Oh, brother. We can already tell this one's going to be a fun, enjoyable journey to follow. Shortly after Apple's
17-inch unibody MacBook Pro began making its way out to early adopters, small legions of owners have reported all sorts of bizarre graphical glitches. While we first
assumed that it was NVIDIA's GeForce 9600M causing all the mayhem, further investigation has led us to believe that faulty fan controls could be the culprit. Granted, all of this is just speculatory at the moment, but it seems that some users have noticed that their fans aren't kicking into high gear when they should. 'Course, some folks
have seen those RPMs spin up while the funky lines and psychedelic colors remain, so it's still hard to pinpoint a definite root cause. We're told that folks from NVIDIA and Apple are spending their weekends working to figure it out, but we can't help but be reminded of an
eerily similar string of events with overheating MacBook Airs just last year. Hopefully a fix will be out soon; till then, just pretend those erratic colors are some new curative feature.
Read - Fan grumbling
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posted March 8th 2009 6:41PM
Other laptops run these chips without a single issue, even the 15" MBP.
This is a cooling issue, as caused by the maker of the laptop.
Nvidia gave them the chip and said "keep it this cool". If that requires a bit of noise, so be it. Apple didnt agree...
when you pay $2800-$6000 for a computer, you would expect better.
Silly Windoze users! M$ screwed you big time! This probably happened in between BSoDs and getting viruses. LOL! Boy, if Macs ever had these kind of problems, I'd eat my own shorts!
Oh, wait..
apple haters and apple fanboys are just as annoying as each other
Macs just work out of the box.
just dont leave them in that box too long or the heat might make it catch fire
OK, everyone take it easy! It is common for new products to have problems. Apple tests their products rigorously before releasing them, but there are so many things that can go wrong, and they are only human. (It is precisely for this reason that I don't buy products as soon as they are released.)
Everyone makes mistakes. From Boeing to Rolls Royce to Mercedes. No matter how many tests you will put a product through, it will NEVER be perfect.
Aircraft are inspected before every flight, and within the last 2 months alone, 3 flights went down. I would give credit to Apple for having so few issues.
Another thing: why is everyone criticizing Apple for charging 2,800 for this product? If you go to Dell or HP or Lenovo and put all the same specs into your cart you will see that there is not much difference in price. (Aluminum casing would fall into the Latitude category at Dell) The only reason why they seem overpriced is because they have a minimum customization.
Nothing is perfect. I have owned both PC and Mac, while Mac is not perfect, It is still much, much better than PC.
If you don't have or can't afford an Apple, don't be jealous of those who can.
Zalw,
Which PC are you talking about ? Since Macs run on Intel chips aren't they PC's.
We are actaully talking about the negligent release of untested equipment here. Apple QA is terrible. Boeings have millions of component parts rigorously tested. Failure rates are infinitesimally small. Apple's components are few and poorly tested.
So much of what you just said is incredibly wrong I wonder if you do any research at all before you post/speak.
Dell? HP?
How about be a man and go to NewEgg. Most parts come with a few years worth or warranty standard and you will save a few grand.
HA! Being compared to Boeing, the glitch makes Apple looks a BIT like a shit's shit . . .
I REALLY look forward when it's happen on a NEWLY RELEASED PCs . . . and the fanboys will say it's Microsoft's fault, NOT the PC makers.
GAH!
If you mean "less than half" by not much difference in price, then yes you would be correct. Somehow I don't think that's what you mean, and somehow I don't think you actually went to Dell or HP to try it out. Go ahead see what $2800 or "not much difference in price" will get you.
I kinda had a feeling this would happen...the 15" MBP (a couple years old) that I use at work gets really hot really fast..that case does not allow for very good airflow
I think the Green Goblin said it perfectly "Well, to each his own. I chose my path, you chose the way of the hero. And they found you amusing for a while, the people of this city. But the one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying. In spite of everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you. Why bother?"
For Apple..we cheered for them to pull vs microsoft..to win...now that they are on top..we want them to fail...it's just as simple as that..
yup, that must be it
*checks Windows market share*
oh right, still at 90%. They're definitely gettin' crushed over there in Redmond.
I had some fan issues on my 15" and had to get the fans & logic board replaced a couple weeks ago.
Good thing it's bio-degradable.
While I find this totally disgusting, anyone else think it wouldn't hurt if Nvidia actually came out with some new cards instead of just re-branding them with different numbers?
