I have a refurbished 2Ghz MacBook Pro with 2Gb ram and 100Gb Hd.

Since getting it in March, I have had none of the major issues that have been reported on the machine itself, until now.... I have been seeing the random shutdown with what should be a fully charged, or nearly so battery. I don't believe it to be temp related, as it occurs sometimes fairly quickly after booting, and running tem monitor never shows temps higher than 143F or so, and that is under heavy use.

I did have a magsafe with the faulty pins, since replaced and no trouble since then.

Overall, I think it's a fantastic machine, except for the random shutdowns. This if it continues, could be a real issue if it turns out NOT to be a simple battery issue!

Run the stress test and look at your system logs for any clues.

http://www.macosg.com/group/viewtopic.php?t=10409

This looks like a good place to make my first post.

I bought my 17" MBP 2.16 Core Duo October 20th. New sealed, I got it off craigslist I saved enough to add 1GB Ram and buy applecare for it. I hope I don't regret it.

Right now I give it a 8.5 out of 10 compared to the G5 iMac that I gave to my son. On the MBP apps start a little slower and I have seen a lot of the colored wheel. But it's a very nice computer and as I use it I really don't notice the slower speed.

MS Office 2004 was the only trouble I had after I migrated all my stuff from the G5. I just had to trash the preference file and that fixed the launch error. But I forgot to de-authorize iTunes on the iMac

Dreamweaver starts very slow. I just downloaded the latest update, but so far I don't see any improvement.

My MBP has froze twice. No cursor, No Finder, could not (or didn't know how to) force quite. I have been advised that it could be bad RAM. I bought the 1gb chip from OWC. In the last few days I have intentionally worked it as hard as I can to see if it will freeze up again. I work a lot in PS, iPhoto and Dreamweaver using a lot of RAM and I cannot recreate the freeze. Although when both times it froze, only apps I was using was Safari and Mail. Since then I been using Firefox and gmail.

I took it to my office and was able to connect to the windows network. That was Cool! that was before the freeze "Hummm"

Battery life, all I can say is I bought a spare. I wish I could get more than 2.5 hours. I have done the calibration outlined in the instruction manual. But I don't see any improvement.

Deep Sleep. I'll need to learn more about that too.

I just feel like it is a step down from the iMac. But it's portable and still a fast functional machine. I have been a happy MAc owner since we got our first performa in 1996. I've always enjoyed being part of the 2% driving a Cadillac while 98% of the others are driving Geo Metros. I will say that this MBP has re-egnited my interest in what is happing in that Mac World. Thus, I registered here.

Brinn

You can contact Apple and have them deauthorize all of your computers, then you simply go back and reauthorize them. I just did it because my Pismo died before I could deathorize. It was very easy, and you can get more detailed info, as well as a request form here

brinnt... I think the slowness might be due to the hard drive speed..? Do you have the 7200/100gb drive or the 5400/120gb drive? I had the 100/7200rpm drive, and replaced it with a larger, slower drive, and I perceived a noticeable difference. Once apps load the machine is a whiz.

And as to my reliability issues... All is fine... my shutdowns were due to the battery.... Love the machine!

That's normal, running in Rosetta. It does it on mine too.



Bad RAM usually causes kernel panics. You may have some bad sectors on your hard drive. They can cause freezes. Back your drive up and reformat it using the "Zero all data.." option. Then clone everything back.



Welcome to the group!

Mike you are probably correct I have the 5400/120gb drive. I didn't think of that. I agree once apps load they run fine.

Eddie, got it. Thanks

Bmer, Thanks for the welcome. I have everything backed on a external drive. Is there a way I could check the drive for bad sectors? I used the Techtool apps that came with applecare. Drive checked out good.

If I experience anymore freezes I'll reformat.

Brinn

No, there is no way of checking--especially if it's intermittent. You can have bad sectors in a new drive. I always do a low-level reformat right away when I get a new computer. I believe in preventive maintenance.

You got me convinced. I found your post about /sbin/fsck -fy and tried it. my drive checked out OK. This is an amazing machine! I'll let you know how it works out. Thanks for the help.

