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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New Macbook Pro Retina, 2.7Ghz, 16gb ram impressions

Well... My impression of my 2.7GHz 16GB / 768GB MBP Retina is changing a bit... Did it once the other day, twice last night and now constantly this morning. It just shuts off on me for no reason. Even if I'm not touching it, the thing can't go for more than about 5 minutes today without just shutting off instantly. I just made an appointment for this evening at the "Genius" Bar so some guy can look at it and go "uuuuuuhhh..." before taking it in for repair. Then it will sit there for 3 days before they realize they can't fix it and will have to replace it. I'll have to call them 3X daily to get them to admit that and then they'll order me a replacement, which will take the current 2 to 3 week wait to arrive. Yay!
 
Thats too bad Jeff. Mine just came in last night and I hope i don't find this issue with mine. Your situation reminds me of when my previous MacBook had the random flicker issue. They finally replaced it and then my wife accidentally dumps coffee all over it :(
 
Apple Store Business Account ...

Apple Store Business Account ...

Jeff Kilgroe said:
Well... My impression of my 2.7GHz 16GB / 768GB MBP Retina is changing a bit... Did it once the other day, twice last night and now constantly this morning. It just shuts off on me for no reason. Even if I'm not touching it, the thing can't go for more than about 5 minutes today without just shutting off instantly. I just made an appointment for this evening at the "Genius" Bar so some guy can look at it and go "uuuuuuhhh..." before taking it in for repair. Then it will sit there for 3 days before they realize they can't fix it and will have to replace it. I'll have to call them 3X daily to get them to admit that and then they'll order me a replacement, which will take the current 2 to 3 week wait to arrive. Yay!
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your negative experience, Jeff ... we've been running our RetDisp MBP non stop for the last few weeks with no problems at all ... running Resolve 9 and Express Dailies - both beefy image processing apps that push the nvidia 650M to the limit.

What apps are you using? ... did you have a Tbolt PICe Expansion card attached? ... any other relevant details?

Agree that the "Genius" bar is a bit of a pain but do you have a Business Account with your local Apple Store? ... I have one here in West Hollywood and they look after us very well.

Neil
 
I know its a corny answer but you always get one bad Apple in the bunch.
Its too bad you had to experience that Jeff.
Ive had over 3 dozen Mac computers at my disposal in the last 15 years and honestly one arrived with almost same result as yours but a G5 Power Mac.
Mother board replacement.
If you have any connections to a dedicated Apple Service avoid the box store if all possible.
We are about to order a few of these so your experiences are gold :)
 
No big deal, guys... It happens. I have owned and do own tons of Apple stuff, nothing is going to change that in the foreseeable future. The percentage of failures on these Apple systems is so incredibly low, one as to admire what Apple has accomplished here. Anyway, my issues are with the "Genius" bar and, having gone through this before due to the number of Apple systems / products I do purchase, I know full well that it's going to get replaced and I'll have to suffer the 3 weeks or so to get one.

Yes, I do have a business account with my local Apple Store and they do take care of me well. While it probably works out best for their end user customers, I wish that the Genius Bar wasn't their first line of contact for business and/ or advanced users encountering issues. I'd love it if I could go straight to one of their actual technicians and get a solid verdict right there, working with him. Even if it takes a bit longer to schedule an appointment. I will see a "Genius" later today, but I know full well it will be at least monday afternoon before an actual tech gets to the system and who knows from there.

I've had the system for about 3 weeks. Nothing plugged in when this issue first occurred a few days ago, nor since. I have had the system connected, at various times, to a Sonnet PCIe expander and a Promise RAID. Both of which reside almost permanently on an iMac -- working on that iMac right now. Also used LaCie and Buffalo Thunderbolt external drives, also a few USB3 externals... Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary.

Apps primarily used on this system since getting it --- Photoshop, Xcode, Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign... System's intermittent shut-off happens even if it's sitting idle with no apps loaded and we're staring at a pretty much bare OSX desktop. No warning or signs of anything wrong, just *pop* and a millisecond later, the system is off. Power button to turn it back on, system comes up to a notice that it wasn't shut down correctly. It's not the OSX installation either, I connected another drive to boot from and the system shut off on me again when I was at the option-boot, drive selection screen. I haven't turned it on since then, just going to take it up to the "Geniuses".... and hope they can get me a replacement ASAP.
 
