New MBP *Initialiation & Optimization*

[macdragon]

Our new BTO MBP 15" glossy 2.5 200/7200 HD has arrived.
Will be delivered to my daughter at univeristy on Saturday.
Please assist with recommendations, URL's, posts, instructions which she should use to properly set-up, test and optimize the notebook.
Things such as ............
(screen calibration, OS re-load (without multi-languages, printer drivers), yellow screen test, other useful suggestions)
Want to make sure everything passes with MBP , as end of term assignments and final exams are going to consume her total focus over the next four weeks. She is waiting patiently
Thanks in advance for your feedback and suggestions.
Maybe there should be something set-up in "Guides".

 

[PowerBookRelic]

I ran across this thread the other day, it covers what you are asking:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/449279/

 

[kuebby]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Don't worry about calibrating the screen. Reinstalling the OS is also unneccesary unless you're really worried about hard drive space.

 

[andrewdale]

I'm not sure how much room they take up, but I personally wouldn't worry about reinstalling OSX. The printer drivers are surprisingly useful when you need to print on a printer that isn't your own. You don't have to sit down and download the driver, just plug it in and BAM, there you go. So, I'll just state some things I've found useful with my 2-week old MBP that is just like yours! (15" matte, 2.5GHz, 7200rpm 200GB HDD, 2GB RAM).

Adium - all-in-one messenger
Monolingual - to get rid of all the languages that you don't need
AppDelete - completely clears that app from the HDD
Handbrake - great for ripping DVDs to your Mac
Flip4Mac - allows your QuickTime to play .wmv files
VLC - a great media player
Firefox - great browser. Doesn't support multi-touch yet, but I'm patient
iStat - I use the menu bar version to track my CPU, Memory, HD, Temps & Fan speeds
Microsoft Office for Mac is great, but if you don't want to spend the 160 USD on the student version, check out NeoOffice. OpenSource version of Office. Check it out.

I hope that helps.

 

[Sky Blue]

Take a look at this forum:

forums.macrumors.com

if you use the search function I'm sure you'll find what you need.

 

[~Shard~]

If freeing up some HDD space in general is of interest to you, I submit the following, which I have compiled for others on these Forums:

- use OmniDiskSweeper (not free) or my personal favorite WhatSize (free up to 20 GB) to determine what all is taking up room on your HDD and where it is. WhatSize used to be free, apparently it is not anymore, so try to find an older version
- I also recommend Disk Inventory X to view HDD usage - it graphically shows you what is taking up space with a decent presentation and UI
- remove GarageBand and iDVD if you do not need them - that should free up around 6 GB right there
- check out /Library/Printers/ - 2 GB of printer drivers that you may or may not need
- use Monolingual to remove the unnecessary language resources from your Mac*. Another option is to use Delocalizer
- lastly, you could always use AppZapper (not free) or App Delete (free) to ensure that when you uninstall any programs that all those pesky sub-folders, etc. are deleted

That should just about do it.

* a note about Monolingual. If you are not careful this can seriously screw up your Intel-based Mac. Basically, leave the Architectures settings alone. If you delete G3, G4, G5 then anything which is PPC-based which will try to run under Rosetta, won't. This is becoming less and less of an issue now, but still worth mentioning.

 

[andrewdale]

Oh, I completely forgot to say.

As soon as you open it up, find out what model display you have:

• System Preferences>Displays>Color
• From here, select the "Color LCD" profile and click "Open Profile"
• In here, scroll down and select Box 13 and see what the last 4-digits are in the "Model" field.

After you figure this out, do a search for a color profile that someone has made for this screen. you'd be amazed how poorly the screens' default calibrations are. It may look funny at first, but it'll be 1,000 times better. I have the 9C81. If you get that one, let me know and I can direct you to the profile that I'm using.

So, yeah. There you go.

 

[zer0tails]

Oh, I completely forgot to say.

As soon as you open it up, find out what model display you have:

• System Preferences>Displays>Color
• From here, select the "Color LCD" profile and click "Open Profile"
• In here, scroll down and select Box 13 and see what the last 4-digits are in the "Model" field.

After you figure this out, do a search for a color profile that someone has made for this screen. you'd be amazed how poorly the screens' default calibrations are. It may look funny at first, but it'll be 1,000 times better. I have the 9C81. If you get that one, let me know and I can direct you to the profile that I'm using.

So, yeah. There you go.

hi, i have that screen. Mind sharing the color profile?

 

[macdragon]

Thanks for your feedback and recommendations...
An Apple Store employee recommended proper battery managenment, (DO NOT USE THE power adaptor constantly when it is new) allow the MBP battery to drain fully the first few times before fully charging it.
Here is a thread which provided Apple's battery calibration link
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284