New Macbook owner - some nervous questions

Well, I brought back a buggy Compaq and paid out more to get a Macbook. So far, I love it, and find the transition to OSX to be reasonably intuitive. But, there are some unusual things happening:

- when I plug the Macbook in, the prongs almost always spark on contact with the wall socket. Is this normal?

- the 5-bar battery-remaining LED on the bottomside of the MB stopped functioning altogether after two days of use and has not come back since then. It's been about a week.

- I can't figure out how to make a copy of a dvd. Is there anything in the OS or DVD software that would allow me to insert a disc in the MB, select something along the lines of "make copy" , have it temporarily write files to its hard drive and then burn it to another disc? Surely there must be and I've just been too sloppy to find it?

- headphone volume output is unreasonably low at even the highest setting.

I'd really appreciate any help that anyone here can give me on any of these issues. Also, can someone recomment an external microphone that I can use say, to record interviews with?

Cheers,

MD

 

1 - yes, that is normal. I'd suggest plugging it into the wall first, then the computer if at all possible.

2 - That is not normal. Get it looked at.

3 - a DVD movie? Or a data DVD? Very different propositions.

4 - Headphones don't have their own volume control inline, do they? Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about that. You can ask Apple, but I doubt they'll be able to do much.

 

My macbook prongs do it too, I just tend to plug in the prongs before connecting the magsafe adaptor into my MacBook as a safety measure.

- Call up Apple, you got a defective battery, what they will most likely do is send you a replacement battery and a box for your old one to ship back.

Well as long as the disc isn't copy protected you should be able to use Disk Utility for that stuff, its in your Applications > Utilities folder.

- try a different pair of headphones and see if that helps.

Not sure, someone else might be able to help you there.

Cheers mate.

 

Hrm, weird.
Headphone output should be pretty loud. I assume you have the volume up in both the system AND iturnes (or whatever program your using), correct?
Sounds like the battery needs to be replaced if the LED isn't working anymore.
As far as copying CD/DVD's... hrm, we'll, you'd have to get seperate software for that. Oddly enough, thats like... one of the only things I think OS X doesn't have built in. You can D/L Parallels and use it's free disk imager. Toast can also make images I believe.

Hrm, I think I notice a spark when plugging in my charger on occasoin. But not really sure. Does it spark when you plug it into the outlet regardless of it being plugged into the MB? And does it spart with both of the duckheads (power plus attachments)?

LOL, nm, seems I was a bit late to the punch.

I forgot about disk utilities

 

Disk Utility it built into OS X, does and handles images very well.

Edit: Apparently I should have read to the end before posting that one, I thought you were done talking about the DVD issue when you started talking about the power.

 

Just in case there's confusion, it's worth pointing out that you actually have to press the round button near the 5 LED strip in order for the lights to light up. The indicator does not stay lit all the time.

 

Thanks for the input, everyone! About the LEDs, they don't function even when the button is pressed. I'll be calling Apple about the battery tomorrow.