Amazingly Frustrated...

Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I am a first time Apple customer, but an old-timer with UNIX. The thing is, I purchased a MacBook Pro on Sunday but for some odd reason - I have never been so frustrated in my life.

Let me give you all a recap of my first week with a MacBook Pro.

Sunday - Spent 3100$ getting everything I needed for my first Mac Experience. On Sunday - everything was supposably working fine. I had no problems what so ever.

Monday - Monday morning I woke up and booted up my MacBook, it prompted me to update so I did. After installing the updates I got a Kernel Panic, once I rebooted I reinstalled the update and things were fine.

Tuesday - After waking up Tuesday morning I booted up the mac book but it took an unusually long amount of time to boot. But it got into OS X and I was able to do my days work for about two hours. Suddenly, a Kernel Panic - machine rebooted and I was greeted by an extraordinary long load time followed by the lovely DARWIN screen. Just a big, black screen streaming errors every few seconds with the prompt login and password.

So I reformatted after attempting to fix it, and most would assume everything was fixed.

Wednesday - After arriving at work I cracked the MacBook Pro open and began to work. All was well and suddenly boom , kernel panic. I WASN'T EVEN TYPING ALL I HAD DONE WAS OPEN WORD. And mind you, Word did open just fine. So - I rebooted and got back in. About 30 minutes later, boom - safari crashed and I went to report it and wow! Again another Kernel Panic and voila shutdown. Upon reboot - OS X didn't even boot, it threw me right into a Darwin screen with no errors and I was dumbfounded. So I completely erased the disk, did hardware checks, everything you could think of - and I was unable to pinpoint ANY sign of ANY problems. So I reinstalled OS X and clenched my teeth carrying on.

Thursday - Booted up OS X to be greeted by all my programs suddenly starting then crashing - for no reason. Programs would appear to start but then wouldn't. They'd just bounce there like a jack-russel terrier and then proceed to stare blankly back at me. So I opened up Spotlight and typed in console to see what was going wrong. Spotlight opened, but no matter what I typed it wouldn't even attempt to process it. So I forced Finder to quit and relaunch and upon doing so, it just got stuck in an endless loop of crashing and relaunching. Restarted, boom - Darwin screen.

Friday - After reinstalling OS X AGAIN with an APPLE TECHNICIAN PRESENT AT MY HOME yesterday I figured things HAD to work. At this point I was tired, frustrated, and more so than I've ever been before - dying to go back to my PC, (Which by the way is running Vista and is twice the performance of my OS X machine). So, as it was - everything booted fine and I began making my user account - as I finished I hit "Finish" to go to the desktop. And as I did, boom - Kernel Panic. The whole system just died. ... I booted up into OS X again, got on the desktop and things were working Okay for the most part. I was prompted to update and did so. OS X 10.4.9 installed fine, then suddenly boom kernel Panic. This is how I've been all morning - now I am thinking this whole Mac thing isn't worth it anymore, that I might just go buy myself a cheaper and more powerful Laptop running Vista.

I've done NOTHING wrong. Oh, and I had a Kernel Panic while typing this, so I had to restart.
 
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
2,071
Reaction score
332
Points
83
It's almost certainly a bad memory stick. I'm amazed the Apple Technician (they make house calls for notebooks?) didn't check that. This article has some good advice as well as a pointer to a great little application that can test your memory for you.

Did you buy the MBP new or used?
Is the memory in it genuine Apple memory installed at the factory, or did someone (you?) install additional memory?

Acting like this is some kind of "Windows is better than OS X" thing is silly. You cannot honestly believe that is normal behavior for a Mac. This forum would be crashing daily with all the complaints if that were the case. Perhaps you got a lemon and if that makes you want to go back to PC's, that's completely your right. You need to get a computer that works for you.
 
OP
W
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I don't know why - but I was almost expecting this kind of behaviour. The last mac I used was an OS 8 machine and I hated it, I love OS X - but this kind of behaviour is unacceptable. I'm taking it back to the mac store and getting it replaced totally. New MacBook Pro all together.

Thing is, I've never had a problem with my PC's, I've built every machine myself and never had a problem - but when I use OS X I can't help but feel I'm standing on top of a playing card structure. It might look great, but is terribly unstable. Maybe it is a bad memory module - hopefully it will be fixed and I can go back to enjoying OS x.

