Apple's Growing Pains 375
Tyler Too writes "Is Apple having an unusually large number of quality control problems since its switch to Intel? Ars Technica runs down the litany of problems MacBook and MacBook Pro users have experienced since their launch. From the article: 'Is Apple's quality control slipping through the cracks with this Intel transition? Given the volume of available evidence that has appeared in such a short timeframe, it's simply impossible to say that Apple isn't having problems.'"
All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Informative)
However, let me say that the new Intel Core Duo Mac Mini has been rock solid. I have two of these. I also have an Intel iMac which is also rock solid.
We have a MacBook Pro that has had some problems, but Apple recently changed the motherboard. I don't use that machine day to day, so I would have to ask the guy who uses it all the time. The desktop machines are totally fine. This is a laptop issue - and the worst 80% of the problems are probably already over.
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:2)
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Informative)
My wife's MacBook has been great. It did suffer the discoloration, but the local Apple store fixed it free in a couple of days. She's now recommending Macs, especially the MacBook, to her non-computer literate friends, on the basis of all the cool iLife apps.
Posted from perhaps the best all-rounder machine ever, the 12" PB. Woot.
Apple fanboi. Never!@!!
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:2)
(I don't expect anyont to *know* - just is it 3months? 6months? a year?)
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Informative)
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:2)
Internals, yes, but externals... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Funny)
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:2)
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Interesting)
I purchased the upper tier MB in white to save some cash (black is a $150 premium). LCD had a stuck pixel, it wasn't dead, just stuck green. I had the MB for a bit under a week before returning it, and I realized why the black has a premium price. The white had already gotten several scuffs and was starting to become off-white. So I upgraded to the black upon returning the first purchase. Apple replaced it with no questions. It was also unbearably slow, but my 2GB of ram hadn't arrived in the mail yet.
In great spirits with my new black MB and 2GB of RAM (which made an insane difference in performance) I did all the things I love to use my notebook for. I dealt with the 100 degree (F) plus heat with a lap guard or by placing it on the table... I noticed the "mooing" but it wasn't all that bad, but then it started randomly shutting down. At first it was inconsistant, but quickly became more frequent. 1 month old now and the thing siezed up on me 4-5 times. I was going to bring it back to Apple after I came back from my vacation, but then the thing shut down for it's last time. I rebooted it and this time I had a brilliant white screen with pretty pink and green virticle lines all over it. After several reboots, and returning to the stock memory, zapping pram, etc. I returned to the Apple store. This time there were questions asked... I had the 3 year warranty and well... they wanted to ship the thing out for repair. I expressed my disgust, and the option I was given next blew my mind. "You can just buy an open box MB and then when this one comes back you'll just return it for 100% the purchace price." So they obviously wanted some colateral... After some much deserved bitching the manager came to my rescue and swapped out my HDD to a new machine and sent me on my way.
3rd MB, also in black, 2GB RAM. Very pleased again, until I received Studio 8 in the mail. I popped the CD in and... *GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND Eject*... WTF... Inserted CD again. *GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND Eject* I tried the CD in several other machines including a slot loading iMac and had no problems. So I tried another CD in the new MB. Same results...
Needless to say I'm ging back to the Apple store again tonight to get a new one, but I no longer have any hope that I will get a MB that works flawlessly. I love Apple products usually, and I really want this to work out, but I'm just not able to believe that this is 1st gen jitters. There is something inherently wrong in either the design or the QC of all of these notebooks.
Just FYI here's a list of the current reported problems. I've had 3 MBs and have experienced 4 of the issues...
MacBook Issues [slashdot.org]
-Disgruntled
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Insightful)
Then again, Apple's overall quality level is probably the same as any other computer manufacturer, and their customer support is better than average.
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Interesting)
With Macs, Apple knows that the customer is "stuck". Quality isn't as important, as the customer has already invested in software and training that is Mac-specific.
