MacBook Pro Core i7 intermittent freezes lasting ~5-30 seconds

MacBook Pro
CPU Core i7 2.66GHz
RAM 4GB 1067MHz DDR3
HDD Seagate 500GB 7200RPM
MacBookPro6,2
Boot ROM Version: MBP61.0057.B09
SMC Version (system): 1.58f16
Serial ATA HDD: ST9500420ASG
Revision: 0008APM2
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
I'm experiencing frequent freezes while doing trivial light tasks that shouldn't really put any strain on this system (e.g. as basic as writing an email). These freezes last anywhere between 5-20 seconds where the music (if playing) stops, mouse cursor changes to a spinning beach-ball and all applications one by one stop responding (e.g. click to activate app works but then immediately it goes to beach ball, this for 2-3 apps and then even this stops responding).
The biggest problem is that the freezes are very unpredictable and hard to connect to any particular event (application activity or something like that). There are times where I can experience 4-5 freezes in a period of 20 minutes or it could go on for hours without them.
I tried quite a few things to resolve this issue but without any success
— reset PRAM
— reset SMC
— repaired permissions
— turned off sudden motion sensor
— turned off Spotlight
— disabled automatic graphics switching
— created a new account in OS X
— disabled Airport and used Ethernet
— disabled hard disk drive sleep
None of the above fully resolves the issue. Some of the items appear to make it less frequent but I doubt they actually make any difference at all, considering the inconsistent frequency of the problem.
Tracked the temperature of the system — the problem does not seem to be related in any way to high temperature. In fact it sometimes occurs almost immediately after wake-up or power-on.
There are no console messages when the hangs occur either.
The thread below describes a very similar (if not the same) problem
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2407560&tstart=45
Anyone else experiencing this? Any idea about a solution short of changing the hard drive? Ideas for communicating the problem with Apple (as it's intermittent it's hard to reproduce it on demand).

I seemed to have fixed mine by accident...
in system preferences...start up disc...mine had network start up highlighted, i selected the other and have not had any more problems... hope this helps

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MacBook Pro Retina (15") intermittant freeze connecting firewire drive to Thunderbolt adapter

Since having my MacBook Pro Retina (15") I have been having intermittant (often only have 5 days or so) hard freeze on connecting firewire 800 drives to it via the thunderbolt adapter. This occurs with both powered (LaCie 2gb) and unpowered (Iomega GO 1gb) drives. After the last few times I tried connecting the thunderbolt adapter and then plugging in the drive (rather than having the firewire cable already plugged into the adapter and then plugging the adapter in). I was able to reproduce a hard freeze after nothing happened when the adapter alone was plugged in, plugging in the powered drive caused an immediate freeze.
By a hard freeze I mean that when the system reboots it doesn't even recognise a crash occured. There was no kernel panic screen.
I plug into these drives at least once a day but it usually takes up to a week before the freeze occurs. I have had no trouble with leaving the unpowered drive cnnected during sleep it appears to be when I change drives. I always unplug the adapter and make sure the computer is still running before putting to sleep and make sure it is functioning properly after wake before connecting the drive.
Using USB 2.0 there have been no problems with the same drives.
Any ideas?

I believe this issue is caused by bad ground coupling between the two devices, some of the induced charge can spark between connectors in the thunderbolt port causing computer to basicly freeze.
To solve this issue try touching the connectors outside metal part to your macbooks body first to discharge it, then while plugging int the connector do it at slight angle so the metal of the connector touches Mac's body.
This method has been working for me.

MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo intermittent severe Airport glitches

My MacBook Pro seems to be unable to remain consistently synchronised with our Airport network. Every minute or two, it blocks wireless network traffic completely for 10-20 seconds. At other times, the ping times to our base stations fluctuate wildly from <10ms to 25 seconds!! The machine also gets intermittent packet loss which varies from 5-50%.
We have a previous generation MacBook Pro (Core Duo) which does not seem to be as prone to these problems - it gets stuck maybe once a day max, compared to every few minutes for the new machine. Our older PowerBook G4 has no problems whatsoever.
In our small office we have two Airport Express base stations, one connected to our DSL, the other to our music & printer and linked via WDS. I have tried changing encryption from WEP to WPA Personal, removed encryption altogether, disabled each base station in turn, turned down transmitter strength, tried with and without Interference Robustness enabled on both the base station and the client machine... Nothing seems to improve this. I am certain this is not a problem with signal strength, range or interference as other machines the same distance and further away (on a different floor!) have NO problems at all.
Does anyone have any information about this? Is Apple aware of the problem? From what I can tell I'm not the only one experiencing issues.
We can't stream music without it getting stuck every other song, and it's affecting our internet access too. Here is a sample ping chain which illustrates the kind of problems we are seeing - just as I started the ping the connection started to block for a few seconds then recovered (and blocked again shortly after I stopped the ping) - look at the sequence no.s!:
PING 192.168.1.201 (192.168.1.201): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2915.880 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=3953.169 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=3142.803 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=532.846 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=13 ttl=64 time=2.933 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=14 ttl=64 time=2.637 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=15 ttl=64 time=3.920 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=873.117 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=120.166 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=19 ttl=64 time=9.534 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=20 ttl=64 time=25.360 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=21 ttl=64 time=1.104 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=22 ttl=64 time=13.413 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=23 ttl=64 time=33.707 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=24 ttl=64 time=36.508 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=25 ttl=64 time=1.078 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=26 ttl=64 time=3.148 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=27 ttl=64 time=15.083 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=28 ttl=64 time=9.760 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=29 ttl=64 time=6.367 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=30 ttl=64 time=3.402 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=31 ttl=64 time=29.412 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=32 ttl=64 time=3.039 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.201 ping statistics ---
33 packets transmitted, 23 packets received, 30% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.078/510.365/3953.169/1124.464 ms
MacBok Pro 2.33 Core 2 Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Another ping from a few moments later:
PING 192.168.1.201 (192.168.1.201): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=32075.373 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=21 ttl=64 time=18315.421 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=22 ttl=64 time=17392.402 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=23 ttl=64 time=16404.129 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=24 ttl=64 time=15418.676 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=25 ttl=64 time=14418.874 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=30 ttl=64 time=13656.188 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=31 ttl=64 time=12922.842 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=32 ttl=64 time=12242.669 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=33 ttl=64 time=11333.432 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=34 ttl=64 time=10436.977 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=36 ttl=64 time=8741.888 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=37 ttl=64 time=7850.372 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=38 ttl=64 time=6853.211 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=39 ttl=64 time=5953.356 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=40 ttl=64 time=5052.035 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=41 ttl=64 time=4052.752 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=42 ttl=64 time=3078.099 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=43 ttl=64 time=2080.547 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=44 ttl=64 time=1256.154 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=45 ttl=64 time=354.956 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=46 ttl=64 time=70.425 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=47 ttl=64 time=195.729 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=48 ttl=64 time=322.706 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=49 ttl=64 time=162.115 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=50 ttl=64 time=266.209 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=51 ttl=64 time=93.211 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=52 ttl=64 time=7.915 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=53 ttl=64 time=17.481 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=54 ttl=64 time=94.742 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=55 ttl=64 time=20.951 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=56 ttl=64 time=7.534 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=57 ttl=64 time=4.164 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=58 ttl=64 time=2.394 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=59 ttl=64 time=71.640 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=60 ttl=64 time=95.045 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.201: icmp_seq=61 ttl=64 time=9.422 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.201 ping statistics ---
62 packets transmitted, 37 packets received, 40% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.394/5981.947/32075.373/7491.365 ms