Absolutely, and with ATIs cards being pretty competitive, a new generation should hopefully be in the works, not just another die shrink
ATI's cards offer very competative preformance for the dollar, but they are much more power hungry and hot running.
Isn't this the third time Apple has gotten complaints about it's new line of laptops? It seems every new release has some kind of problem.
It's too bad Apple's treats (hides) every problem the same way Microsoft treats their RRoD statistics
ruh-roh!
I'm still on the fence whether it's heating issues or the GPU itself. I'm using the 15" and stressed the GPU - temperatures reached 80 degrees celsius and no artifacts or lines. If GPU is the culprit, then it can't be all GPU's since mine is running hot and no problems (well except for Expose and any animations or transitions, seems like QE or CI is doing a piss poor job at rendering). Regardless, I'm returning my 15" and will wait for a Rev. B before I even consider making another MacBook (Pro) purchase, hopefully Apple will have ironed out any bugs and or sorts their defects in the appropriate manner. $2400+ CDN should not pay for unstable computer.
Ok....Overheating has been a problem since the first Macintosh. Jobs hates fans, and when he uses them...guess what...they ARE WAY underclocked.(Exception being Pro Models...in the past....) Its stupid in my estimation, since heat is the worst enemy of technology, but hey, look at apple from 99-2003? Look at every G3 except the pro models. No fans. Got too hot to touch. Wouldn't you think they would have learned a lesson. Oh well, either you use more copper and make larger heatsinks, or faster and louder fans. There is no trade off. Apple has gotta get that though there heads.
Come on guys, this is not a problem, it's only a new feature integrated to the display along with the new 8 hour battery. Keep moving on... :D
This happens on my First Gen Mac Book Pro Core Duo also. When it gets hot, flashes of pink come and go.
This is the worst post ever.
Somehow, a defective graphics card is interesting enough to warrant 117+ comments from Windows fanboys saying it's a feature, it's poor quality and whatnot.
It's not a feature, you know that. I don't think Apple products are of bad quality, but obviously new generation hardware has more problems than it should. Like somebody said, I am not sure why this is Apple's fault considering it has to do with NVIDIAs shitty circuits. But then again, somebody also said that Apple's cramming a lot of tech into this small chassis, to which someone replied that all PC manufacturers also do this. This is incorrect. Open a MacBook unibody for example and compare it to a generic PC, like anything from HP or Packard Bell, and you'll see that the MB is a lot tighter inside. Like man's anus. Obviously, there are PC makers that know how to build hardware (Sony?) but saying all of them know is just stupid. Most PCs have a shitty plasticy feeling.
Does this relate to the psychedelic screen effects? I have no idea.
What it has to do with Apple? They chose the hardware, dumbass.
And it's not new either.
And this is a 17 incher, has lots of space. It IS Apple's fault if they just dumped the 15"ers internals into this (not saying they did, but it shouldn't be so "tight" with 17"es).
What? It's NOT a FEATURE??? I ALMOST believe that it's NOT a glitch like everybody else says . . . (DOH)
OF COURSE it is NOT a feature . . . nothing has this kind of thing as feature!!! Sheesh . . . it IS a glitch, and it IS APPLE's (QA) fault for letting this kind of obviously calculable and predictable issue slips through.
And to summarize your posting of Apple being FAR superior than any other PC makers, this kind of problem is very, VERY shameful. It's kinda give impression that Apple is no different than any other PC makers, for letting this kind of problem slips through . . . there I said it TWICE. And it's not "letting" as in "intentionally", but you know what I mean . . . I have to explicitly explain to you because you seem to be unable to differentiate between sarcasm and fact . . . that you can't see it as a sarcasm when people say it's a feature etc. etc. There . . . I explain it to you . . .
GAH!!!
"This is the worst post ever. "
Don't be so hard on yourself.
It just works.
MBPros are no strangers to fan issues.. Anyone remember the first aluminum MPPros and the fan issues THEY had? It sounded like you were riding a fan boat through the everglades. Those computers got so hot (heat sink and paste issues I was told) that the fans were on all the time at super high speeds.
Sheesh
The legend was that it was bad themal paste application that caused the issue. However, O'Reilly Media ran a nice investigation into that which effectively debunked it. They took heat measurements with the writer's MBP and then took it apart to replace the heat sink "properly". While the new heat sink and paste application did indeed reduce the system's temperature it only made about 2-3 degrees difference.