Good to hear your positive views Jeff :)
Up here in Midwest Canada we are lucky.
We have a few Apple Service that's been around way before our Apple Store sprung up at local mall.
Its nice to have that option.

On a side note, have you done any major tests with external displays and do you have any preferences?
 
overheating?

overheating?

Jeff Kilgroe said:
Apps primarily used on this system since getting it --- Photoshop, Xcode, Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign... System's intermittent shut-off happens even if it's sitting idle with no apps loaded and we're staring at a pretty much bare OSX desktop. No warning or signs of anything wrong, just *pop* and a millisecond later, the system is off. Power button to turn it back on, system comes up to a notice that it wasn't shut down correctly. It's not the OSX installation either, I connected another drive to boot from and the system shut off on me again when I was at the option-boot, drive selection screen. I haven't turned it on since then, just going to take it up to the "Geniuses".... and hope they can get me a replacement ASAP.
Click to expand...

mmhhmm ... be good to know what the diagnosis of the fault is ... one last question, the machine runs pretty warm when doing intensive image processing ... do you think you had good air circulation around the underneath of the chassis?

i wonder if it's the SSD failing?

Neil
 
Sorry to hear about your experience, Jeff. I haven't honestly pushed mine yet , since I still Didn't have time to use it in a project- I have a couple running on my old Macpro's and didn't risk it yet. However, your experience is certainly asking for me to do it as soon as possible. Better have the issues now than later- or the replCement rout becomes unlikely!

By the way, any ghosting happening amongst Retina buyers? Mine has Been fine so far...
 
So far so good with mine. Just fired it up for the first time today with the Sonnet/RED Rocket. Realtime 4K is nice! I've also hooked up my 30" mac monitor too. Trying to get used all these darn wires everywhere!!!
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
No big deal, guys... It happens. I have owned and do own tons of Apple stuff, nothing is going to change that in the foreseeable future. The percentage of failures on these Apple systems is so incredibly low, one as to admire what Apple has accomplished here. Anyway, my issues are with the "Genius" bar and, having gone through this before due to the number of Apple systems / products I do purchase, I know full well that it's going to get replaced and I'll have to suffer the 3 weeks or so to get one.
Click to expand...


Is there any kind of courtesy replacement program? Even if it's not spec'd like yours, it would be great to have something in a similar vein (even the stock 2.6) to hold you over while they get you the replacement. It's these kinds of things that really show how a company is willing to look out for their customers...and it might make that "genius" frontline a touch more forgivable if they're handing you a laptop you can walk home with until yours is ready.
 
Bob Gundu said:
So far so good with mine. Just fired it up for the first time today with the Sonnet/RED Rocket. Realtime 4K is nice! I've also hooked up my 30" mac monitor too. Trying to get used all these darn wires everywhere!!!
Click to expand...

Agree totally ... spagetti junction is a bit of a hassle ... hopefully, someone will come out with a cool Tbolt/USB3/eSATA/everything hub ... I saw that Belkin announced one a while ago but haven't seen it available yet ... if you find something effective to hide the cable mess, let me know ... the Tbolt cables seem to be particularly good at getting themselves entangled around every possible object within striking distance ... maybe they're some distant relative of the python :-(

Neil
 
My rMBP was also defective. External drives randomly eject on their own and I get the warning that the disk was removed improperly. Happens with different USB2 and USB3 drives, as well as eSATA drives through Thunderbolt. My i1 Display 2 and Harmony remote won't work when connected directly to the USB3 ports. I have to go through an Apple keyboard to get them to work. I know it's not a software issue because I tried reinstalling the OS and it did it with hardly anything installed.

I called Apple support and they had me run the hardware test, which it failed. They also confirmed that my serial number was within the range of ones they are concerned about and have been exhibiting various problems. They wanted to repair, to which I said no way after having it for only a few days. Since it was within 2 weeks they agreed to replace instead of repair (which would just be replacing the entire guts inside). I would fight them on it and tell them that it's too new for them to not replace it, even if it's longer than 2 weeks. I may be wrong, but I think in California they're required to exchange in the first 30 days.