Macbook Pro Core Duo shuts off intermittently

my 2006 macbook pro core duo with 2gb of ram shuts off intermittently.
here's what i've done to troubleshoot:
tried running the hardware support disc by holding down D. it starts to boot the disc and then the computer shuts off. it does this without fail right when the disc starts to boot. the screen flashes a few times and then kaput.
i've tried installing snow leopard. it turns off right around the 25% mark.
i've taken a very large house fan and pointed it directly at the exhaust vents of the computer. the computer stays MUCH cooler to the touch when doing this as i suspect(ed) the exhaust fans are broken. it doesn't help. the computer turns off when booting the hardware disc (at the same point) and while installing snow leopard.
i've taken the two 1gb dimms out and tried to install snow leopard utilizing each of them (1gb at a time) and it still dies.
any suggestions? if i can't get apples hardware testing tool to run and i can't install an OS, what are my options?

what are my options?
Resetting an Apple portable's System Management Controller (SMC)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Take your computer to an Apple store or an AASP.

I have a mid to late2007 MacBook Pro core 2 Duo   But can't seem to load mountain lion   goes through all the steps then freezes at reboot

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Everything I read said Mid to Late 2007 models od the MacBook Pro with a Core 2 Duo 64 Bit processor would run Moutain Lion

I have a mid to late2007 MacBook Pro core 2 Duo   But can't seem to load mountain lion   goes through all the steps then freezes at reboot
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I own a late 2009 Macbook Pro, and it keeps freezing after OSX Lion installation.

I own a late 2009 Macbook Pro, and it keeps freezing after OSX Lion installation. I will post my computer's 'specs' below. I installed Lion, from Snow Leopard, through the App store. The first week, it worked like a dream, and was loving my brand new computer, or so it seemed. I then began to run into problems, and I can't confirm this 100%, but I believe it was after I updated from 10.7.1, to 10.7.2.
The freezes are sporatic at best, and cannot be narrowed down to one app. I googled the issue about two weeks ago, and found a fix involving a temporary log-in, verifying the disk, restarting the computer holding CMD+R, and repairing the disk from there. That fixed the problem. For about three or four days. From there I brought my laptop to Best Buy, where I purchased the computer (start the groans, my dad wanted the accidental damage, and he was paying, there was no argument). My warranty there was still good, but all they were offering was to check my hard-drive, and possibly ship it out. That would not be good for me, as I am a High School student, who works online.
So I then decided to go to the Apple store, see what they said. They said a bunch of people had this problem, it would cost a lot to fix, as I would need a new Logic Board. This did not make any sense to me, as I knew it was Lion's fault, so why would they not make the L-2009MBP Logic Board compatible, and why are only a few people having this problem, well a lot more than a few, but I mean not everyone.
So I asked a friend about it, and we decided to run a back up, and erase the computer, and re-install Lion. Figuring maybe my data was corrupted during install. This helped for a day or two, and happened again. So this time, we backed up only files (music, pics, documents, etc.,) and did a fresh install. I got my computer back last night. Now, I am not saying that didn't help. Previously I would have frozen about 18 times well writing this, but I have not frozen once (hopefully I didn't just jinx myself). I have gone from about one freeze every 10-15 minutes (sometimes worse), to about one every 1-3 hours. Which, let's be honest is still a lot.
So, before I just decide to go and revert to Snow Leopard on my merry way, I ask, do any of you have any other ideas? Or guarenteed fixes? I know a guarentee is a hard thing to ask for, but I am desperate, my teachers are getting angry with me for not sending work, and I know this would help a lot of people. Thank you to those who read through my whole spiel, and thank you to those who will help me!
[Ps, while I am somewhat of a noob, I know my way around a computer, so any help, or knowledge you could bestow upon me is awesome. Especially DIY fixes. (if your only advice is, don't buy a mac at Best Buy, don't bother commenting)]
Macbook Pro
15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009
Processor: 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB
Software: Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)

Once it is downloaded you need to restart the computer if it does not restart automatically. When it next starts up you should note a progress bar appearing below the Apple logo. When done the computer will restart once more. The new firmware should now be installed.

