My Switching Experience

Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
461
Reaction score
2
Points
18
So I purchased my first mac about 2 weeks ago. I got a 17 in macbook pro with the 7200rpm hd, 2 gigs of ram, and the hi-res screen.

Within the first week I was having all sorts of problems- programs were unexpectedly quitting, the button to release the lid was getting stuck, it was taking FOREVER to shut down. So I took it back to the Apple store and asked for a new one. They gave me a brand new one- no problem.

About a week after I had that one, I started having problems again. Programs quitting, fans going crazy and it wouldnt come back from sleep without me holding down the power button.

THEN one night I was watching a video on the internet and I clicked my airport icon in the top right corner and this blue film covered my screen and I got this error message with a power button symbol behind it telling me (in 5 different languages) to restart my system by holding down the button.

I took a picture of the screen, restarted the computer and compied the error log it game me when I started it up again.

Needless to say I took it to the mac store the next day, showed the mac genius the pic of the message and his first words were , "Oh, dear heavens... this is really bad." He told me that it was a very rare error message relating to my airport card failing and that he was betting it would never happen again but if it did I should come back and they would have to service it.

He asked me if I had backed up my laptop and I said no but I had brought an external hard drive just in case- he then shrugged off the idea of backing it up (as if he didn't want to do it).

I wasn't satisfied with that, though. I paid $3500 for this laptop and it should work at its full potential without problems. So I asked for a new one and got it.

When I got home I read on the internet that there has been a problem with the mac osx 10.4.10 update causing "kernel panics" (which is the error I had). I found this link- http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4925025#4925025

This post sheds more official light on the problem- http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/unconfirmed-airport-issues-with-mac-os-x-10410/

So this is my first mac after using a PC my entire life. WHAT A NIGHTMARE. I'm really discouraged by Apple and am wondering if I made the right move.

Wil they ever address this? it seems like it's been going on for far too long.
 
Joined
Sep 13, 2006
Messages
3,570
Reaction score
470
Points
83
Location
Colorado
Your Mac's Specs
Mac's
Sorry to hear of your problem... IMO.. it's just really bad luck. There are literally TONS of members just on this site that have MBP's with no problems at all. I installed 10.4.10 on my iMac... no issues whatsoever.

I can certainly understand your frustration though, and you are certainly justified in feeling discouraged.

I would imagine that if you stick through this, you'll be happy you did. That being said, it would not be unreasonable to give up either.

Good luck in whatever you decide.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2007
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Ft. Worth, TX
Your Mac's Specs
White Macbook: 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 120GB Hard Drive
Hi airwalk,

I'm sorry to hear your switcher experience has been so frustrating! Think of it this way though: even though experienced a few (major) problems, for the most part the Apple Company and their products are more reliable than their competitors. No product line is ever 100% reliable with zero problems. Just think: if you had gone with Dell, statistically speaking you would have been even more likely to encounter problems. (Being a Dell owner I can attest to this! My Dell laptop is also very noisy, hot, and the graphics card died about a year ago in it.)

I'm glad it appears Apple has been willing to replace your MBP whenever needed though. The true technology horror stories come from tales of bad customer service and support.

Symon
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
780
Reaction score
18
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac Core 2 Duo 2.16Ghz, 500GB HDD, 1GB RAM, 128MB ATI Radeon X1600
Sadly they won't address it. The only way to fix this is if they stop basing OS X on UNIX, and doing that would make it as unsecure and open to viruses as Windows.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2007
Messages
56
Reaction score
3
Points
8
...doing that would make it as unsecure and open to viruses as Windows...

:| Did he mention windows or did I miss something? The windows bashing (especially in this sub-forum of 95% windows users!) has to stop!



Anway, to the OP:

I'm in a similar situation. Thankfully I haven't had any hardware problems (though I do have an external HD that keeps unmounting it self randomly, and then won't mount again). I have however had more system crashes and problems with instabilities than I EVER have had with XP or Vista. To be fair, I'm not talking about a rediculous number of crashes, but around once every 2 days everything will totally lock up.

