Comments on: Complaint Desk: Whose MacBook Pro 7200RPM Drive Sounds Like R2D2?

By: Gavin

Gavin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:42:34 +0000

Apple replaced my hard drive just the other day. So far so good. The only time it makes a noise is when I put the machine to sleep. Other than that it hasn’t made any weird R2D2 noises. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:25:20 +0000

And here I was thinking of converting from PC to Mac. Everyone I know who has a MacBookPro has praised it, but since I’m a freelancer who travel a lot with my laptop I can’t really afford it to either breakdown or have HD issues.

I would wish to believe that out of thousands of MacBookPro owners there are few unlucky ones who have this problem.

Seems like Apple’s return policy is also very poor.

I was planning to get a new 17″ MacBookPro but will wait now few weeks and read a bit about it online – unless any of you can recommend an alternative.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:27:48 +0000

My new MacBookPro will be delivered July 16. It has the 320 GB (not 500 GB) 7200 rpm HD, and we’ll see what happens. I have the resources to replace the HD myself if necessary, though I don’t know what that would do to the warranty.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:03:06 +0000

Just to mention the ongoing macrumors thread- there are >130 odd users with problems – including vibration, heat, small pauses/ferezes associated with the click beep problem, but also some are seeing much longer 10-30 second system wide freezes.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=8052338&postcount=85

By: Gavin

Gavin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:06:58 +0000

Yep I have this problem also. I have a 15″ Macbook Pro w/ 500GB 7200RPM. I hadn’t realised it was so wide spread. I thought I was the only one. I called up Apple Support to which they couldn’t tell me why it was making those noises so they arranged an appointment with an Apple Genius. The Genius said that they would order in a new HDD and give me a call when it’s in so that they can replace it. Not sure if this will actually fix the problem though.

Also just to mention it’s not just the noise I experience but also when I copy files from folder to folder it can take up to 20mins for only 10Mb of data. My screen also freezes on me at random times and the machine gets very hot.

I’ve told them that if replacing the HDD doesn’t work I want a full refund. Lucky I paid it on my credit card so they should be able to sort it out if Apple won’t.

By: DT

DT — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:29:12 +0000

I have this problem on a 3-week old 3.06Ghz 15″ MacBook Pro w/ 500GB 7200RPM. Every 3-4 minutes, the drive clicks and all I/O activity stops for several seconds. It’s really problematic because it happens during Keynote presentations and looks really bad. It also makes the machine useless as a media player because music and video suffer horribly from stuttering, skips, and gaps. Who ever heard of an Apple machine that couldn’t play rich media reliably? Come on!

I haven’t dealt with it yet, because I’ve been giving Apple time to figure out a fix. Hopefully it is a conflict between the Seagate and Apple drive head parking routines and they can solve it via a firmware update. If they don’t come up with a fix, you can bet I’ll be fully taking advantage of my AppleCare coverage and making sure that Apple fixes the problem for me.

By: Customized Marketingi

Customized Marketingi — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:18:44 +0000

After spending a mint and getting all that could be upgraded, I have the chirps and am frustrated. Did anyone actually get a good resolution? Don’t want to be without my mac for days as it is my primary machine.

By: KM

KM — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:13:18 +0000

Got an instruction on how to return it. However it will take 1 to 2 months for full refund. Better than nothing I suppose, I spent close to US$ 4300 for this MBP and disappointed with the issue especially with the whole thing freezing. I upgraded everything to the max (CPU, RAM) and my 3 year old Thinkpad is faster than the MBP.

I still have 1 problem with the return though. It’s registered under Apple care and Apple has not given me the clear information yet on how I can reuse it (if I ever buy Apple MBP again).

By: curt

curt — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:40:48 +0000

I’ve had a new 15″ MBP / 500GB / 7200 RPM just a few weeks. When it first chirped, I thought it was an audio glitch coming through the internal speakers. Then I realized it was the drive. I’ve also noticed the OS intermittently freezing for a second or two several times per day, and that is definitely a frustration that demands attention from Apple. It does seem have the symptoms of the heads parking, and if so, they’re parking at inappropriate times – right in the middle of my priority processes.

By: KM

KM — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:50:45 +0000

I have the 3.06Ghz 17″ MacBook Pro w/ 500GB 7200RPM. Just receive it last week. Loud, freeze a lot . And it’s unusually hot even I’m not doing anything disk intensive.

Talked to Tech support, visited Genius bar and no resolution. Since it’s in 2 weeks window, I’m returning it and asking for a refund. Still waiting on Apple on it at the moment