Posts tagged with "macbook pro"

Numerous Owners Reporting 2011 MacBook Pro Crashes Whilst Under Load

A considerable number of owners of the new 15” and 17” 2011 MacBook Pro’s have reported both on the Apple Discussion board and also on the MacRumors forum that their new machines are locking up and freezing when under an extensive load. For example this post by ‘brandonlive02’ is representative of what many are complaining about;

I have a 15” 2011 MacBook Pro with a 128 SSD. It has repeatedly frozen in the week I’ve had it - often at random points while using StarCraft II and also while trying to access Time Machine. When it freezes, sound continues and I can still move the cursor (which is sometimes the spinning ball and sometimes the regular cursor) but the computer is completely unresponsive – force quit does not work nor does anything else - have to do a hard reboot.

The issue is believed to be fairly widespread with one user reproducing it on three separate machines and another who reportedly managed to reproduce it on every new MacBook Pro at their local Apple store. This wiki outlines the various methods one can use to re-create the crash if they wish to check if their MacBook has this issue.

No complete fix has been found and the cause is still unknown but the wiki page suggests one fix of using some software to only use the integrated graphics chip of the MacBook Pro. A post in the MacRumors thread suggests that Apple is aware of the issue and that they believe it to be a firmware or driver related problem rather than a hardware issue, but this has yet to be confirmed and Apple have not issued any public statement.

[Via MacRumors]

2011 MacBook Pro Users Having Issues With iTunes Home Sharing

A support thread in Apple’s Discussion forums is abuzz with 2011 MacBook Pro owners having issues with iTunes Home Sharing. The users are having issues connecting to certain iOS devices as well as having devices disconnect and display error messages.

The user who started the discussion thread; ‘themacbear’, reported that his new 17 inch MacBook Pro initially seemed to work fine using Home Sharing with his Apple TV. However later on in the day “…although the Apple TV could see the name of my iTunes library, it wouldn’t connect to it, or sometimes, would report that “There are no movies in this library”. I tried every solution I could think of, but no dice.” He went to an Apple Store, which managed to replicate the issue on a different MacBook Pro, but couldn’t resolve the problem and consequently gave ‘themacbear’ a full refund. Others too have contacted Apple through their retail stores and via phone support but so far there is no fix for the problem.

Apple recently beefed up its Home Sharing features with iOS 4.3 and iTunes 10.2 and it could be that the issues these users are facing are related to these updates. Furthermore there are also some users with older Mac’s also having similar issues, although this seems to be a more isolated group of users.

[Via AppleInsider]

Engadget Reviews The New MacBook Pro→

Engadget Reviews The New MacBook Pro

Nilay Patel at Engadget on the new MacBook Pro:

Of course, there’s no getting around the fact that the MacBook Pro is still incredibly expensive and omits what should be no-brainer features – $2,199 for two USB ports and no Blu-ray drive? – but those are tradeoffs and prices professional Mac users have long become used to, just like this particular MacBook Pro design itself. Something tells us the next revision of the MacBook Pro will offer a more radical external redesign to go along with Lion, but that’s a long ways off – until then, this MacBook Pro represents the best blend of power, portability, and battery life we’ve come across to date.

I’ve never touched a Blu-ray in my life so that’s not really a problem for me, but I can see some Mac users willing to do whatever they want with those discs. Interesting tidbits: FaceTime does HD video calling but Photo Booth stills shoots at VGA resolution; no way to test Thunderbolt right now; it’s just a really powerful MacBook Pro.

In the meantime, AppleInsider reports Apple has enabled TRIM support for bundled SSDs in the 2011 MacBook Pros running Snow Leopard. Great news.

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iFixit Tears Down 2011 MacBook Pro

iFixit didin’t waste any time and, shortly after the release of the new MacBook Pros, tore down a 15” model to see the changes performed by Apple in this revision. It turns out, not much. Most changes are visible in the logic board (quad-core processor, AMD GPU, Thunderbolt chip) and in the way the battery is attached to the laptop.

A few notes from the teardown below.

Battery life decreased from previous generations, as Apple is performing more accurate tests with more realistic estimates (their tests include Flash installed while browsing the web):

No pentalobe screws;

iFixit thinks Apple made some improvements to wireless performance under the hood;

Broadcom BCM4331 chip.

The RAM in this machine is PC3-10600 RAM. That’s the same RAM used in the 2010 revision of the 21.5” and 27” iMacs, but different from earlier Apple laptops. PC3-10600 RAM is backwards compatible with the PC3-8500 RAM in older MacBook Pro Unibody machines, but you can’t use PC3-8500 RAM in this machine

The wireless card bracket is aluminum, rather than the plastic in previous revisions. Perhaps this change was made for thermal reasons, as a visible pink thermal pad is used to transfer heat from the board to its aluminum bracket.

Holy thermal paste! Time will tell if the gobs of thermal paste applied to the CPU and GPU will cause overheating issues down the road.

Engadget’s Hands-On With The New MacBook Pros

The folks at Engadget got their hands on a new MacBook Pro, a $2,199 configuration with 2.2GHz quad-core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M, 750 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM. The machine “clocked a preliminary GeekBench score of 9647”. Unfortunately, they can’t test Thunderbolt devices right now:

We just got our new 15-inch MacBook Pro review unit, and although it looks almost exactly the same as the previous MBP, it has that fancy new Thunderbolt icon on the side, which ought to make I/O nerd hearts flutter the world over. Unfortunately, there aren’t any Thunderbolt peripherals on the market yet, so we can’t really test the new connection yet, but we can report that backwards compatibility with Mini DisplayPort performs as advertised and that all of our display adapters worked without issue – the first time we can ever remember Apple switching a standard and not requiring all new dongles.

