11 ms·

The early 2013 retina MBP 15” have faulty firmware/hardware

112 points by niggler 14y ago

benatkin 14y ago
The last link is apparently the source of your information but it is not referenced as such. Why not?
TigrouMeow 14y ago
I was supposed to buy one this week. Now I'm scared...
- rkuykendall-com 14y ago
  You're scared that one model has a bug where you play a specific song in a specific media player, the fans spin more than they should? and it can be fixed with a firmware update? You scare easily.
  - stock_toaster 14y ago
    I have been considering an upgrade, but have been more worried about getting an LG screen with awful ghosting.
    - covalence 14y ago
      I had an LG with really bad retention - I took it to an Apple store where the rep saw the issue. Two days later I picked it up and haven't had a problem since. It was very easy to get it replaced and is great for coding for me.
      - stock_toaster 14y ago
        Thanks for the data point! I have a 2009 mbp (matte screen! ;_;), and the retina seems like the best display to upgrade to from the matte for 'staring at text for hours'.
- nell 14y ago
  Just make sure you get Applecare with it.
  - TigrouMeow 14y ago
    Of course not. Apple Care never helps. Get a better home insurance instead - it's cheaper, and will replace your computer for free, even if you spill water on it (I experienced it).
    - Zirro 14y ago
      "Apple Care never helps." What do you mean? I had my motherboard/discrete graphics-card replaced without extra costs through Apple Care.
      - dagw 14y ago
        Isn't that covered by basic warranty? I had a macbook start to lock up randomly on me a month or two after buying it and they replace its mainboard no problem without me needing Apple Care.
TigrouMeow 14y ago
Discussion on the Apple Forum (more useful than the original link): https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4735947?start=210&tstart=0 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4735947?start=210&t...
metajack 14y ago
Why worry about this when the LG panels have horrible ghosting? I had to have mine replaced, and luckily got a Samsung panel (this was on the original Retina 15" hardware, though apparently this happens elsewhere too). I've had lots of problems with Apple hardware over the years, most of it dealt with very well by Apple, but the panel ghosting was by far the worst. I'd open Gmail, read email for 2 minutes, then flip to my terminals on another desktop and could still read my email. Yuck.
ryanwhitney 14y ago
I've been using the retina MBP 15" heavily since its release. I noticed the fan for the first time last week when I was booted into Windows. There are other issues with the machine—notably the screen flicker and ghosting that others have had issues with—but I wouldn't worry about this.
ComputerGuru 14y ago
The 2012 15" rMBP had considerable bugs in the SMC and UEFI that took half a dozen firmware updates, several dozen OS X seeds, and the better part of a year to resolve. I had a particularly nasty bug where any time I unplugged my Mac from the charger, 5 seconds later it would go to sleep though it was still open and I was actively using it. You'd have to shut the lid and re-open it for it to wake again. I also had the infamous ghosting issues, though my LG panel was decent enough that I put up with it for a few months. Luckily, when I took it in to get the entire upper clamshell replaced, there was a new part number in stock literally the day before that had apparently resolved the problem. I've purchased a dozen or so MacBooks since the original Unibody and countless iPhones, iPads and other minor Apple products — it is my opinion that engineering quality has gone down over the past two years considerably. As for the issue TFA refers to - it does not plague my 2012 rMBP and I'm sure Apple will, sooner or later, issue a patch to fix it. It's just a question of whether you believe they still have their shit together or not. (awesome song, btw!)
- hboon 14y ago
  I haven't have ghosting issues in my 2012 15" retina, but it has the nasty habit of shutting itself down sometimes. Only good thing is it starts up fast enough.
- irq 14y ago
  I _still_ have the "goes to sleep 5 seconds after unplugging" bug and I've installed all updates and am running the latest version of everything. And have done SMC and NVRAM resets. How were you able to fix this?
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - rograndom 14y ago