While my own MBP does get pretty warm at times it does have a revised rear exhaust port compared to the initial MBPs and I've not had cause to complain about it getting too hot.
You stupid, uneducated, ignorant simpletons can't grasp the artistic value of this display, that's all.
I have had problems with the MBP 15" overheating.
I have recorded the CPU temp at 97C (206F) and the GPU at 90C (194F). At this temp the fans were still idling!!!
The keyboard is also failing due to the heat, some keys over the main heat spots just don't work when using the 9600M.
Apple are going to replace the keyboard and the main unibody, but I will probably still have the same heat issues.
WE NEED A FIRMWARE UPDATE APPLE!!!!!
While Scott, above, is posting details of heat problems with the 15" version, given the length of time that the 15" has been available relative to the 17", if this was a cooling issue then I wonder why that model is not seeing this problem more. You'd have thought that with a more compact case the 15" version would be more susceptible to cooling issues unless the GPU is underclocked to compensate (that wouldn't surprise me, mind).
I have a late 2006 17" MBP and confess that it can get quite warm at the back when it is under a heavy load. However, I've only had it overheat under Boot Camp when playing Dawn of War 1; oddly, Half-Life 2 didn't seem to faze it.
Chances are the heat from the "new" battery is a huge issue- as it no longer has an immediate outer surface nor is it shielded from other components - So you get the additive effect of cramming a battery in there that is so big that you don't have room for ventilation channels. Oh yeah - and my GF's 17" MBP '08 from her work (Graphics design) had the fan on full blast for the entire battery-charging cycle when she was using it last night...... not a whole lot has changed.....
Ah, yes, that could be it. The battery is supposed to get warm during use (I seem to recall someone saying that they removed their battery to reduce heat) so removing the shielding could well be having an impact that was not present on the 15" version.
As far as my own system is concerned, the fans only kick in when the processors or the GPU are doing major work. Typically this means running a complex script, playing WoW, heavy RAW processing in Aperture, or any web site that makes heavy use of Adobe Flash for video (damn you, Adobe). The fans certainly should not be running at any other time. I'd suggest having a look at the Activity Monitor to see if a process is misbehaving.
Obviously I know it's sarcasm, but it's getting tedious, don't you think? I believe Apple has never said an error like this to be a feature. I agree this shouldn't happen, especially not on the best notebook Apple makes. It sucks.
It's amazing how rude people on Engadget are. It's a fun time killing hobby reading your comments.
Well I think you also know how rude the other side could be when it comes to PC's "glitches".
And here's another "rudeness" from me : With Snow Leopard just round the corner, it MIGHT be a scheme to make some money from die-hard Apple fans updating to Snow in hope to fix the fan problems . . . WHICH I don't see the (rumored) fix in the list. It's all about internal politics, anyway . . .
http://www.slashgear.com/apple-os-x-snow-leopard-development-speeding-up-0936869/
Businesses do those kinds of things, you know . . .
APPLE GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER. Heat is a biiiiig problem. I'd rather have a cool and slower laptop than one that doesnt work.
But everything Apple makes is cool.....
oh wait - you meant the OTHER cool - the one that actually makes a difference in usability and performance....
Malarkey! IT JUST WORKS.
Ok Look, I'm a total n00b here and normally I don't post in forums I just read and smile a bit and occasionally get annoyed. But this is ridiculous, I'm not a Mac hater, or a fanboi, but how can anyone possibly defend Apple for the lousy quality of their products in recent years.
1. Assembled in China? Fail.
2. Mac>PC? Mac==PC. Mac=={Expensive and overpriced PC}. Fail.
3. Yeah all computers have problems. Therefore paying 2-3x as much for the same hardware makes sense? Because it's pretty? Fail.
I'm sorry, just give it up. Apple has become what it hates the most, and that is no surprise considering it is simply the poor shell of the company/ideal it used to be.
Oh, and if you fall for the sad ruse outlined in comment #2 (Mac uses Intel now, so somehow it's better than PC's, that use Intel).. well then, please do not contribute to the gene pool.
Well, I bought the $3,000 2.9 Ghz, hunk of aluminum and it by far the coolest piece of gear I have EVER owned. It's the first computer that I bought new since I bought my first Mac Plus back in 1986. I have been building my computers and buying used since then. I have to say, I have no regrets, no qualms, no regrets. I love this thing!! It's just simply beautiful. This is one slick "hunk of aluminum".