Sick of the 15", 17" safe bet?

[KettyKrueger]

Hi all,

So I'm typing this on my 3rd MBP in as many months. In summary;

1st - freezes (probably caused by evil 1.7 EFI)
2nd - random, weird screen glitches
3rd - freezes (1.7 pre-installed and likely culprit).

I've had enough of returning them to the Apple store. 🙁

I'm thinking of getting the 17" instead. Am I correct in thinking that the 17" doesn't have the EFI 1.7 issue, and therefore doesn't have the freezes, beachballs, etc that most people are experiencing?

Will I be able to upgrade the hard drive in future without worrying about if it will work?

Am probably going to order from the Refurb Store, if I have a problem with it, will I have the mail it back to Apple, or can I return to a store?

Also, the refurb model doesn't list the Express slot, am I okay to assume it has one??

The model in question

Any thoughts, opinions, rants welcome. 😎

Many thanks.

 

[Outrigger]

I like many people that have the 15" version do not have any beach ball issues. I don't see how getting the 17" will be better since thats making the assumption that most 15" have problems.

 

[KettyKrueger]

I like many people that have the 15" version do not have any beach ball issues. I don't see how getting the 17" will be better since thats making the assumption that most 15" have problems.

Well, after reading all the many threads about people with either the 13" or 15" MBP that have updated to the 1.7 EFI, it seems like this particular issue only affects owners of these machines.

That said, people with the 17" have reported suffering from beachballs but this obviously can't be related, as the 17" model never received the 1.7 EFI update.

All I know is, my first 15" came with the 1.6 EFI update, after upgrading to 1.7, I got beachballs. Returned it, got a new MBP with 1.6 EFI pre-installed, returned that for an unrelated issue (no freezes or beachballs). 3rd MBP had 1.7 pre-installed, it beachballed and froze. Not the most scientific experiment but enough for me to throw the towel in on the 13" and 15" models.

Anyway, I took my 3rd MBP 15" back to Apple today. They apologised and offered me a 10% discount on anything in-store. I was going to get the 17" MBP from the refurb store for £1599 but with the 10% discount I could get it there and then, brand new for £1649, so I did.

Watched 1.5 hrs of film so far and no beachballs. So far, so good. If it so much as freezes once, this will be returned too. If that's the case then I really don't know what to buy. Anyway, see how it goes.