Now I need advice.

Ok, it is time to eat a little crow I think. While I have been singing the praises of my MBP, a couple of fairly major annoyances are propping up. First, it will not fully connect to my wireless after a reboot. I have to go thru a song and dance to get it to connect so the internet works. Secondly, I was using it for a prolonged period plugged in yesterday and it gets VERY hot on the bottom. VERY hot!I am within the 14 days, and I think I would be able to return it without the restocking fee due to those two issues. What should I do? I really like this notebook alot, I am just having a hard time accepting the fact that I payed a premium for this notebook and it is not a premium notebook. My wife has a Dell that is not as well built or flashy, but runs like a champ. Any help please? And what are my alternatives if this one goes back? My two major requirements are a decent vid card and I really would rather not have a glossy screen. Oh and a solid keyboard.

 

In terms of 15.4" laptops with dedicated video cards, the Acer Travelmate 8204 (Radeon X1600) and Sony FE Series (GeForce 7600) are probably your best bets; however, I wouldn't know if they offered the option of having a matte screen.

The Asus S96J is also a good choice with its X1600 GPU, but IMO, which others might disagree with, the S96J is kinda fugly.

 

Powerbook G4?

If you loved the MBP then the PB will feel almost the same and will have more compatible programs. You can get them for a large discount and once the MBP's issues have been cleaned up by a new Rev. then sell the PB for another MBP with Merom

Are the PB's widescreen? After owning a widescreen laptop, standard monitors look mishapen now.

Definitely return it or exchange. If my MacBook ever treats me like that it'll be going back to the Apple store. If I had to return my MacBook I'd be looking at the lovely iMacs or maybe even a Mac Mini.

As for a PC alternative, before purchasing my MacBook I was about to buy an S96J. The S96J is a beast and the pricetag it carries makes it even better. Also the S96J comes in a matte screen with the same screen resolution as the MacBook. The biggest let down of the S96J though is that it doesn't have BlueTooth.

 

haha didn't u post this thread in the macforums?

personally, i would return the MB and wait for the next revision.

 

I'd return it as well.

Just a little nit-picking, the S96j has a WXGA resolution, the MBP has a WXGA+ resolution, 1280x800 as opposed to 1440x900, respectively.

 

muahaha!

I said MacBook not MacBook Pro! I would have said 1280x800, but I forgot the dimensions and WXGA+.

 

I've been up for 20 hours straight, sorry about that, my little nit-pickings are off when I'm sleep-deprived.. I should probably go to bed..

 

Exchange it. 3 strikes and they're out.

 

What wireless router do you have? It could very well be a crappy router giving you problems.

I have the AirPort Express and it works great!

The design of the MacBook Pro has the cooling system at the bottom and the processor, chipset and graphic card are all turning downwards and connecticting with the heatpipe.

The heat is normal, especially considering the 1" thick design and aluminum chassis.

 

LOL, ya. I wanted opinions from mac and non-mac users.

I have a Netgear router that has been great for me. My wife's Dell connects fine. Plus it only happens at startup, never any other time.

 

Well the good news is I finally got the wireless properly working. Apparantly, Macs have a hard time handling 63 random character WPA passwords.

 

They don't. They can even use WPA2, which Windows machines can't connect to

 

Well after cutting my password in half it connects on startup. Either way 30 some odd random characters is still plenty strong. So I am happy with that, I get to keep WPA this way and still have a very strong password. For those interested here is an example of what my password looks like:

m(GK~6 ]|Q8]Ax46h#?^;/mGTGFZbrEJI

I use www.grc.com/passwords to get all my passwords for things like this. It generates a new set of random characters everytime you refresh the page. So if you are looking for super strong passwords for your network this is a good place to go.

 

LOL, the place next door has left there network open and its on all the time.

 

Nice, free bandwidth

 

"LOL" if your neighbors knew how, they could totally access their router and find out which sites you visit and at which times of the day.

 

Chances are however, that people that leave their access point open for everyone to access in the middle of a city, have no idea of what they are doing

 

i think my network is open, small suburban neighborhood but still. can someone pm me with instructions on how to password protect your network without having to sign into it every time? (didnt mean to go off topic but people are already talkin about it, sry)

 

hahaha, mine is unprotected (I'm too lazy to deal with passwords) but thats because nobody in my neiborhood except for one other person (and their wifi is unprotected as well) have broadband, I'm not in a very tech-savvy area, but next year I'll need a password for in my dorm, I'll prolly do a WAP as well

 

Ok, this is very easy to do. First you need to check if your router uses WPA. If it does not, fo to the manufacturers website and look for a firmware update. Once you have WPA, all you need to do is enable it and set the passkey. I suggest using something like www.grc.com/passwords to get your key. You don't have to use the whole thing but a good chunk would be a good idea. Copy it to Notepad and save it somewhere. Then paste it into your router for the passkey. After that try to connect with your laptop, it will ask for the passkey. Paste it in and you are set. One of the best parts of WPA is that you only enter the password one time! I know this is not very clear, I can go into greater depth later, but right now I have a monster headache!