Thanks for the fast reply.
 
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
2,071
Reaction score
332
Points
83
Have you (or anyone else) added memory to the machine since it was manufactured?

As I said, I don't think you can call OS X unstable ... especially compared to the various flavors of Windows. You aren't having an OS X issue. You're having a hardware issue, most likely a memory one but it could be a funky drive or who knows what else. But OS X runs solidly for countless people every day.

Hopefully, one way or another you'll get a MBP in your hands that is working properly and you'll have a chance to assess OS X for yourself. You still may not like it as much as Windows but at least you'll be able to give it a fair assessment.

Best luck ...
 
Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
138
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
15.4" c2d mbp 2gb ram 120gb hdd
It's almost certainly a bad memory stick. I'm amazed the Apple Technician (they make house calls for notebooks?) didn't check that. This article has some good advice as well as a pointer to a great little application that can test your memory for you.

Did you buy the MBP new or used?
Is the memory in it genuine Apple memory installed at the factory, or did someone (you?) install additional memory?

Acting like this is some kind of "Windows is better than OS X" thing is silly. You cannot honestly believe that is normal behavior for a Mac. This forum would be crashing daily with all the complaints if that were the case. Perhaps you got a lemon and if that makes you want to go back to PC's, that's completely your right. You need to get a computer that works for you.


i dont think his mbp would be used he says he spent $3100
 
Joined
Jan 13, 2007
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
166
Points
63
Location
Central New York
Your Mac's Specs
15in i7 MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 500GB HD
I'm with Todd on this one, sounds like a hardware issue.
 
M

MacHeadCase

Guest
If you can, pop in the OS Install Disk (DVD I would think) that came with your Mac, restart holding down the D key and run the Hardware Test in Extended Mode. It will check all the hardware and should report what is wrong. But if it's an intermittent problem, it could over look it.

But I'm with the guys: looks like bad RAM or something wrong with a hardware component to me as well.
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
I don't know why - but I was almost expecting this kind of behaviour. The last mac I used was an OS 8 machine and I hated it, I love OS X - but this kind of behaviour is unacceptable. I'm taking it back to the mac store and getting it replaced totally. New MacBook Pro all together.

Thing is, I've never had a problem with my PC's, I've built every machine myself and never had a problem - but when I use OS X I can't help but feel I'm standing on top of a playing card structure. It might look great, but is terribly unstable. Maybe it is a bad memory module - hopefully it will be fixed and I can go back to enjoying OS x.

Thanks for the fast reply.

Well, OS 8 was definitely a basket case, which is the reason Apple scrapped that kernal and moved over to Darwin. OS X, being built on top of FreeBSD is rock solid. I agree with the others' assessment of faulty memory and the recommendation of trying the Apple Hardware Test.

I guess my only question is - why switch if you were so pleased with Windows?
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2006
Messages
328
Reaction score
9
Points
18
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
White MacBook, 2.0 ghz Intel Core 2, 2GB ram||[G4 Imac Flat Panel] |800mhz|1Gb RAM|60gb HDD
I don't know why - but I was almost expecting this kind of behaviour. The last mac I used was an OS 8 machine and I hated it, I love OS X - but this kind of behaviour is unacceptable. I'm taking it back to the mac store and getting it replaced totally. New MacBook Pro all together.

Thing is, I've never had a problem with my PC's, I've built every machine myself and never had a problem - but when I use OS X I can't help but feel I'm standing on top of a playing card structure. It might look great, but is terribly unstable. Maybe it is a bad memory module - hopefully it will be fixed and I can go back to enjoying OS x.

Thanks for the fast reply.

Good! I know that's exactly what I would do. That's not the way it's supposed to work and someone needs to make it right, right away.
 
Joined
May 27, 2006
Messages
445
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Concord, NC
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 17" 2.6GHz 4GB RAM
OS X is certainly not unstable- it sounds to me, as well, like it's hardware related. I've had FreeBSD boxes go 80+ days without a reboot with no stability issues.
 
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
157
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Los Angeles
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro C2D 2.16
I am a first time Apple customer, but an old-timer with UNIX. The thing is, I purchased a MacBook Pro on Sunday but for some odd reason - I have never been so frustrated in my life.