    My wife's 2012 11" MBA has this same issue, it's not related to just the MBP line.
- vladikoff 14y ago
kalleboo 14y ago
But have they fixed the problems with the previous generation? I have a couple issues with my 2012 retina MBP. These are all corroborated by others on Apple's support community: * LG panel ghosting * Graphical glitches in Safari * Audio clicks, pops and stutters when using Intel graphics * Power manager issues: Sometimes it'll drop to sleep when I unplug the magsafe, even though the laptop is in use. Sometimes it has trouble waking from regular ("closed lid") sleep - maybe every other week I have to go as far as holding down the power button to force a power off to get it back. I haven't been to an Apple store because I can't be without my machine for a week or however long it'll take to fix, and it sounds from the discussions forum that many of these problems have no fix, or it's random if you'll get a new part that works right or not.
- ComputerGuru 14y ago
  See my top-level comment. * Graphics issues are fixed in 10.8.3 (still in beta). It appears that the drivers have been rewritten from scratch, this was the worst beta seed series I can recall for any OS X release, ever, with new seeds days apart, seeds that were completely broken, kernel and graphics driver instabilities, etc. The latest seed is much improved and should address this issue. * LG panel ghosting: I had my clamshell replaced a few months ago. There was a new part number, it has been officially "fixed." * I have hisses and pops when listening via headphones, but not over the speakers * Power management: Finally fixed with latest firmware updates + 10.8.3 + reset NVRAM/PRAM and SMC. Firmware updates plus NVRAM [0] and SMC [1] reset will likely fix it for you. 0: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 1: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
  - driverdan 14y ago
    Apple's DACs have hissed for a long time. My 2010 MBP had the same problem. They just use shitty DACs.
    - rwg 14y ago
      There's no hiss at all with my late 2008 15-inch MacBook Pro... ...but there is an annoying pop every time the audio driver enables/disables the DAC, presumably for power savings reasons. (One day I'm going to get annoyed enough to patch the driver to not do that when the laptop's on external power.)
irollboozers 14y ago
I just spent 1 hour today at the Apple store and talking to Apple care getting my brand new (2 days old) 15 Retina MBP replaced. It kernel panicked on me and bricked itself. The only sign of life is a slight hum of a fan when I try to power it on. It's the first Apple product I've bought but I can't shake the feeling that this frequency of bad hardware is becoming normal.
- schrodinger 14y ago
  I had an 06 MacBook that was an absolute lemon. Had to bring it in for randomly turning off and go through two motherboard replacements before they sent it away for 4 weeks to redesign the motherboard. Then it still had to go back in several times before they finally just gave me a new one almost a year newer because of how troublesome it was. I don't think this is a sign of getting worse! (I now have a 2012 rMBP and absolutely love it)
- coldtea 14y ago
  >It's the first Apple product I've bought but I can't shake the feeling that this frequency of bad hardware is becoming normal. Probably because you haven't experienced the overheating G4 Cubes, the liquid cooling dripping G5 Pros, the frequently crapping out on the motherboards iBook G3, the wheezing MacBook Pros, and tons of similar stuff. There's even a saying that goes as far back as 2002: NEVER buy Apple 1gen product (like the Retina was) --or at least be cautions. Wait till the put the second generation in the market. So nothing to do with "declining quality" as such. All new models have some ironing out of issues to do, and all models will have some problematic runs. Same thing in the PC world, be assured, just that noone buys 3 million of the exact same PC model, whereas in the Mac world they do.
  - nwh 14y ago
    > overheating G4 Cubes I'm not sure that anybody ever had that issue. Mine has been in constant use since it's purchase, and it's never once had overheating issues, even in 40c+ ambient temperatures. Even if it did, there's a dandy little slot in the bottom for adding a fan if you choose.
wavesounds 14y ago