The parent post is now stuck with buying Macs--and even worse really doesn't have a second-source for repairs as almost all the non-Apple Mac dealers have been put out of business by Apple stores.
Apple has a de-facto monopoly among existing Mac users. Take it or leave it.
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:3, Insightful)
You had me until that last sentance. It's pure speculation. I don't know what average is, and from the people who have posted about their problems it doesn't seem very good so I hope thats not true because if it is, then this sentance is going to run on forever without stopping, until I cover every possible thought about the various customer support levels
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Interesting)
People aren't just deluding themselves over this. Sure there's some bias, but there's bias specifically because they're nice machines.
Not that I would complain if their support record improved a bit... but I've done enough support on busted Dells and HP's to know that they have the problems, they just don't get publicized anywhere close to as much as apple's issues seem to.
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:3, Informative)
If, however, they are particularly keen on using Mac OS, they don't have any choice in the matter.
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:3, Funny)
I'm pretty sure that Studio 8 only came on floppies. [ebay.com] Trying to put a floppy disk in your CD drive is a bad idea... Besides, MacBooks don't support System 7 anyway, so how are you going to run it?
Seriously, though, I assume you've tried other CDs, right?
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:2, Insightful)
If we were dealing with software that's one thing, since you can update software with fixes etc., which are free, easy to distribute, and can be done multiple times if needed to get shit working "right".
But hardware is totally different. With the exception of updating firmware (which is sort of software), Apple can't exactly issue hardware fixes unless they're up for issuing a recall every 6 months. Since that's obviously too costly (to both
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:2)
I don't think anyone is excusing them, but it is a fact of life to a certain degree, regardless of what manufactured good you're talking about. The first product line off a new design will always have flaws, whether it is a new computer or a new car. You think it sucks to spend $1500 on a computer that has some issues, buy a new car model in its first year -- you'll get to pay $25k+ for the privlidge of bringing it back to the dealer several
I question Apple's prototype testing (Score:5, Insightful)
It would seem that time constraints and secrecy overshadow the cycle of design > prototype > data collection > design (repeat).
I can't imagine they're able to get enough real world data under such a vale of secrecy. They seem to test products in the market place... which means rev 1 Apple products are almost always questionable.
Re:I question Apple's prototype testing (Score:3, Funny)
That's a pretty good name for Silicon Valley, given all the NDAs floating around.
Of course, it might have been a typo and you might have meant "veil".
Re:I question Apple's prototype testing (Score:2)
Re:I question Apple's prototype testing (Score:2)
The second rule of Slashdot: If you try to correct a typo, you'll just make another.
Re:I question Apple's prototype testing (Score:5, Insightful)
and this is acceptable? (Score:2)
One of my coworkers who purchased the Macbook Pro when it was announced needed a motherboard replacement. Then last week we purchased one for a new employee. It died the after arrival. So now we have to wait two weeks to get a replacement in. Good thing I had an extra G4 desktop I could press into usage temporarily.
I know the whole "don't by gen 1 Apple products" belief, but really
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:4, Insightful)
i won't go so far to say that their new computers aren't suffering more problems than previous versions, but the previous versions of these machines were already into their third generation and most of the kinks had been worked out. even as a mac aficianado i wouldn't ever claim them to be perfect.
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:3, Interesting)
I changed so many damned boards that eventually I could disassemble one, replace the board and reassemble it in under 15 minutes.
These were not Gen 1 machines. It's just that sometimes bad parts make it through quality control. It happens to other big companies too. Big car companies sometimes
Re:All Gen 1 in 1 year (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever see the number of suggested and required repair notices sent out by the FAA on a new jet?
"I do not buy a newly released car because it is a generation 1 vehicle."
You mean like the first generation Toyota hybrids that are being recalled for brake and other issues?
"I do not buy a new technology flat screen TV because it is.. guess what? Generation 1!"
Like the generation 1 screens that had limited life spans and suffered from burn-in problems?
