Macs aren't perfect...
...they can screw up pretty bad too.So if you haven't heard from me by email (or blog) for weeks, it's not just because I'm a bad emailer (which is true). It's because I have minimum access to a computer at all.
My Powerbook is currently out of order. =( (I can hear all the anti-mac people snickering with joy)
Rest assured that I am alive and mostly well. I'm back in the tremendously small but mighty city of Wuhu, China. I have settled into my position in teaching and working with school administration, moving in new directions with other types of work, and making new and old relationships stronger. Hope to report to you about it in detail sometime.
I am a bit sad I haven't been able to connect with people at home though. It's a new type of "lonely" unlike others I've felt in the past. I feel very "in between" these days... if there is such an emotion as that.
So after much research and no help from Apple, I discovered my Powerbook G4 has this heat sensor problem in the trackpad that causes it to think its overheating at over 100 degrees celsius causing it to go into narcoleptic sleep... sometimes for a few minutes and at worst, several hours (the record has been 20!!). It's been happening all summer and now still while I'm in China. If you saw me during my time in states you've surely heard me gripe about it.
It's been getting worse. Falling asleep more often and longer bouts. It's kept me from being able to do anything productive for fear of it zonking out on me.
I sent it off to Nanjing about two weeks ago. Nanjing is one of five cities in all of China with Apple service available. Luckily it's only a two hour bus ride from my city.
After a long time of phone tag and other Chinese-like administrative hassles (I've learned how to say things like trackpad, heat sensor, sleep/standby, logic board, and other various computer terms in Chinese =P ), they gave me a fix it figure of 7300 RMB... which is about 900 American dollars.
Yikes...
That's for a new top case and a new logic board. I thought it was horrid, especially for a problem that, as I've discovered on-line, many other Mac owners are experiencing which certainly makes it a production problem and not something I clumsily caused moving it around the world and such.
The bright side was I found out that in America, the same fix it operation would cost maybe 1,200 American dollars. I guess China is cheaper. Even better, I've learned from others that if I just fix the top case (without the logic board) it might solve the problem and that it would cost half the price. (4-500 American)
But that's still a lot of money...
Well... I haven't shelled out the money for the fix yet. I'm debating pros and cons with my father (who bought me the Mac originally) as well as putting in my complaint to Apple alongside many other disappointed Mac users with narcoleptic powerbooks.
Best case is that Apple has pity and takes responsibility for the manufacturing problem issuing a recall to get stuff fixed for free soon. Oh how joyous that would be.
Worst case is I'd shell out some exorbitant price to get it fixed. Sigh.. .
I will say though, life without a computer, despite clear troubles in work and communication, has been quite nice. I spend a lot more time reading instead of messing around with all the toys and distractions on my laptop. I feel less rushed.
We've come to grow quite dependent on technology, and despite the incredible pain of this process, I'm happy to have learned how to live peacefully and joyfully independent of my own computer.
Okay, I gotta peace out so my roommate can have his computer back... i guess I'm not that independent (can anyone of us be so?)
posted by Unknown @ 10:30 PM
<< Home