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The LCD on my 2008 15" MBP is hosed. It just shows a bunch of gibberish. This problem has been intermittent since last winter; usually showing a garbled screen when I wake the computer up from sleep/screen saver. It usually went away in a few seconds, so I never bothered to fix it. Now it's staying garbled for longer. I saw that there was a recall on the graphics chip that my MBP uses. The symptoms of the defective chips sound similar to my own problems (except it works fine with an external display, which is what I use now), so I had Apple check it out. The guy at the genius bar thought it might have been covered under the recall, but after letting them diagnose it for a week, they said it was the LCD. They offered to fix it for $300, but I passed. Now that it's acting up bad, I'm thinking about getting it fixed finally. Doing some googling I found this service on ebay that says they will fix it for $190 shipped. They also sell the LCDs by themselves for about $115 shipped. I'm pretty handy with electronics (I used to solder for a living and I changed the HD in the MBP a couple times) but I don't know how hard it is to replace the LCD. Should I give these guys a shot, go with Apple, or DIY?
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Jul 21, 2011 03:18
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Doctor Zero posted:These guys have a youtube video on how to do pretty much anything you can think of. Here's an LCD video. you may have to search around for the other videos to get the machine to that state. That should give you an idea on how hard it is to do yourself. Hmm, I could probably do it but it may just be worth the $75 to have someone do it for me. I'd really hate to gently caress up my computer worse than it is now.
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Jul 21, 2011 05:23
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I just recently came across this Macworld article about using an expresscard SSD to speed up MBPs. I have a early 2008 MBP that I plan on keeping for another couple of years and I'm thinking about picking up a 48gb ExpressCard SSD Drive to speed things up. I'm guessing the 48gb should be enough to hold Lion and my 16gbs of apps. I could just keep my data on my internal 750. Anyone ever try this?
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Sep 3, 2011 04:03
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Bob Morales posted:I'd personally go with a traditional SSD and keep your HD using a optibay, but it is a neat solution. Hmm maybe I'll hold off if it's not as good as a internal SSD.
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Sep 3, 2011 23:31
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Is it worth spending the extra $500+ to get a SSD on an iMac? I'm getting close saving up the money for a new machine (to replace my 2008 MBP) and I've been pricing out options. How about the graphics card upgrade? I'm looking at 27" and I really hate going over $2,000 but I'm debating if I should spend the extra $800-$900 to max it out if this is going to be the machine I plan to use for the next 4 years. I do plan to wait for the pending refresh but I'm assuming I'll have to make similar choices regardless. Bob Morales posted:NASA loves them some MacBook Pros Meh bunch of JPL yuppies. We were stuck using lovely dells at KSC.
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Aug 7, 2012 00:46
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I'm not too worried about games, though I may play something here and there. My biggest use is going to be Aperture, various plugins for Aperture, and a little photoshop. I really just want a machine that won't lag while I'm editing. It's getting to the point where Aperture is unusable on my old 2008 MBP. Storage is a big issue for me too (lots of photos) as I'm always running out of space even on the 750gb I popped into this MBP. I was looking at maxing out to 2tb internal but maybe I should start thinking about external TB drives? Edit: I was thinking the gfx upgrade might add a little more longevity to the machine.
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Aug 7, 2012 01:18
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Bob Morales posted:USB 3.0 kind of kills the requirement of having a big internal drive in a desktop. You could always get a 256GB SSD and a 3TB internal drive, and run those both at the same time. Buying from NewEgg is much cheaper than Apple. Is USB 3.0 going to run as fast as an internal? If so I guess you're right about not needing a big internal. Mu Zeta posted:Is there a particular reason you have to spend all the money on one machine? I'd just get the low end 27" for now and then get another 2-3 years from now when the retina iMacs are out. Do you think it'll remain a smooth running photo editing machine for that long? Should I just get the base model 27" and maybe max the RAM out myself?
