New unibody MBP acting strange... Help needed

[lscangus]

Well, I thought I'd post an update with everything I learned.

I loaded WOW on my Windows XP Boot Camp partition, and it works beautifully. With the shadow detail on low, I get an average of 70 fps with no slowdown over time. In fact, no matter how hard I tried, I could not get the frame rate to dip below 50, which is a world of improvement over the OSX side. For some reason, I'm not getting the same wild frame rate fluctuations that I was getting on my OSX partition. On my mac, my fps would be 120 one minute, and drop to 27 the next. On Windows, it's a much more solid performance.

So, that must mean that the drivers on the OSX side are subpar, which is actually a relief. With some of the other overheating nightmares I'm hearing about, I consider myself lucky. It saves me a trip to the Apple store, and much wasted time. Also, if the computer had been overheating due to a botched design, there would have been no solution to the problem at all. I'm sure Blizzard will update the drives with time, so until then, I'll just play it on the Windows side. A necessary evil, I guess.

Thx for your update. Great that you have sorted your problem.

 

[Alucardx03]

Thx for your update. Great that you have sorted your problem.

Well, unfortunately I may have spoken too soon. I've been playing WOW on my boot camp Windows partition and have had no problems. Yesterday, however, I played a longer session than normal. After about 2 hours, the game began to stutter again. Granted, the stuttering was nowhere near as bad as on the OSX side, but it was stil very evident. Strangely though, the frame rate never explicitly dipped, but the game began to run very jerky.

I'm at a complete loss as to what is causing this. Everything, including the temperature, seems to be fine, but yet I have a problem. I installed WOW on my 2-year-old MBP yesterday and I'm actually getting a higher framerate over the same period of time!

Needless to say, I got so frustrated I made an appointment at the Apple store for tonight. I'll update as soon as I get back.

 

[MH01]

I am in the same boat.

First I had a 2.8 7200. WOW ran really nicely on it, but would crash with a black screen.

Then i got a 2.53 5400 as i did not want to wait 2 weeks to send the MBP back in case i had issues, easier to go to a store. Same issue, black screens of death.

I have played the game on OS X and Vista 64. Vista 64 drivers are horrific and the temps get crazy. The OS X things are cooler though the game just runs like a dog, often at around 25-30 FPS.

I have not yet tried XP.

But the underlying issue here is that the 9600 GT is suffering from heat. The black screens of death have been reported all over the forums. If you do some reasearch you will find that the 9400/9600 are causing alot of issues.

Wow is not an intensive graphic game, the MBP should run it fine.

The thing is, apple will replace your laptop, but i am quite certain the issue will remain. Look in the Wow forums, many MBP users affected by this. At first they thought it was the game, but now it looks more like the hardware the the MBP crashes with other games.

I am going to do some testing this weekend with XP, but i think it is going back on monday for a refund

 

[Alucardx03]

I am in the same boat.

First I had a 2.8 7200. WOW ran really nicely on it, but would crash with a black screen.

Then i got a 2.53 5400 as i did not want to wait 2 weeks to send the MBP back in case i had issues, easier to go to a store. Same issue, black screens of death.

I have played the game on OS X and Vista 64. Vista 64 drivers are horrific and the temps get crazy. The OS X things are cooler though the game just runs like a dog, often at around 25-30 FPS.

I have not yet tried XP.

But the underlying issue here is that the 9600 GT is suffering from heat. The black screens of death have been reported all over the forums. If you do some reasearch you will find that the 9400/9600 are causing alot of issues.

Wow is not an intensive graphic game, the MBP should run it fine.

The thing is, apple will replace your laptop, but i am quite certain the issue will remain. Look in the Wow forums, many MBP users affected by this. At first they thought it was the game, but now it looks more like the hardware the the MBP crashes with other games.

I am going to do some testing this weekend with XP, but i think it is going back on monday for a refund

This is so frustrating. I'm asking myself why I splurged and got the 512mb 9600m GT if the heat does not allow it to run properly. I've heard that the black screen issues you're experiencing are, while not common, are at least prevalent.

I'm going to try exchanging it tonight, though it's a huge hassle for me. the nearest Apple store is 45 minutes away, and I haven't always been treated well there... I'm just wondering if it is a design flaw or not, because if I'm just going to get a comparable computer, I'd rather not make the trip.

Lately, I've been having problems with Apple products. My first MBP (early 2007) has been perfect. I've run the computer for 12 hours a day for almost two years and have had no problem whatsoever. Thinking this was the case with all Apple products, I sprung for a MBA. The computer had horrible wobbling issues, a broken trackpad button and other things. My multiple 3G iPhones all had 6 dead pixels or more, dust under the screen, etc. Now I'm having problems with this computer. I'm at the end of my patience.

I'm going to try one or two more computers, and then I'm going to ask for a downgrade to the base level MBP. We shouldn't be having this problem with a $2000+ computer.

 

[Alucardx03]

I took my computer into the Apple store today. I sat there for an hour because they were running behind. The Genius finally checked the computer by running a visualizer. At first I was worried that a simple visualizer wouldn't trigger the problem, but the fans began immediately and increased to 6200rpm in only a minute or two. The Genius felt the underside of the computer and said, "yeah, that's running a little too hot."

Long story short, the Genius next to us explained that he was having the same problem with his new MBP. He said he thought it was a software issue, but I'm very doubtful of that.

They decided to send my computer away (you'd think they would just exchange it, but it has to be difficult), and told me that I would receive it again in 2 weeks. First, I'm skeptical it'll even get fixed, and second, two weeks without my computer as a professional writer is going to be tough.

I just hope they can fix this, and that it isn't a product-wide issue.

 

[everfree33]

My 2.53 MPB has the same issue when I was using either internal LCD OR an external 24" dell monitor independently, even window mode or full screen.

But.

When i I was using BOTH internal notebook LCD and external monitor at the same time (extend mode), and playing WOW with window mode or full screen, this problem gone away.

So funny right? i guess it should be a software issue.

 

[FinalCutJay]

how is internet connection? i play wow a lot on my MBP. i have the same machine you do and i experience all sorts of ups and downs in frame rates.

part of my issue i found out was that i wasn't getting the greatest connection at times which was causing my frame rate to plummet.

also do you have the slider turned up for advanced shadows? because it is a total frame killer. Enter any player heavily populated area and watch the frame rate drop.

also i noticed some of the new spell effects/particle system especially on Death Knight spells makes the frames dip.

check your latency, try dropping some of the settings down to half and re-evaluate.

at first i was obsessed with the frame rate dropping below 60fps now i think i'm just over it.