r/macbook

Soooooo I js won a macbook neo giveaway from a large-scale youth event hehe (im beyond thrilled, the chance of me winning was literally 0.0667%)

This is my first ever apple product! Pretty sure I disappointed my ancestors since I'm so uncultured, I had to watch a tutorial vid on how to set up a macbook for the first time. (i used to be a computer science major, mind you. idk what is happening to me)

The speaker quality is honestly better than Lenovo Thinkpad and Asus TUF! I like it that there's no backlit on the keyboard and that the keypad is a clickling type. /srs

Too bad I don't have any other apple devices, so I couldn't experience the airdrop feature much.

I might actually fall for the apple propaganda one day cuz of this.

Anyways, I'm just here to share my excitement. Though some beginner friendly tips/recommendations are always appreciated!

My son is in the 8th grade and wants a MacBook for school. We are considering the Neo but don’t know if it is strong enough. He plays a fair bit of games such as Stardew Valley, Minecraft and Hollow knight. Will the Neo be able to run those games well enough to play? I just want to make sure the Neo will last him a long time because it says it uses an iPhone chip.

Like the title says, a HUGE amount of space is taken up by system. I can't figure out how to delete whatever that is. Anybody have any ideas on what to do?

After almost two years with my Mac mini, I realized I still need to be more mobile, so I decided to sell it. I didn’t want to spend too much extra money, so I went with the M3 Pro instead. It still handles everything I need for my work, including feature film editing, but going from 24GB of RAM down to 18GB is a little sad lol.

Hey, I've been fighting this for a while and I'm out of ideas, hoping someone has seen it.

Setup

• MacBook Pro 14" M4, macOS 27.0.1 (same behavior on the previous release, macOS 26, and the betas)
• Monitor 1: Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P, connected via Thunderbolt/USB-C
• Monitor 2: LG UltraGear 27G810A-B, connected via HDMI
• No docks or hubs in the chain (direct connections)
• Usually used with the lid closed, but the issue is identical with the lid open

Both of these are officially within what the M4 MacBook Pro should support (two externals).

Problem
Only one external display works at a time. Whichever one is connected first wins:

1. Monitor A connected, picture is fine.
2. Plug in monitor B while A is connected: B gets no signal, A keeps working.
3. Unplug A, B immediately gets picture.
4. Plug A back in while B is connected: A gets no signal.
5. Unplug B, picture moves to A.

The order doesn't matter, the second monitor never shows up. The second display is not listed at all in System Settings > Displays, not even as a disconnected/black display. It's a detection problem, not "detected but black".

What I've tried

• Different HDMI cable
• HDMI to Thunderbolt/USB-C converter on the LG
• HDMI hub
• Lowered refresh rates on both monitors
• Latest macOS, previous macOS (26), and beta builds
• Full reset of the Mac
• Tested with the lid open as well, same behavior
• Logic board replacement at the service center. They said the testing was completed, but couldn't give me a real explanation for the original fault. Problem is identical after the swap.

Both monitors work perfectly together on my Windows PC, so I don't think the monitors or cables are the issue.

Since a new logic board didn't change anything and it reproduces across multiple macOS versions, I'm wondering if this is something about how these specific monitors negotiate with the M4 (both are high-refresh 4K panels, so maybe a DSC/bandwidth allocation thing?), or if there's a known issue I'm missing. Has anyone gotten two high-refresh externals working on an M4 MBP, or seen a "second display is never detected" behavior like this?

so whenever I use arrow keys or try to hover with mouse over the other options it automatically goes to the first one again....
why is it doing that and how to fix it?