I have a macbook pro core i7 mid 2012 And update to the latest version 10.8.4 system after updating the system I have the problem appeared to take off the device and stops at the apple logo for about 5 minutes and then enters the desktop How can I solve t

I have a macbook pro core i7 mid 2012
And update to the latest version 10.8.4 system after updating the system I have the problem appeared to take off the device and stops at the apple logo for about 5 minutes and then enters the desktop How can I solve this problem and thank you

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes) in the search box. Note the timestamps of those log messages, which refer to the times when the system was booted. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the last boot time when you had the problem. Select the messages logged after the boot, during the time something abnormal was happening. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
For example, if the problem is a slow startup taking three minutes, post the messages timestamped within three minutes after the boot time, not before. Please include the BOOT_TIME message at the beginning of the log extract.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
Step 2
Still in Console, look under System Diagnostic Reports for crash or panic logs, and post the entire contents of the most recent one, if any. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall, spin, or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz - 13.3? - 4 GB Ram - 250 GB HDD?

Just got a Apple MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz - 13.3? - 4 GB Ram - 250 GB HDD. i clicked on boot camp then it asked to download windows files or said i already have. i picked already had thinking it meant the windows 7 x64 dvd. i then made the windows 7 partition 50gb and the remainder was SL. after installing windows 7 x64 windows started up. i then installed the boot camp drivers off the SL dvd and i think that version was 2.1. after installing them i then updated boot camp from 2.1 to 3.0 to 3.1 then 3.2. after this my video card which is a NVIDIA 320 showed up as a standard VGA and i was missing my SM Bus and Coprocesser driver. i read something about getting the drivers from here to fix it D:\Boot Camp\Drivers\NVidia\NVidiaChipset.exe (D meaning your dvd drive) but i didn't see that file on there. i saw version on there for every OS but windows 7 x64. not sure how to fix this can someone help me in what i am doing wrong. i was going to just delete the windows partition again and start over.
so i started over and reinstalled windows 7 x64 again. i was able to get the video card driver for the 320 NVidia of NVidia's website. so now my video is working but now its saying i have 3 missing drivers. Bluetooth, Coprocessor and SM Bus... i have tried everything to get these drives install. tried everything i have found online but can't get it working. this was the last one i tried here: http://realitypod.com/2010/09/solved-macbook-pro-running-windows-7-missing-sm-bu s-driver/ but the problem is on my Snow Leopard Retail 10.6 disc i don't see this file "D:\Boot Camp\Drivers\NVidia\NVidiaChipset64.exe" tried going to the vista64 folder on the disc for SM Bus and it wouldn't install anything.
please help
Thanks!

Your OEM DVD for OS X has the latest drivers, which would be 3.x
Luckily you skipped DL drivers, that is broken with 10.6.6, wrong reason, right response.
You don't want retail OS X DVD if you have a NEW Mac, you should have OEM DVD from Apple.
Apple though doesn't probably list "Windows 7" though it should, or have "Vista/7" or just "Bootcamp64.msi"
Uninstall drivers, rollback drivers, and/or uninstall programs, rather than redo everything.
Just got a Apple MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz - 13.3? - 4 GB Ram - 250 GB HDD.
i clicked on boot camp then it asked to download windows files or said i already have.
i picked already had thinking it meant the windows 7 x64 dvd.
i then made the windows 7 partition 50gb and the remainder was SL. after installing windows 7 x64 windows started up.
i then installed the boot camp drivers off the SL dvd and i think that version was 2.1. after installing them i then updated boot camp from 2.1 to 3.0 to 3.1 then 3.2.
after this my video card which is a NVIDIA 320 showed up as a standard VGA and i was missing my SM Bus and Coprocesser driver.
i read something about getting the drivers from here to fix it
D:\Boot Camp\Drivers\NVidia\NVidiaChipset.exe (D meaning your dvd drive) but i didn't see that file on there.
i saw version on there for every OS but windows 7 x64. not sure how to fix this can someone help me in what i am doing wrong.
i was going to just delete the windows partition again and start over.
so i started over and reinstalled windows 7 x64 again.
i was able to get the video card driver for the 320 NVidia of NVidia's website. so now my video is working but now its saying i have 3 missing drivers.
Bluetooth, Coprocessor and SM Bus...
i have tried everything to get these drives install.
tried everything i have found online but can't get it working.
this was the last one i tried here:
http://realitypod.com/2010/09/solved-macbook-pro-running-windows-7-missing-sm-bu s-driver/
but the problem is on my Snow Leopard Retail 10.6 disc i don't see this file
"D:\Boot Camp\Drivers\NVidia\NVidiaChipset64.exe"
tried going to the vista64 folder on the disc for SM Bus and it wouldn't install anything.

