Bad overall macbook pro build?

Question

Hi, I had my macbook pro for about six months now, and most of the time it's been giving me problems to the point where its becoming a hassle. In the upcoming week, the visit to the genius bar for technical support will probably be my 5th time. So far, I had problems with the following: extremely hot macbook temperatures, installation becoming corrupted suddenly, extremely slow boot up time (apple logo + desktop), hard drive clicks ( clicks about 5 times in a row, the last one seems like the harddrive just stops), whenever i use apps such as safari, the whole desktop just freezes sometimes for 5 mins and goes back to normal. I am very careful with my macbook pro, making sure it is on a clean area, good ventilation etc. I was wondering if it's possible to completely just replaced my macbook pro for another one. I probably had to reformat my macbook pro at least once per 2 months. Recently, my macbook isn't going to sleep, I can't set it to sleep even using commands,the whole macbook heats up, not only the speaker areas, but as well as the areas next to the trackpad. The area where the RAM slots are located tend to get hotter than usual. I have istat pro installed, and temperature have risen 20-30 F higher than usual. My battery never really heated up until a couple days ago, and it begins to drain pretty quickly now. Instead of having to deal with this problem and keep making constant trips, is there a chance that I can just receive a new one or a replacement? Thanks for the help in advance!
Rodrigo Kim

Answer 1

When you say extremely hot, just how hot exactly? As you may have read, the MBPs tend to get quite hot. For example, I have Pages, iTunes, M-audio FW soundcard plugged in, Safari and Mail running and my temperature is 65C. The little strip at the back of keyboard is pretty hot! I've also had my machine get to 96C when importing a CD in iTunes (although I admit even this is a little too hot)! If I'm running an intensive Logic project I'd expect my machine to hit high 70s. Photoshop usually brings things to 85C. Anyway, these machines can withstand high temps so I imagine it isn't as much of a problem as you think.
As for the clicking, long bootup and corrupted installation, these problems may all be fixed with a simple harddrive replacement. From recent experience, Apple Support has been good. My GFX card fried the other week and they replaced the Logic board (and also the battery because I complained about it). So yeh, give it a go. They might not replace the machine, but they will certainly replace broken parts. However, just lay it on a bit thick and see what happens!