Again, repeat after me: ALL first generation products will have issues. Some more than others. Now, whether or not you us that as an excuse for not buying a first gen product is up to you, and generally depends on where you fall on the early-adopter / I-just-want-it-to-work curve.
So we're not giving Appe a pass... nor Boeing, nor Toyota, nor Sony.
You're joking, right? QWZX (Score:2, Insightful)
Is Apple having an unusually large number of quality control problems since its switch to Intel?
Sheesh. EVERY product of Apple's has unusually large number of quality control problems. From iPod batteries, to laptop fires, to cracks in the cubes, to motherboard defects, on and on and on.
Seriously, where does this idea come from that Apple never has problems? They have constant hardware problems.
Re:You're joking, right? QWZX (Score:2)
Honestly, I'm guessing that these complaints are the minority, since otherwise Apple would be going under paying for repairs. I'd say m
Re:You're joking, right? QWZX (Score:2)
The problems I've had were Harddrive (IBM made it), and graphics card (nVidia made it). Oh,
Re:You're joking, right? QWZX (Score:2)
Problems... (Score:5, Insightful)
To me, it's arguable that these are no different than the other problems Dell or HP/Compaq have, there's just a somewhat higher profile when it's a Mac. Granted, no transition is seamless, and I know that there are a good number of people that are having issues, but I haven't spoken or interacted with anyone who's said that any issues they are having would make them rethink their buying decision.
Re:Problems... (Score:2)
Re:Problems... (Score:2)
Re:Problems... (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree with this. I've said it before-- the main reason you hear more quality complaints from Mac users isn't that the quality is lower than Dell, but because the users expect more. Macintosh users tend to be picky, and Apple raises the bar for themselves by hyping their systems as being somehow "flawless".
Take the example of the Powerbook Ti, which had a tendency for a small amount of paint to flake off. If you looked at the forums on Mac news sites, you'd think it was the end of the world. On the other hand, how many models of Dell/Sony laptops have had some sort of problem where you could scrape off some paint, or the casing became discolored at some point? Pretty much all of them.
So what's the difference? When Apple user's computers have the smallest problems, they get together on their little forums and compare notes about every little flake of paint. When Dell users computers have small problems, they either ignore them, or they call some guy in India and try to get it replaced.
I don't see any Apple people, however, complaining about the quality of their hardware/software and wishing they'd bought a Dell running Windows.
Re:Problems... (Score:2)
Many Mac users are very picky (Score:3, Insightful)
While I believe this is true, it doesn't fully cover the situation. There is a very vocal segment of Mac users, and they also tend to be the kind that upgrade to every new product. Seriously, if you go to the Apple Discussions Board and read the signatures, there are people there that have bought upwards of 5 machines in the last year or two. These people tend to
Re:Problems... (Score:3, Interesting)
How many models of Dell/Sony laptops have had some sort of problem where I could scrape off some paint? None that I've owned (and I've owned
Re:Problems... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Problems... 11% (Score:2)
I never buy the first off the line. Rev B or C is usually worth waiting for.
Re:Of course Dell and HP will have the same proble (Score:3, Insightful)
Price or performance?
Re:Of course Dell and HP will have the same proble (Score:2)
Ok, let's
Re:Of course Dell and HP will have the same proble (Score:3, Insightful)
The Agency I work for bought 100 Dells in 2000 - all GX-240s. Before the first year was over, we had the following failures:
7 failed HDD
2 failed mobo
2 failed power supplies
2 failed cd readers
2 failed floppies
over 5 failed mice
In all, over a 20% failure rate in the first 12 months. Of course, Dell replaced everything with overnight replacements, but putting up with it all was a pain, especially the failed hard drives. We lost a lot of data, since this was a transition period where we
Re:Of course Dell and HP will have the same proble (Score:2)
Wow. Just wow. Let's take a look at this:
1. Apple's history of first generation hardware problems goes WAY back before the Intel switchover.
2. Intel's problems in terms of the Pentium 4 have to do wit
1st Generation (Score:5, Interesting)
Isn't Apple notorious for having issues with products that are "1st Generation"?
