07-24-2006, 04:43 AM

I bought the 1.83 dual core macbook expecting a real fast, reliable "it just works" laptop but my beginning experiences have been less the satisfactory. I have a 1.66 single core desktop running windows and I have experienced more crashes on my mac than the past year on my desktop. Especially when it comes to VLC and Quicktime, I constantly have to force quit these applications. Second, its not that fast. It runs and opens applications at about the same speed as my desktop. To top it all off, this thing runs real hot and the battery is good for less than 3 hours. I pray its a defect, because this laptop was really expensive for me.

07-24-2006, 05:13 AM

Sounds like it's either a defect or configuration issue. My macbook generally runs at about 30 degrees C all over the case, so cooler than my body temperature, and I get between 4 and 6 hours out of the battery. I'd check the power mode you are using when in battery mode - if you have it set incorrectly it may be running the processor at the full 1.82GHz even when it's doing nothing and sapping the power.

Not sure about the crashing - sounds weird, certainly. That sort of thing is usually indicative of defective RAM. Do you have a local apple store you can take it to?

The first thing to do, really, is to insert the first installation disk, reboot and hold down D as it boots - this will start the hardware diagnostics mode. Run a thorough test (takes about 5 minutes) and see if anything shows up as dodgy.

07-24-2006, 05:41 AM

What kind of files are you trying to open with Quicktime and VLC? I used to have a lot of windows AVIs that would mess things up.

How much RAM have you installed in your macbook?

Prior to buying a new product, I always make sure

a) I need it
b) It is what I want - I achieve this by testing it at a store, asking 1000s of people who have one or know something about it, check these forums. I registered here one year before I even got a mac.

I feel it is unfair to compare desktops to laptops, regardless of processor. But if you have 512MB Ram installed, you shouldn't expect better. Before going all into hardware diag I would just check your files, what other apps are you running?

Let me tell you, the core of the Mac OS Xjust doesn't crash, it's always a messy app. You can check this by trying Exposé when you have a beachball.

07-24-2006, 06:28 AM

Yeah, the macbook with 512megs is quite slow... pop a gig in there and it wil feel much faster...

VLC & Quicktime are probably having issues with certain types of videos you're trying to play: the plethora of video codecs are hard to deal with sometimes.

Make sure you have divx xvid 3ivx installed and the system will automatially pick the best one for the current video.

I now never have issues with video playback crashes.

07-24-2006, 06:36 AM

If we're already on the topic, some of my AVi's in VLC just run a few seconds like "empty". The scroller just runs from start to finish in about 6-7 seoncds. What's up with that?

07-24-2006, 07:56 AM

Your MacBook is not working as the average MacBook, first think i would think about is the RAM, either if you upgraded it yourself or at the store i beleive there is a problem wih it. The fact that you have problems with videos supports this theory.
Another thing is that Apple doesn't claim the Macs to be faster than a good PC, just more reliable. New Macs using Intel are several times faster than the previous models using PowerPC chips, that's the claim. My brother's AMD 3200 with 2gb of RAM leaves my humble iBook in the dust, the difference is that mine is far more reliable, secure and all that stuff.
Finally, 6hrs for the battery is the "ideal" situation. I've got more than 5hrs in a row of battery life doing basic stuff, if i recharged the battery at that point it was beacuse i didn't need battery anymore, not because it was empty. 3hrs, with heavy use seems good to me, it always depend on what you are doing.

07-24-2006, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by yogi

If we're already on the topic, some of my AVi's in VLC just run a few seconds like "empty". The scroller just runs from start to finish in about 6-7 seoncds. What's up with that?

Not ALL AVIs will run, even with VLC. There are some Codecs that have and will never be written for the mac and the files will not play on a Mac.

07-24-2006, 01:10 PM

I thought as much. Oh well, maybe I'll just have to re-encode them on my Windows machine.