I started having problems with my laptop last week. My Macbook Pro is just over a year old (celebrated its birthday on the 5th of November), and all of a sudden last week the screen went completely black. No backlight. No nothing. I was using it one minute, closed the lid to go hang out with a friend, then came home an hour later and opened the lid and it never came back on. I had a mild panic attack. And by mild…I mean that I freaked out.
Then I calmed down a little and took a deep breath, thinking surely it was just having a hard time waking up. Sometimes it does that. My laptop is temperamental, just like me. So I closed the lid and opened it again. Nothing. Forced it to shut down and powered it back on. Nothing. Cried a little on the inside. Nothing. Cried a little on the outside. Surprisingly…nothing. I climbed up on the ledge of my balcony, ready to jump, when I remembered that my precious laptop is covered by Applecare warranty. I was saved!
Climbed down and scheduled an appointment with the “Geniuses” at the nearest Apple store the next day after work. I drove straight there when I got off and stood around waiting my turn for over an hour. On a side note, I almost pushed a lady off the stool she was sitting on simply because she was taking up two stools – one for her and one for her purse. I watched for a long time and nobody ever came over that she might’ve been saving the seat for. She was just rude. I stood right next to her and got in her personal bubble of space, and when the guy behind the counter invited me to sit down while they looked at my laptop, I looked at her and said I couldn’t because there were no open seats. She still didn’t move the purse. At that point, I felt that she deserved the floor, and her fancy Louis Vuitton purse could remain on its stool. I reigned it in though and just shot her nasty looks when she wasn’t paying attention. It was fun.
The Genius told me that either the LCD or the graphics card was out and would need to be replaced. Had it not been for my very recently extended warranty (thanks Mom!), this would’ve cost me at least $800. Instead…$0. It’s completely covered. Except for the data backup. He informed me that it wasn’t something they could do in store and would instead need to be shipped off for repair. He also graciously informed me that during testing of machines, sometimes the techs decide to wipe a hard drive just to make sure that software isn’t the problem. In essence, if I didn’t pay them the $50 to backup my data, I ran the risk of it being deleted. Ummm…no thanks.
I left with my laptop and backed it up over the weekend with the help of a very special someone. I took it back in on Saturday and shipped it off for repair. They told me the latest date they’ll keep it is the 28th, but that’s 2 weeks away. I think a little piece of me is dying a little bit day by day as my only access to a computer at home is now my – *gasp* – desktop PC. Stupid Windows Vista… *grumble grumble* I can’t wait to get my Mac back.
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It was very fortunate that your mom helped you extend your warranty. You’ve convinced me, actually, that even though the Mac is a solid machine, no machine is impervious to failures so I’m going to be extending my warranty as soon as I get my Christmas bonus. I don’t know what I’d do if my lovely Macbook Pro stopped working on me after the initial warranty expired.
On a side note about your side note…that is just rude and nasty that she would require a seat for a freaking purse. Just because she wanted to pay an insane amount for a purse doesn’t mean that it should get it’s own seat…hold that bitch in your lap. Oy…people. I’m not sure which Apple store you took it back to, hopefully the Southlake store. The people tend to be a bit nicer over there and I’ve had nothing but good experiences with all of my purchases there.
LOL…That was so funny. But I feel your pain. I have a dreaded HP laptop and the dayum power jack (you know that thing where the power cord plugs in) was not charging. Come to find out that HP was aware. A class action case was filed. I did not get in on it because HP refuse to admit that they had a problem. I just now had enough money saved (yes, I did not extend my warranty and the thing broke after the warranty was over) and got it fixed this past weekend.
My daughter has a laptop and she was not want to share with me. I am so happy I have my laptop back. I can update my IPod and all that good stuff. I was so close to stealing my special friend’s laptop when he brought his laptop to me to clean up and to fix. I got it working fine and I did not want to give it back. At the time I learned that you, Dean, did not like Vista…lol…
@Tinamarie:
I’m really glad I have the warranty. If I didn’t, the cost would’ve been way too much for me to handle. I’m sure your friend understood you wanting to keep the laptop though; I’ve been in that situation before too. lol As for me not liking Vista, it’s not that don’t like it, it’s that I by far prefer to use a Mac. Specifically my Mac.