Now that I am waiting for a replacement macbook.... I thought I would share some of my experiences with my previous macbook
I ordered my macbook the day after it was released. I ordered a black (ya i'm a sucker) macbook with ram and hard-drive upgrades. Before buying a mac I did a lot of research and decided that I wanted to get a mac despite hearing some of the problems with the macbook pro's. I liked how you could run osx and xp, and apple appeared to have a pretty solid reputation (even with intel transition).
Initially using the computer, a noticed a number of things:
1. I listened for the whine sound when initially firing it up but it seemed okay. However a couple days later the whine did appear but could be stopped using photobooth. Initially the whine only happened when plugged in but after a while the whine was present when running off battery.
2. The unit did get quite hot on the bottom when charging or when I was using a number of applications simultaneously. However when it want plugged it i would use it on my lap while wearing shorts and resting the computer on my thighs. I was quite warm but something I could deal with
3. Case/shell: I noticed that the gap around the battery was not even. It was tighter in two of the corners. I dont know if this is normal, but it didnt really bother me. However the case did wobble slightly when placed on my desk. Initially I thought that it was because my desk was warped. However after placing the computer on a number of different surfaces (including a slate pool table) I came to the conclusion that the case must have been slightly warped. I thought that maybe the rubber feet were uneven, but they seemed to be intact. This problem was quite annoying as the computer would constantly rock back and forth on the desk.
4. The spotlight application quit functioning and wouldnt find any files on the system. However a call to apple resolved the problem
5. Macbook would not wake from sleep. When the computer was sleeping an extended period of time it would not wake from sleep when opening the lid or when I tried using the trackpad or keyboard. Occasionally the problem could be solved by re-closing the lid and opening it back up. When it woke I sometimes would get the error message: "The computer was restarted after Mac OS X quit unexpectedly. Click Report to see more details or send a report to Apple. "
6. Speakers stopped working. When I used headphones I would get sound and could adjust the sound using the increase and decrease volume keys. However when the speakers where unplugged the headphones a red light was present in the headphone jack. I went to preferences-sound-output and the speaker not under output devices. Initially the applecare representative thought that it was a software problem and told me to erase and reinstall osx. However this did not resolve the problem
As you can see the machine I received was a real lemon. However, the one positive thing that came of this is I have a real respect for the apple customer service reps/ applecare employees. They were always very professional and patient. They also were efficient in setting up a return for my machine since they classified mine as DOA.
When the machine was "working" I liked it. My previous experience with macs was quite limited as I have always used windows. I found osx to be quite intuitive coming from xp. I liked how easily the computer found networks and how easy it is to install and remove programs. In fact I found these two things processes to be so simple I thought that I must have been doing it wrong. I would have to say that garageband is my favorite toy. I have a couple of guitars and it was fun playing around with them with the program. However, I found the machine to run slower than I had originally anticipated. I bought mine with 1GB of ram thinking that would be sufficient. But for future buyers I would strongly recommend more.
Since I live in Canada (where this is only one apple store) I will have to wait for my replacement to come by mail. I am really hoping to have a better experience with my new one. I will let you know how it goes.
I ordered my macbook the day after it was released. I ordered a black (ya i'm a sucker) macbook with ram and hard-drive upgrades. Before buying a mac I did a lot of research and decided that I wanted to get a mac despite hearing some of the problems with the macbook pro's. I liked how you could run osx and xp, and apple appeared to have a pretty solid reputation (even with intel transition).
Initially using the computer, a noticed a number of things:
1. I listened for the whine sound when initially firing it up but it seemed okay. However a couple days later the whine did appear but could be stopped using photobooth. Initially the whine only happened when plugged in but after a while the whine was present when running off battery.
2. The unit did get quite hot on the bottom when charging or when I was using a number of applications simultaneously. However when it want plugged it i would use it on my lap while wearing shorts and resting the computer on my thighs. I was quite warm but something I could deal with
3. Case/shell: I noticed that the gap around the battery was not even. It was tighter in two of the corners. I dont know if this is normal, but it didnt really bother me. However the case did wobble slightly when placed on my desk. Initially I thought that it was because my desk was warped. However after placing the computer on a number of different surfaces (including a slate pool table) I came to the conclusion that the case must have been slightly warped. I thought that maybe the rubber feet were uneven, but they seemed to be intact. This problem was quite annoying as the computer would constantly rock back and forth on the desk.
4. The spotlight application quit functioning and wouldnt find any files on the system. However a call to apple resolved the problem
5. Macbook would not wake from sleep. When the computer was sleeping an extended period of time it would not wake from sleep when opening the lid or when I tried using the trackpad or keyboard. Occasionally the problem could be solved by re-closing the lid and opening it back up. When it woke I sometimes would get the error message: "The computer was restarted after Mac OS X quit unexpectedly. Click Report to see more details or send a report to Apple. "
6. Speakers stopped working. When I used headphones I would get sound and could adjust the sound using the increase and decrease volume keys. However when the speakers where unplugged the headphones a red light was present in the headphone jack. I went to preferences-sound-output and the speaker not under output devices. Initially the applecare representative thought that it was a software problem and told me to erase and reinstall osx. However this did not resolve the problem
As you can see the machine I received was a real lemon. However, the one positive thing that came of this is I have a real respect for the apple customer service reps/ applecare employees. They were always very professional and patient. They also were efficient in setting up a return for my machine since they classified mine as DOA.
When the machine was "working" I liked it. My previous experience with macs was quite limited as I have always used windows. I found osx to be quite intuitive coming from xp. I liked how easily the computer found networks and how easy it is to install and remove programs. In fact I found these two things processes to be so simple I thought that I must have been doing it wrong. I would have to say that garageband is my favorite toy. I have a couple of guitars and it was fun playing around with them with the program. However, I found the machine to run slower than I had originally anticipated. I bought mine with 1GB of ram thinking that would be sufficient. But for future buyers I would strongly recommend more.
Since I live in Canada (where this is only one apple store) I will have to wait for my replacement to come by mail. I am really hoping to have a better experience with my new one. I will let you know how it goes.