Day 2 of 8 hiking

Out hiking again. And giving the sun panel a second try. Reports will
follow.

Possible cause of the problems...

I saw this post earlier but I didn't verify why it until first now and it seams like the problems that nvidia has reported is infact on the graphics card in the new Mac Book Pro.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/10/all-nvidia-8400m-8600m-chips-faulty/

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

As you can see below this should be the same chip that is used in the new Mac Book Pro, the image taken from the Apple Store today.

I assume I should be glad that I returned the computer now so I didn't have to wait for a replacement graphics card and what not. It just feels a bit strange if it's over heating problems since I could reproduce the problem so consistently, not like what I would have expected of an over heating problem, but on the other hand, nvidia might prefer to call it an overheating even if there are other problems as well...

The switcher switches back...

TNT was just here and fetched the computer. I just managed to install the OS again but didn't have time to logon, update the computer, install Numbers and verify the bug again. But hey can't do all of the supports job for them?

So I'm back to my PC for now, am currently using [alt] to navigate between words which isn't that good in a browser on the PC (jumps pages instead). Well luckily I'm going away for a week shortly so I might have forgot all of the Mac shortcut when I get back.

Chapter one of this blog is hereby almost complete...

Last hour...

With my Mac, TNT will soon be here to collect the computer. It was original planned for 14:00 but as I noticed that it would take longer that I had appreciated to erase the hard drive etc I had to reschedule to 16:00.

I have had a nice last day with the Mac in the sun and I do hope that they release a new model which hopefully doesn't have the same problems shortly. Going back to my PC for the time being.

I can't believe how long it can take to format the disk (0 on all blocks), I started for two hours ago and then it sad it would take about 2 hours, which would translate to 30MB/sec not that fast but okey. No it has already gone two hours and the progress window says its one hour left. But I would guess that it is more like two ours left which would give a write speed of 15MB/sec.. This is embarrassing, guess that my performance test off the GB lan was not so accurate if I have the disk as a bottleneck.

Well time to about the formatting after 75% and reinstall the OS so the Apple guys can verify the problem once they get the computer.

Return accepted... but still waiting for the support...

I have got the return accepted and TNT should contact me shortly to collect the computer. I'm however waiting on the support since the one I talked with yesterday sad he had a new Mac Book Pro and I like to confirm that he can reproduce the problem as well. Luckily they have music while I am waiting, soo 47min to be informed that the person I was looking for was not in the office.

They did however not understand that I just wanted to talk to this person even if I stated it so they tried to solve the problem, which noone has managed with before...

Well well got the direct number to the person atleast so I can call him tomorrow.

Time to switch back...

But hopefully only for a while, since the problem with the computer still haven't been solved with the latest update I feel it's time to return the computer.

I must admit that even I, with all my problems, have managed to become a Mac fan boy in the mean time. My biggest complain has been the lack of proper keyboard navigation, but I found the settings for this and right now there is no major complaints that I can think of.

I will actually miss OS X but as soon as they release a new MacBook I will probably make the switch once again, the only question now is if they will honer their word and lets me return the computer with a full refund.

Leopard 10.5.4 is released and the verdict is...

The latest update of Leopard was just released, and I was quite excited when I started Numbers to check if I would still be able to reproduce the bug. It took one more cell then usually to initiate the bug but it was still there. I left the computer for over 20 minutes and when I got back so was the "Force Quit" dialog available but with a black border around as had most of the other windows and the clock was still stuck.

Of some reason so did I connect my iPhone to the dock and after just a few moments so was the gui responsive again, just had to drag around the windows to remove the black borders. Sweet was my initial thought, all I have to do is to connect the iPhone and I will regain control of my computer :-).

Time for the second try, this time I used OmniGraffle and even if I don't have an exact procedure to trigger the bug with this program it did aswell feel like it took me just a little more time than usual. I did however still manage to initiate the bug this way as well. I now started to test my theory that connecting an external device, in my case the iPhone would force the gui to regain control, after about 5 minutes without been giving control after repeatly connecting and reconnecting the iPhone I had to consider myself beaten again.

The biggest change from earlier is however that I never manage to get the qui completely frozen, after a few reconnects of the iPhone or so I could notice that the clock had updated or some other small change... progress Apple, progress, but still not sufficient...