Apple, Apple Care, MacBook Pro, and Mac OS X Leopard

About one year ago I bought a second generation MacBook Pro. At first everything was fine and I didn’t encounter any weird sounds or screen flickers known from previous models. Unfortunately after a few weeks, it started to make some weird sound sometimes when I open it (or switch it on).

The noise vanished a few seconds after starting the computer but it still bothered me, so I brought it to an Apple Service center. Three repairs later, the noise was still there (the technician also heard it – not only me), so I called Apple Care.

At first they said “it’s the usual operating sound of these machines”. I was tempted to trust them, but I started a small research on the Internet. It turned out, that there is indeed a sound (issued by the CPU) which is considered normal, but my particular one wasn’t included here.

So I called Apple Care again presenting my new findings and giving a very detailed description of my problem. Due to the unsuccessful repairs they offered me to replace the whole thing.

After a week or so I received a brand new MacBook Pro, not the second generation model, but a third generation MacBook Pro including Leopard.

Leopard

The new Mac OS X is a fine step forward. At first it isn’t very different from Tiger, only some minor user interface tweaks here and there.

At a closer look they have improved many details and introduced some very new features (Time Machine and Quick Look for example). I won’t go into the details here, other sites are much better suited for this. But Time Machine is very nice for backup purposes and offers some kind of versioning file system, Quick Look was one of these features I thought “nice, but not for me” until I got a PowerPoint presentation. I don’t have PowerPoint installed on my system, but Quick Look could open it without a hassle – nice!

Oh, yes – Leopard seems to be more responsive to me (faster if you like), especially Spotlight got a real performance boost.

Third Generation MacBook Pro

The new MBP has a LED backlit display which helps to increase the battery life time of the notebook (and lower the environmental hazard) together with Intel’s new Santa Rosa chipset which can independently regulate the CPU cores. Apple claims that these models can run up to 6 hours on battery. Well usually these numbers aren’t that realistic (you have to shut off Bluetooth, WLAN and set the brightness to the lowest level to get near them), but two movies with medium brightness and sound via the internal speakers are absolutely no problem (about 4-4.5 hours). That’s pretty good for a 15.4 inch widescreen laptop!

At first I was annoyed by the brightness adjustment feature, it turns the brightness down if the surrounding light is dimmed, and up as soon as the environment gets brighter. It’s only annoying when you see the change, but the eye is more relaxed and working on the laptop is more comfortable (turning the feature off is no problem either).

Boot Camp

Since I like to play a game every now and then, I thought I could try installing Windows using Boot Camp.

The installation was quite easy. I installed Windows Vista Business because my student edition of XP didn’t work (they are altered editions of the standard XP editions). The Boot Camp drivers allow nearly the same features as Mac OS X has (brightness adjustment, volume, sleep when lid is closed etc.). Vista also runs surprisingly fast (I disabled certain services like SuperFetch and the Indexer), but it uses very much space, more than I am willing to spend on a 20 GB partition… maybe I’ll give XP another try sometime.

Conclusion

Altogether I am very pleased with the outcome of my noise problems on my notebook. Apple was kind enough to replace the whole machine eleven months after my purchase and the new machine simply rocks.

Almost all hardware manufacturers have problems – whether it’s IBM/Lenovo, Dell or Apple. The difference in – my opinion – lies in the service. I’m not saying that other companies wouldn’t replace a faulty product, but replacing it after more than 90% of the warranty have passed is exceptional, isn’t it?

Well, not being able to repair an issue on three repairs is also exceptional (but can I blame Apple for independent service centers?).

The only other issue with expensive hardware was with my IBM T86 TFT monitor. I bought it on an internet auction (private seller, no bill or guarantee card etc). I had some problems with it, so I called IBM if there is a possibility to repair it. It turned out that the monitor had four years of warranty left and I was eligible for their rapid-replacement service (a carrier brings me a new one, and I send back the old one). Again, service matters, but you pay for it – the MBP costs about 2000 Euro, you can get 15,4 inch laptops as low as 500 Euro too, do you think these companies would ever replace the whole thing after 11 months because of some sound which doesn’t affect the usability of the device at all?

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Have you tried turning it off and on again?—IT Crowd answering machine