Without my PowerBook

I don’t have my PowerBook right now, and it’s making me crazy. My PowerBook had two problems: there were several (more than 20) stuck pixels, and it wouldn’t always wake from sleep (screen would remain black). I’d been living with these problems for more than 6 months, since I hate being without my PowerBook. Right before I left for New Orleans, I dropped the laptop off at the Apple Store to have them fix the problems under AppleCare extended warranty. They also found a third problem related to white spots on the screen.

I returned from New Orleans and picked-up my repaired PowerBook last Saturday. The screen was replaced, and the stuck pixels and white spots were both gone, but the sleep problems continued. I decided that I’d be OK using the pc laptop for another few days, so I could take the PowerBook back in for service. It took 30 minutes to replicate the problem for the guy at the Apple Genius bar in Montgomery Mall, but once I did he was pretty thorough, eliminating: software, user failure, and the hinge assembly as issues. Finally, he took the laptop in to be re-serviced by Apple Service. Total time spent replicating and diagnosing the problem: 1.5 hours — Kybx went with me, and was incredibly patient about the whole thing.

Tuesday I get an e-mail from Apple Service, “Your repair is currently on hold, pending receipt of a needed part”. Ugh, I know from experience that it can take weeks for parts to show up at Apple. Well, if that what it takes to get my laptop 100% again… Wednesday, I look at the new software update from Apple, Mac OS X 10.3.8, which includes: “Addresses an issue in which a PowerBook G4 computer would, on rare occasion, wake from sleep with a black screen and not respond to any keyboard, mouse, or trackpad input.” Argh! It’s a system-software issue — my laptop is going to be gone for weeks on a problem that Apple has (since) solved in a software update!

My timing sucks.

4 replies on “Without my PowerBook”

  1. Ahh… I always figured that was a software thing. Everyone I know with a powerbook has that problem. In particular, if you use a lot of external peripherals, like we tend to at work, you can easily induce it by yanking too many cords too quickly.

  2. Doing a random Google search for an old friend…

    I found Kybx mentioned here in your blog. If that happens to be a woman from MD whose last name starts (or once did) with a G, and who got Kybx from an old phone number, I wonder if you’d be so kind as to pass on my email address, and let her know I asked after her?

    She may remember Baitcon, Fandom House, and trips To and From the Boston area in the summer of 1992…

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