About a month ago I started having issues with my MacBook Pro’s Superdrive. Every now and then, when I inserted a CD or DVD, the drive would make a ticking sound. Over time the noise got worse and the drive began randomly ejecting the disk. Finally, about a week ago the drive refused to mount any CDs or DVDs. After inserting the disk the drive would make a ticking sound and eventually eject the disk.

We have an old unused G4 Mac mini in the house. Thinking that there was a chance of swapping CD/DVD drives we took both computers apart. Unfortunately the Mac mini’s drive was too big to fit in the MacBook Pro.

While I had the drive out looking at it I was thinking that the problem might be mechanical interference. Perhaps the drive got squished or pinched, the tolerances looked very tight. I decided to gently stretch the drive’s slot opening a bit wider. Nothing to loose, I figured. I pried it by hand until it had a slight upward bow on the top of the slot.

We hooked it up and stuck in a CD. . . .

It mounted the CD just fine and I was able to copy songs into iTunes with no problems. Same story with a DVD, it works fine.

I wouldn’t open a laptop lightly, but it can be done with care. There are instructions available on the web for replacing hard drives and opening up Apple laptops. If you’re like me with an expired warranty, an A+ certified computer tech on staff and a dead drive–give it a try. Your mileage may vary–Don’t do this with a computer that’s under warranty!

According to Tom’s Hardware, SSDs (solid state disks) consume more power than conventional platter-based hard drives. It seems the theory behind this is that when a SSD is in use it consumes power at its maximum not matter the activity, whereas a platter-based hard drive consumes its maximum power only when the head is moving.

What this means is that when your HDD is seeking, or moving the head to find the track the requested data is stored at, it consumes the most power, but once it has found the track the data is stored at it’s power consumption declines. In contrast when a SSD reads any data it pulls at its maximum rating. If your reading files from a conventional hard drive it will only pull its peak power for a fraction of a second (while it seeks), but once on a given track it takes less power (on average) to read data than a SSD would.

Tom’s Hardware tested several SSDs from seven manufactures and found a consistent bias towards SSDs pulling more power. It is claimed that this can have severe impacts on battery life for laptops. Only 2.5″ SSDs and platter-based HDDs were tested, no word on the 1.8″ SSD the MacBook Air uses, but it’s safe to assume all SSDs follow this pattern.

Read: Original Article on Tom’s Hardware.

The external SuperDrive that is optional for MacBook Air owners only works with the MacBook Air, until now. Tnkgrl has found what is limiting the MacBook Air external SuperDrive to the MacBook Air. The component that ensures it functions only with the MacBook Air is a IDE to USB controller. After a few components were moved, tnkgrl replaced the IDE to USB controller with a generic off the shelf controller and found that it works with all computers. For your time plus $9 you can have a sleek external SuperDrive for all your computers.

Read tnkgrl’s full article on the MacBook Air SuperDrive for all.

Review of 15” MacBook Pro

by Bob Hodgen

I’m Robert’s dad. Robert is the owner of this website. When Robert got his Mac Pro desktop I inherited his 1st generation 15” MacBook Pro laptop. At the time it was just short of 1 year old. It’s funny, he used to inherit my old computers–now it’s the other way around! I’m not complaining, the MacBook Pro is by far the best computer I’ve ever owned.

Specs:

•  Model Name: MacBook Pro 15″
•  Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,2
•  Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
•  Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz
•  Number Of Processors: 1
•  Total Number Of Cores: 2
•  L2 Cache: 4 MB
•  Memory: 2 GB
•  Bus Speed: 667 MHz

Robert upgraded the stock hard drive to a 200 Gb 7200 rpm SATA Hitachi 2.5 inch drive. The results of the swap are available at OS X 411.

The new drive is working well. Considering my old computer was a G4 Powerbook, I’m very happy with the speed of the MacBook Pro.

The drive has 2 partitions, a large one for OS X Leopard and a smaller Vista partition. Vista runs very well via Boot Camp. Almost all of my time is spent in Leopard, I don’t do much with Vista other than demos. I run Windows XP via VM Ware Fusion, again, it’s mostly for demo purposes. How many computers can run OS X, Vista, and XP? That usually impresses Windows die-hards. I even had Linux on it for a while. 

I’ve noticed that the cooling fans run almost all of the time with Vista and the battery runs down a lot quicker. Obviously Vista is using more of the computer’s resources than Leopard. Other than the translucent “aero glass” eye candy, there’s not much to be impressed with in Vista. Scratch under the surface and it’s just a variation of XP in all of it’s wretchedness.

