New MacBook Airs Experiencing Logic Board Issues?

[KnightWRX]

LOL! A 2lb laptop with the power to run VM's? How can you be serious? They are the future of laptops.

http://www.cultofmac.com/virtual-machines-work-great-on-the-new-macbook-air/66857

Linking to a site called cult of mac doesn't quite help your credibility. And knocking over other's people belongings only shows a certain lack of adulthood on your part.

The MBA is not the future of laptops. Laptops are diverse because people have diverse needs. The MBA happens is a great ultra-portable for the price though. Sony did manage to get something very close (3.04 lbs to the MBA's 2.9 lbs) and with more versatility (backlit keyboard, Core i5, dedicated nVidia GPU, higher res screen, optical drive) out with the Vaio Z. Of course, it comes at a sacrifice of price. 1,999$ base price.

There is no fixed future of laptops. Diverse needs are diverse and as such vendors will always cater to different segments in the laptop space. Ultra-portables are one such segment.

Don't believe everything Steve Jobs says. He's not always right.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

Does your MBA also vanish during the night, only to come back with red stains on the keyboard? Do you hear the sound of a bat prior to its vanishing? Does your macbook start acting funny around garlic? If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you, my friend, have a vampire MBA.

Exactly.

Apple Store verified the problem, said they've seen a few and that the issue is the graphics card. They didn't have my exact model in stock yesterday, but they got one today so I'm heading there later to swap.

 

[archipellago]

You're kidding right ? Have you even read the MacBook Air forums lately ? I and many others have purchased them and we have no issue at all right now. The things are selling like hot cakes.

Isolated issues are sure to creep up, that's why you get a warranty. Of course, some people want their 15 minutes of fame and would rather post to youtube instead of replacing their defective unit.

Like I said, if there really was some kind of mis-design resulting in overheating or some widespread logic board issue, there would be much more anecdotal evidence out there. Right now, these cases seem to fall within normal failure rates.

I type this on a MBA connected to an external display. I've been working on it for the last 30 minutes. I worked on it for an hour this morning. This is supposed to be the easiest way to make the issue appear, yet I haven't seen it at all. CPU temp is sitting at a cool 42 degrees C.

3% global marketshare.....(all macs)

they won't sell enough...

 

[pr5owner]

LOL! A 2lb laptop with the power to run VM's? How can you be serious? They are the future of laptops.

http://www.cultofmac.com/virtual-machines-work-great-on-the-new-macbook-air/66857

Who would not want light and fast when traveling on a plane? I was on a plane last week and some guy two rows up had a huge 17" Dell on his tray playing Scrabble. If he was sitting next to me I would have "accidentally" knocked that beast off the tray and into the aisle.

It has an older CPU and comes up short with only 2GBytes of RAM in the base model, but it is not underpowered .....Incredibly thin and light, yet very capable of running a large number of applications without showing the infamous Mac OS X beach ball

WHAT? a laptop can run more than 1 application at a time? OH WOW!!!!!!!!!! everyone rejoice!

old and slow cpu
slow and small capacity ram
not underpowered?

is this website full of retards? do they even know how computers work?

I opened up 15 applications and launched dozens of tabs in Safari and Firefox. I was surprised that the computer didn’t seem fazed.

only a dozen? try launching 450 tabs, and see what happens? my old Asus netbook could do that no problem (i had 4 GB of ram in it, but the netbook only costs me $400 total including the ram upgrade)

 

[KnightWRX]

3% global marketshare.....(all macs)

they won't sell enough...

And how big is the market ? You fail at scales.

Again, your anecdotes are outweighted by the sheer anecdotal evidence of the different MacBook Air sub-forums. A lot have been sold, few have this issue. Return it for a replacement and live happy with your purchase.

 

[linux2mac]

And knocking over other's people belongings only shows a certain lack of adulthood on your part.

If his ginormous laptop is encroaching on my over priced airplane seat real estate, I am pretty sure he will be putting his crap away or it will be on the floor.

The MBA is not the future of laptops.

Can I borrow your crystal ball? Mine shows that the Air is the future of laptops. My 13" MBP will be considered big and bulky soon ( like the guy with the 17" laptop on my plane. I mean, who travels with a 17" anymore? Seriously?). BTW, I thought you blocked me.

 

[rhinosrcool]

And you base your argument that the Rev A "curse" applies here based on a few anecdotal stories about failures ?

And you call me a fanboy ? I have people that will attest I am not a fanboy, heck, they call me a apple hater all the time.

Common sense like you put it says to not jump to conclusions in the light of anecdotal evidence. If there was a major problem that caused massive logic board failures, you wouldn't have had such a great week over on the MacBook Air forum of Macrumors.