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Aug 7, 2012 02:27
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How hard is it to jam in a SSD myself? I thought opening up an iMac was pretty difficult. Edit: Or do you just run the OS or the library off SSD? I'm a little confused. Haggins fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Aug 7, 2012 |
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Aug 7, 2012 02:58
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Mu Zeta posted:Honestly it looks more involved than I'd like. It would probably take 30 minutes Hmm I'm pretty comfortable tearing things apart like that (had to do it for this MBP), but messing with that glass scares me. At the very least I know I'm going to get some dust or finger prints in it. With just the 256 SSD I'm looking at $2067 before tax with my discount for the base. $2443 for the high end with the graphics upgrade. I'm starting to think I should lean towards the base with the SSD and pick up a reasonably priced USB 3 external drive for my non-current photo libraries and my music and what not. $2500+ is pushing it but I can certainly live with around $2000. Hopefully the SSD will be cheaper or bigger or both for the next refresh. Haggins fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Aug 7, 2012 |
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Aug 7, 2012 03:42
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NOTinuyasha posted:Apple charges $200 (materials and labor) for a new battery. The $500 number is an unjustified guess from a company that sells laptop parts. And just another crazy conspiracy - they might be unhappy about these changes because it threatens their business of selling lovely nobrand batteries to penny-pinching hobbyists who think it's the same thing because The Specs and Crapple Is Out to Rip Us Off. That's not bad considering that replacement batteries for models that have pop out batteries are $130. My battery has gone to poo poo on my 08 MPB but I can't justify replacing it when my computer rarely leaves the house.
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Aug 11, 2012 16:47
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It still works, it just doesn't last much longer than an hour. I also get the service battery warning. It's been like that for awhile, how would I know if I'm running at half speed?
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Aug 11, 2012 17:32
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sweek0 posted:Just bought a new laptop to replace my 2006 Macbook, which is causing more and more problems and hanging quite often. I don't really blame it since it's well over 6 years old and it's been awesome to me. You can just use the migration tool to transfer your files from the time machine backup. It won't downgrade you and it should grab everything. The only thing I would leave unchecked would be the transfer apps ticker. Just redownload/reinstall what you need and if you have to, you can just copy apps by hand from the mounted TM image. I just went through this process last week when I did a clean install of mountain lion.
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Aug 14, 2012 15:02
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:I'm shopping at $1000. I know I can get a much better mac for double that price, obviously. But at the $1000 price point, I'm getting into some pretty decent spec-ed PC's, and some OK macs. It just sucks that it has to be one or the other. If I were shopping for a machine for video editing and had $1000, I'd look into either buying a desktop or saving up another $1000 for a laptop that's good for it. Apple or not. I don't know maybe you're the guy that is away from home 300 days a year but why would you want to edit video on a small screen with underpowered hardware? Video is about the most intense thing you can do right up there with games. Entry level macs are great office type work and light creative duties, but they far from a pro machine for serious heavy duty work. If you're looking for something portable and great for heavy video work, you're hovering around the $2000 range without scoring a deal on a refurb. I don't do much video editing, I'm more into photography. Personally I don't see a need for a high end laptop for myself anymore. When I'm working on a big screen, editing is so much easier and helps me produce better results. Also, why do need edit anywhere that's not my house? If i'm traveling my time is better spent enjoying the place I'm at or shooting more instead of spending a couple hours a day editing on location. With the cost of flash memory being so cheap, worrying a place to dump my photos is a thing of the past; I just buy more CF cards. Having a laptop is useful but having a high end editing machine that's portable isn't that useful.
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Sep 6, 2012 03:25
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Lexicon posted:I'm hoping for SSD + HDD (in place of optical) as standard. Probably optimistic thinking though. I would be nice if a 256 SSD + 2TB wasn't $750, which in my estimation is $450 in Apple taxes. I'd would be happy if they had a SSD base of 256 and charged $200 to throw in another 2TB drive. Then again I guess with thunderbolt/USB3 I guess it doesn't matter if the big drive is inside, especially considering it's a desktop machine. Speaking of buying, I have $2000 coming to me for winning sweepstakes but I won't see the money till late October. Considering the time of year is close to black friday, does Apple ever have any good BF deals? I get a pretty good EPP discount with my company (seems to be slightly better than the edu discount) which I'm guessing isn't stackable. I wasn't planning on getting a new computer until next year so a couple weeks won't kill me.