I have a 2012 model with the 256 hd - I just downloaded and played the song and no fans came on. Did have a dead pixel show up in my display but apple fixed that for free. Also it does get too hot for lap usage sometimes. Other than that this is the best computer I've ever used. Pretty much every other computer I've use now seems slow and pixelated.
- ComputerGuru 14y ago
  Re: heat. My problem is that when the fans of my 2012 rMBP are whirring, the heat emanates from the keyboard which is.... odd. It's not something I'm used to, and irks me to no end.
  - kingnothing 14y ago
    That's more or less happened with every Macbook Pro I've used since 2009.
  - icelancer 14y ago
    Isn't that by design?
- vurt 14y ago
  I am going to have to echo your sentiments. I too own the 2012 model and have experienced zero issues with mine [apart from the heat with intense CPU/GPU usage], and it is the best computer I have ever owned. I guess we're some of the lucky ones...
- CountSessine 14y ago
  Yeah - me too. 2012/256GB HD/16GB RAM. Easily the best computer I've ever owned. Must be lucky?
voltagex_ 14y ago
Can someone explain to me why that file causes the issue to occur?
meaty 14y ago
This doesn't surprise me at all. I've had so much Apple kit pack in on me it's unreal. It got to the point I dumped it all and switched to a 5 year old Lenovo unit which has been flawless. While they look pretty, I'm not sure the engineering is sound or you're getting good value for money.
- jfb 14y ago
  My anecdote masquerading as evidence: I have not had problems since the original two generations of Intel laptops. I think the engineering is great!
irq 14y ago
I'm running iTunes 11.0.2 and it won't even let me add this file to my library. It won't attempt to play via Quick Look from Finder, either.
j45 14y ago
After 4 Apple Macbooks since 07: never buy the first gen of any Apple hardware.
datboitom 14y ago
When I first bought the MBP 15" retina, my screen started ghosting. I got it replaced 3 times. Even though its an issue that was resolved with an update the staff at the Apple store told me they will not consider it to be a problem unless a certain amount of reports of it have been filed, so if you have the problem, report it, get your laptop sent in because they need laptops that produce this problem in order to fix it.
achivetta 14y ago
If you are going to post online about a problem with an Apple product, I personally believe that it's a good idea to also file a bug (http://bugreporter.apple.com http://bugreporter.apple.com) and include a bug number in your post. Doubly so if you submit it to HN. It is possible that there are people who work at Apple that read HN and if you post a bug number one of those people might then be able to open the bug.
josteink 14y ago
Soooo... Apple hardware being rushed and having quality issues. What else is new exactly? This is probably what happens when you spend more money on lawsuits than research.
- CountSessine 14y ago
  Thank you for contributing.
- krichman 14y ago
  That's exactly what is new, though. A couple of years ago they had much higher quality computers (and the RAM wasn't glued in). Every time I see a post on here about Apple I mention this: I think they are pushing to get into the market of people that don't know how to use computers at the expense of their customers that do. I used to buy Apple and recommend it. But they fucked up, they are increasingly trying to prevent developers from creating apps for their OS's without getting their approval first. Fuck that, that is anti-competitive and anti-freedom. I now recommend Android to people, but I am looking forward to Ubuntu phone (shopping lens and all :) ) and FirefoxOS as hopefully better alternatives.
marvwhere 14y ago
i got my mbp 15 (ordered online) begin of february - it worked for 5 days then it was done. i already noticed that i had big fan issues, and wondered about it, because co-worker has the same model and has no issues with the fans, and normally they only start when he is gaming, what is ok. so i had some problems, but said "okey"... on day 5 i went afk from my mbp to play a round of fifa13, when i came back, i had a black screen and only saw my mouse courser, reboot showed flickering apple-logo, dir-icon, etc. i tried everything to get my system back (after 5 days had not started with time machine) - no chance at all, the sdd was done... my luck: in the next city we have an apple store, so i made an appointment for the next morning went there, they tested again the ssd, because i guess the normal case for them is: THE CUSTOMER IS STUPID, OTHERWISE HE WOULD NOT PAY