Please help.... New MBP and its a disaster

Question

I bought a MBP i5 4GB in December thinking that it would be a high performance machine, I would at least expect it to do the basics in a reasonable amount of time. Trying to play a youtube video today in Safari and it stalled more than 10 times even though the video is fully downloaded, DSL is 15MB line connected over 802.11N with a perfect signal. MBP is generally slow stalling between applications, hanging.
Ive had a mac mini for about 3 years now and never had any problems with it. Ive been using Windows for about 18 years and really like it but can get a bit boring when you know it inside out.
With Windows, if you fill the partition which Windows is located on to 80% or even 90% of its capacity it will not impact on performance. I have read that filling the Mac drive/partition can have a serious impact on performance, is this true?
Im so disappointed with the performance of my MBP, im ready to smash it to pieces. In an effort to gain the performance im looking for from it, im swapping out the stock hdd for a Crucial RealSSD C300. If this doesn't solve the problem, it goodbye MBP, hello "half the price, twice the performance" machine. Is anyone else having these problems from their MBP? Any suggestions as to how I can improve the performance?
The MBP feels very basic, with no biometric scanner, no eSata and it weighs a tonne. Im sure ive missed a number of features which are standard on the majority of Laptops these days. Another thing im missing a lot from Windows is the ability to call up a Run Prompt (Windows R) type in a command/program (intl.cpl, compmgmt.msc, mstsc, c:\program files\...., \\192.168.1....,cmd, control, etc). I have since come across (Mac Space) for spotlight but I dont think its as easy to have a guaranteed match every time, maybe I just need to get to know what to type to ensure the top hit is exactly what im looking for. I also recently discovered Mac Down/up to move through folders as suprisingly Enter does not open a folder, no it renames it... I think this is an example of Apple trying to do things differently to Microsoft just purely for the sake of being different but failed to consider convenience/efficiency. Its a question of one key or two to do the same task.
The one thing which annoys me the most, is that after numerous revisions of the Mac OS, there is still no cut and paste. Apple's reason being that there is a risk of losing files because if you cut a file then it might be gone if you forget to paste it... Maybe someone needs to break it down for Apple what we mean by Cut, its:
1. Mark for move
2. Copy the file/folder to the location where it has been pasted
3. On completion of the copy, delete the original file/folder
You can drag an item to a new location, presumably because theres no risk of you forgetting to paste it and it becoming lost but you can't ctrl x and ctrl v (Command X and Command V (Just to be different)) in case you forget to paste. MS have had Cut and Paste since the very first GUI and theres no problem with it. I know theres a number of ways of hacking the OS to get this functionality but it should be standard or at least optional.
Im also really missing Windows E for Windows Explorer, why Apple did not just use Mac F for finder and Ctrl F for find within an application??? I suppose it was just another case of wanting to be different and screw convenience/efficiency. The closest thing ive found is (fn ctrl F3) but its not guaranteed to always launch Finder, I guess the only option is to hack the OS again like before to get the move functionality.
Another question someone may be able to answer...
In IE if I type Apple in the address bar then press *Ctrl Enter*, it completes the address to http://www.apple.com . If I try the same in Safari replacing ctrl with Command it does complete the address but in a new tab. Actually, ctrl enter seems to complete most addresses but it seems like theres a web search in the middle? Will it always just add http://www. .com to the contents of the address bar? or is it searching for a closest match?
I was running a Windows 7 VM through Parallels but I gave up on it because of the poor performance, the MBP is so bad its unusable... I have an old Dell Latitude D600 (Dinosaur) which performs better than the MBP.
/Rant

Answer 1

This is how I feel when I use my Mac:
http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/1 0/Slow-Computer-Collage1.jpg
Well today the MBP just gets even better, it was sleeping and I opened it up to do some work when I was greeted with a notice You need to restart, please hold down the power button..... i.e. Anything you were working on has just been lost. There must be something wrong with this machine?
Are these events from Console anything to be concerned about?