There seems to be a lot of these that are defective. When the new one arrives this week I'm immediately running the hardware test before I set it up. To run the hardware test, shut off the computer. Power on and immediately hold down D until you get the spinning globe. Then you'll have to enter your wifi network settings so it can download the hardware test.
 
Neil W. Smith said:
Agree totally ... spagetti junction is a bit of a hassle ... hopefully, someone will come out with a cool Tbolt/USB3/eSATA/everything hub ... I saw that Belkin announced one a while ago but haven't seen it available yet ...
Click to expand...

September. $400. Matrox has one coming out too, but only one USB3 port I think.
 
USB3 an Tbolt hubs ...

USB3 an Tbolt hubs ...

Bob Gundu said:
September for both Matrox and Belkin.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/05...with-usb-3-0-and-esata-bumps-price-to-399-99/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, Bob ... the spec on the Belkin hub looks pretty useful .... not so sure about the Matrox? ... once end-users understand the price-performance advantages of USB 3 and TBolt, there's no going back to last year's technology.

One of the things we've also tested is SSD drives attached directly to a Tbolt cable ... even with a single SSD you get excellent transfer speeds ... makes for an incredibly efficient shuttle drive for anything under half a TB .... once we have 1 x TB SSDs for under $500, I won't touch single spinning drive .... I also striped two 512 GB SSDs together using the two Tbolt ports on the RetDisp MBP ... holy crap! ... now you're talking fast .... SSD and Tbolt will be the weapon of choice in the data transfer battles of the future.

Cheers,
Neil
 
Update on the Macbook Pro. I gut stuck working and the wife had to take it in for the Genius appointment. Aside from her not being that computer-savvy and rather displeased that she had to go to the mall with the super-crowded Apple store, things went OK.

No specific diagnosis, but a couple of the Geniuses looked it over for about 15 minutes and it shut off on them a few times, also when trying to run the Apple diagnostics. That's about as specific as the wife could recall. Everything in these systems is integrated to the point of there being 4 replaceable parts -- logic board (containing CPU, flash storage and RAM), fan system, battery, screen. Parts are on indefinite back-order due to the demand and lead times on the systems themselves. They ordered a replacement system and I'll have it in 2~3 weeks. They said we could keep the current one until the new one comes in, but we left it with them.

Oh well....
 
Delivery times have improved. My replacement was ordered on Monday and will be here as early as this Monday. It shipped today and at one point the order page said overnight delivery. FedEx's estimates with Apple products shipping from China are notoriously inaccurate, so even though it says Wednesday I think it will be sooner. The defective one showed up 3 days early from the original date on the FedEx tracking. So hopefully you'll have it sooner.
 
2 to 3 weeks ...

2 to 3 weeks ...

Jeff Kilgroe said:
Update on the Macbook Pro. I gut stuck working and the wife had to take it in for the Genius appointment. Aside from her not being that computer-savvy and rather displeased that she had to go to the mall with the super-crowded Apple store, things went OK.

No specific diagnosis, but a couple of the Geniuses looked it over for about 15 minutes and it shut off on them a few times, also when trying to run the Apple diagnostics. That's about as specific as the wife could recall. Everything in these systems is integrated to the point of there being 4 replaceable parts -- logic board (containing CPU, flash storage and RAM), fan system, battery, screen. Parts are on indefinite back-order due to the demand and lead times on the systems themselves. They ordered a replacement system and I'll have it in 2~3 weeks. They said we could keep the current one until the new one comes in, but we left it with them.

Oh well....
Click to expand...

Not good news, Jeff ... 2 to 3 weeks without your machine ... and no sign of what the problem is? ... did I read somewhere on one or the RU threads that there was a list of serial numbers that had some kind of dodgy manufacturing issue?

We're presenting Resolve 9 at LAFCPUG this Wednesday and at the Director's Guild next Saturday ... would hate for my RD MBP to crap out before then ... been really happy with it so far.

Neil
 
Neil W. Smith said:
... did I read somewhere on one or the RU threads that there was a list of serial numbers that had some kind of dodgy manufacturing issue?
Click to expand...

Yes, it was my post earlier in this thread. There seems to be a high percentage of defective rMBP from what I've been reading in various forums on the net.
 
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