MacBook Pro Core Duo 1.83 GHz fans (0 rpm)

Working on a friends macbook pro core duo 1.83GHz 1,1 - It’s been shutting down intermittently; he’s been using a laptop cooler and it helped some. I installed iStat Pro and SMC Fan Control and neither the left or right fan are spinning (0 rpm). I figure dust bunnies preventing fans from turning; took the top case apart and much to my surprise it looks as though the fans never spun. Ever! Not a speck of dust inside either one. I powered it up and neither even tries to spin; trying to jump start them with a push does nothing. All connectors look solid, nothing burnt.
Any suggestions other than new logic board?

Depends. Are the fans simply not working? Are they connected to the motherboard? Is the motherboard not working? Have you tried
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC). There may be any number of explanations none of which you can know without taking it in for repair unless you have the repair equipment and know-how.

Who has a brand spanking new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo? Comments?

Hi,
Ok, it's been almost 3 months since I posted a similar post asking for experiences with the new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo.
Please let me know how things are working, whether you went 5400 or 7200 internal (my main concern), pros and cons, size of screen (15" or 17"), etc...
Got my eyes on a 17", but don't know which internal to do.
Thanks!
PS - I may go iMac 24" (because it has Firewire 800) and keep this ol' PB G4 1 gightz for portability... thoughts?

