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2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

macperformanceguide.com

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Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#71

Post by alkimie »

I've got a early 2009 17" MBP just extensively serviced by Apple (new logic board, display, etc.), and I've noticed that when closed and I pick it up and put it down on a table, the apple logo glows for a moment and goes out. I'm convinced that this has something to do with the built in Sudden Motion Sensor that wakes up the computer. It seems to have started with Lion on my particular MBP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_Motion_Sensor

I suspect that the author of that blog may be seeing the same thing and it has nothing to do with keyboard problems.

Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#72

Post by jawngee »

nodata wrote: post #11

How on earth is a key being pressed on a closed laptop? Bumpy road or not.

Sometimes, when I open my MBP retina, I can see the outline of the keys on the screen and have to wipe the screen off. So my guess is that they are actually touching when closed.

Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#73

Post by ajross »

bradleyland wrote: post #70
ajross wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a more likely explanation is a hysteresis issue with the hardware lid sensor. It "opens" under vibration and allows the transient key events to be seen by whatever controller (my guess is that all this is preboot, so the CPU firmware isn't invoked) is listening for the wakeup events. Basically, if the key sensors can be jiggled closed, the lid sensor can be jiggled open. And because these happen for the sa…

I think that's probably the most plausible explanation. It makes me wonder what kind of g-forces the laptop is encountering. Most electronics aren't intended for "rugged" environments, and "ruggedized" equipment is a lot more expensive.

Honestly, I think this is a situation where Apple hardware is fragile instead of simply "not ruggedized". Traditionally laptops had hinge locks, for example, but the industry moved away from that because the unlocked hinges were perceived as nicer. Apple has always driven this process more than any other manufacturer. It's probably that they simply got burned here and chose a set of sensor/key/hinge designs that were a little too aggressively "thin".

Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#74

Post by vvhn »

w1ntermute wrote: post #33
forthewyn wrote: post #9

I keep hearing things like this about the Retina MBPro. Dangit I WANT one, but my spidey sense keeps insisting that this is first round, early adopter technology and that I'll be MUCH happier if I hang onto my early 2008 17" MBPro for another few months or maybe a year until the next laptop line bump from Apple.

I have no idea why anyone would buy a "Retina" MacBook any time in the near future. There are a huge number of popular apps that still don't support it. Lack of Office & VirtualBox support by itself would be a non-starter for me.

The other big (First world ) "problem" is that once you get used to the retina display, looking at the older display is almost as jarring as looking at a SD transmission after you've gotten used to HD. Both of those were perfectly fine before you got used to the new stuff. What takes me aback is the difference in iTerm/Terminal ( that's where i spend most of time ) between the old and the new.

Of course the non retina apps like firefox, thunderbird, opera show up exceedingly fuzzy. I'd like to continue to use them but they're just hideous and i have to revert to Safari/Chrome

Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#75

Post by evoxed »

This is exactly what started happening to my '07 MacBook Pro after years of solid use. The parts started getting a little looser, the whole body is slightly bowed (it still closes though), etc. Jostling it a little in its bag is sometimes enough to put it into a wakened fright, and whether or not the fans kick in he's gonna be a pretty hot piece of metal by the time it's out of the bag. Since it started happening I just make sure to shut down before carrying.

Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#77

Post by MaysonL »

mikebridgman wrote: post #14
lysol wrote: post #6

One data point doesn't mean it's a design flaw. Most people aren't going to take their MBP offroading, so why should they make compromises just to serve this small, but now vocal minority?

Offroading isn't the only source of bumps - turbulence while flying, public transportation, strapped to a motorcycle on backroads... I think the point is that when the computer is powered off and the lid is closed, there is absolutely no reason it should ever power on by itself.

Except to perform the "Power Nap" tasks in Mountain Lion. Maybe there's a connection?

Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#78

Post by bzbarsky »

w1ntermute wrote: post #33
forthewyn wrote: post #9

I keep hearing things like this about the Retina MBPro. Dangit I WANT one, but my spidey sense keeps insisting that this is first round, early adopter technology and that I'll be MUCH happier if I hang onto my early 2008 17" MBPro for another few months or maybe a year until the next laptop line bump from Apple.

I have no idea why anyone would buy a "Retina" MacBook any time in the near future. There are a huge number of popular apps that still don't support it. Lack of Office & VirtualBox support by itself would be a non-starter for me.

The #1 reason to buy it is if you want a 15" MacBook Pro with an SSD that's larger than 128GB and want to pay as little as possible for it.

At the moment, the 2.3 GHz "Retina" MBP is $2199 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD (bare-minimum specs)

A "non-retina" 15" MBP with bare-minimum specs (4GB RAM, 2.3 GHz processor) but with the same 256GB SSD is $2299.

At the other end of the spectrum, a 2.7GHz "retina" with 16GB of RAM and the 768GB SSD is $3299. A worse "non-retina" laptop (only 8GB of RAM, since that's all Apple will let you put in those, and only 512GB SSD for the same reason) is $3349.

Oh, and for the non-retina machine I assumed you get the cheaper 1440x900 screen. Of course the "retina" machine can be easily run at 1680x1050 if desired.

If you don't want/need the SSD, the numbers look quite different, of course.

That said, I'm not sure what you think is "unsupported" by Office and VirtualBox. They won't run at 2880x1800, but they'll run no worse than they would on a 1440x900 15" mbp.

Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#79

Post by ori_b »

m_for_monkey wrote: post #65
ori_b wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no it can't. The battery will drain, but not much else. The temperatures you'd see wouldn't even be likely to reduce the lifetimes of components. This is inconvenient and annoying, but not life threatening. Stop being alarmist.

Fire chiefs issue warning that overheating laptops can cause fires http://www.harrogate-news.co.uk/2012/02/24/fire-chiefs-issue... Laptop fire blamed for Vancouver death http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/08... Laptop overheats, starts fire that destroys west St. Louis County home http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Firefighters-battling-blaze-a... Israel Police: Fatal fire in family home likely cau…

Lithium ion batteries do overheat and burst into flames. However, it's generally due to faulty charge controllers pumping too much current through the cells. It won't be caused by having the laptop power on in a backpack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixIOEPnsgbI

Re: 2012 MacBook Pro Powers on By Itself on Rough Roads

#80

Post by w1ntermute »

bzbarsky wrote: post #78
w1ntermute wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea why anyone would buy a "Retina" MacBook any time in the near future. There are a huge number of popular apps that still don't support it. Lack of Office & VirtualBox support by itself would be a non-starter for me.

The #1 reason to buy it is if you want a 15" MacBook Pro with an SSD that's larger than 128GB and want to pay as little as possible for it. At the moment, the 2.3 GHz "Retina" MBP is $2199 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD (bare-minimum specs) A "non-retina" 15" MBP with bare-minimum specs (4GB RAM, 2.3 GHz processor) but with the same 256GB SSD is $2299. At the other end of the spectrum, a 2.7GHz "retina" with 16GB of…

I wasn't aware of that price difference. Why is the Retina MBP so much cheaper, despite the more expensive screen?

And when I say unsupported, I mean that they look crappy because they don't have Retina support.

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