New MacBooks Have Issues, Sleep Deprivation

By  |  Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10:12 am

Apple MacBookPosts to both Apple’s support forums (as well as several news outlets) indicate that the newest MacBooks are suffering from a few personality disorders that are sure to drive their users insane until Cupertino can come out with a fix.

The most annoying problem (and expensive, too) is the laptop’s apparent dislike for third-party memory. After installation, users are reporting on Apple’s support forums that the laptops become quite unstable.

The laptops will freeze and/or crash frequently, and the only fix is to remove the memory chip. If users wish to add memory, the only stable option apparently is to buy the new memory chips from Apple itself.

That option is costly — RAM is sold at quite the premium through the company’s online store.

Another issue is problems with putting the computer to sleep, or awaking from sleep. Gizmodo reports that this problem is manifesting itself in three different ways:

  • After the MacBook is put to sleep, it awakens on its own 30-60 seconds later, then goe back to sleep, and repeats. This happens until the battery dies;
  • The MacBook appears to be asleep, but its not. Users find their battery dead even though it had a full charge;
  • Problems awakening from sleep mode.

All in all, these are annoying problems. Luckily, I have a 1st gen MacBook Pro. But this thing has been a nightmare too: after not having a single problem with my PowerBook G4 (which was through 2 owners before me and hell and high water), I’ve had this unit in twice for problems, once where the motherboard and HDD had to be replaced.

Guess Apple’s just not making ’em like they used to.

 
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3 Comments For This Post

  1. joecab Says:

    Is RAM sold separately on Apple’s online store more expensive than if they put it in when you order a new computer? The price to upgrade a MacBook from 2gb to 4gb was just $150 last I checked. That’s a pretty good price, and nothing like the obscene markups they used to have.

  2. Gary Harrison Says:

    Yep, I’m forced to agree. My “clamshell” iBook was the last dependable ‘book I owned. My G3, two G4’s and my current MacBook all have been back for various major fixes (motherboards, video display, failed hard drive, etc.). I may be coming to the end of my (expensive) Apple love affair.

  3. Jari Says:

    I’m having these same kind of sleeping problems with an earlier revision MacBook (Black). It doesn’t wake up and it doesn’t go to sleep properly. I just hate to power down (or hard-reset) the whole laptop every time just to get it going again. Same issues with Mini. So this could be a Leopard problem, not just with the new MacBooks…?

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