If you want to use Logic, then 15 inch screen is a must. There is not enough > space on the 13 inch to view Logic, especially when you open the soft synths.
well yes... or, in my case, the 15 inch screen was still not enough so I went for the 17. it has exactly the same res as the 20" cinema display which I was already used to with logic, so I'm happy. plus I never use this machine as my laptop to carry around (I kept my powerbook for that) so I didn't need to compromise on getting something that was still not too big to be a comfortable laptop. but I think if you do want to work with logic effectively and still have a laptop that's a practical size to use as a general laptop, the 15" is the right choice.
what internal speed drive did you go with? 5400 or 7200
I went for the 7200rpm drive. have you read all the information out there on the net about the new PMR technology that's used on the 160/5400 and 200/4200 drive options in the MBPs? there are some very comprehensive benchmarks that have been run which show that there's not as much of a dramatic difference anymore between the 7200 and the 5400. for some operations under certain conditions, the 5400 actually appeared to be faster.
you're not planning to use the internal drive for audio though, are you?
my reasoning for getting the 7200 drive is the following. OSX permanenty and automatically uses disk-based virtual memory just in regular operation. it is constantly creating and reading swap files, as well as just referencing little bits of whatever data that the apps and the system need to run. this VM use becomes heavier the more your actual physical RAM starts being used up. now seeing as I know that I'm going to be running heavy logic sessions, using up as much RAM as I can get with samples and just general everything.. I decided I needed to have the snappiest system drive I could get. even given the benchmarks for the PMR drives, I still felt that fast read/write access speeds and the fastest seek time possible is what I needed to have optimal performance. sure a 5400rpm PMR drive might have great specs for a lot of things. but when the system needs to be able to find whatever swap files or system resource as quickly as possible, I still think you can't beat a disk that is just physically spinning faster.
the other thing I've done is this. when I first got the machine, I reformatted it and did my own custom install of OSX. traditional drives perform best when they are less than half full. from what I've read, anything down to 30% full is still on an improving curve, and maybe it gets better still even less full. so I scaled back the install to as lean a system as I could. I've installed only the most important apps that I need, and I definitely did not install the iwork and office trial software. after that, I used software called monolingual to remove even more language localizations (which are added with app support) on top of what I had already left out in my custom install. this got me back almost another GB of space. also, my itunes library is not on my MBP.. I've kept it on my powerbook. the only times I ever want to listen to music from my itunes library on the MBP is when the powerbook is nearby anyway, seeing as the powerbook is the only machine that I ever take anywhere. so, the library just appears in itunes on the MBP as shared music. my iphoto library is locally stored on my MBP though, because iphoto runs so much faster on this machine.. but this is the only concession to include personal files that I've made on the MBP. so, out of a 100GB system drive, I still have 62GB of free space left, and I'll keep it as close to that as I can.
as for my project audio and my sound library, it's all on an external FW800 drive. but I'm also considering getting an e-SATA card and getting a drive for that, because it will be even faster and will free up the FW bus to have full-bandwidth use of something like liquid mix. we'll see.
anyway, so far so good. like I said in my first post, logic is running like a demon. in general, this machine is running real fast for everything, like a fast desktop.
but I think the problem with your question is.. it's going to be hard for anyone to be able to tell you how it would have been had they gotten a different drive. I have no idea if my system would be running logic any less fast if I'd gone with the 5400. my instincts tell me that maybe it'd have slightly less of an edge, but I can't really say. it's probably true that if I was using my 7200 drive less cautiously than I am, and that it was getting close to full, then it would probably slow down a bit more dramatically than a 5400 would have, if I had one of those and it was getting full. this is to do with the fact that higher data density on the same sized platter can mean faster seek times only when they are starting to get fuller, and also to do with aspects of how PMR disks work. but I think that a well managed and lean 7200 drive that is much more than half full will still give you a slightly perkier system than a 5400 PMR drive used at its best. there's not really any way I can know this for sure though.
end of the day, I don't honestly think logic would run like a dog with a 5400rpm PMR drive. but if you want the absolute best performance you can get, you're better off keeping a lean system drive, trying to keep it at least only half full or better.. and then using a fast external for your projects and sound library. in that case, I don't see the point of getting a 160GB internal drive, just so that you have more space to keep empty.
but if you want to use the machine for multiple purposes and you could really use that extra disk space, then I still think logic will run more than fine. compared to your powerbook, there's no way you'll be dissapointed.. it's like having a dual 2.5ghz G5, if not faster, only in a less than one inch thick case that you can carry in your bag.

Now who has a brand new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo?

Hi,
Keep checking each week or so for experiences with the new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo.
Please let me know how things are working, whether you went 5400 or 7200 internal, pros and cons, size of screen (15" or 17"), etc...
Got my eyes on a 17", but don't know which internal to do.
Thanks!