I thought it was pretty common amongst macheads to always wait until at least the 3rd iteration of a product so it becomes stable
Re:1st Generation (Score:2)
I know it's supposed to be foolish but I can't help it. The fact that every product (including this Mac Book Pro I'm typing on) has been flawless has not persuaded me to stop.
Guess I'm lucky though and "Apple user happy with 1st Generation products" does not make headlines.
Buy refurbished. (Score:3, Interesting)
Wait a few months and get a refurb. I've found their refurbished products to be rock-soild, and from what I've heard from a few, ahem, "genius" friends they go throug
First they build you up (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple actually have it worse than most - to an extent they sell on style, and "shiny goodness". People are *more* vocal when something goes wrong with something they like, rather than some random notebook work gave them to use at the weekend... I'm actually surprised the vocal minority haven't been louder. Perhaps Apple ought to release the figures for their return/repair rates - I seem to recall someone saying they were well below industry norms - even *with* all this hullaballoo.
Can I also just say I bought an MBP pro, and it hasn't exhibited any of the problems mentioned in the article... because normally you never hear about it when it works fine - only when it's broken in some way. As a software developer, I knew all about that
Simon
Re:First they build you up (Score:5, Funny)
But you've got to consider price (Score:2)
Re:First they build you up (Score:2)
Not-so-random statements (Score:3, Informative)
I recall reading on digg (I'd go and get it to give you a link, but the way the site works makes it hard to find older stuff) a month or 6 weeks ago about how Dell have had this exploding laptop thing going on for a couple of years, but have just carried on selling them, and replacing them when customers complained. As soon as the Apple one went up in flames, it all came out of the woodwork that there'd been a couple of hundred cases over 2 (maybe 3, c
Not such a problem for Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
By now most folks know that purchasing Revision A hardware is a gamble - to be honest I think that some of the fun that comes with living on the "bleeding edge" is the knowledge that if things work, you've really survived something.
The biggest problem I have with the apple transition was that they had a 32-bit intel architecture that now must be supported for years to come. I honestly am not quite sure why they did that, as there will undoubtably be some support headaches for apple developers for the next few years.
Re:Not such a problem for Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not such a problem for Apple (Score:2)
Remember, that's where these chips went first was into Notebooks. Apple makes good money off of Notebooks and needed to bring those up-to-par ASAP.
Not Apple's Quality... their CM's (Score:5, Insightful)
Working in the industry I can tell you that as the OEM demands you meet shipments, units that should stay behind for debug or rework tend to float out the door to meet revenue/demand numbers. Apple's resurgence in popularity probably has everyone in the supply line getting every possible unit out the door to meet demand.
Re:Not Apple's Quality... their CM's (Score:2)
This is absolute bullshit (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This is absolute bullshit (Score:2)
Re:This is absolute bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)
The key here is to lower your expectations. (well, not you, but the public).
I've been a tech for years now, and for a while I was a ground-pounder (on-site service). No matter where I was, home, office, or elsewise - people ask "What's a good computer to buy?". Appearantly, when you do it for a living, people value your opinion. Even though the shop I worked for sold (relatively solid) computers, I always gave the same answer:
"Figure out what features you want, then pay the lowest price you can to get those features. Plan for the computer to have problems and don't expect any service from the retailer or the manufacturer for free."
That's it.
It saves you from paying too much or too little, and it saves you from the shock of "it's going to cost how much?!? What about the warranty?!?".
If your feature list is "I need to get onto the interweb tubes", then.. pretty much anything will work for you. If your wishlist is a Micro-UXGA TFT 1900x1200 screen and a Centrino setup, then look at those models. If your wishlist is "looks good on the coffee table and is powerful and easy to use", then there's nothing wrong with buying a Mac.
