The Death of a MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air that Replaced it
After using my MacBook Pro heavily for a little over two years, and extensively earlier in the day, my machine bit the dust on the evening of December 8th, 2011. It was a good machine; the fastest I had ever owned up to that point. I’ve made, what I consider, a respectable living for someone my age on that machine. I will miss it.
Trouble started a few weeks ago when the MacBook Pro failed to recognize one of two 2GB, after-market, RAM modules I had put in the machine. This was odd, but I thought perhaps one of the modules had gone bad. Performance dropped off, and sometimes the screen wouldn’t come on unless I did a hard reset after opening the lid. No problem, I’d just have the family get a set of new ones for Christmas, and I would limp along on 2GB until then.
Then on that fateful night, after a long day at school, I opened my computer and was hit with a kernel panic. Ok, again this was odd, but I’ve been having more kernel panics under Lion than any other OS from Apple I had run in the past. So this (sadly) wasn’t a total surprise. I followed through the usual procedure of a hard reset and when the machine booted back up, I was hit was a surprise.
I sat there and stared at a blinking folder icon with a question mark in the center of it. My first thought was that the hard drive had gone south. I hurriedly looked up what this meant. Turns out that my machine could no longer find the boot files it needed to launch OS X. I followed the whole “hold down the option key while booting up” to select the boot drive. Nothing appeared. Then I put in an old Snow Leopard install disc and launched the disc utility. It could not find the drive. At this point I was pretty sure my hard drive was toast.
I hurriedly made a trip to Best Buy and bought a new drive. They were close, and the only computer-y store still open at 8:30 at night in town. One hundred dollars and an hour later, my MacBook couldn’t find the new drive either. Not thinking earlier, I had an external drive enclosure sitting around. I quickly checked both the old drive and the new one. They both worked. So, I have two good RAM modules, and two good hard drives, and a computer that recognizes only one RAM module. I concluded the Logic board was dead.
I sat, took a swig of bourbon, and decided that I needed to shell out for a new computer. I quickly made the decision – I was going to get a new MacBook Air.
I had been considering getting a MacBook Air when I graduated from College two years from now. Since they were redesigned late last year, they’ve become viable machines for day-to-day work. They also have SSD drives, which makes all of the difference in regards to speed in today’s computers.
That leads me to now. Here I sit writing this with a shiny new MacBook Air. I chose the high-end $1599 model so I would have room to grow, and plenty of storage space (256GB is more than enough for me). It’s by far the fastest traditional computer I have ever owned (not including the always-snappy iOS devices). Most applications open as close to instantaneously as possible. Even big boy applications like Photoshop and InDesign (which I live and work in) launch within 10 seconds. Even the computer, from the off position, launches within 15 seconds. SSDs are the way of the future. In short, I chose the MacBook Air for the portability, yes, but mostly for the solid state drives. The speed alone was worth the price.
I was lucky in many respects that this whole fiasco went down when it did. Just twelve hours earlier a failure like this would have meant a failing grade in one of my classes. I was lucky. On the flip side, good preparation on my part for an incident like this, saved me from losing much data.
I always, always, always manually perform a Time Machine backup at the end of the day. Usually my laptop is not connected to an external drive during the day, and my Time Capsule died (long story) a long time ago. In a worst case scenario, much like the one I just recovered from, I lose no more than a day’s worth of work. That’s enough work to be a serious aggravation, but not enough to lose a lot of sleep over. It’s a system that works for me, and you’re mileage may vary. Just do yourself a favor and make backups. Now.
The biggest aggravation in migrating my data from the backup to my new machine came with the USB data transmission speeds. An expensive Thunderbolt data array would have been nice. But really, I can’t complain. Everything went as smoothly as possible considering the circumstances.
With all of that said, I’m very disappointed that a $1000+ computer only lasted a little more than two years. I kept the machine under a constant software load, but physically was very careful with it. There is no excuse for the internals to die out in that period of time. Hell, I’ve had an aluminum iMac since they were first introduced in August of 2007. Not one thing has gone wrong with that machine in that four and a half year period of owning it. It’s starting to show it’s age, but nothing aside from that.
In all, I highly recommend the MacBook Air. It’s lightning fast, and a joy to use. The Air line has come a long way from it’s beginnings as a under-powered, over-priced novelty, and certainly has pro-level capabilities these days. In fact, if I regularly attended developer or design conferences like, say, WWDC, I would be more than happy taking just the Air.
Only two years old, why did you not buy applecare?
Really great article. I’ll be bookmarking this, to read more carefully and enjoyably tonight on my iPad.
Do you have an iPad? How do you feel about iPad vs Air? I’d be interested to hear your opinion.
Love the article.
I own both. For me, they both have distinct uses. I could write and do most of my work on an iPad alone. However, I’m a graphic design student, and do some of that work on the side, so, for the time being, I need a full-fledged Mac. Perhaps in the future when the iPad can handle such applications as Photoshop and Indesign, I can make the full switch.
I also onwn both but I hope in a new step for a little MB A that will allow me to use it better: two screens, the second at the place of the obsolete keyboard with an OS who allows to transfers on it (configurable as option) any menu, dock, dashboard, launchpad, alert, and, why not?, chat background windows, leaving clean for full screen the front application (and safely protected both the screen glasses!)
Steve still lives in our heart and inspire our minds!