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Sep 7, 2012 21:39
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Cost aside, what would be the advantage of an iMac over a MBPR docked to a thunderbolt 27inch display? I'm thinking base model retina compared to top end iMac with 256ssd. Lack of CD drive and user replaceable parts doesn't bother me.
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Sep 18, 2012 18:18
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Bob Morales posted:The only advantage of the iMac is cost and the 27" screen Yeah I'm planning on waiting until November-ish to see what comes. If the iMacs only gets a minor bump, I don't know if I'll be compelled to them any more. I'm just kind of weighing options while the time passes. I can get something that runs smooth as a photo editing machine for the next two years I'll be happy. I think I should just plan to sell my machine off every couple of years and buy something new. No sense in keeping a computer until it's too weak to do what you want to do and has lost almost all its value (like my 08 MBP).
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Sep 18, 2012 18:58
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saint gerald posted:Yeah, tried that. There's no indication that it's powered up at all, no response to the power button. Apple store time.
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Oct 13, 2012 01:27
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empty baggie posted:21, with the 27 coming later. I hope not. I'm tired of waiting for a 27inch. If that turns out to be true, maybe I'll just get a refurb. Edit: Btw does anyone know of a good place to sell off my old 2008 MBP? Gazelle won't give me poo poo for it, though I found a site that says they'll pay me at least $300. Haggins fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 22:37
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Bob Morales posted:Is it a Unibody or the old style? 15" or 13"? The very last of the old style 15 with everything working, max ram, and the hd upgraded to 750gb.
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Oct 18, 2012 00:00
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^^^Good to know.Bob Morales posted:Good luck getting much more than $400 I think I might just go with the site offering $300. IMO that's just enough to make it worth selling. Much less and I might as well keep it or give it to someone in the family. Next time I'm not going to keep a Mac longer than 2 years. I mostly use mine for photo editing and it seems after that mark, performance starts to deteriorate (esp when I upgrade to cameras with larger files and keep software current). My MBP was great the first couple years, sluggish but useable the third, and too slow to be able to do anything this past year. It really makes me not want to shoot when editing is so aggravating.
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Oct 18, 2012 14:29
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I'm glad they're doing this fusion thing. It was kind of silly that for an extra $500, you could get a iMac with only 256gb SSD. Fast is good but not having a ton of HD space kind of defeats the purpose of having a desktop. I wish I could spec out an iMac to see how much it's going to be with a 2 or 3TB drive. $250 for a 1tb hybrid seems pretty reasonable.
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Oct 23, 2012 21:00
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FlashBangBob posted:gently caress you Apple for not allowing fusion drives on the base iMac. Is that just the base 21 or base 27 too?
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Oct 24, 2012 03:29
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Kenny Logins posted:Thanks for your figures on the HD 4000. Did you just graduate or something? You should be able to get an educational discount all year round. You obviously won't get the itunes credit, but you will get at least $100 off. As for me, after having a MBP for a few years, I'm now anti laptop. My iphone and ipad really eliminate the need for one. There really isn't any content consumption I can't do on my iphone/ipad. Now a days, I only need a computer to do serious creative or technical work. When I do serious work, I'd much rather do it at a desk than on the couch and especially a big monitor. I suppose a laptop would be good for me if I were the type travels a lot and has to do work in hotel rooms. That's not me and besides, I have a company laptop for that kind of crap. As for games, for one, most games are a bear to play sitting on a couch with a laptop. Secondly the current crop of laptops may be able to handle current games now, but that won't last. Finally, I don't know if it's common now a days, but my old MBP would overheat all the time trying to play a game. I'm planning on getting a 27inch iMac when they come out.
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Oct 24, 2012 19:22
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Kenny Logins posted:Because I work in a small business my personal laptop is also my business laptop, but if I could have a company MBA, yeah, that would be sweet. A 13" RMBA would probably be the most I could justify for the work use, with a dedicated graphics card being only a slight nudge up to instead of over the line. If that were the case for me and I could use a mac at work, I wouldn't hesitate to get some type of pro. However, I couldn't use my own laptop at work if I wanted to so it doesn't matter to me.
