TUAW Poll: Your MacBook/Pro experience

I noticed that folks are making reference to my comments of June 29th in the Apple forums regarding hard crashes and the Airport.

Here's a quick update:

I AM still panic crashing ... but only once in a while. Four times since I left that previous post of 6/29.

7/10, 7/30, 8/4 and yesterday, 8/11

Unfortunately, if I look at stats, it appears to be getting MORE frequent.

Also, they seem to always happen after I've walked away from the computer, and with little to no heavy Airport activity -- that I'm aware of.

I do know that the 7/30 crash happened while transferring lots of files over my network however.

Yesterday's happened after the screen saver kicked in -- I did have an active Parallels session going when that happened. Oh, and I had the Apple USB modem plugged in because I was testing it with Terminal applications for dial up mainframe access.

Are they all coincidence? Airport? Bad software (Parallels)? The modem?? Frankly, it's hard to tell because the panics are about as useful as Winblows blue screens.

So there ya go. Still happening. Switching to "G only" on my router seems to have made it better, but that's obviously not a total and complete fix.

I think there's more at play here and I am suspicious of a logic board replacement.

I may break down and try to get that done ... but I need to know -- before I hand over my MBP -- that the logic board replacement will fix it. And evidence of that is sketchy right now.

I've got a MacBook. Love it, but it gets a bit hotter than the PowerBook I used to use at work. Comes in handy though because I'm always cold :-).

I ordered a macbook on the 1st of July and it still hasn't shipped and apple is not giveing me any reason for why it is taking so long. The most recent email I've received said it will be another 5 days until it shipps. Is anyone else having this problem?

I bought a MacBook the week it was released. The iSight camera failed a few days later. I sent it in to repair and two weeks went by without me hearing a thing. I called Apple several times for an update, and each time the rep would give me a different answer that didn't in any way jibe with what appeared on the online status page (or jibe with what the previous rep had told me). A week later I had to get a sales rep involved, and the machine arrived repaired a few days after that, albeit with minor dents and blemishes around where the screwdrivers accessed the case at the base of the display. Yeah, it's hot and moos, but it does everything I need it to (except burning my thigh - I don't need that). It'll be interesting to see if and how the heat affects the lifespans of these initial models over time.

I was one of the people who e-mailed in about a melted power supply. I don't know if my pictures were posted or not, because I didn't get a response to the email or anything, but if not, here they are.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72635642@N00/

(sorry about the bad quality)

Besides this, which took about 10 days to fix (mainly thanks to the Apple Centre which took their sweet time getting in a replacement), I haven't had any problems and am genuinely happy with the product. I just wish the power supply could have been made sturdier. It's a really weak and poorly made piece of equipment.

to #47 i also have a refurbished macbook pro that i have had for two days, i was suprised when you said yours has a bend around the latch because mine has one as well, very wierd! also mine wines but very rarley however ive heard people say it gets worse but if it does i have 2 other computers and returing this and waiting for a replacement is not a problem. also it gets rediculously hot

I've had horrific issues with my macbook pro, and they are the same problems I see littering the message boards at the Apple Support site. I have HUGE wireless dropout issues. My Netgear router always worked fine with my iBook. Now, same router...but lousy reception and very inconsistent signal handling by the MBP. I took it in and they DOA'd it...but the new one is actually performing worse. I can actually sit directly at the desk where the router is, and only get two bars on the indicator. Yesterday, the call taker at AppleCare finally conceded to me that they are getting a LOT of calls on this. Hope there's a firmware update in my future, because I'm going nuts! Anyone else have problems like this?

my 15" macbook pro with sn W8614. has been fine until recently the battery doesnt seem to charge for more than a few mins and the magsafe connector is melting over the start of a weekend. Will probably just buy a new power adaptor as the Apple Service Centre in HK is useless.

Shouldn't the poll plot be shown as a pie chart?

I truly love my MBP 2 Ghz that I purchased as soon as my local Apple store had them in stock. The only real problem that I have had that wasn't fixed by a software update is the problem that I think is ultimately leading to the melting Magsafe connectors.

The problem is that there is no real stress relief collar around the cord leading into the connector. Given how the connector is prone to sticking out whenever you wrap the cord around the AC Adaptor clips, it isn't hard for it to get bent sharply at least once at some point in transit. This eventually frays the wiring and either it just stops working(Thankfully this is all that happened to me.), or in the worst case the inner and outer wires short and heat to the point of melting.

Funny how they can come up with such a neat innovative idea like magsafe and the main screw up is on the lack of a .0001 cent piece of rubber.

Given the scale of the of issue (This -will- start a fire and hurt someone at some point) I have a feeling that Apple will have a revised connector by the time the Merom MBPs are released, if they don't flat out recall the connectors and replace them before then.