Users report trackpad, keyboard lockups with Apple's newest MacBook Pros
Owners of Haswell-equipped Retina MacBook Pros have taken to Apple's user-to-user support forums en masse, complaining of repeated keyboard and trackpad freezes that can be remedied only with a hard reset.
The largest thread related to the issue features more than 250 replies spanning 17 pages. Users have reported seeing the problem with every hardware configuration of the slim notebooks, with both 13- and 15-inch models seemingly equally affected.
Most users say that a hard system reset is the only cure when the systems freeze, while there are sporadic reports that cycling sleep mode by closing the lid and reopening it can reanimate the input devices. Several users who have tried the old standby troubleshooting step of resetting the laptop's System Management Controller via a keyboard combination on startup say that it does not provide any relief.
A conflict between OS X Mavericks, the latest revision to Cupertino's desktop operating system, and the new MacBook Pro hardware has not been completely ruled out. Owners of previous-generation Retina MacBook Pros, however, do not report similar issues after the Mavericks update.
Apple updated the Retina display-equipped MacBook Pro line last week, migrating from Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture to a new Haswell-based system featuring the Santa Clara company's Iris Pro integrated graphics chip. The move has reaped performance increases of two to eight percent across the board, while adding hours of battery life to the laptops.
The largest thread related to the issue features more than 250 replies spanning 17 pages. Users have reported seeing the problem with every hardware configuration of the slim notebooks, with both 13- and 15-inch models seemingly equally affected.
Most users say that a hard system reset is the only cure when the systems freeze, while there are sporadic reports that cycling sleep mode by closing the lid and reopening it can reanimate the input devices. Several users who have tried the old standby troubleshooting step of resetting the laptop's System Management Controller via a keyboard combination on startup say that it does not provide any relief.
A conflict between OS X Mavericks, the latest revision to Cupertino's desktop operating system, and the new MacBook Pro hardware has not been completely ruled out. Owners of previous-generation Retina MacBook Pros, however, do not report similar issues after the Mavericks update.
Apple updated the Retina display-equipped MacBook Pro line last week, migrating from Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture to a new Haswell-based system featuring the Santa Clara company's Iris Pro integrated graphics chip. The move has reaped performance increases of two to eight percent across the board, while adding hours of battery life to the laptops.
Comments
This fall's launches are not looking to be Apple's best. That might be the biggest understatement I've ever made.
The Pages thread is 45 pages long with 665 messages detailing a disaster.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5473697?tstart=0
Keynote, iMovie, Numbers are all getting hammered in the forums and on the store.
Though I know the media likes to focus on hardware, Apple is also a very big software maker. Will AI write an article about software?
Overall, I am getting the feeling that Apple is in a post-Steve slump and are stumbling a bit. Quite a bit?
This fall's launches are not looking to be Apple's best.
The Pages thread is 45 pages long with 665 messages detailing a disaster.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5473697?tstart=0
Keynote, iMovie, Numbers are all getting hammered in the forums and on the store.
Will AI write an article about software?
Overall, I am getting the feeling that Apple is in a post-Steve depression and are stumbling a bit. Quite a bit?
www.apple.com/feedback is where people should be posting their frustrations. They can do it on the support site, but this stuff gets actually routed to the right people as well, maybe even faster.
I'm not worried, they'll get it together. Software is pretty easy to fix. They did it with iTunes where they left some features out and then they brought some of them back. I can't explain why they do it, seems a little odd to me.
Maybe they hired some ex-Microsoft or Google employees that don't understand Apple. (Just joking, well maybe I'm not too far off)
Actually, here's what I THINK might be going on. They had a major announcement date which doesn't change. And to get all of the hardware/software updates ready on the same date? Yeah, right. I think what happens is they give them a date to release new s/w and the developers can't always have everything ready, tested, and with all of the features because a specific release date was mandated by upper management, so they release what they feel most comfortable with (even though features might have been left out or not fully tested) and then they complete everything and THEN they release an update and things get resolved. I don't know how much better they can do it because of these mandated announcement dates, but MAYBE if we send enough submissions to the feedback, they'll improve.
It's just the nature of the computer/software industry. Apple isn't the only one that does this. I seem to remember that Windows 8 had some problems and they had to wait about a year for 8.1. I don't think we have to wait a year for most of these software problems to get fixed.
Relax. Deep breathes, Serenity NOW!
The do seem to be simplifying a lot of iWork features, I assume for cross platform and iCloud collaboration reasons. Those are major steps and not to be written off too lightly. I do hope now that has been achieved Apple can start adding back missing features and indeed add more.
That said I have always felt both iLife and iWork apps all deserve Pro equivalents as we have with iLife. If we can have Logic, Final Cut and Aperture / Garage Band, iMovie and iPhoto ... why not a suite of pro versions for Numbers, Pages and Keynote? I'd also love to see collaboration added to pro apps. Logic Pro X with collaboration would 'rock' ...pun intended.
Regarding iWork, The solution for now is to keep the '11 versions for when needed. I notice the updates put those in a folder and didn't over write them.
My overall feeling is I have never felt Macs were more powerful and software so awesome in (nearly) 30 years of using Macs.
