Without going into a terrific amount of detail, I thought I’d document some issues that I’m experiencing with my MacBook Pro (a couple of months old, running OS X 10.5.2). It should be noted that all of these issues have occurred multiple times, despite reboots, PRAM and/or SMC resets, etc.
1. Frequently fails to wake from sleep. Or, simply gets out of sync with the lid’s open/closed status. Same result: Useless computer.
After closing the lid, the system consistently goes to sleep properly. Upon opening the lid, however, the system may or may not come back to life. When it doesn’t wake properly, it will sometimes respond to gentle prodding: pressing and holding down a key, or pressing (but not holding down) the power button.
I’ve also had some success with outright trickery: I’ll close and then immediately re-open the lid, in which case I can catch the password prompt (which appears when the lid is closed?) before it disappears.
2. Hotkeys for Expose and Active Screen Corners up and disappear.
Just what it says. They all reset to inactive. I change the settings, and they work just fine . . . until they don’t.
It should be noted that this doesn’t happen particularly often. And occurences don’t necessarily coincide with PRAM/SMC resets, software updates, etc.
3. I’m not prompted for a password when the system wakes from sleep.
Yes, the box to require a password when waking from sleep is checked. No, I haven’t recently reset PRAM or SMC. And no, it doesn’t happen often (twice now, in as many months). It can be fixed by rebooting the system.
Despite the frequency, this issue is terrifying. Not because the screen saver password is particularly useful from a security standpoint (it discourages lurkers, but doesn’t address data loss as a result of theft). It’s terrifying because I no longer trust OS X to honor my preferences, security-related or otherwise.
Forums are rife with folks suggesting that maybe affected users aren’t letting the screensaver activate (I am), or that the system isn’t truly sleeping (it might not be, but the LED on the lid release indicates that it is).
And that’s all for now.
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Have you taken it to the Apple Store for repairs? I’m curious to see what they say.
I have not. And not because I don’t think that a tech might know how to fix these problems.
When purchasing my MacBook Pro (which I had for a few days, and spent an entire month attempting to get replaced), I had what can only be described as the single worst customer service and support experience of my entire life. The prospect of turning my beloved notebook over to those donkeys is terrifying.
Also, based on what I’ve read–mainly on Apple’s support site–these are intermittent problems that they claim can be or have been fixed by some combination of software updates or PRAM/SMC resets.
Even more terrifying than turning over my notebook for hardware repair is the prospect of turning it over for “repair,” only to find out that it sat on a shelf for three days awaiting yet another PRAM reset, and was then returned to me as “fixed.”
Can you tell that, despite my love for this machine, I’m somewhat disenfranchised by Apple’s “award-winning” support?