My MacBook Is Finally Fixed!
It took two trips to Apple, but my MacBook no longer has a flickering screen! Yay!
There are a couple of things I do when sending my Mac to Apple that may not be necessary, but I want to make sure that Apple has no excuses for not fixing my machine. It’s one of those “rubber chicken” things (see MacBreak Weekly #18). Here’s what I do:
- Return the Mac to it’s original hardware configuration when you purchased it from Apple. I have a 60gb/512mb MacBook. I have upgraded the RAM to 2gb. That means I take the RAM out and put in the original RAM. Once I get a bigger hard drive, I will also swap the hard drive as well. The original hard drive will be reformatted and a base MacOS 10.4 will be loaded on it with no extra software. No need to leak my “data” to Apple or have to do crap like change my admin password. I don’t want Apple to use “software” or “hardware” differences as an excuse for not fixing my Mac.
- Hand-write a description of the problem and steps for reproduction and include it with the computer. With a laptop, that’s easy: just put the paper on top of the keyboard and close the laptop. They can’t possibly not see the piece of paper. I didn’t think of this at first. I can thank the Apple rep I talked to when I called them to ask for a second dispatch.
Considering the results I had, being without my machine a grand total of 3 days each time including shipping time, I’d say I will be doing these things again and again. Of course, I hope I never have to send my MacBook back to Apple again, but thanks to AppleCare, I know I can for another couple of years.