That said, I'm not a "gentle" user, and never have been. I have many windows, and many processes, often times CPU intensive going at once. I'm also installing a lot of new software, some of it more low level stuff.

In the end, I plan on sticking it out.. I'm still very happy with how well Apple's products work together, though I'll admit I already see that Apple isn't QUITE as polished under the hood as I thought they were.

I'm doing my best to let OSX and Apple change the way I compute. Little things, like I'm letting iTunes organize my music folder, and copy everything I add to the iTunes music folder. I'm using iPhotos "roll" system (at least until I get aperature in a bit).

For now I'm still trying to hack somethings back to the windows world (for instance I added Cut/Paste menu items), but I'm transitioning. Once Leopard is released I'll do a fresh install and run OSX native like it's meant to be.

Also, I'm very nervous about installing Bootcamp. w/o windows installed I'm not as tempted to use windows, but I'm worried if I install bootcamp I'll end up sending a lot of time on my windows install.

My biggest annoyance is generally working with the other windows machines on my home network. My server, girlfriends computer, etc, are all windows XP machines, and I'm used to right clicking on things I want to share and clicking "share" when I want to give something to my girlfriend, or download something from my server, etc.

I'm going to give it at least a few months of 100% OSX. I have faith I'll be a full convert eventually.
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
780
Reaction score
18
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac Core 2 Duo 2.16Ghz, 500GB HDD, 1GB RAM, 128MB ATI Radeon X1600
:| Did he mention windows or did I miss something? The windows bashing (especially in this sub-forum of 95% windows users!) has to stop!

This is a Mac Forum. We're not Windows' biggest fans.
 
Joined
Apr 16, 2007
Messages
1,792
Reaction score
67
Points
48
Location
Redwood City, CA / Stanford, CA
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook, Black, 2.0GHz C2D, 2GB RAMs, 160GB HD
Airwalk,

Really sorry to hear about your troubles. Like RIDE said this must be some serious bad luck. Its up to you what you'd like to do whether Stick with it or Give up.

I am personally a first time Mac user and I got the Black MacBook and Love it. I did install the 10.4.10 OS X update and had no issues at all with it. I wish ya the best of luck with whatever route you decide to take, but in my opinion Apple Rocks and OS X is awesome.
 
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
This post sheds more official light on the problem- http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/unconfirmed-airport-issues-with-mac-os-x-10410/

So this is my first mac after using a PC my entire life. WHAT A NIGHTMARE. I'm really discouraged by Apple and am wondering if I made the right move.

Wil they ever address this? it seems like it's been going on for far too long.
I offer this link in reference to the second one you posted. I havn't heard of kernal panics regarding this issue, but I've only started hearing about it too.

Nightmare sounds like an overstatement, but very frustating I agree. If the third machine is also having issues, I'd personally take it back for return too. Tell them you want one that works out of the bloody box already.

I would expect Apple to address the problem when they can track it down, fix it, and test it well. Unfortunately that takes time.

I just did the .10 update and am waiting to see if I get the wireless issue. Hopefully not (he says hopefully).
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
:| Did he mention windows or did I miss something? The windows bashing (especially in this sub-forum of 95% windows users!) has to stop!

He wasn't bashing Windows, he was stating a fact. Viruses and security ARE a problem on the Windows platform, for any number of reasons, period. Your experience may be different, but the fact still remains.

You need to either deal with this or your stay here is going to be both frustrating and unproductive. Bringing it up and complaining about it every time someone says something you perceive as a "bash" on Windows is rather silly. As smurfy said, this is a Mac forum, we tend not to be the biggest Windows fans.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2007
Messages
56
Reaction score
3
Points
8
He wasn't bashing Windows, he was stating a fact. Viruses and security ARE a problem on the Windows platform, for any number of reasons, period. Your experience may be different, but the fact still remains.