I've never had a Mac freeze on me until Mavericks. The funny thing was it didn't say anything was not responding. I had to literally turn the iMac off.
www.apple.com/feedback is where people should be posting their frustrations. They can do it on the support site, but this stuff gets actually routed to the right people as well, maybe even faster.
I'm not worried, they'll get it together. Software is pretty easy to fix. They did it with iTunes where they left some features out and then they brought some of them back. I can't explain why they do it, seems a little odd to me.
Maybe they hired some ex-Microsoft or Google employees that don't understand Apple. (Just joking, well maybe I'm not too far off)
My comment was mainly for to direct the attention of AppleInsider to the large problem with software; in the article at the top of this thread they mention the number of pages and posts about the potential hardware problem, but the software problem is getting more posts on Apple's boards. There are even recent switchers from Windows saying that they are looking forward to switching back, just over software issues.
Personally, I'm worried about Apple. My boss is, too. Just today I was asked to meet on Wednesday with a computer consultant, and was given a name. The guy works only with Windows machines.
Speaking of which- why can you still not double click the top of iTunes to get it to the Dock? I thought for sure that iTunes flaw would have been addressed.
The dumbing down of Numbers is exceptionally noticeable. It's no longer a viable competitor to Excel...and Excel is quite user-hostile.
As for mavericks, it's less than a week ago. And contrary to the FUD spreaders at no point did anyone at Apple ever even hint that there still is trouble free.
If I had to wager a guess for many of these folks with mavericks issues they are on an older machine they updated or a new machine they migrated from an older one and they are suffering a data conflict from an old preference file or such. The issues won't happen in a fresh user but they don't often think to try this test because it's more fun to gripe for pages and pages and expound upon how they have bought everything Apple has made for the past 50 years and it's always got issues, quadruply now that Steve is dead and Tim is making all the decisions, blah blah
The Pages thread is 45 pages long with 665 messages detailing a disaster.
No one gives a frick. Seriously. “discussions.apple.com” is not a valid source of information.
Magical. How many times has this happened? And how many times have they been wrong? Exactly.
Why would they; is there something wrong with it?
You’re pretty close to #45 there…
OK, but you still have the '11 Numbers, right? So not the end of the world. But I agree Apple need to an Excel level app but I'd prefer a pro version and the iWork suite can then stay simple for the average user. A Pro version could then be the Excel killer.
EDit ... I always forget it is iWork '9 and iLife '11. Well I recently learned to say iWork not iWorks so I am making some progress ...
I've been running every beta on several Macs since they first came out. No freezes ever. Have you run something like Disk Warrior to check your drive's directories? You could have some damage there. DW is fast and safe and inexpensive. I've used it for donkey's years and it has cured so many weird problems I have lost count. Disk Utilities just doesn't see some issues DW fixes.
http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
I have no affiliation with this company, just been a user since Mac OS days.
Problem with your theory is that Apple sets the announcement date and tells it a mere week before that day. Knowing that Apple is the page hit fodder of all history and knowing that folks will FUD to death every issue, if they knew something wasn't ready for prime time do you really think they would be crazy enough to release it.
They could have easily delayed the announcement, could have delayed the 'today' etc.
It's an new iMac barely 9 months old- but you never know.
Oh to be sure. I've seen brand new Macs with damaged directories.
I've read through the entire 18 pages. There isn't a single mention of a problem with the new 15" rMBP. There is one mention of a 15" from 2012. Whatever the problem is, it seems to be relegated to the new 13" rMBP (and Mavericks).
Oh to be sure. I've seen brand new Macs with damaged directories.
I usually wipe the Mac when I get a new one and install it the way I want to. Then I don't have all the 2,000 printer drivers, etc. I too have take a Mac out of the box with a bad installation. It happens.
As far as Mavericks goes...I've been using Mavericks since the first developer preview and while I agree the first DP was not good (hence DP), the rest have been pretty good. I never once have had any lockups. I currently use Mavericks on a 15" MBP, Mac Mini (mid-2011), 13" MBP (latest gen) and no lockups at all. There are bugs, but that's to be expected. There is no such thing as perfect software and developers can't test for every single scenario Mavericks is going to get put in, even if it seems like the most logical scenario.
The dumbing down of Numbers is exceptionally noticeable. It's no longer a viable competitor to Excel...and Excel is quite user-hostile.
This is what I find really bizarre. Until last week, no one said that Numbers was a competitor to Excel, or that Pages was suitable for 'heavyweight' document work.
Now, after the latest upgrades, all these people have appeared who were using Numbers for serious financial modelling and using Pages to crack out technical books and novels of 500+ pages. And now of course, they can't do that anymore.
Where have they been hiding all this time?
Sounds a lot like the situation with Final Cut ProX: First release, much wailing and gnashing of teeth. I expect that Apple has torn everything down to the bare essentials so they can rebuild the software from the ground up. The question is, how long will it take them?
I don't have a problem with the rewrite (I don't tend to do a lot of complex stuff on Pages anyway), but as with FCPx and iMovie and Maps, the communication was poorly handled.