david, to be perfectly honest I think the primary advantage of the trio is its convenience. no fuss, well thought out monitoring. a dumbed down (in terms of controls) compression and EQ section on the mono mic preamp strip. easy to use talkback, monitor switching and 2 separate headphone amps.
the compressor and EQ do sound nice, the circuitry is lifted from their high end gear, but it's more intended just for getting a decent sound easily and quickly, I'm sure some corners were cut. the EQ bands are preset, the compression control is one knob (plus gain as another way to drive it), but it's a variable mu compressor design so it's normal that there's no threshold and attack/release settings. for what it is, it sounds nice, and I have on occasion chosen to use it over the avalon 737sp because it had the sound I wanted. it sounds good, but as a vocal producer I'm sure you know that for precision work, if its compressor and EQ don't let you tune in to just the right sweet spots in your source due to only having a single preset variable mu threshold/attack/release curve and preset HF and LF EQ, then it won't cut it on that day. you'll need more precise control.
that said, you can bypass its comp/eq by inserting another one, so if you have your fancy rack of golden preamps and channel strips you use for single mic recording, you can stick that in the chain and just benefit from the trio's nicely implemented ease-of-use and record away using all the glorious sounding input and control you get on the channel strip of your choice.
I've found the sound of its converters pretty good too. I haven't A/B'd it with a rosetta or with a digi 192 but I doubt it is in either of those leagues. still, it's clean. stereo field is good.
what would you be looking at it for exactly? if it's for your idea sketchpad setup I'd say check one out, no hesitation. for that kind of use it could hardly be better. and as I mentioned above, you can effectively swap out its channel strip for the best one you have, so it can also be used for tracking of material that you will still be pleased with taking through to mix stage, for those days you aren't tracking in a 2000 dollar a day studio. even the internal comp/EQ is good enough for this if its tuning happens to gel with your source.
one thing I have noticed though is that it's not the quietest pre in terms of hiss. not talking anything as horrible as say the cavernous white background noise of the worst mixer ever made, the yamaha pro 1? I have banished the name from memory.... it's just a subtle thing, comes up more obviously when you wind in HF EQ, obviously.. not even a real issue for rock/pop/dance vocals, maybe more so for recording your favourite baritone at carnegie hall, but you wouldn't really be bringing a small all in one tracking/monitoring box to a session like that anyway, it wouldn't pass dress code. and again, the channel strip is bypassable for a better one anyway, so bye bye to its sound, hello to the sound of your choice.
as for build quality etc, well I think it feels a bit more solid than it looks in photos. although once or twice I had to switch it off and back on again cos the sound died, on a very hot day in a very not airconditioned room.
anyway there you go. if you want better advice, tell me what you actually would want to use it for and I'll tell you what I think. an RME may be a better idea depending on what you need.
btw had a look at your site. looks like you've done your share of nice work. I'd love to play you some of my vocal production work some time (part of me wants to be a vocal producer when I grow up). are you based in LA? I'll likely be there at some point in the new year on a project, always a pleasure to meet fellow music heads.
take care,
antonio

MacBook Pro Core i7 + Windows 7 Bootcamp issues

I recently bought a brand new MacBook Pro Core i7 2.66Ghz with 8GB Ram and 500GB 7200rpm HD and Hi-Res display.
When I received it, I updated all Mac OS X software via software update.
I then created a 70GB Bootcamp partition to install a new full copy of Window 7 Ultimate.
I started with the 64bit version of Win 7, but as has been noted here there are some issues with the driver packages and even after managing to get the 64bit version of the Bootcamp 3.1 driver package update to install in Windows (having first installed Bootcamp 3.0 drivers), the wireless driver would not install or work, nor would the NVidia driver, so I had a very odd display aspect and low res support. There may well have been other drivers not working either, but these two really stood out.
Despite the Bootcamp 3.1 driver package apparently being installed (as reported by "About Bootcamp", the 3.1 package was still being offered to me in Apple Software Update. I tried to install again, and again it still showed as being available to install. Obviously some issue's here.
So I decided to try the Windows 7 32bit edition instead, as I don't necessarily need the 64bit version to run the Windows apps I need.
I deleted the Bootcamp partition and started again. I ended up in the exact same situation with Windows 7 32bit as I had done with Windows 7 64bit - wireless device without a driver, NVidia drivers not installed. This time I had used the Bootcamp 32bit driver packages.
In the end I've opted to just install it via VMware as a pure virtual machine. This works fine, but for what I do in Windows, I prefer to have a Bootcamp setup.
Is there a general issue with the new MacBook Pro's and Windows 7 despite Apple releasing updated driver packages? Do these new driver packages handle the dual GPU setup properly?
I have read a number of "How to's..." for installing Windows 7 on the a MacBook Pro, but none have been successful for me. Am I wasting my time for now and need to wait for Apple to update Bootcamp for the 2010 MacBook Pro's, or am I just missing something in the way I'm doing this? I can't believe it shouldn't be this hard?