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Oct 24, 2012 19:54
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ConfusedUs posted:What do you guys think? If you need a laptop then don't bother with desktop at all.
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Nov 5, 2012 01:25
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NOTinuyasha posted:Just dump it on eBay and run. Unless Apple offers you a refurb as a replacement or something. Don't bother with the memory. It sounds like it's still under warranty/apple care. This is a bad idea when it's up to Apple to fix the problem. oversteer posted:Desperate to order an iMac..but no preorders and no 27" until December.. Usually when they say coming in X month, that tends to end up being the very last day of the month. However, I'm assuming they'll want to get it out before the last couple weeks in December due to the holidays. My guess would be no later than the 14th. I've been ready to buy since early last month and have been keeping my eye on it too. I'd like to get it before the end of the year for tax purposes. As for 2011's the refurb section on the Apple store has 3 different 27" models available. They're indistinguishable from new and carry the full Apple warranty. I have my eye on them too but the discount doesn't seem steep enough to me. Haggins fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Nov 7, 2012 |
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Nov 7, 2012 01:11
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1997 posted:The dude quite literally said it is out of warranty. Well I'm confused. He said he just got it back from the Genius Bar for a hardware replacement but it's not under warranty? What's the gap?
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Nov 7, 2012 03:39
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barfoid posted:I live in MA and B+H photo dosnt say anything about tax? I will be sitting pretty with a 15 inch retina MacBook soon after thanksgiving and will throw my old toshiba off a cliff. It will actually probably take off in flight what with all those loud rear end fans! :toshibafail: They have a big rear end store in NYC, so if you don't live in NY, no tax.
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Nov 20, 2012 16:43
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Binary Badger posted:It's been mentioned before, but just putting a clean install of Lion / Mountain Lion on the new, blank disk/SSD and then using Migration Assistant to move everything over works wonders. Growing up as a long time windows person I was naturally skeptical of MA. However, I've had a few harddrive failures in the past couple years and using MA with a time machine backup has been flawless.
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Nov 21, 2012 15:35
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NOTinuyasha posted:I really wish I could, like, install Crashplan on my Time Capsule and have automated backups of the internal drive to the cloud. Only useful for people who actually use the internal drive for storage, which is nobody but me, so it probably won't happen You *might* be able to do it with backblaze. They allow you to back up external drives to the cloud for nothing extra. I think it's supposed to be only drives that are connected to your computer, but you might be able to get it to work with the capsule. I've been using them for years and haven't had a problem.
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Nov 23, 2012 19:58
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Electric Bugaloo posted:At least you'll be able to order and price out a 27", I think. Here's hoping the pricing stays relatively level- or improves. Finally! I've been waiting a few months now. My 08 MBP is on it's last leg and it's been too slow for me to edit photos on. It makes it so I don't want to shoot anymore. I really need something. Anyway, I'm wondering if Apple is going to do anything stupid; like make it so you can't upgrade the RAM without ungluing poo poo. I have a feeling the HD will be more of a bear to replace but I just hope the ram is still easy. Anyone know yet? Edit: Found my answer on the Apple page: quote:Memory Haggins fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Nov 27, 2012 |
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Nov 27, 2012 18:15
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Electric Bugaloo posted:You kidding? A sizable population of the 27" target market would loving riot if they bolted down the RAM. I'm sure Apple would love to do it- but they're savvy enough not to until probably after they launch a Mac Pro successor. I'd say the same about about Macbook Pros but we've lost HD access, RAM access, and CD drives. The iMac seems to be going in this direction as well.
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Nov 28, 2012 00:38
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Actually I'll be a mother fucker, according to Mac Rumors they did do it: 21.5" iMac Has No User-Upgradable RAM; 27" Has Four Accessible RAM Slots quote:Consistent with Apple's quest to make its new computers as thin as possible at the expense of expandability, the new 21.5" iMac contains no user-accessible RAM slots. Instead, it can be configured with 8GB or 16GB of RAM direct from the factory. This was first noticed by Cult of Mac.