Feb 14 21:58:52 MacBook-Pro KernelEventAgent[38]: tid 00000000 received event(s) VQ_DEAD (32)
Feb 14 21:59:47: --- last message repeated 2 times ---
Feb 14 21:59:46 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:4.712317, # of Inserts: 7, # of bytes written: 307093, Did shrink: NO
Feb 14 22:00:22 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:5.606298, # of Inserts: 23, # of bytes written: 67275, Did shrink: NO
Feb 14 22:00:26 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:3.395219, # of Inserts: 5, # of bytes written: 11137, Did shrink: NO
Feb 14 22:00:41 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:4.161092, # of Inserts: 3, # of bytes written: 567451, Did shrink: NO
Feb 14 22:00:50 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:3.533573, # of Inserts: 38, # of bytes written: 247035, Did shrink: NO
Feb 14 22:04:49 MacBook-Pro mDNSResponder[18]: PenaltyTimeForServer: PenaltyTime negative -73695, (server penaltyTime -1264158219, timenow -1264084524) resetting the penalty
Feb 14 22:05:11 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:3.889702, # of Inserts: 2, # of bytes written: 9078071, Did shrink: NO
Feb 14 22:05:36 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:24.416692, # of Inserts: 0, # of bytes written: 0, Did shrink: YES
Feb 14 22:06:01 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:24.999482, # of Inserts: 1, # of bytes written: 17022, Did shrink: YES
Feb 14 22:06:21 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:20.236561, # of Inserts: 0, # of bytes written: 0, Did shrink: YES
Feb 14 22:06:43 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:21.189691, # of Inserts: 11, # of bytes written: 159536, Did shrink: YES
Feb 14 22:06:57 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:14.442057, # of Inserts: 0, # of bytes written: 0, Did shrink: YES
Feb 14 22:21:56 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:4.502820, # of Inserts: 0, # of bytes written: 0, Did shrink: YES
Feb 14 22:25:07 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:10.774557, # of Inserts: 0, # of bytes written: 0, Did shrink: YES
Feb 14 22:29:30 MacBook-Pro Safari[8152]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:3.474486, # of Inserts: 0, # of bytes written: 0, Did shrink: YES
@eww
I continue to use Windows on a daily basis, I am a system administrator for a Windows environment for 1200 users. I would like to get to know Apple's operating system better, I find your comment unhelpful and immature.
@Baumkartoffel
*• If a fully downloaded video playing in Safari is stalling, what would the DSL speed and 802.11g signal have to do with it, since it has been fully downloaded? Have you considered playing videos in a dedicated video player such as VLC (or even iTunes)?*
Video content on youtube is flash based, I dont think VLC or iTunes is capable of playing flash content, this is something I expect of any browser (with a flash plugin of course). The reason I mentioned the speed of the DSL and wireless signal was just in case some Johnny know it all came along and tried to say that maybe that was the issue. Flash video content fails to play smoothly if I wait for it to finish downloading or if I try to play it without waiting. I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to make out that the problem is Adobe's flash plugin rather than Apple's Browser/OS/Hardware even though the plugins work without issue on a number of operating systems in different browsers. It was 802.11N btw, not 802.11g.
*• Where did you read that a filled Mac partition can have a serious impact on performance? Did that source give any further information, such as how full the partition need be to affect performance — 80%? 90%? 95%? 99.44%?*
http://guides.macrumors.com/EnhancingPerformance_of_yourMac
http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/qt/Mac-Performance-Tips-Keep-Plenty-Of-Fre e-Disk-Space.htm
http://www.cultofmac.com/why-is-my-mac-running-so-slow-macrx/62124
It seems as though all of these articles are referring to the drive being in a state where there is not enough space for the swap file and temporary files generated by the OS which I would expect to cause a problem. It was more when I was looking into the use of a SSD in the Mac that I was coming across information to indicate that the Mac may slow down by adding more files to it, this could be plausible through indexing or something else. From your experience of Macs, do you think this is the case?