You need to either deal with this or your stay here is going to be both frustrating and unproductive. Bringing it up and complaining about it every time someone says something you perceive as a "bash" on Windows is rather silly. As smurfy said, this is a Mac forum, we tend not to be the biggest Windows fans.

Yes, I suppose I should probably just suck it up and deal with it. I'm struggling though! Not only have I been using Windows for 12 years (and been very happy with it!), but I'm also a senior cs major and have spent most of my young adult - now (22) with fellow nerds, posting on forums like hardocp's forums, the Java forums, genmay, etc... I guess I've been surrounded by power users my entire life (whether they are mac or PC) and in my experience no matter if you are a windows or a OSX user, nobody makes broad blanket generalizations like "windows has so many viruses!". Sure, there are many more windows viruses, it's the natural thing to expect. Obviously there are quite a few schools of thougth on this issue, but that's for another post! In the end, it's not JUST me - I don't know a single person (including my computer illiterate family) who uses any sort of anti-virus protection. I have not heard of a single person that I know getting a virus in years. I've heard sensationalized reports on the news about a new virus, "Tonight on Fox news a computer virus that can change itself and might be infecting your computer right now, and might possibly give you the HIV", but that's about it.

So yes, it's frusterating to hear about windows and it's faults often times as a justification for something else. Windows and OSX each have their merrits! I decided to spend 2000 on a computer made by Apple, so I'm obviously not too crazy about Windows, but I much prefer the folks on here who know what they are talking about and say things like, "Well, nobody makes a perfect system, try this _____" or "Sounds like perhaps a Mac isn't for you and your budget, you should check out these _______", instead of bring up (though you said you disagree with me) how many viruses Windows gets.

</rant>

</all rants on the subject>

I think I'm giong to create a blog and document my entire switching experience in detail.

<3 night all!
 
Joined
May 31, 2007
Messages
926
Reaction score
37
Points
28
Location
Ontario, Canada.
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook(W) 2GHz, 80GB HD, 1G RAM, Windows XP
you should post a link of that blog, i would enjoy reading that:p
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
9,065
Reaction score
331
Points
83
Location
Munich
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
Sadly they won't address it. The only way to fix this is if they stop basing OS X on UNIX, and doing that would make it as unsecure and open to viruses as Windows.
Why wouldn't they address the airport issue in 10.4.10?

And what does having a Kernel panic after a software update have to do with the unix underpinnings of the system?

I know you were trying to help, but muddling a legitimate issue with nonsense isn't the way to go about it...
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2004
Messages
12,455
Reaction score
604
Points
113
Location
PA
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook
]

Sadly they won't address it. The only way to fix this is if they stop basing OS X on UNIX, and doing that would make it as unsecure and open to viruses as Windows.
Why wouldn't they address the airport issue in 10.4.10?

And what does having a Kernel panic after a software update have to do with the unix underpinnings of the system?

I know you were trying to help, but muddling a legitimate issue with nonsense isn't the way to go about it...
Agreed. I can't see the connection of that comment to the post either. This issue has nothing to do with the UNIX/BSD subsystem and I can't see why someone would think that.
 
OP
A
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
461
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Apple HAS TO adress this. Period. If they don't soon I may very well return my mbp and ask for a refund.

I just came home to New York for the weekend and my mbp has found the wireless network in my house here, it says it's connected at full strength (I even put in the password it asked me for in order to connect to it) but whenever I open safari or adium or anything else it acts as if I'm not connected.

The other computers (all PCs) in my house are getting the wireless and are able to surf the net no problem. I have to be wired into the router in order to get internet. This is bullcrap.

And thanks to all of you for wishing me luck, I'm trying to gut this out- I want it to work really badly, its just very frustrating.

xstep- thanks for the link, though right now I'm in defensive mode and am not really into taking any kind of risks with my machine- I just installed iAlert U- and THAT took a lot out of me.
 
