Exchanging the MacBook

Today was my last day to decide whether to return the MacBook or not (and pay a 10% restocking fee), so earlier this week I called Apple and told them that when it was plugged in but entirely idle, the CPU would sit at 66C, and that it would go up to 88C when I was actually doing anything.

They surprisingly decided that was bad, so they are exchanging it for a new one. I'd like to say that that makes me happy, except that I don't have a lot of hope that the new one will be much better -- my wife's MacBook Pro is the version that's supposed to be the "good" one, but it also gets insanely hot and has the infamous processor whine (which mine had a touch but not as badly as hers).

So, I had to take the 2GB of Crucial RAM out of it and put the 512MB back in. I upped it because workspace switching was pretty darn slow and I wanted to see if that would make a difference. Somewhat disappointingly, it did -- it's sad to see 512MB of RAM not be sufficient for a machine. It's good that it became faster, but it still wasn't fast enough when I had an external LCD hooked up -- that workspace switching was still quite slow, especially when compared to my Debian box which is theoretically slower (dual athlon from 2-3 years ago). Even if my Debian box is hammered it still switches almost instantaneously.

Anyway, so I'm reinstalling the 512MB of RAM, and while I'm very appreciative that the RAM (and the hard drive, which I will likely up to a 100GB 7200rpm drive) is easy to install, it's not a very good system. You can't see the housing for the RAM, so you can't tell if it's actually seated. The docs say just to press with two fingers, but... I reinstalled the RAM four times, and only on the last attempt did I get it installed right. I had to use a cloth napkin to protect my fingers from the thin ram chip and press with both hands, one on the chip and one on the far side of the laptop. One of the chips slid in crooked but clearly further than mere "pressing" had pushed it before, so after some more shoving I finally got the RAM chips all the way in. I remember it being annoying when installing the 2GB, but not this annoying.

Oh, and the only indication that the RAM was installed incorrectly was that the sleep light would pulsate without the machine turning on. I miss the old glass breaking noise, but I'm at least surprised the docs don't mention how to tell when that's the problem (not that it shouldn't be obvious, but what if I had installed both RAM and HD?).

So the lesson is, you really have to shove that RAM into the MacBooks. If the RAM and the edge of the casing are level, then the RAM isn't in far enough -- it was 1-2mm further back than the casing when I was done, with an obvious overhang.

Hopefully I'll have my new MacBook next week, but as long as I get it before I fly to California for a Joyent on-site, I'll be fine.