For now, these incidents seem isolated to a few units, which is probably within the normal failure rate of all electronics. The proper answer is not to make YouTube videos but to return the defective unit to Apple under warranty for a repair or exchange.

I am bored with this logic (some people will get it)

Too, I have several Apple products that are fantastic. However, if Apple releases faulty products, I'm not going to kiss their *ss and deny it. So far, logic boards and loose hinges, what's next?...; it's only been a few weeks

Also, to the poster that claimed that Apple, a long time ago, fixed the yellow screens on the imacs, BS!

 

[AidenShaw]

Laptops are diverse because people have diverse needs.

Definitely diverse:

• Six core 3.3 GHz Core i7-980X CPU
• 24 GiB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM
• Dual Nvidia GTX480M, 2 GiB VRAM each (SLI)
• Four 3 Gbps SATA drive bays (up to 3 TB disk if no ODD)
• Two USB 3.0 ports + three USB 2.0 ports
• Fingerprint reader
• 17.3" 1920x1080 display
• Card Reader: MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/SD/Mini-SD/SDHC/SDXC compatible/MMC/RSMMC
• Multi-touch trackpad
• Ports: 2x USB 3.0; 3x USB 2.0; HDMI-out; DVI-DL; eSata; IEEE1394b; S/PDIF; Headphone; Microphone; Audio Line-in; RJ-45; Optional HDMI-in v1.4
• Expresscard slot
• Three internal mini-PCIe slots

http://www.eurocom.com/products/showroom/specselectnew.cfm?model_id=214

Of course, the sheep will bleat that "it's heavy", "it's thick", "it costs more than an MBP", "the battery life sucks" -- but there are audio/video/photo professionals who would commit heinous crimes in order to buy a MacBook with those specs.

Don't believe everything Steve Jobs says. He's not always right.

Should be a sticky at the top of every forum.

 

[KnightWRX]

If his ginormous laptop is encroaching on my over priced airplane seat real estate, I am pretty sure he will be putting his crap away or it will be on the floor.

An adult would politely ask him to put it away or to refrain from encroaching your space before committing what is basically a felony in an airplane. I wouldn't want to be you when airport security gets their hands on you after this little ordeal.

Serious question, how old are you ? This is not meant as an insult, just wondering if I'm trying to apply common sense to a teenager with raging hormones.

Can I borrow your crystal ball? Mine shows that the Air is the future of laptops. My 13" MBP will be considered big and bulky soon

Call me when everyone wants the same thing out of a laptop.

As for my ignore list, you're not on it, did I promise to put you there once ? I double checked and it seems to still be there with all the other "Apple does no wrong" people on it. You're getting awfully close to it with just your posts here though...

Too, I have several Apple products that are fantastic. However, if Apple releases faulty products, I'm not going to kiss their *ss and deny it. So far, logic boards and loose hinges, what's next?...; it's only been a few weeks

Of course there is no evidence right now that the product is faulty. Only that a few units are. There is no evidence pointing towards mass failures yet.

I'll be the first to be pissed off at Apple if there is massive failures. I returned 4 Apple LED 24" LCDs and finally got my money back (all of it, no restocking) after they failed to give me one that didn't either have dead pixels, yellowing or dust under the glass panel. The manager told me he wouldn't exchange the last one if it didn't please me. I told him to shove it and just give me my money back. A 1000$ display should not be this prone to problems. My 23" TN Samsung worked perfectly out of the box on the first unit.

Again, I'm not some kind of Apple fanboy who drools over a Johnny Ive video and kisses a Steve doll before going to sleep at night. But I'm not about to start burning witches either.

 

[AidenShaw]

I was on a plane last week and some guy two rows up had a huge 17" Dell on his tray playing Scrabble. If he was sitting next to me I would have "accidentally" knocked that beast off the tray and into the aisle.

And knocking over other's people belongings only shows a certain lack of adulthood on your part.

If his ginormous laptop is encroaching on my over priced airplane seat real estate, I am pretty sure he will be putting his crap away or it will be on the floor.

How quickly the fans forget the "Middle Seat" advert....

Of course, the flipside to this discussion is, what was the worst ad Apple ever put on my television? The winner and still champion: the memorably awful “Middle Seat” commercial, which was intended to show off the Mac’s prowess at digital lifestyle application.

Instead, the ad left viewers with the impression that Mac users are pushy, thoughtless oafs who will commandeer your tray-table on red-eye flights and force you to listen to Baha Men songs that are six months past their freshness date.