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
Sadly they won't address it. The only way to fix this is if they stop basing OS X on UNIX, and doing that would make it as unsecure and open to viruses as Windows.
This is the most silly statement in this thread. I can only imagine you were trying to change the subject somehow.
 
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
Apple HAS TO adress this. Period. If they don't soon I may very well return my mbp and ask for a refund.
If you do take it back, keep in mind there is a time limit to return the machine. You aren't dealing with a big department store. If they give you trouble, start talking loudly, keeping the anger to a minimum, so other customers can hear your experience. That puts them into a defensive mode where they want to keep the peace. And you want your restocking fee back since the product did not live up to its advertised capability.

Hopefully a fix will come quickly instead. OS X is a great working environment and normally very solid.

Good luck.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2004
Messages
12,455
Reaction score
604
Points
113
Location
PA
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook
If you do take it back, keep in mind there is a time limit to return the machine.
Which has already passed.
So I purchased my first mac about 2 weeks ago.
The return period is only 14 calendar days (two weeks)
If they give you trouble, start talking loudly, keeping the anger to a minimum, so other customers can hear your experience. That puts them into a defensive mode where they want to keep the peace. And you want your restocking fee back since the product did not live up to its advertised capability.
Advocating this kind of behavior probably won't serve you too well. Loud and demanding customers don't put retail workers in defensive mode, they merely tick them off. You are more likely to start trouble and an argument by stomping your foot and throwing a tantrum by "talking loudly"... not to mention disrupting the other patrons. In my store (when I worked retail) I would sooner eject the person from the store empty-handed if they acted that way. Retail employees are people, too. They are simply doing their job and talking loudly at them in an effort to manipulate them is nothing more than bullying and poor personal conduct.
If you want further action taken, then target the company, not the store employees. Call the BBB and have it handled properly and professionally.

Also, keep in mind that BTO systems are not returnable. The 10% restock fee may be negotiable (depending on the store and the manager), but the reasoning of "not as advertised" won't likely cut it.

In the end, the best course of action is to remain cordial at all times. Don't raise your voice and speak politely. You are more likely to get a break if you are calm, cool, and collected than loud and boisterous.
 
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
Messages
13,172
Reaction score
348
Points
83
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro | LED Cinema Display | iPhone 4 | iPad 2
This is a Mac Forum. We're not Windows' biggest fans.

Actually my friend, you're wrong. We are a Mac forum, but we're not here to bash Windows. As a matter of fact I find it incredibly uninformed and childish to do so.

Some of us choose to use a Mac for certain reasons or preference, but also see merit to Windows. To be honest Mac OS X is not the end all, be all...it certainly has it's problems and limitations as well.
 
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
Messages
13,172
Reaction score
348
Points
83
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro | LED Cinema Display | iPhone 4 | iPad 2
He wasn't bashing Windows, he was stating a fact. Viruses and security ARE a problem on the Windows platform, for any number of reasons, period. Your experience may be different, but the fact still remains.

You need to either deal with this or your stay here is going to be both frustrating and unproductive. Bringing it up and complaining about it every time someone says something you perceive as a "bash" on Windows is rather silly. As smurfy said, this is a Mac forum, we tend not to be the biggest Windows fans.

However to clarify, we also will not allow baseless flaming of Windows, Windows users, etc. The forum rules apply here as well...

Respect for opinions is paramount, flaming or trolling is not permitted. Someone who consistently does nothing but bash Windows is not complying with our forum rules.
 
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
897
Reaction score
31
Points
28
airwalk, I understand your frustration, but as Ride said there are tens of thousands of 'Books out there that work just fine. I would start by backing up your data, reformatting, reinstalling the system and running the updates. Right through 10.4.10 and the latest QuickTime, iTunes stuff.

But then I would stop. No Adium, no Ialert U. Just basic stuff. You need to test this 'Book, run it for a couple of days, connect via wireless, etc. See if it behaves. There is a chance that you have three duds in a row, but there is also a chance that some program you know and love is the culprit. Then we can try to deal with that. Good luck!
 

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