I did upgrade to 10.6.7 last night from 10.6.6 via Apple's website (not the software checker on my machine).

I installed the Flash plugin but have my stuff defaulting to html where I can...and I have clicktoflash installed.

So I went to the video referenced in this thread and was running under 15% for flash player plugin.

Then I followed the link (also in this thread) for flash and installed it...I'm not sure if I had just a plugin installed before or the full program (or maybe the full program is just a plugin)...

Played the video again and my processor shot up to 30%. I decided to reboot and try again. Processor for the first minute or two was in the 30% range for the flash plugin, but now it's been running steady at 11%.

Why would it be so high to start and then get so much lower after a minute or two?
 
I watch Youtube videos all the time and I never hear the fans turn on. Like others have suggested it's likely caused by Spotlight indexing.
 
It could just be a noisy fan.

Either way, it shouldn't do that. Try the suggestions here, phone apple, and if it still doesn't work as it should, they'll happily swap it.
 
I already have the latest flash. Its not spotlighting at all. Now the fans run 6000+ rpm constantly even after restarting and resetting the SMC. They wont go below 5500 rpm with nothing open.

I got a dud that I'm stuck with.
 
lexusracin said:
I already have the latest flash. Its not spotlighting at all. Now the fans run 6000+ rpm constantly even after restarting and resetting the SMC. They wont go below 5500 rpm with nothing open.

I got a dud that I'm stuck with.
Click to expand...


Return it/Get it repaired/Ebay it
 
You still have a warranty with Apple even though you can't return it to MacMall. Take it to a store, like everyone has said, the MBA with those specs can handle 1080p just fine.
 
lexusracin said:
I already have the latest flash. Its not spotlighting at all. Now the fans run 6000+ rpm constantly even after restarting and resetting the SMC. They wont go below 5500 rpm with nothing open.

I got a dud that I'm stuck with.
Click to expand...

or walk it into an apple store and have them look at it / replace it... that works too...
 
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