Last week, I made an appointment at the Genius bar at the Apple store to see if they could fix my computer. Danny suspected that the video card was bad, and that it may even be a recalled one- so there was a chance they could not just fix it, but fix it for free.
I didn't have the receipt, and we couldn't remember exactly when we bought it. But they had the serial number on file, and all the info about the computer, even that it had been reconditioned. The guy was really nice, and came to the same conclusion as my husband. That the video card was bad, and it might be one of the recalled ones. However, the recall was limited to 4 years. Their records show that we bought the computer as a reconditioned laptop on October 15th, 2008. The video card quit working on November 4th, 2012. As it was after the 4 years, they wouldn't honor the recall. Bastards. So it was either pay them $300-500+ to fix it, or buy a new computer. If we are going to spend that much to fix an old computer, we might as well just buy a new one. Except that we don't exactly have an extra $1500 right now. (or ever, really)
Later that night as I was sewing, he was tinkering around with the computer and he yelled "AHA!" He came in and asked me how to turn the oven on. He said that the video card was indeed one of the recalled ones. So I came out to see what he was up to. The computer was in pieces, and he had the logic board in his hand. He had researched the issue, and apparently the chips were recalled because they were not soldered completely in the factory. So after awhile, they would come apart and not work.
Since we had nothing to lose, he decided to bake the thing to see if it would melt the solder back into place.
And here I am, blogging from the computer that Apple refused to fix even though they had recalled the part. We have spent thousands of dollars on Apple's products, and they work well for us and we really like them. However, we should have received notice that there was a recall, not to mention they should have fixed it when it was reconditioned.
One of the reasons we think the video card crapped out on us is that I use this computer to watch a lot of videos. I watch tv shows and movies while I sew. Just so you get an idea of just how much- so far this year, I have watched the following:
Criminal Minds seasons 1-4, Law and Order seasons 1-7, The Office seasons 1-8, Gossip Girl seasons 1-4, Grey's Anatomy seasons 1-8, Melancholia, Follow that Bird, The secret of NIMH, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Weeds seasons 5&6, Mannequin, Lost in Translation, Blue Valentine, The Good Son, Downtown Abbey Seasons 1&2, Dollhouse seasons 1&2, Arthur, The House of Yes, The Killing season 1, Medium seasons 1-7, Heroes seasons 1-4, No Strings Attached, Crossing Jordan season 1, Damages seasons 1-3, Brick, Limitless, Parenthood seasons 1-3, Ghost Whisperer season 5, Law and Order CI season 9, Lost seasons 1-6.
Yeah, I know I watch a lot of tv. But I don't so much "watch" it as listen to it. Sometimes I listen to music, but mostly I have a show on while I'm working. Just so you know, we don't have regular tv anymore since we moved here. We wanted to finally get rid of cable, and just use our netflix subscription. We also have Amazon Prime, and I have recently discovered that they have free videos to stream too!
So to lessen the strain on my computer, we got an Apple TV and hooked it up to the desktop that's in the office. That way I can still "watch" my shows, and hopefully keep this computer from breaking for awhile longer. If this computer does break anyway- then I'll just use the desktop until I save up enough money for a new Mac.
So keep you fingers crossed for me!
If you are interested, here is the link to the recalled video card.
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