Not convinced with macbook

[donkeybrain]

Hi Peeps,

I have recently purchased a MacBook 2.0 Ghz. First I am a bit disapointed. I have a few issues.

1) Fan seems to be blowing non-stop. Compared to my G4 PowerBook this machine is a noisy "bad word here". Is everyone having this problem? I have checked to see that there are no plastic films covering the vent slots in the back.

2) When I have iTunes running (radio) and also use dashboard, iTunes starts skipping or completely stops the music. This is sooo anoying since I use both the whole time.

3) Compared to my G4 Powerbook (17", 1Ghz and 1.5 GB RAM) I am not impressed with the speed of the MacBook. I would have expected it to go a lot faster, maybe because Rosetta in some but not all occasions. I have just ordered 2Gigs of RAM so I will report here on how that improves performance.

4) The Intel machine is much more instable than the G4. I am not sure if this is to do with bugs in the OS that will be fixed soon (Hope so) but I have the odd application crash on me maybe once a day. Still something windows would look at in envy. However on the powerbook it more or less never happened.

Just wondering if anyone is eperiencing the same. I would also be curious on how the MacBook Pro is doing as I was thinking of donating the MacBook to my lady and get a MacBook Pro 17" later this year.

Thanks!

 

[donkeybrain]

Also when I close the lid to hybernate my laptop the fans keep blowing for at least another minute. On the powerbook it would just stop instantly allowing me to stick it in my bag and leave the scene instantly

 

[donkeybrain]

Further, my firmware and OS are up-to-date

 

[narf1899]

my macbook doesnt do any of those things...the fans get loud occasionally after a few hours of heavy use but...no app crashes or slowdowns

 

[k2snowboards88]

My macbook is nearly silent. I dont hear fans running unless i put my ear up to the air vent. then, i dont use any rosetta programs whatsoever. In my digital photo class at school, my neighbors macbook is extremely noisy. He's running photoshop cs2 in rosetta. Mine is silent and i'm running cs3 native to intel. If yours is noisy, you should check if you're running something thats allready somewhat resource intensive, but in rosetta making it very resource intensive. If thats not the case then you should probably exchange it.

 

[donkeybrain]

Thanks very much for your updates.

Sounds like I either have a faulty laptop or a permantent Rosetta process in the background (which I find hard to believe). Does anyone how to detect Rosetta running? I have tried "ps -A" but no process is named "Rosetta", even when I run a PPC application first.

I might just pop in a new HD and do a clean install before I bring this back. You grow attached to these Macs so quickly you see...

 

[walkerj]

I had some problems with my Macbook initially with it not really going to sleep (was warm as if it were used when taken out of my bag; significant battery drain which shouldn't happen if it's sleeping) and the AppleCare tech had me reset the power management system. This fixed that issue and I've been fairly problem free since.

No, the fans shouldn't be on all the time. When I hear fans start up I usually can identify what is hitting the CPU (usually safari.)

One interesting behavior that has come up though is occasionally I won't be able to start up a PowerPC app; it's like Rosetta has quit working on me. The first time it happened I was going to restart, but once I quit all apps I could then fire up a PPC app. This has happened twice now, and quitting all apps made it so Rosetta could again do it's thing.

So yeah all isn't perfect in the Macbook world, but in your case I think you might have a problem which perhaps resetting the PMS (or PMI, or whatever it's called) or re-installing fresh might solve.

 

[donkeybrain]

OMG! I just created a new user, logged on, and the machine is dead silent now! Even the iTunes/dashboard stutters are gone.

If I poinpint the exact cause of the problem I will post it here.

Thanks again for your posts people.

 

[MacHeadCase]

Well this shows that there is something in your old account that messed up something in it. Could be a corrupted cache, could be an application you downloaded and installed, etc.

When did this behaviour start exactly?

 

[deathtolife04]

why do you need a macbook if you have a powerbook already??

 

[donkeybrain]

@Deathtolife04.
Mainly because Aperture did not run on my 1Ghz Powerbook & because it was quite depressing to import say 200 RAW photographs onto the powerbook. that is a LOT faster now. Also because I wanted my gf to have the powerbook so I didn't have to fix her windows machine anymore.

@MacHeadCase. I think it was like that from the start, probably because straight away I transferred all my data and programs from the Powerbook.

 

[MacHeadCase]

Ahh! I am guessing here that you have transferred a program that does not run under Rosetta in that case!

Don't forget that if you transferred non-Universal programs to your MacBook, some apps will need to run under Rosetta, a translation program. Still, some apps cannot run under Rosetta and all Classic/OS 9 stuff are totally incompatible with Intel-based Macs.

 

[donkeybrain]

I have got the old userprofile working seemingly free of problem 1 and 2, possibly 3 and 4 too.

The problem with iTunes cutting out when using dashboard was fixed by removing a widget called "airtrafficcontrol". That widget came of the powerbook.

The continueous fan problem was fixed by removing 3 entries from the "Login items", unfortunately I can't remember which ones I removed... Sry about that.

Anyway I'm a very happy chappy now. Thanks for your input.

 

[MacHeadCase]

Well now that you know what to look for, cleaning out incompatible programs, you will spend your energy in the right way and in return you will get a good working Mac.

I am glad you found my input useful. :girl:

 

[eric]

my macbook doesnt do any of those things...the fans get loud occasionally after a few hours of heavy use but...no app crashes or slowdowns

ditto.

core duo 2.0, 1GB memory.

 

[nemick]

So do you like it now its doing what it should?

 

[donkeybrain]

2 days later all is still working perfectly. It was definately to do with some "login items" and a widget, all coming from the PowerBook.

 

[donkeybrain]

And yes, without the noise of the fan spinning at full speed (noisy!) I LOVE it now, like I love all my apple made gadgets

 

[donkeybrain]

Just found out OSX tells you exactly which are PPC/Intel/Universal applications. Goto Apple Menu --> about this mac --> More info --> Software --> Applications.

Here you will find a list of all applications and whether they are PPC or Intel. To my Amazement I have a HUGE list of PPC apps which will have to be updated.