THAT MUCH MONEY FOR THAT CRAPPY HARDWARE... after the "genius guy" noticed that the ssd was crashed, he was like "ok i guess on the retina the ssd is not changeable anymore...let me talk to my boss what we can do for you, so that you get your mbp in 1-2 days, because its not ok then it will take 2 weeks on a 5 day old mbp until u get it back" 15 mins later he came back, and was like "ok it is possible to change the ssd, and we have one here..." he changed it, reinstalled osx and i payed 0,00 - left the building... since then i never heard anything back from my fans (only when i'm playing www.heroesofnewearth.com =D ) p.s.: it is my first mbp, and i really pissed already, all my co-workers have apple products too, and everybody is getting pissed and more pissed from day to day...apple hardware is getting crappy...
brunorsini 14y ago
I can confirm this as well. I have a mid-2012 MPB retina with a 500.28 GB APPLS SSD SM512E (vs. the author's SD512E) and the fan has recently acquired a life of its own. I can understand it going berserk when the CPU is busy, but this happens even while its utilization is below 10%. Very frustrating. Paid $3k for this machine and use it mainly for Pro Audio recording, so the noise really hurts... Wanted to buy a Mac Pro instead but, alas, last year's update was a joke. It's getting really hard to be a customer of Apple's high end machines, even for someone who likes their stuff and is gladly willing to pay.
sgloutnikov 14y ago
2013 MBP 15" 256GB (APPLE SSD SD256E Media). Downloaded the song and right around the 1:47 mark the fans started going crazy :\ This also happened to me after I purchased the MBP and started it for the first time, about an hour in. Out of nowhere it just started spinning the fans to the max. Has been over a month without it happening, but this song made it do the same every time.
- Oyinko2 14y ago
  I made a video of the problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly0Sp7lMKJU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly0Sp7lMKJU
pinaceae 14y ago
just to add a counterpoint to this classic everything sucks on the internet thread: no issues at all with a 13" 2012 MBAir. best machine I've ever owned, had Lenovos in the past. Last Thinkpad bluescreened sometimes when connecting a USB headset. The Air? Nothing has brought it out of step so far, which for a former Windows user, is simply amazing.
- 1SaltwaterC 14y ago
  I've a slightly different machine: MBA 4.2, 2011. However, I still encounter an annoying bug in the SMC: fan won't shut up unless there's a sleep - wakeup cycle. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 - it doesn't help. Had a SMC upgrade this year, but no dice. As a silent computing adept this is a major annoyance. The memory management of OS X is broken since 10.7. The only thing that keeps this machine responsive is the SSD. Call me a nostalgic, but I still think OS X 10.4 was probably the best release.
- YPetrov 14y ago
  Same here, tried reproducing the issue without any success. Also, I can express the same feelings towards my 13" 2012 MBA - best machine I've ever had.
  - buzzkillr2 14y ago
    Third'd. Mine has been dead nuts reliable; no problems, no regret spending the most I have ever spent on a laptop.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
gambiting 14y ago
My friend got incredibly excited about the Retina MacBook and ordered one on the day of release. He has already been through seven of them. Yes - seven. And it wasn't even the screen each time - loose hinge, broken keyboard, SSD died.....you would have thought that in a machine for so much money they would've sorted this out.
DannoHung 14y ago
Weird. Never had hardware problems with Macs like those being reported here. Worst I ever got was hard drives dying and a ram module going bad. My sister had a bad MBP from about 5 years ago that just kept having all sorts of problems though. Bad batteries, like 3 replacement mobos, bad hard dive, etc. I think hardware issues might just be a batch based crapshoot.
melchebo 14y ago
Maybe your MacBook is fan of dubstep ;) I'd say the audio is leaking into the fan controller, and your dubstep just happens to contain the pattern that's sent to the controller to signal spin up. the controller probably uses some simple serial bus protocol, maybe i2c. Edit: For people who are more adept at peeping at the song's spectrum: on the Apple forum people report the fan speedup to occur at 0:28, 1:47, 2:05/2:10, 2:30, and 3:50

