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

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

#51

Post by icelancer »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #12
wavesounds wrote: post #11

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.

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.

Isn't that by design?

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

#52

Post by brunorsini »

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.

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

#53

Post by sgloutnikov »

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.

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

#54

Post by pinaceae »

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.

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

#55

Post by Zirro »

TigrouMeow wrote: post #34
nell wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just make sure you get Applecare with it.

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).

"Apple Care never helps."

What do you mean? I had my motherboard/discrete graphics-card replaced without extra costs through Apple Care.

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

#56

Post by dagw »

Zirro wrote: post #55
TigrouMeow wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

"Apple Care never helps." What do you mean? I had my motherboard/discrete graphics-card replaced without extra costs through Apple Care.

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.

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

#57

Post by robotmay »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #7

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 t…

I've also noticed a significant down-turn in production quality from Apple in the past few years. I have a G4 iBook sat in a cupboard which will still boot up without a single issue (not even any dead pixels), but my 2010 MBP had some weird issues (like the case erroding). And my partner's 2009 MacBook has pretty much been entirely replaced. New HD, new screen, new motherboard, new case.

These days I would never recommend buying a Mac unless you also buy the 3 year warranty.

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

#58

Post by mich41 »

driverdan wrote: post #17
ComputerGuru wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Apple's DACs have hissed for a long time. My 2010 MBP had the same problem. They just use shitty DACs.

Aren't they using the same "HD Audio" chips as everybody else?

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

#59

Post by 1SaltwaterC »

pinaceae wrote: post #54

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.

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 - 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.

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

#60

Post by coldtea »

nwh wrote: post #31
coldtea wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 p…

> 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.

>I'm not sure that anybody ever had that issue.

It probably didn't affect all production runs of the Cube, but still lots of people had them, search "g4 overheating" for some examples.

There were a lot more complaints back in the day. Note that "overheating" doesn't necessarilly mean "shuting down".

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