Brucelin
Level 1 (13 points)
Notebooks

Q: The worst MAC I have ever owned

So I am the not very happy owner of a 2015 Macbook.  Love the display, and the light weight.  It is a wonderful machine for traveling, and I have much less eye strain with the retina display.  But that is about where the compliments end. 

 

I have had tons of issues with trying to get the continuity features to work.  They were no problem on my previous MAC, a Macbook Air, but on the Macbook, not so good.  I can send a receive texts, which is good, but no luck making or answering phone calls, Airdrop does not work, FaceTime sort of works, but looses connections, so I need to use my iPad.  Facebook is amazingly slow. 

 

I also noticed that even though "wake for network access" is disabled, the machine uses about 20% of its battery life while it is sleeping overnight.  What on earth is using all that power?  Oh, I have let it sleep with Safari closed, and it still used up 20% or so of its power.  As a result, battery life is not very good, certainly no where near what Apple predicts.

 

Oh, the other issue is that I have to reboot almost every time I connect a USB device in order for the device to be recognized.  If I just plug a device in (scanner, external hard drive, CD/DVD drive, the machine does not see it until after a reboot.

 

I would love to know what on earth is going on with this thing.  It's been one problem after another since I purchased it.  Unfortunately, I bough it while living in Russia, and could not take it back for support because it was my only machine, and could not be left for service.  Also, I don't speak Russian, which would have been a problem. 

 

So at this point, I am back in the states, and have purchased a 2011 Mac Mini, which is now my go-to machine.  Should be a slug compared to the Macbook, but it does what is is supposed to do.

 

If anyone has any ideas on any of these issues, I would love to hear from you.  I have tried a clean rebuild of OS X, but nothing changed.

MacBook, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Aug 14, 2016 2:20 PM

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Brucelin

Q: The worst MAC I have ever owned

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  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Aug 14, 2016 3:46 PM in response to Brucelin
    Level 6 (14,304 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 14, 2016 3:46 PM in response to Brucelin

    You may have to try & set an appointment with an official Apple Store where

    they usually have someone in a 'genius' capacity, who may be able to help with

    at least some of the basic issues and maybe refer you to other options.

     

     

    Anything that is running on the OS X can affect the battery life & performance overall.

    • Apps can affect Mac performance, battery runtime, temperature, and fan activity - Apple Support

    • About Mac notebook batteries - Apple Support

     

    Batteries - Maximizing Performance:

    http://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/

     

    Have you tried resetting the SMC as controls power management?

    • Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

     

    For portables whose batteries cannot be user-removed, the process involves:

     

    If the battery is non-removable

    1. Shut down the Mac.
    2. Plug in the MagSafe or USB-C power adapter to a power source and to your Mac.
    3. Using the built-in keyboard, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard, then press the power button at the same time.
    4. Release all keys, then press the power button again to turn on your Mac

     

    The SMC is responsible for these and other low-level functions on Intel-based Macs:

    • Responding to presses of the power button
    • Responding to the display lid opening and closing on portable Macs
    • Battery management
    • Thermal management
    • The SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor)
    • Ambient light sensing
    • Keyboard backlighting
    • Status indicator light (SIL) management
    • Battery status indicator lights
    • Selecting an external (instead of internal) video source for some iMac displays

     

    Other items not included in an SMC reset, may be affected by NVRAM or PRAM

     

    You should be able to talk with someone at an official Apple Store who can

    decide your courses of action; however your experience may vary from one

    Store to another. When you have options, you may choose from others. An

    appointment may be difficult to set, from the linked page above, look into

    the choices carefully. The pages have been modified to the path is vague.

     

    {There are upgrade options to make certain models of Mac Mini run better.

    Between iFixit guides, OWC macsales hardware (+ video) DIY is possible.

    for examples see https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/}

     

    Good luck in resolving the issues of your 2015 MacBook non-retina model.