112 points by niggler 14y ago

benatkin 14y ago

The last link is apparently the source of your information but it is not referenced as such. Why not?

TigrouMeow 14y ago

I was supposed to buy one this week. Now I'm scared...

rkuykendall-com 14y ago
You're scared that one model has a bug where you play a specific song in a specific media player, the fans spin more than they should? and it can be fixed with a firmware update? You scare easily.
- stock_toaster 14y ago
  I have been considering an upgrade, but have been more worried about getting an LG screen with awful ghosting.
  - covalence 14y ago
    I had an LG with really bad retention - I took it to an Apple store where the rep saw the issue. Two days later I picked it up and haven't had a problem since. It was very easy to get it replaced and is great for coding for me.
    - stock_toaster 14y ago
      Thanks for the data point! I have a 2009 mbp (matte screen! ;_;), and the retina seems like the best display to upgrade to from the matte for 'staring at text for hours'.
nell 14y ago
Just make sure you get Applecare with it.
- TigrouMeow 14y ago
  Of course not. Apple Care never helps. Get a better home insurance instead - it's cheaper, and will replace your computer for free, even if you spill water on it (I experienced it).
  - Zirro 14y ago
    "Apple Care never helps." What do you mean? I had my motherboard/discrete graphics-card replaced without extra costs through Apple Care.
    - dagw 14y ago
      Isn't that covered by basic warranty? I had a macbook start to lock up randomly on me a month or two after buying it and they replace its mainboard no problem without me needing Apple Care.

TigrouMeow 14y ago

Discussion on the Apple Forum (more useful than the original link): https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4735947?start=210&tstart=0 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4735947?start=210&t...

metajack 14y ago

Why worry about this when the LG panels have horrible ghosting? I had to have mine replaced, and luckily got a Samsung panel (this was on the original Retina 15" hardware, though apparently this happens elsewhere too). I've had lots of problems with Apple hardware over the years, most of it dealt with very well by Apple, but the panel ghosting was by far the worst. I'd open Gmail, read email for 2 minutes, then flip to my terminals on another desktop and could still read my email. Yuck.

ryanwhitney 14y ago

I've been using the retina MBP 15" heavily since its release. I noticed the fan for the first time last week when I was booted into Windows. There are other issues with the machine—notably the screen flicker and ghosting that others have had issues with—but I wouldn't worry about this.

ComputerGuru 14y ago

The 2012 15" rMBP had considerable bugs in the SMC and UEFI that took half a dozen firmware updates, several dozen OS X seeds, and the better part of a year to resolve. I had a particularly nasty bug where any time I unplugged my Mac from the charger, 5 seconds later it would go to sleep though it was still open and I was actively using it. You'd have to shut the lid and re-open it for it to wake again. I also had the infamous ghosting issues, though my LG panel was decent enough that I put up with it for a few months. Luckily, when I took it in to get the entire upper clamshell replaced, there was a new part number in stock literally the day before that had apparently resolved the problem. I've purchased a dozen or so MacBooks since the original Unibody and countless iPhones, iPads and other minor Apple products — it is my opinion that engineering quality has gone down over the past two years considerably. As for the issue TFA refers to - it does not plague my 2012 rMBP and I'm sure Apple will, sooner or later, issue a patch to fix it. It's just a question of whether you believe they still have their shit together or not. (awesome song, btw!)

