MacBook Pro In the Shop

It was Wednesday morning. The night before SuperDuper smart updates at it's regularly scheduled time, and Apple update runs. I haven't updated to 10.5.4 yet. Check all the boxes, close all open programs, update.

I slept well that night. Walking into my office that morning the screen was dark as normal. Repeated presses on the keyboard, nothing. Unhook USB, power, rehook, hit keyboard several more times, blank. Frustration, hold the power button and let it cool down.

Turn it on and wait. First few moments of darkness are expected, a constant when restarting, this is different, the white background with grey Apple logo is missing. This is not good. External monitor is given nothing to show, and the laptop screen is depressingly void of color. Grabbing the phone in frustration I dial Apple support.

After about 5 or 6 minutes on hold I explain my troubling morning to the friendly tech. We try the battery power button with twister-styled keys sequence, nothing. The series of events isn't looking good to my new best friend either. We start looking for genius bar reservations in the area, 2 stores, nothing till tomorrow. Next try gets a night reservation, not acceptable though, I need this thing fixed.

A few phone calls to the business reps in each of the stores in the immediate vicinity, some success, bring it in and ask about a refresh computer. Apple doesn't offer a loaner program, at least that's what I've been led to believe. A refresh is a discounted refurb machine that you pay for in full, but here's the fun part, no restocking fee ... It's already been "restocked".

A few thousand dollars later and I'm walking out with a rental Macbook Pro. A little slower than my shop bound machine, less RAM, but I am not machineless while they fix whatever might be broken. Come tomorrow I should get a call that it's ready, and off to the store I'll go, and get all my money back for that rental I'm typing on.