collisionbend.com

So:

I re-seated my RAM a second time, and the MacBook ran perfectly — for a day. Then it was back to its bag of tricks.

I reset the Power Management Unit — twice. No dice.

I reset the PRAM — twice. No dice.

I re-seated the RAM a third time, then reset the PRAM then reset the PMU again. Still no dice.

I have spent several hours over the past week trying to resolve this issue, and now the computer is going back to the factory for service (at the same time that our beloved G4 iBook had its battery recalled).

At least it won’t cost me anything.

The rep at Microcenter told me that they would have had to ship it out — and charge me $59.95 in advance. No refund later, either. This was after Apple Care told me that my repair wouldn’t cost me “a single dime.” I don’t know how Microcenter achieved “Authorized Repair Center” status for charging people within their warranty period.

How about the Apple store in Legacy Village? Well, you have to have an appointment to see a tech. In advance. No walk-ins. No service. I’m not going to drive all over town for the sake of a laptop that won’t work for my sake.

So I called Apple again. My MacBook will be gone for up to two weeks (they said 10 days minimum). Great. No work. No income. Nothing.

So what is the computer’s problem? Well, this is what I think (this hasn’t been confirmed by Apple — hell, they won’t even admit there’s a problem when over 15% of the MacBooks present with this issue at almost exactly 6 weeks of service!): the computer runs too hot, baking the internal components — all but the hard drive. Different MacBook owners have had different parts replaced to fix the problem, but this is a matter of what bakes when. I think that the units that have had more items replaced were the ones that are running more hours per day.

It makes sense, at least.

This is a problem, and Apple needs to face the music. Now. This is a sweet little laptop (erm… “notebook”) — when it runs.

It’s too bad I can barely get it to boot up.

(71.8 — 71.4 — 0.4!!!!!!)