hboon 14y ago
I haven't have ghosting issues in my 2012 15" retina, but it has the nasty habit of shutting itself down sometimes. Only good thing is it starts up fast enough.
irq 14y ago
I _still_ have the "goes to sleep 5 seconds after unplugging" bug and I've installed all updates and am running the latest version of everything. And have done SMC and NVRAM resets. How were you able to fix this?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- rograndom 14y ago
  My wife's 2012 11" MBA has this same issue, it's not related to just the MBP line.
vladikoff 14y ago

kalleboo 14y ago

But have they fixed the problems with the previous generation? I have a couple issues with my 2012 retina MBP. These are all corroborated by others on Apple's support community: * LG panel ghosting * Graphical glitches in Safari * Audio clicks, pops and stutters when using Intel graphics * Power manager issues: Sometimes it'll drop to sleep when I unplug the magsafe, even though the laptop is in use. Sometimes it has trouble waking from regular ("closed lid") sleep - maybe every other week I have to go as far as holding down the power button to force a power off to get it back. I haven't been to an Apple store because I can't be without my machine for a week or however long it'll take to fix, and it sounds from the discussions forum that many of these problems have no fix, or it's random if you'll get a new part that works right or not.

ComputerGuru 14y ago
See my top-level comment. * Graphics issues are fixed in 10.8.3 (still in beta). It appears that the drivers have been rewritten from scratch, this was the worst beta seed series I can recall for any OS X release, ever, with new seeds days apart, seeds that were completely broken, kernel and graphics driver instabilities, etc. The latest seed is much improved and should address this issue. * LG panel ghosting: I had my clamshell replaced a few months ago. There was a new part number, it has been officially "fixed." * I have hisses and pops when listening via headphones, but not over the speakers * Power management: Finally fixed with latest firmware updates + 10.8.3 + reset NVRAM/PRAM and SMC. Firmware updates plus NVRAM [0] and SMC [1] reset will likely fix it for you. 0: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 1: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
- driverdan 14y ago
  Apple's DACs have hissed for a long time. My 2010 MBP had the same problem. They just use shitty DACs.
  - rwg 14y ago
    There's no hiss at all with my late 2008 15-inch MacBook Pro... ...but there is an annoying pop every time the audio driver enables/disables the DAC, presumably for power savings reasons. (One day I'm going to get annoyed enough to patch the driver to not do that when the laptop's on external power.)

irollboozers 14y ago

I just spent 1 hour today at the Apple store and talking to Apple care getting my brand new (2 days old) 15 Retina MBP replaced. It kernel panicked on me and bricked itself. The only sign of life is a slight hum of a fan when I try to power it on. It's the first Apple product I've bought but I can't shake the feeling that this frequency of bad hardware is becoming normal.

schrodinger 14y ago
I had an 06 MacBook that was an absolute lemon. Had to bring it in for randomly turning off and go through two motherboard replacements before they sent it away for 4 weeks to redesign the motherboard. Then it still had to go back in several times before they finally just gave me a new one almost a year newer because of how troublesome it was. I don't think this is a sign of getting worse! (I now have a 2012 rMBP and absolutely love it)
coldtea 14y ago
>It's the first Apple product I've bought but I can't shake the feeling that this frequency of bad hardware is becoming normal. Probably because you haven't experienced the overheating G4 Cubes, the liquid cooling dripping G5 Pros, the frequently crapping out on the motherboards iBook G3, the wheezing MacBook Pros, and tons of similar stuff. There's even a saying that goes as far back as 2002: NEVER buy Apple 1gen product (like the Retina was) --or at least be cautions. Wait till the put the second generation in the market. So nothing to do with "declining quality" as such. All new models have some ironing out of issues to do, and all models will have some problematic runs. Same thing in the PC world, be assured, just that noone buys 3 million of the exact same PC model, whereas in the Mac world they do.
- nwh 14y ago
  > overheating G4 Cubes I'm not sure that anybody ever had that issue. Mine has been in constant use since it's purchase, and it's never once had overheating issues, even in 40c+ ambient temperatures. Even if it did, there's a dandy little slot in the bottom for adding a fan if you choose.

wavesounds 14y ago

I have a 2012 model with the 256 hd - I just downloaded and played the song and no fans came on. Did have a dead pixel show up in my display but apple fixed that for free. Also it does get too hot for lap usage sometimes. Other than that this is the best computer I've ever used. Pretty much every other computer I've use now seems slow and pixelated.