Running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on my brand new 15" MBP right now.
The only problem I'm having is the USB controller issue that is reported in the following thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2411685&start=30&tstart=0
I ran the Boot Camp assistant, made the partition, rebooted with my 7 DVD, formatted the partition, performed a clean installation, & then installed the drivers from the OSX DVD when Windows booted the first time.
Replaced the NVIDIA drivers with the latest Verde release. 258.96notebook_winvista_win7_64bit_internationalwhql.exe
Everything seems to be running just fine at this point.
Message was edited by: jdamien75

My macbook pro (August 2010) keeps freezing when apple mail starts up. This happens every 2nd time I turn on my Macbook Pro. This forces me to hold down the power button to restart my Macbook Pro. Does anyone else experience this, and is there a fix? Thx

My macbook pro (August 2010) keeps freezing when apple mail starts up. This happens every 2nd time I turn on my Macbook Pro. This forces me to hold down the power button to restart my Macbook Pro. Does anyone else experience this, and is there a fix? Thx.
since upgrading to OS lion, my mac book pro (2010 August) keeps freezing (non responsive, requires restart) when i turn on my mac and the system is trying to open apple mail. while apple mail is attempting to collect new mail, the macbook pro freezes. this happens every 2nd time i try to start up my computer. this only started happening after i upgraded to OS lion. please let me know what I need to do to fix this. being forced to restart every 2nd time i turn on my macbook pro has been very frustrating. not sure if apple mail is also the cause of my macbook pro for being very slow during start-up (on the occasion the computer doesn't freeze).

I am having similar 'freezing' problems with many programs (Mail, Safari, iTunes, etc.). I have done a clean install of Lion instead of an upgrade when it came out. Perhaps something went wrong with my install? I'm thinking about wiping and reinstalling.

What will happen if I install Lion on my macbook pro core duo??

What will happen if I install Lion on my macbook pro core duo? I have one of the first Intel MacBook Pro's with a Core Duo processer, I'm having hard drive problems so want to format it and re-install my OS. I can't find my Snow Leopard disk so the easiest thing to do would be to download Lion but I have been told that my MacBook needs to have a Core 2 Duo processer so I just wondered if anyone else has tried Lion on a MacBook like mine??

Nothing.
Lion will not run on a core duo, it needs a core 2 duo as a minimum
see Technical Specifications
Also you will need SL running to access the App Store to download Lion. So In a number of ways this won;t work.
regards

17" MacBook Pro Core i5 Boot Camp Nvidia 64 bit driver install issue

Can't get correct Nvidia driver to install on 17" MacBook Pro core i5. Windows 7 64 bit is installed and running but its using a standard VGA driver for the video card so the full resolution of the display is unatainable. I've loaded the snow leopard windows 64 bit drivers, downloaded the BootCamp 3.1 64bit drivers and installed but each time I try to run it the Nvidia part of the installer closes with the error, you are trying to use a 32bit uninstaller for a 64bit program, and it exits. I've double checked to make sure I have the 64bit driver installer instead of the windows 7 32bit installers but I still get the error every time. I then downloaded Nvidias own driver for windows 7 64bit Gt 330M and it gets the same error. Please help?

A number of people in this and other forum threads have reported problems with the Nvidia drivers when installing Windows 7 (64bit) on the new Macbook Pro (April 2010).
The problems appear to be due to an installation of Boot Camp 3.0, followed by the update to Boot Camp 3.1. As Boot Camp 3.0 does not include the Nvidia graphics drivers for the
Macbook Pro 2010, the graphics card is not recognized and the subsequent update to Boot Camp 3.1 does not complete successfully.
The proper approach consist of installing Boot Camp 3.1, which is included in the system disk that shipped with the laptop. A copy of that version was posted e.g. here
http://files.me.com/jason_fearing/an51fn. One should not use on the Macbook Pro 2010 the Boot Camp version 3.0 that shipped with the original DVD of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
I had the same problems that were reported in the forum, when installing Boot Camp 3.0 + Boot Camp 3.1 update on Windows 7 (64bit). First I had to manually run the 64bit Boot Camp setup, as suggested by others, and then I had to install the Nvidia drivers with the modified INF files from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/, as the graphics card was not recognized.
However when I used the proper Boot Camp 3.1 that came with the laptop, everything went completely smoothly and the installation consisted of just clicking on the setup file.

MacBook Pro Core i7 intermittent freezes lasting ~5-30 seconds

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