It’s downright pitiful that your MacBook Pro bit the dust in two years; the only laptop anyone in my family ever owned that went bad anywhere near that fast was a Toshiba, back in the late 90s. We’ve got a 2002 titanium PowerBook G4 DVI that’s still running perfectly (on its original HD, no less) despite having received so much use that the finish is worn off where its various users’ watch buckles rub on the edge – and running Leopard at that. You just got a lemon – that’s certainly not the usual experience with Macs of any kind, at least not the older ones – I’ve also got a 2001 vintage G4 Cube running 24/7/365 as an FTP and FIlemaker server; never a hiccup. There’s a lot to be said for G4s.
Nice to hear that you like the Air. I, too, wonder whether I’d ever update my iPad2 with another iPad if it fails or just buy an Air. I’ve gotten used to the touch screen but the Air is a real Mac…
Yeah, I got a lemon, that’s all I can say. As for the Air/iPad argument. I think they both have their place. I could do most of my work on an iPad, but I still need a Mac for my design work. When the iPad catches up, I’ll make the total switch.
Since it happened on a 2 year old macbook, would you consider getting AppleCare this time? I have AppleCare for both my MacBook air and iMac and have saved me from shelling out on a new machine twice.
Yeah, I hope to make an AppleCare purchase within the 30 day time period.
I understood that you got 1 year after you bought your mac while your standard coverage runs to then buy Applecare which should give you just under 4 years of coverage.
Enjoyed reading your article , I’m using the 13′ macbook pro and so far so good. Also I’m using my Ipad2 as well and loving it. Guess I’ll keep a close eye on my macbook and hope its end days don’t come no time soon.
It likely won’t. Like I said, I’ve had my iMac for four and a half years without a single problem. I got the lemon of the bunch. That’s all I can say.
Ugh, thats just terrible. A premium notebook but only two years old of life? Terrible quality. What a waste, buy Applecare next time pal.
Will do. That was an expensive mistake.
Two things – firstly, you have a year to get the Apple Care on your new MBA.
Secondly, did you even take the computer to Apple? They’ll charge you a flat rate of $310 to fix something if your computer is out of warranty/no Apple Care. They’re known for replacing logic boards for free, and sometimes flat out swapping your computer for a new one.
With that said, I’d be a little careful in saying that the MBA is a MBP killer. For you it may seem like it, but many of us need 500 or more GB hard drives, eight GB of RAM, optical drive, etc …
I am very surprised to read about your Mac Book pro, and yes you did get a lemon.
I have owned my Mac book pro for almost 3 1/2 years and knock on wood, it functions as a brand new one even with the upgrade to Lion, I haven’t had any significant issues really.
I own both iPad 2 and the Mac book and I do agree with you, to each is their own use, but to be honest, I would not go for a Mac air simply because it lacks so many hardwares (e.g. Optical drive slot) plus its limited with the it’s I/O ports. Maybe it is fast, but Mac book pros (the new ones) are as fast and probably can handle more work load on its memory than an air.
Good artical though
I am trying to decide between a Macbook pro or air, both the 13 inch. I’ve been using a dell latitude e6400 but want to switch to Mac. I love how lightweight the air is but i’m concerned about it being able to handle the type of data and processing I do (design work as well as frequently run 5 or 6 programs simultaneously). My desk top has about 5 TB worth of data, so i’m also slightly concerned about that….. those with the pro, is it really heavy?
Same thing happened twice on my 13″ MBP – problems accessing files, then it couldn’t see the internal hard drive, though the drive worked fine externally.
BOTH times (about a year apart) it was the hard drive cable (which on the 13″ includes the infrared sensor) that had failed.
Since I have Applecare they repaired it, but it is only a $40 part off iFixit.
You might want to try that with yours as well.
Got to agree with Bill on this one. Same thing happened to my son’s MBP13. He’s also a student like you and drags it everywhere. I went out and bought it a new disk drive due to all the I/O errors reported on the disk. Same symptoms. Took it to Apple for analysis, and they ended up replacing the internal drive cable. All better…for 6 months. Then the same symptoms. Machine could see the disk if it was in a USB case, but not mounted internally. Apple replaced the cable again, this time on them. I’ve had no such problems on my own MBP15, but this models houses the cable in a recessed channel. My surmise is that external pressure applied to the bottom plate can injure the cable where it makes some of it’s 90-degree bends on the 13-inch. I ended up putting a piece of polyfoam between the cable and bottom plate to see if I could extend its lifetime. In any case, try putting your disk in a USB case to see if the computer will boot from it. If so, it could just be the $20 cable!
I lived out almost EXACTLY the same adventure and disappointment at the start of last Summer and, in the misfortune, I had the luck to can buy the same machine (MB A i7 256GB) after a deep urgent decision like a pilot of an aircraft being without engines over the river Hudson (ops… sorry for my paranoid weak for dramatizations
)
I quickly turned my disappointment in gratefulness for that accident: how long had I delayed the joy of using a MODERN laptop if it didn’t happen?
Nevertheless I’m still waiting for the new step: stop with the obsolete keyboard; give us an iPad touch screen at it’s place and for that use and an operating system who allows to transfers on it (configurable as option) any menu, dock, dashboard, launchpad, alert, and, why not?, chat background windows, leaving clean for full screen the front application (and safely protected both the screen glasses!)