ComputerGuru 14y ago
Re: heat. My problem is that when the fans of my 2012 rMBP are whirring, the heat emanates from the keyboard which is.... odd. It's not something I'm used to, and irks me to no end.
- kingnothing 14y ago
  That's more or less happened with every Macbook Pro I've used since 2009.
- icelancer 14y ago
  Isn't that by design?
vurt 14y ago
I am going to have to echo your sentiments. I too own the 2012 model and have experienced zero issues with mine [apart from the heat with intense CPU/GPU usage], and it is the best computer I have ever owned. I guess we're some of the lucky ones...
CountSessine 14y ago
Yeah - me too. 2012/256GB HD/16GB RAM. Easily the best computer I've ever owned. Must be lucky?

voltagex_ 14y ago

Can someone explain to me why that file causes the issue to occur?

meaty 14y ago

This doesn't surprise me at all. I've had so much Apple kit pack in on me it's unreal. It got to the point I dumped it all and switched to a 5 year old Lenovo unit which has been flawless. While they look pretty, I'm not sure the engineering is sound or you're getting good value for money.

jfb 14y ago
My anecdote masquerading as evidence: I have not had problems since the original two generations of Intel laptops. I think the engineering is great!

irq 14y ago

I'm running iTunes 11.0.2 and it won't even let me add this file to my library. It won't attempt to play via Quick Look from Finder, either.

j45 14y ago

After 4 Apple Macbooks since 07: never buy the first gen of any Apple hardware.

datboitom 14y ago

When I first bought the MBP 15" retina, my screen started ghosting. I got it replaced 3 times. Even though its an issue that was resolved with an update the staff at the Apple store told me they will not consider it to be a problem unless a certain amount of reports of it have been filed, so if you have the problem, report it, get your laptop sent in because they need laptops that produce this problem in order to fix it.

achivetta 14y ago

If you are going to post online about a problem with an Apple product, I personally believe that it's a good idea to also file a bug (http://bugreporter.apple.com http://bugreporter.apple.com) and include a bug number in your post. Doubly so if you submit it to HN. It is possible that there are people who work at Apple that read HN and if you post a bug number one of those people might then be able to open the bug.

josteink 14y ago

Soooo... Apple hardware being rushed and having quality issues. What else is new exactly? This is probably what happens when you spend more money on lawsuits than research.

CountSessine 14y ago
Thank you for contributing.
krichman 14y ago
That's exactly what is new, though. A couple of years ago they had much higher quality computers (and the RAM wasn't glued in). Every time I see a post on here about Apple I mention this: I think they are pushing to get into the market of people that don't know how to use computers at the expense of their customers that do. I used to buy Apple and recommend it. But they fucked up, they are increasingly trying to prevent developers from creating apps for their OS's without getting their approval first. Fuck that, that is anti-competitive and anti-freedom. I now recommend Android to people, but I am looking forward to Ubuntu phone (shopping lens and all :) ) and FirefoxOS as hopefully better alternatives.

marvwhere 14y ago

i got my mbp 15 (ordered online) begin of february - it worked for 5 days then it was done. i already noticed that i had big fan issues, and wondered about it, because co-worker has the same model and has no issues with the fans, and normally they only start when he is gaming, what is ok. so i had some problems, but said "okey"... on day 5 i went afk from my mbp to play a round of fifa13, when i came back, i had a black screen and only saw my mouse courser, reboot showed flickering apple-logo, dir-icon, etc. i tried everything to get my system back (after 5 days had not started with time machine) - no chance at all, the sdd was done... my luck: in the next city we have an apple store, so i made an appointment for the next morning went there, they tested again the ssd, because i guess the normal case for them is: THE CUSTOMER IS STUPID, OTHERWISE HE WOULD NOT PAY THAT MUCH MONEY FOR THAT CRAPPY HARDWARE... after the "genius guy" noticed that the ssd was crashed, he was like "ok i guess on the retina the ssd is not changeable anymore...let me talk to my boss what we can do for you, so that you get your mbp in 1-2 days, because its not ok then it will take 2 weeks on a 5 day old mbp until u get it back" 15 mins later he came back, and was like "ok it is possible to change the ssd, and we have one here..." he changed it, reinstalled osx and i payed 0,00 - left the building... since then i never heard anything back from my fans (only when i'm playing www.heroesofnewearth.com =D ) p.s.: it is my first mbp, and i really pissed already, all my co-workers have apple products too, and everybody is getting pissed and more pissed from day to day...apple hardware is getting crappy...