But, expect it to break, and expect to pay someone to fix it. Software, hardware, whatever. If it never has a problem, congratulations you won the lottery. They're all made from the same parts, folks*
~Wx
*the SOLE exception to this is computers with those magical letters on them - IBM. Granted, one: I haven't worked with post-Lenovo IBM, and two: IBM sells a lot less computers than dell and they cost a lot, but in my time of hands on groundpounder tech work, I never once saw an IBM thinkpad with a hardware problem. I'm sure they existed, but... those computers just wouldn't give up.
Yes? No? Who... (Score:2)
Re:Yes? No? Who... (Score:2)
one problem easily solved (Score:5, Funny)
That's weird. I thought that problem went away when you let the design department buy the macs in the first place?
Paging Whiney Mac Fanboy... (Score:2)
Meme du jour. (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is the most closely scrutinized hardware company *ever*. If my MacBook appears to make an elusive noise beyond the hearing range of the average dog, it makes the cover of Time. If my Packard Bell shitbox releases its magic smoke and dies, it doesn't even get on Digg.
It's just the story of the month, and people will get bored of it eventually. The alternative conspiracy theory, of course, is that it could keep being fuelled by Microsoft's astroturf budget.
Re:Meme du jour. (Score:3, Insightful)
As has been noted around here: If Macs cost $500, people would expect eMachine or Packard Bell or HP's level of service.
When you charge $2200 for something that everyone else charges $1700 for; and you parade yourself on being the company that "really gets computer users" (commercial with old fogie representing windows crashing and young hip guy representing a Mac and how well it works), you're held to a higher standard.
Other companies make PC's and sell PC's.
Apple claims to make better PC's. If they're no
I don't think it's too bad - it's the publicity (Score:2)
Talk to long-time Mac-Addicts and they will relay horror-stories about virtually any Apple-product in the last years.
But who cared about Apple notebooks 3-5 years ago?
It's only recently that they moved themselves into the limelight.
One reason why they moved so slow on all the Macbook-motherboard-issues may be that they first wanted to do a complete assess
Re:I don't think it's too bad - it's the publicity (Score:2)
Even before the Mac! Remember the Apple ///? Good. Few people do, because they didn't sell make of them. Why? Because Jobs wanted it to be a quiet business machine and ordered that it not have a fan. Result: the chips popped out of their sockets due to overheating periodically. The apocryphal fix was to lift the machine a
What? No Doom and gloom? (Score:5, Funny)
More people are buying Apple computers. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:More people are buying Apple computers. (Score:2, Troll)
My MacBook Experience (Score:5, Interesting)
I bought a MacBook almost two weeks ago (this is the first OS X Mac that I've ever owned; I have an old Mac SE and Performa 6220 that I received 2 years ago from a teacher's friend). I've dreamed of owning a Mac for over two years now, and when the MacBook came out, it was the Mac notebook that I've always wanted. It had OS X, was the right screen size for me, and did everything that I wanted. I was a bit worried about the purchase, due to some of the problems that I've continued to hear about on the Internet (heat so much that it can cook an egg, discoloration within a few days, mooing noises, etc). I was also a bit worried with some technical details (integrated graphics and OS X performance, plus glossy screen).
However, once I bought the machine, I couldn't be happier. I have no problems with my Mac. I've never heard the fan (it is silent), I see no discoloration occurring at all (although I should clean it often in order for it to continue looking new), and the heat is warm enough for me to feel confortable on a cold day (it's even confortable on a lap), but not hot enough to burn myself. The glossy screen is never an annoyance for me (I forget that it is glossy whenever I am working in a non-floursecent environment), and the integrated graphics do a great job handling OS X's graphics and video playback; quite better than the Voodoo 3 in my old PC. Since buying my Mac, I haven't turned on my desktop PC (an old 950MHz Duron with 384MB RAM, running Windows XP and FreeBSD; a generally trouble free computer) once.