Brinn

I've had my MBP for almost a year now - 2.0 with 2gigsRAM. I won't bother with all the superlatives, it's just a great machine. There are a couple of negatives though. W/O smcFanControl I wouldn't be near as functional. I would like more RAM --- opening an image in Photoshop from Aperture is painfully slow. I just export instead and avoid both apps being open.

At one point recently I was plagued by "surprise" shut-downs or restarts. Repairing Priveleges did nothing to help. RAM was not the problem. Then I ran Tech Tool Deluxe (the free Apple download) and it said I had drive problems. I backed up, but it proved unnecessary, and ran the fix. Then I Repaired Permissions again (it needed it bad, can't figure that one out) and all became right with the world.

Got my new MacBook (2GHz C2D black) last night. Rule #1, zero hard drive of new comp, then install.

What did I do? I didn't follow rule #1, that's for sure. Too excited. Booted up, ran migration assistant. Result: I had a very fast machine. I also had a very noisy machine. SMC Fan Control said >6000 rpm on fan, ~80 degrees CPU. All the time. Activity Monitor said (IIRC) mach kernel and windows manager (not sure of that one...but some other basic OS piece) were each using >40% of CPU, so it was running >90% all the time. Couldn't get that cleared up with some basic rescue maneuvers. Kind of scary, actually -- thought it might be hardware related.

I finally got sensible after wasting 3 hours or so and cleared the HD and did a reinstall. Then did manual transfers via Firewire from the old machine. Now, I have a cool, quiet machine. Very fast (I put in 2 GB of OWC RAM, too). No problems figuring out the trackpad (I've been away from laptops for a long time). I'll have to plug in the guitars later and give Garage Band a whirl on this.

Moral: do as the experts here say.

There are a lot of new Mac owners who would prefer to just jump right in and start using their Mac. I have to admit, since my Mac Pro is several times faster than my PowerBook, I was really tempted to break rule #1. However, I rarely run into problems with my Macs, and I think I owe it in large part to zeroing the drive when I first get it.

With my Mac Pro, almost two weeks passed before I zeroed the drive and it really made me nervous. I had to wait for additional internal hard drives to install, then I got the flu and didn't feel like I had the mental clarity to take on any serious computer tasks. Sometimes stuff just comes up that isn't a major problem but not feeling well can cause simple answers and routines to elude you.

I was lucky that I didn't have any problems but I was greatly relieved when I finally zeroed my internal drive. It also completed in less time than I anticiapted. Each time I zero a drive, I feel like it saves me so much troubleshooting down the road. And we all know that having more uptime is so much better than the frustration of troubleshooting and downtime.

So, Rule #1 definitely gets my vote. Let's not forget that Rule #2 is also very important - backup.

Good luck and enjoy your new MacBook!

Thank you. Rule 1 does bear repeating. I hadn't violated it since 1994, and plan on not violating it ever again. Regarding Rule 2 (backup), my old Quicksilver just had major issues. A reboot from my latest backup was successful. It is now perfect again after a zeroing of the HD and cloning of my last backup. Needless to say, the MacBook is backed up....don't neglect Rule 2.

The MacBook is performing flawlessly now. It runs usually at about 48-50 degrees and is silent. The trackpad is very nice. I've also used it with USB mice and it switches back and forth seamlessly. I move between two different encrypted wireless networks at home and work, and it just switches automatically. The wireless setup was very easy. Office running in Rosetta is very usable, and I've no problems with it. I also control a work PC via Remote Desktop Connection. It's spooky seeing XP on there....but since my real copy is coming this week, I should get used to it. It's nice to do this, as running my PC headless via the mac has freed up an extra monitor for screen spanning from the MacBook when I bring it to work.

I picked up a Brenthaven MacBook Sleeve which seems very nice (http://www.brenthaven.com/catalog-macbook-sleeve.html). It is basically a sleeve with small pockets for the power supply. It's well-padded and has nylon hardshells incorporated. I don't need a larger case, as all I haul is the computer, so this was adequate and relatively inexpensive at $20. I recommend it for those who don't need a larger bag or who just need a good sleeve for putting the MacBook into an existing backpack or briefcase.