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Nov 28, 2012 00:44
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lowercasejames posted:So... When I finally get my new iMac... How hard is it to transfer software? I know there's a tool to transfer your existing software setup to a new Mac, I've just never tried it. Anyone have any luck? It's crucial that I move Logic Pro and Adobe CS over otherwise I have to go and get the external disc drive and well gently caress that I don't want to. You should have no problems using Migration Assistant. I usually use it from a time machine backup on an external drive, but I believe you and just directly connect the machines (via firewire? ethernet?) and do it that way.
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Nov 28, 2012 00:54
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xzzy posted:
Maybe not to that extent, but I was like that as well. It seems the older I get the less time I have. Now a days when I'm on a computer I want to spend most of my time actually doing creative/technical work instead of wasting time polishing my tools. I'd throw in consumption on there too but most of mine is delegated to the iphone/ipad/and TV. I really only use my Mac for work and storage. Haggins fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Nov 28, 2012 |
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Nov 28, 2012 17:56
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moflika posted:I'll be in Southeast Asia for 6 months+ working, and will most likely stay longer. I'd like to put more stuff on it over time since I won't have a computer of my own during that time (up to 2 years, really). Just get an ipad and match. Match puts all your music in the cloud whether it's from itunes or not. I'm sure it works on a ipod touch as well.
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Nov 29, 2012 19:56
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I've had my iPad for two months now and I have yet find a reason to sync it to my mac. I don't even sync my iphone regularly anymore, except for podcasts (which I don't really have to do if I use icatcher or something similar). On the other hand, my ipod classic (which has been relegated to only being used in the car), has to be synced any time I buy new music. Haggins fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Nov 29, 2012 |
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Nov 29, 2012 21:53
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moflika posted:Hmmm, interesting. Does most of the "no need to sync" aspect of the iPad go away if I take away 3G and Wifi (most of the time)? My Kindle (again, only for reading and banking) has the advantage of of unlocked free (and slow) 3G access, whereas it seems like to get that on an iPad would be restricted to paying for a contract through AT&T/Sprint/Verizon. Outside of cities (where I spend the vast majority of my time) Wifi is pretty much non-existent. You don't need a contract for an 3G/LTE ipad. You should be able to pop in a local sim card and get cheap service in the country you're in. Just do your research on which 3g/lte model to get. Another option is to pick up a local "mifi" (portable router that gets its signal from cell towers) and connect to your own hotspot.
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Nov 29, 2012 23:52
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Just spec'd out the iMac I want to order next week and it seems like Apple isn't doing anything for my EPP discount. Educational discount seems to be in but I'm not going to try to scam that. A top end 27 inch with a 3TB fusion drive and upgraded graphics card comes out to $2765 after tax with no discount. Educational discount comes out to $2597. It seems that http://www.macmall.com/ is doing BTO iMacs and the same thing comes out to $2544. Looks like I'll be ordering from Mac Mall. Anyone have any thoughts on the graphics cards? I'm not sure if I want to max it out or not. The machine will mostly be used for photo editing (aperture, photoshop) and I might play a game here and there. There may be video editing in the future. I plan on keeping it for the next 3 years at least and would like to it to be a good performer till the end. I'm also torn between the 1TB and 3TB fusion, but I have a feeling I'll regret not getting the 3. If I get the 1TB I'm going to have to again rely on some external drives for my older photo libraries. If I get the 3, I won't have to worry about it for awhile. canyonero posted:Two questions about the new iMacs: I don't think anyone has done a tear down yet so it's not very safe to assume. Wait a few days to find out. Haggins fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Nov 30, 2012 |
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Nov 30, 2012 15:15
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Having a battery die isn't that big of a deal. Apple says they will replace it for $130 with same day installation at the Apple store. That's about the price you'd have to pay for a user replaceable battery from Apple and not much more what other makers charge.
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Dec 2, 2012 01:16
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