Now, it is less than 2 weeks old, so it is probably too early to tell. However, I advise people looking into getting a MacBook or MacBook Pro to just buy one (unless they want to hold out for a Core 2 Duo Mac). Everybody that I know who has one has a wonderful experience with them. They are wicked fast, quite elegant, and comes with all of that OS X goodness. Plus, since these are of a later generation of the first generation, all of the problems should be generally fixed.
And, no, I do not work at Apple, nor do I get paid by Apple to make this. This is my personal experience. I'm just a computer science student, that's all.
Small, vocal group? (Score:2)
The only "common issue" I have with my black MacBook is the "mooing" which isn't even noticable with headphones.
It runs much, much cooler than any other laptop I own, and it's infinitly quieter.
The only quality control issues I've had are that the hinge is a bit squeaky and the power brick makes odd noises.
That's *it.*
Maybe I just got lucky. Who knows?
"Mooing"?!? (Score:2)
Re:"Mooing"?!? (Score:2)
Making click-traffic out of mole hills. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, these are not growing pains or any other phenomenon with a common unusual cause. They are all unrelated QC issues that could've happened and do happen with all products of such complexity. The only correlation due to a common cause related to Apple the company is the fact that these are all first generation products with radically new engineering compared to the old Macs all released within a short period of time.
Most of this apparent correlation is due to the fact that the Intel macs are getting unprecidented attention. The attention and scrutany is also amplified by the fact that forums and things like flickr are more popular now then they were during the previous launches of Apple's producs such as the original iMac and iBook lines - both of which had their share of QC issues. I would argue that Apple's Intel Macs have received orders of magnitude more publicity and attention then any of their previous products, as well as their competitors. I mean when was the last time a Dell product was featured in /. WITHOUT it having to first explode or something...
So, no, ars technica - your article is a non-story about a non-issue.
PS: Not that this is suprising - /. has been featuring many [slashdot.org] of these lately...
Re:Making click-traffic out of mole hills. (Score:2)
First generation chips anyone? (Score:2)
210 days (Score:2)
Apple never gets it right the first time. (Score:2)
I work for an Apple reseller (Score:5, Interesting)
Is Apple having problems? Nope. They did with the first batch of MacBook Pros, but since then, it's been smooth sailing.
Apple's biggest problems are the iBooks.
You also have to remember Apple are selling, a lot more Laptops then they have ever done in the past. Sales in Australia have skyrocketed so high that almost no-one can keep up with demand.
My MacBook tale of woe (kinda) (Score:2, Insightful)
I bought it.
It works.
I know that it's in vogue to criticize Apple now, and I know that Apple is high profile, but their QC issues are no different than they've usually been. The first-gen products have a higher lemon rate.
Woohoo.
Anyone remember the first-gen TiBooks, where the antenna design sucked so much that getting beyond 50 feet of Airport range was a miracle? Or the cubes with the power button that was so sensitive it would sometimes trigger
Re:My MacBook tale of woe (kinda) (Score:2)
Not only that, but the alloy used in the screen hinges was poor and brittle. I broke my hinges by dropping the computer onto a desk about 6 inches. When I removed the hinges and replaced them, I found that I could snap the remaining parts of the old hinges in my hand. Not bend first. Snap.
The TiBook wasn't the first Apple quality debacle. That was the Apple ///,
Quality control (Score:4, Funny)
(emphasis mine)
It's pretty funny to read a sentence about quality control followed up by something spellcheck could catch. Then again, this is Slashdot.
Personal Experience (Score:2)
Re:Personal Experience (Score:2)
She got that one sent back, it came back in a week, and has been running fine now for over a year. I just upgraded her to Tiger last week (after many assurances that the last time was a fluke) and
My MacBook works fine (Score:5, Insightful)
I bought mine at the beginning of July. It arrived on the 17th. I have been using it non-stop since then for software development, and I haven't seen any problems at all. No yellowing. No heat issues. No scuff issues (although I'm not tossing it in a backpack--I have a satchel I use with all sorts of nice padding). It works fine. As a matter of fact, I love it
Does it run pretty hot? Sure. But no worse than my PowerBook (same really). Battery life? Same. Screen? Soooooo much more beautiful
My understanding from talking with one of the store guys is that they had some assembly issues at first with the MBPs in terms of heat. They were apparently leaving the plastic on the parts even when they were put together--thus blocking the vents. But that was apparently resolved.