Sadly, the “Middle Seat” commercial ends before we see the federal Air Marshal drag this iBook-wielding menace off to the back of the plane for a good talking-to.

http://www.macworld.com/article/48941/2006/01/intelad.html​

 

[linux2mac]

WHAT? a laptop can run more than 1 application at a time? OH WOW!!!!!!!!!! everyone rejoice!

old and slow cpu
slow and small capacity ram
not underpowered?

is this website full of retards? do they even know how computers work?

Wow, that's all you have? Have you seen the benchmarks or even tried an Air in person? It's faster than some iX processors, even with its "old and slow cpu." How is it possible that an "old and slow cpu" is faster than some iX processors? Maybe I should ask, "do you even know how computers work?"

"Cool story bro." LOL

 

[KnightWRX]

How quickly the fans forget the "Middle Seat" advert....

Seriously, that is one bad ad. How did it even promote the iBook ? "You too can be the biggest jerk on the plane!"

 

[Eidorian]

Definitely diverse:

• Six core 3.3 GHz Core i7-980X CPU
• 24 GiB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM
• Dual Nvidia GTX480M, 2 GiB VRAM each (SLI)
• Four 3 Gbps SATA drive bays (up to 3 TB disk if no ODD)
• Two USB 3.0 ports + three USB 2.0 ports
• Fingerprint reader
• 17.3" 19020x1080 display
• Card Reader: MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/SD/Mini-SD/SDHC/SDXC compatible/MMC/RSMMC
• Multi-touch trackpad
• Ports: 2x USB 3.0; 3x USB 2.0; HDMI-out; DVI-DL; eSata; IEEE1394b; S/PDIF; Headphone; Microphone; Audio Line-in; RJ-45; Optional HDMI-in v1.4
• Expresscard slot
• Three internal mini-PCIe slots

http://www.eurocom.com/products/showroom/specselectnew.cfm?model_id=214

Of course, the sheep will bleat that "it's heavy", "it's thick", "it costs more than an MBP", "the battery life sucks" -- but there are audio/video/photo professionals who would commit heinous crimes in order to buy a MacBook with those specs.

That's quite the delicious tray table breaking portable. Hopefully Sandy Bridge's greatly improved mobile quads will shine more than the current sub-2.0 GHz Clarksfield ones.

6-cores will still be the stuff of Guftown and whatever eventually replaces it in H2 2011.

 

[Mal]

Seriously, that is one bad ad. How did it even promote the iBook ? "You too can be the biggest jerk on the plane!"

Heh, I'd forgotten the ending of that. They've had a few misses in advertising, that's definitely one (though perhaps not their worst ad, but you'd have to go back a little further for the really poor stuff).

BTW, I think this is a first. I think I'm agreeing with both KnightWRX and AidenShaw.

jW

 

[linux2mac]

How quickly the fans forget the "Middle Seat" advert....

Of course, the flipside to this discussion is, what was the worst ad Apple ever put on my television? The winner and still champion: the memorably awful “Middle Seat” commercial, which was intended to show off the Mac’s prowess at digital lifestyle application.

Instead, the ad left viewers with the impression that Mac users are pushy, thoughtless oafs who will commandeer your tray-table on red-eye flights and force you to listen to Baha Men songs that are six months past their freshness date.

Sadly, the “Middle Seat” commercial ends before we see the federal Air Marshal drag this iBook-wielding menace off to the back of the plane for a good talking-to.

http://www.macworld.com/article/48941/2006/01/intelad.html​

Yikes! That was funny. I never saw that before. Thanks for sharing. However, if that kid was on my flight I would wish for the pilot to do a quick bank and send all of his crap crashing to the floor. LOL

 

[pr5owner]

And how big is the market ? You fail at scales.

Again, your anecdotes are outweighted by the sheer anecdotal evidence of the different MacBook Air sub-forums. A lot have been sold, few have this issue. Return it for a replacement and live happy with your purchase.

correct, kinda...

lets say half of the world has computers (the people that have computers most likely have 2 because 1 for home 1 for work)

3 Billion, 3% of 3 billion is 90 Million, thats still alot of people, considering apple's complete rip off prices add a couple zeros and thats alot of money!

 

[AidenShaw]

That's quite the delicious tray table breaking portable.

I would assume that most people traveling with a hex-core laptop will have it in a Pelican case in luggage along with the other professional gear - and will use a smaller portable at their seat.

Note that few if any airplane power outlets would have the wattage to feed that beast. In fact, occasionally I've had to disable a core, lock speed-step in slow, or remove the battery to keep from tripping the seat power breaker....

 

[pr5owner]

Wow, that's all you have? Have you seen the benchmarks or even tried an Air in person? It's faster than some iX processors, even with its "old and slow cpu." How is it possible that an "old and slow cpu" is faster than some iX processors? Maybe I should ask, "do you even know how computers work?"