Being an airline pilot, I travel a lot. The MacBook Pro is my primary computer, so it has been everywhere with me. I typically fly round trips from the U. S. to Europe once a week. I sometimes get as far afield as Singapore or Kuwait. This MacBook Pro has literally been all over the planet!

I don’t baby the MacBook Pro at all, and it’s still going strong with no issues. The outside of the aluminum case is acquiring a nice collection of dents and scratches. I like to think of these as battle scars, evidence of the computer’s utility and toughness.

What I like:

• Leopard. I can’t see going back to Windows, ever.
• Toughness, it’s aluminum–not plastic.
• Design.
• Backlit keyboard.
• Large trackpad, two finger scrolling.
• The single mouse button is not an issue, tap with 2 fingers = right click.
• Glossy screen. Good resolution color, and brightness.
• Integrates well with my iPhone.
• Battery life is still over 3 hours.
• The magsafe power connector, it’s saved the computer a couple of times.

What I don’t like:

• It gets hot and the fans run more than my PowerBook.
• The screen latch is fiddly and sometimes hard to open.
• The power button has sunk below the level of the case, it still works but feels cheap.

As a primary computer for someone who is mobile the MacBook Pro is ideal. On my desk at home I have it on a raised pedestal I use along with the Apple bluetooth keyboard and mighty mouse. The 15 inch screen is just big enough to be usable for most apps. The multiple desktop feature of OS X gives me 4 desktops to spread my apps around on. Robert wrote me a neat Automator script that opens 4 of my favorite apps at once in separate desktop windows.

Of course, the MacBook Pro is a powerhouse on the road. I generally carry it in a lightweight laptop case with just the power brick. All of the foreign adapters and cables are stored away in my suitcase. That keeps the load light and manageable.

I’ve gotten online in lots of different countries. It can get expensive to use the hotel’s connection. The going rate in London is 15 Pounds per day, and in Germany it’s 20 Euros. That converts to about $30 a day, US!

To save money I use the $39 per month Boingo international plan, which works in most of the places I stay. One disadvantage to Boingo is that their automatic software doesn’t work on dual core intel Macs. I have to access their service through the hotel’s sign on screen. Roaming choices are not always available, or the hotel may not have an agreement with Boingo, so there are some places I can’t connect.

All in all, I’m very happy with the MacBook Pro. Like I said before, it’s the best computer I’ve owned–by far.

Bob

For MacBook owners, having the ability to add custom text to your Mac’s Login Window is invaluable if your MacBook is lost, stolen or just for identification purposes. I wrote an article on OS X 411 on how to Add Text to the OS X Login Window. 

As the above image suggests, it shows up on the user login window, you can change the login text anytime simply by editing a single file. I recommend this modification to any MacBook owner, I put a warning about FileVault and my phone number incase my MacBook Air is ever stolen or lost. Adding this to a desktop (iMac or Mac Pro) might be a little extreme, but nonetheless cool.

Read the original article.

Seeing as how MacBook 411 and OS X 411 are both Apple related blogs, it makes sense that both carry major news from and about Apple. If you’re not aware already, OS X 411 and MacBook 411 are both owned by myself, Robert Hodgen. They both use The 411 Forums naming scheme, that is, a product plus 411. Anyway, back to WWDC08…

I wrote a synopsis of Apple’s 2008 WWDC Keynote over at OS X 411, from there you can find links to all of the live posts I made from the tenth row of Steve Jobs’ Keynote. If your just interested in reading my live coverage of the 2008 WWDC Keynote, check out the live blog tag. To see anything having to do with WWDC read OS X 411’s WWDC category.

As for my personal coverage of WWDC, you can read my personal blog entries on WWDC.

Over on MacBook 411’s sister site OS X 411 I’m live blogging the Keynote. Checkout the site for the latest pictures and news.

One of the reasons I’ve created this site was because I recently purchased a MacBook Air. Since I own another Apple laptop I can now contribute information and tricks to the MacBook community.

I do plan on writing some articles about the MacBook Air, battery life, SSD performance, and possibly a review. I also plan on helping others in the MacBook 411 forum.

MacBook 411 now has its forum installed. It has not been styled yet, although that should be happening soon. If you like what you see, sign up and start discussing your MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

MacBook 411’s Forum can be found at http://macbook411.com/forum.