They saw a demo with a prototype Promise RAID unit, however:

We also watched a 5GB file transfer in just a few seconds – all very impressive, but we’re definitely anxious to try some of this stuff ourselves once Thunderbolt devices start shipping sometime in the spring.

This is why Thunderbolt will (sooner or later) change the way we think of desktop connectivity.

Apple Introduces New MacBook Pros

Apple introduced the new MacBook Pro line today with Intel “Sandy Bridge” processors and Light Peak technology renamed “Thunderbolt”, integrated over mini DisplayPort on the 13”, 15” and 17” models. In this year’s update to the line, Apple included quad-core CPUs in the 15” and 17” MacBook Pros, and new AMD Radeon GPUs.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is available in two configurations: one with a 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 and 320GB hard drive starting at $1,199; and one with a 2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 and 500GB hard drive starting at $1,499.

The new 15-inch MacBook Pro is available in two models: one with a 2.0 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6490M and 500GB hard drive starting at $1,799 and one with a 2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 750GB hard drive starting at $2,199.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro features a 2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 750GB hard drive and is priced at $2,499.

Press release here. Specs below, full specs here.

MacBook Pro 13” -  1280x800 screen resolution. 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5, Dual core. 320 GB 5400 rpm hard drive. 4 GB 1333 MHz RAM. Intel HD 3000.

MacBook Pro 13” -  1280x800 screen resolution. 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, Dual core. 500 GB 5400 rpm hard drive. 4 GB 1333 MHz RAM. Intel HD 3000.

MacBook Pro 15” - 1440x900 screen resolution.  2.0 GHz Intel Core i7, Quad core. 500 GB 5400 rpm hard drive. 4 GB 1333 MHz RAM. AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB.

MacBook Pro 15” - 1440x900 screen resolution.  2.2 GHz Intel Core i7, Quad core. 750 GB 5400 rpm hard drive. 4 GB 1333 MHz RAM. AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1 GB.

MacBook Pro 17” - 1920x1200 screen resolution. 2.2 Ghz Intel Core i7, Quad core. 750 GB 5400 rpm hard drive. 4 GB 1333 MHz RAM. AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1 GB.

Update: configuration options available for the new MacBook Pros. A few notes: no 7200 rpm drive for MBP 13”, no high-res display option for MBP 13”, SSD up to 512 GB available.

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New MacBook Pro 15” Specs Leaked? AMD Radeon, Thunderbolt, No SSD

The Apple Store is down, the new MacBook Pros are only a few hours away at this point, yet Mac4Ever is posting a photo of the specs of the new MacBook Pro 15-inch (although it’s not specified whether it’s a low-end or high-end model).

First off, no SSD. There’s a 500 GB 5400 rpm hard drive in there. The photo also shows the following details:

  • Intel Core i7, quad-core, 2Ghz

  • 4 GB SDRAM DD3

  • Thunderbolt port as seen on the leaked MacBook Pro 13” photos

  • AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphic processor

  • FaceTime HD camera

  • SuperDrive 8x

  • SDXC, two USB ports, ForeWire 800

  • 1440 x 900 screen resolution

Mac4Ever posted a series of leaked shots yesterday, later confirmed by multiple sources, so we’re very confident this photo is real. We’ll find out in a few hours anyway. Read more

New Design for MacBook Pros in 2012? Next Week’s iPad 2 Actually an iPad 1.5?

Following today’s leaks of the upcoming MacBook Pros and the official iPad 2 event announcement by Apple, iLounge has posted more information on the next-generation MBPs and iPads we’re going to see tomorrow and next week. According to iLounge’s sources, this year’s MacBook Pro refresh is turning out to be an incremental upgrade / speed bump, but a major redesign for the line is planned for 2012, and it’s already in development at Apple’s manufacturers in Taiwan.

Next year is the year when Apple will introduce an all new design for the MacBook Pro product family, which is already under development at Quanta in Taiwan. It’s being described as a big, “milestone” release for the Pro family, as compared with the speed bump features that will be introduced in tomorrow’s models.

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Will Apple Finally Drop The White MacBook? 16GB SSDs In MacBook Pros?

I’ve hedged bets with Federico that Apple would drop the white MacBook this time around, and I might be up $100 in the betting pool thanks to MacGeneration, who speculates Apple will replace the plastic model with the 13” MacBook Air. It only makes sense - I can’t help think of a more sensible pricing tier from little MacBook to big MacBook.

MacGeneration via AppleInsider reports that the 13” MacBook would see an upgrade to Intel’s core i3 processor, as well seeing a display bump to a new 1440x900 pixel resolution and the addition of a third USB port.

The fifteen inch MacBook Pro would see the option to replace superdrive replaced for an SSD, and the 17” model may come standard with 8 GB of RAM.

Each of the MacBooks are expected to debut Intel’s new LightPeak technology, and are also reported to be introducing a new formfactor that should result in lighter, more powerful models with Intel’s Sandy Bridge inside. A 16 GB SSD could supplement a hard disk drive for faster booting and system performance.

[MacGeneration via AppleInsider]