Digital Trends

Apple MacBook Pro 15.4-inch 2.16GHz May 24th, 2006 | by Jason Tomczak

MacBook Pro Acts Up

Shortly after testing Photoshop CS2 on the MacBook Pro, I downloaded a new software update from Apple - 10.4.6.  After the update, the MacBook Pro seemed to reboot quicker than before.  It also seemed to run cooler.  I was pleased.  I then opened Safari to continue research online.  The MacBook Pro suddenly had no wireless connection.  The wireless icon indicated full signal for my SSID, but there was no connection. 

After thorough trouble shooting, I was able to get it connected once, but on subsequent reboots (or waking from sleep mode), the connection was just dead.  I took it to the nearest Apple store and handed it over to several Genius Bar folks.  They couldn't figure it out and said that without a WPA protected network to test it on, they could not replicate the problem.  (Which begs to ask, 'Why isn't there a simple WPA or WEP protected network at the Genius Bar to test systems on?')

The next day, I performed a few Disk Utility functions.  I got numerous errors and failure messages, and a disappointing request from Disk Utility to insert my original installation DVDs to run repair utilities.  I fixed the volume errors with minimal effort, but as soon as I connected to another secure network, the password mess began happening again. 

Another Apple tech thought something had been corrupted in the OS, and as I didn't want to spend the next week diagnosing annoyances, I decided on a reinstallation of OS X. 

Reinstallation of OS X went smoothly.  WPA wireless worked perfectly... until I downloaded 10.4.6 again; after which things went haywire.  I looked at Apple's newest support threads and found some tips on fixing this problem.  Half an hour later, the WPA issue had been corrected.  No more volume errors, either. 

Now that the MacBook Pro is running at top-health again, I am quite pleased with its performance and capabilities.  Nothing runs particularly faster since the 10.4.6 issue was corrected, but the native running speed for applications on the MacBook Pro is wholly impressive and makes for a very satisfactory computing experience.  Given Universal applications to run, the MacBook Pro is an absolute speed demon.  The more RAM you feed it, the faster it goes.