"Cool story bro." LOL

show me some proof, i already did like 20 times, faster than iX cpus? why would intel make a slower cpu for the future? they arent apple.

yes much thicker, but the same thickness as the macbook, and i see LOTS of people carry the macbook with no problem.

even if the MBa was 2 dimensional, you still need a 12" case to carry it in, and im pretty sure the exact same 12" case you choose will fit any other 12" netbook or ultra portable.

.......................

the cpu is the SAME SPEED as the MBA 11.6

Macbookair (SU9400) - 963 passmarks
Acer netbook (K625) - 945 passmarks
Asus N61 i7 $999 laptop - 3500 passmarks (for reference)

.........................

looking quickly, the absolute SLOWEST i7 low voltage is

Intel Core i7 620M @ 2.67GHz 2,736 passmarks (3x the speed of the crappy core2duo)

the slowest i5 is
Intel Core i5 520UM @ 1.07GHz 1,274passmarks (still faster than the 1.4Ghz and its only at running 1GHz!!!)

slowest i3 is
Intel Core i3 330UM @ 1.20GHz 1,196 (last time i checked ~1200 is higher than ~950)

 

[pr5owner]

That's quite the delicious tray table breaking portable. Hopefully Sandy Bridge's greatly improved mobile quads will shine more than the current sub-2.0 GHz Clarksfield ones.

6-cores will still be the stuff of Guftown and whatever eventually replaces it in H2 2011.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/25/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480m-worlds-fastest-mobile-gpu-now-offici/

704 processing cores has its price i guess.

that laptop mentioned has TWO of the fastest mobile video processors in the world.

i would say its a desktop replacement, not a "portable", but really, anything over 17" isnt designed to be moved on a regular basis, just moved once in a while.

 

[Eidorian]

I would assume that most people traveling with a hex-core laptop will have it in a Pelican case in luggage along with the other professional gear - and will use a smaller portable at their seat.

Note that few if any airplane power outlets would have the wattage to feed that beast. In fact, occasionally I've had to disable a core, lock speed-step in slow, or remove the battery to keep from tripping the seat power breaker....

It is the no compromises mobile workstation with an emphasis on workstation.

I keep an eye on ASUS RoG line up if I'd want something with mobile power on a budget and not skimping on the quality. Lenovo has some quad core IdeaPads but their quality leaves much to be desired.

I'm nowhere near requiring professional power on the road.

 

[KnightWRX]

It is the no compromises mobile workstation with an emphasis on workstation.

No compromise is a bit of a stretch. It does compromise on the portability and power consumption sides.

Nothing is free of compromises.

 

[ImperialX]

i would say its a desktop replacement, not a "portable", but really, anything over 17" isnt designed to be moved on a regular basis, just moved once in a while.

If you've ever owned a MacBook Air, you'd realize that you don't want to lug around anything over 2kg ever again unless you have to.

 

[Eidorian]

No compromise is a bit of a stretch. It does compromise on the portability and power consumption sides.

Nothing is free of compromises.

It beats lugging a Mac Pro.

 

[rhinosrcool]

Of course there is no evidence right now that the product is faulty. Only that a few units are. There is no evidence pointing towards mass failures yet.

I'll be the first to be pissed off at Apple if there is massive failures. I returned 4 Apple LED 24" LCDs and finally got my money back (all of it, no restocking) after they failed to give me one that didn't either have dead pixels, yellowing or dust under the glass panel. The manager told me he wouldn't exchange the last one if it didn't please me. I told him to shove it and just give me my money back. A 1000$ display should not be this prone to problems. My 23" TN Samsung worked perfectly out of the box on the first unit.

Again, I'm not some kind of Apple fanboy who drools over a Johnny Ive video and kisses a Steve doll before going to sleep at night. But I'm not about to start burning witches either.

Fair enough! I'll tell you, I hope these littles babies are not going to be lemons because I will get one. However, I am not sure that they will be okay what with the incredibly slim form factor. We'll see...

 

[AidenShaw]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/25/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480m-worlds-fastest-mobile-gpu-now-offici/

704 processing cores has its price i guess.

that laptop mentioned has TWO of the fastest mobile video processors in the world.

i would say its a desktop replacement, not a "portable", but really, anything over 17" isnt designed to be moved on a regular basis, just moved once in a while.

That laptop will spank the bejesus out of most Mac Pros - and yes, I agree that it's a portable workstation and not a reasonable mobility system.

The target audience is the on-location professional - who looks to choose between bringing a 12 pound 17" laptop to a gig, or bringing a Mac Pro, monitor, keyboard and mouse.