Let me give you all a recap of my first week with a MacBook Pro.

Sunday - Spent 3100$ getting everything I needed for my first Mac Experience. On Sunday - everything was supposably working fine. I had no problems what so ever.

Monday - Monday morning I woke up and booted up my MacBook, it prompted me to update so I did. After installing the updates I got a Kernel Panic, once I rebooted I reinstalled the update and things were fine.

Tuesday - After waking up Tuesday morning I booted up the mac book but it took an unusually long amount of time to boot. But it got into OS X and I was able to do my days work for about two hours. Suddenly, a Kernel Panic - machine rebooted and I was greeted by an extraordinary long load time followed by the lovely DARWIN screen. Just a big, black screen streaming errors every few seconds with the prompt login and password.

So I reformatted after attempting to fix it, and most would assume everything was fixed.

Wednesday - After arriving at work I cracked the MacBook Pro open and began to work. All was well and suddenly boom , kernel panic. I WASN'T EVEN TYPING ALL I HAD DONE WAS OPEN WORD. And mind you, Word did open just fine. So - I rebooted and got back in. About 30 minutes later, boom - safari crashed and I went to report it and wow! Again another Kernel Panic and voila shutdown. Upon reboot - OS X didn't even boot, it threw me right into a Darwin screen with no errors and I was dumbfounded. So I completely erased the disk, did hardware checks, everything you could think of - and I was unable to pinpoint ANY sign of ANY problems. So I reinstalled OS X and clenched my teeth carrying on.

Thursday - Booted up OS X to be greeted by all my programs suddenly starting then crashing - for no reason. Programs would appear to start but then wouldn't. They'd just bounce there like a jack-russel terrier and then proceed to stare blankly back at me. So I opened up Spotlight and typed in console to see what was going wrong. Spotlight opened, but no matter what I typed it wouldn't even attempt to process it. So I forced Finder to quit and relaunch and upon doing so, it just got stuck in an endless loop of crashing and relaunching. Restarted, boom - Darwin screen.

Friday - After reinstalling OS X AGAIN with an APPLE TECHNICIAN PRESENT AT MY HOME yesterday I figured things HAD to work. At this point I was tired, frustrated, and more so than I've ever been before - dying to go back to my PC, (Which by the way is running Vista and is twice the performance of my OS X machine). So, as it was - everything booted fine and I began making my user account - as I finished I hit "Finish" to go to the desktop. And as I did, boom - Kernel Panic. The whole system just died. ... I booted up into OS X again, got on the desktop and things were working Okay for the most part. I was prompted to update and did so. OS X 10.4.9 installed fine, then suddenly boom kernel Panic. This is how I've been all morning - now I am thinking this whole Mac thing isn't worth it anymore, that I might just go buy myself a cheaper and more powerful Laptop running Vista.

I've done NOTHING wrong. Oh, and I had a Kernel Panic while typing this, so I had to restart.

let me first say I feel for you and totally see that your experience really sucks and its not surprising why it frustrates you so much. I do however, hope that you hear that most of us have great experiences with Macs and it looks like you have a unique, pain in the butt problem...but ultimately an isolated problem. It just happens sometimes.
good luck friend.
-d
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Messages
3,231
Reaction score
112
Points
63
Location
On the road
Your Mac's Specs
2011 MBP, i7, 16GB RAM, MBP 2.16Ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, Dual 867Mhz MDD, 1.75GB ram, ATI 9800 Pro vid
Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
9,383
Reaction score
417
Points
83
Location
Irvine, CA
Your Mac's Specs
Black Macbook C2D 2GHz 3GB RAM 250GB HD iPhone 4 iPad 3G
You should know that kernel panics aren't the same as BSODs in Windows. With Windows, a program or even the operating system crashing can result in a BSOD. In OS X, a kernel panic is generally the result of a hardware fault. So it has nothing to do with the stability of the operating system or the programs you are running, but rather, it has to do with the fact that some piece of hardware in your MBP is faulty.

I'm sorry to hear that you've had such a terrible start with a Mac, especially after dropping over 3 grand on the machine. If I were you, I would definitely go back to the Apple Store and get it replaced as what you have is a lemon. It's not even worth trying to diagnose. You paid 3 grand for it, you deserve to get a computer that works perfect from the moment you turn it on.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top