MacBook arrived and I am surprisingly disappointed

I'm going to do a search on how to resolve this - I'm not asking for help yet - unless you want to wade in...

Anyway - I couldn't wait any longer so decided to buy - but I decided that - actually I might as well get a refurb product and have some change to put towards an iPod

Maybe the refurb was not the best route.

Firstly I was surprised it came in a boring brown box - looked no where near as cool as the images I've seen of new MacBook packaging - however lets be honest - who really cares about that - the box will be living in the attic anyways!

Secondly and perhaps the most irritating; the MacBook was not set to a new state. By this I mean it has a User name on it - maybe it's the guy that tested it at apple - I don't know - but I am unable to make any changes because I don't have this guys password - I'm really gutted about that - I am really surprised they would do that.

I think I've seen posts about doing something during boot up to reset the password so I'm going to do a search now - seriously though - this took the wind right out of my sails. I was chuffed with it - carrying it around - to see what I thought of the weigh and stuff - even making sure my power adaptor thing didn't get put on anything dirty (VERY SAD this will change soon) And then I boot it up... I was expecting something to ask for my name and to ask me to setup a password or something - when it booted straight in - no probs - but not being able to make changes???????????

Delivery from Apple was SUPER FAST though - maybe too fast for them to sort out this other user?

My iPod came from Amazon - it's beautiful - wish I'd bought one years ago! (also super fast delivery BTW)

Well off to do a little search....

My name's Dave and I own a Mac - and I'm not quite as happy as I thought I'd be - well not yet

Hi RND Dave! I have heard of refurbs still having a user account on them when received by the new owner. Don't let that get you down! I found this(link) while searching the forums. Hope it helps!

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33067&highlight=restore+factory+default


Edit: Unfortunately refurbs don't come in the pretty white box. They ususally have a brown box that says something like "apple refurbished product"

Thanks for the link - I've sorted the password now - I'm wondering should I just rename the old user account or create a new one then delete the old one?

Any thoughts? There doesn't look like any user files left behind....

Using the recovery media, I would do a fresh install and set it up the way you want it.

rman said:

Using the recovery media, I would do a fresh install and set it up the way you want it.

Click to expand...

I agree!

I always do a fresh install when I get a Mac, even if its brand new. That way I can customize the install, and make sureit has everything I want, and doesn't have stuff I don't want.

I would recommend doing that, that way you'll even get the "new mac" experience, and you won't have to worry about user names or anything like that.

Thanks for the advice people.

I'm going to do a full install tomorrow then. I've done the password and added a new account and removed the old one - it's all good for now - but I'll still follow your advice tomorrow.

The Mac connected to my access point and found a few updates it wants - maybe 50MB worth of stuff - that was nice a simple - it just worked

My name is Dave and I own a MacBook - I love it - I'm happy again.

Now I wish I didn't buy the iPod at the same time - too many toys - not enough time - been laying a floor all day - knackered!

Thanks for your help/advice - I'm going to hook my iPod up to the PC and get my stuff ready for the MacBook

Congratulations on your purchases Dave! Don't be sad about your refurb having a user account set up! When I bought my iMac G5 just over a year ago it was brand new but the price had been reduced as it was one of the last ones available here.

I was so happy, pulled it carefully out of the box and turned it on and it booted into a user account. The Mac Shop where I bought it had set it up and had put their shops name as the .mac account and as the owner of the Mac so I had a really hard time trying to find a way to remove their name and put my own in. Every username seemed to be greyed out so it took me a while to find all the locations to change.

Eventually i did a re-install and it was then I got to experience the Mac installation thrill!

So, it's already been advised - reinstall Mac OS X and claim it for your own  ...and just enjoy!

Thanks Pulse-8

I've just noticed either something strange with my MacBook or a real bonus - definitely worth a dodgy user account left on the machine - I ordered the 2Ghz Core 2 Duo White MacBook with 1GB Ram (Standard stuff) the system profiler claims 2GB RAM - Firstly is there a known bug in OS X that is just getting it wrong and everyone has this - or have I just become a very happy camper?

I think you have become a happy camper.

I think you have just been invited to a very good camping trip... :girl:

if u dont believe os x, just take out the battery and check to see if theres 2gb. If there is, your one lucky guy

Bonus !!

Yeah they sometimes come with extra ram. I know people that buy refurb and get extra. That is so cool!

Wow, kinda makes me wish I bought a refurb

Great deal! 2GB ram.

I still would do what Rman suggested and install fresh. Who knows what the 1st owner did. That way it will be like when you get a brand new one.

congrats on your new purchase. I also noticed the brown box disappointment, but got over it once I opened it up and saw the screen.

I order two refurb machines and had none of the previous user issues that you are talking about. I must say that is kinda scary!

Goodl uck with your machine and ask tons of questions....I do!

I do a fresh install regardless of whether the mac is new or a refurb. Both refurb Macs I've bought have always come higher specc'ed than advertised. Maybe they just quote the standard specs of that particular model and don't actually check.

Don't let these minor quibbles put you off. They will pale into insignificance once you start using your MacBook.

An update:

I love my MacBook

I ended up doing a reinstall last night and what with playing with a few things and what have you - I was up till about 4am...

I'm just about to start the work of getting the files and stuff from my old machine to the new one - set up Firefox with my existing profile - that sort of thing.

Looks like a busy bit of time ahead of me.

I love my iPod as well, it's awesome - I hoped that I could get everything with the aid of my iPod and then just sync it all with the MacBook - it is such a shame this is not possible (without using it as a HDD) I think I'll use the network to pull the data over to the MacBook - I think that'll be faster than using USB to transfer to iPod and then back from iPod...

Well I'm posting from Firefox on my MacBook - the profile for Firefox & Thunderbird copied over just fine - so I have all my bookmarks, email filters and web passwords on the new computer - very happy (Can I change the name of this thread?)

The documents have copied over fine (letters, CVs, Applications etc.)


Now for the music, photos, couple of videos, blah blah blah.