*• What sort of performance are you looking to improve? You’d mentioned video playback; in which other areas would you like to see performance improvements?*
Switching between applications, opening applications, selecting a different tab within a browser, etc..
An example of slowness, when opening this page (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=676966) in the fourth tab of Safari it took more than 3 minutes to open.
*• If you were unhappy with the lack of a biometric scanner or eSATA, why did you buy the MacBook Pro? The MacBook Pro technical specification page on the Apple website clearly shows the 15″ MacBook Pro as weighing 2.54 kg; if that “tonnage” is too heavy a burden, again, why did you buy it?*
I can read the technical specifications. I bought the machine purely for no nonsense performance which it is failing to deliver. My point is that these are standard issue on the majority of laptops these days and for the price point that the MBP is at, I think its poor that it does not have these features. More money for less tech. I could accept the absence of these items if the machine was fast at the basics but it is not.
*• Apple has had its own set of keyboard shortcuts for many years. Try searching for "mac os x" keyboard shortcuts at your favourite search site to discover equivalents to your preferred Windows shortcuts. One can even customise the shortcuts by opening System Preferences and selecting Keyboard, then Keyboard Shortcuts.*
There is no direct key combination to open Finder by default in OS X. The only way to do it without third party tools that I have come across is:
There actually is a way to do this without 3rd party software. See below
I. Create a service
1) Open "Automator" - (Search for it in spotlight if you don't know where it is)
2) Double-Click on the "Service" button to create a new Service.
3) From the "Library" menu on the left hand side, click "Utilities"
4) From the list of Utilities, double-click "Run AppleScript"
5) In the main area, there should be a window that says "Run AppleScript". Above it, choose "No Input" next to "Service receives selected"
6) In the "Run AppleScript" window, replace (* Your script goes here *) with tell application "Finder" to activate
7) Click File --> Save As... and save it as "Finder Activation"
II. Create a Keyboard shortcut for the service
1) Open system preferences
2) Click "Keyboard"
3) Select "Services" from the left hand pane
4) In the right hand pane, Scroll down to the bottom. Under "General", there should be "Finder Activation".
5) Ensure "Finder Activation" is checked
6) Assign a Keyboard shortcut by clicking near the right side of the "Finder Activation" selection. The trick is to assign a shortcut that is not used by any of your favorite applications, since application-level keyboard shortcuts will override this.
Seems like a lot of hassle just to get a keyboard shortcut to open the default file browser.
*• If someone who was accustomed to using OS X chose to buy a Windows computer, would it be equally valid for that person to note that Microsoft chose to do things differently in Windows purely for the sake of being different from Apple, and that Microsoft had failed to consider convenience/efficiency for a person who was accustomed to OS X?*
Efficiency is not a matter of opinion, its a matter of fact. If it takes more keys/actions (ultimately time) to perform the same task in OSX than it does in another operating system, that makes OSX less efficient.
Take for example my last point of opening Finder:
The most efficient way I have found so far is to press *fn control F3* then press Enter
An alternative is to press *Command Tab* until you get to Finder, then press *command N*
In Windows, its just simply *Windows E*
When I say Apple is doing things for the sake of being different, Microsoft puts its minimise, maximise/restore and close buttons on the top right of its windows, Apple puts their Close, Minimize and maximize buttons on the top left of their windows. Ctrl C, Ctrl X, Ctrl V..... Command C, Command X, Command V. To be honest you may be right, im only seeing things from one perspective, someone coming from Mac to Microsoft may feel the same way.
*• I can’t answer your Safari address completion question, as I don’t regularly use Safari — my first choice is Firefox on OS X, Windows, and beyond, and I turn off address completion in Firefox. Maybe I’m a Luddite at heart. ;)
Luddite
•any opponent of technological progress
•one of the 19th century English workmen who destroyed laborsaving machinery that they thought would cause unemployment
Just dont make my MBP any worse than it already is
Any ideas why the MBP might be performing so poorly? Whats the best way to check a Mac's vitals? The HDD sounds awful, always busy...