brunorsini 14y ago

I can confirm this as well. I have a mid-2012 MPB retina with a 500.28 GB APPLS SSD SM512E (vs. the author's SD512E) and the fan has recently acquired a life of its own. I can understand it going berserk when the CPU is busy, but this happens even while its utilization is below 10%. Very frustrating. Paid $3k for this machine and use it mainly for Pro Audio recording, so the noise really hurts... Wanted to buy a Mac Pro instead but, alas, last year's update was a joke. It's getting really hard to be a customer of Apple's high end machines, even for someone who likes their stuff and is gladly willing to pay.

sgloutnikov 14y ago

2013 MBP 15" 256GB (APPLE SSD SD256E Media). Downloaded the song and right around the 1:47 mark the fans started going crazy :\ This also happened to me after I purchased the MBP and started it for the first time, about an hour in. Out of nowhere it just started spinning the fans to the max. Has been over a month without it happening, but this song made it do the same every time.

Oyinko2 14y ago
I made a video of the problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly0Sp7lMKJU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly0Sp7lMKJU

pinaceae 14y ago

just to add a counterpoint to this classic everything sucks on the internet thread: no issues at all with a 13" 2012 MBAir. best machine I've ever owned, had Lenovos in the past. Last Thinkpad bluescreened sometimes when connecting a USB headset. The Air? Nothing has brought it out of step so far, which for a former Windows user, is simply amazing.

1SaltwaterC 14y ago
I've a slightly different machine: MBA 4.2, 2011. However, I still encounter an annoying bug in the SMC: fan won't shut up unless there's a sleep - wakeup cycle. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 - it doesn't help. Had a SMC upgrade this year, but no dice. As a silent computing adept this is a major annoyance. The memory management of OS X is broken since 10.7. The only thing that keeps this machine responsive is the SSD. Call me a nostalgic, but I still think OS X 10.4 was probably the best release.
YPetrov 14y ago
Same here, tried reproducing the issue without any success. Also, I can express the same feelings towards my 13" 2012 MBA - best machine I've ever had.
- buzzkillr2 14y ago
  Third'd. Mine has been dead nuts reliable; no problems, no regret spending the most I have ever spent on a laptop.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

gambiting 14y ago

My friend got incredibly excited about the Retina MacBook and ordered one on the day of release. He has already been through seven of them. Yes - seven. And it wasn't even the screen each time - loose hinge, broken keyboard, SSD died.....you would have thought that in a machine for so much money they would've sorted this out.

DannoHung 14y ago

Weird. Never had hardware problems with Macs like those being reported here. Worst I ever got was hard drives dying and a ram module going bad. My sister had a bad MBP from about 5 years ago that just kept having all sorts of problems though. Bad batteries, like 3 replacement mobos, bad hard dive, etc. I think hardware issues might just be a batch based crapshoot.

melchebo 14y ago

Maybe your MacBook is fan of dubstep ;) I'd say the audio is leaking into the fan controller, and your dubstep just happens to contain the pattern that's sent to the controller to signal spin up. the controller probably uses some simple serial bus protocol, maybe i2c. Edit: For people who are more adept at peeping at the song's spectrum: on the Apple forum people report the fan speedup to occur at 0:28, 1:47, 2:05/2:10, 2:30, and 3:50