I have seen scuttle butt around about not getting machines direct from the Apple store and getting a custom build through Apple. The idea is that they have to assemble one fresh from China for you (well, that is where they ship from--I can dig up my shipping label from around here somewhere). I guess the thinking is that there were some kinks in the assembly line/supply chain, and that "fresh" systems don't suffer as bad.
In my case, that seems to have worked--no issues here.
Whine a "mystery"? Nonsense. (Score:2)
apparently everyone knows... (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem is plain and simply coil buzz.
Laptops use switching power supplies, because linear ones aren't efficient enough. Switching power supplies use wire wound inductors to store energy while converted it from one voltage to another. These switching power supplies are constantly filled and emptied of energy. This often causes the coils to vibrate slightly. It's the same thing you hear from a power substation, only in a power substation it is at a fixed 60Hz as the coils in the transformers constantly empty and fill as the AC voltage dips above and below 0V.
In a laptop, the frequency depends on the switching power supply design. There are fixed-frequency switching power supplies, but these are not efficient across a wide range of power draws. So they have to use a variable frequency switching power supply. The problem is that the frequency ranges the power supply uses include the range 300Hz-3KHz, where the ear is very sensitive to the buzz.
When the power draw is high, the frequency is high, when it goes down, the frequency drops. If the frequency sweeps through the audible range, you hear chirps, like the G5 towers exhibited or moos (although the moos are often a 2nd order effect). If the frequency stops in the audible range, you hear a whine, like the laptops can show.
If you modify the power settings to keep the power supply outside the audible range, then you either limit your CPU speed (by going single core) or significantly increased your power draw (by turning off CPU napping). There is another whine which comes from the backlight power supply, it will also change frequency (to often be inaudible) if you change the backlight to be higher or lower.
Apple didn't pick the wrong mode, they need to go to that mode to save power and reduce heat.
Apple should do everything the can to reduce the whines. But it's not practical to remove it completely.
"Geniuses" (Score:2)
No problems here.... (Score:3, Interesting)
We bought 16 Mac Minis, a MacBook and a 15" MacBook Pro (2 GHz). All are great machines, 'specially the MacBook Pro. The Minis are perfectly happy with Dell Ultrasharp monitors (15", 19" or 20" widescreen) and Microsoft mice (5-pack is $60!).
Performance is outstanding. I ran XBench and the MacBook Pro is slightly faster than a full-size dual 2.0 GHz G5 desktop in most categories (aside from hard disk speed, of course).
Re:No More Macs For Us (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No More Macs For Us (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No More Macs For Us (Score:5, Informative)
There's an original thought... (Score:2)
Magic 8 ball says no, try again later.
There's no point for repeating the same dumb thing over and over and over...
Re:Beautiful, fragile objects (Score:2)
How many laptops using traditional hard plastic could have shattered in that situation, or at least chipped? I agree that plastic is better in general (and I have a MacBook for that matter), but
Re:This is most disturbing (Score:2)
Re:Apple is a jewelry company (Score:2)
Sure, Apple does put alot of effort into the industrial de
Re:Apple opted for poor quality when they chose In (Score:2)
I have two Macs myself a 17" G4 PowerBook and a dual 2.3 G5, and even between the G4 and the G5, there are little things that aren't quite right on the G5. Yet (knock wood) nothing weird ever happens on the G4. On the G5 for instance my IMAP mail client truncates emails (yet the same emails are fine in the G4--even days later), a couple of applications randomly decide they don't want to open the associated files... jus