I am typing right now on a very dim screen, and for the moment the noise has gone away and the extreme power drain has abated. I’m not fooling myself into thinking the problem is solved, though. It’s only a matter of time before the video inverter goes kaput entirely. That is inconvenient, especially since on this machine, apparently, the video inverter is integrated with the main logic board. Repair will be expensive.

I must say I miss my old, much slower Powerbook that served me so faithfully for so many years (until I dripped it – things went downhill from there). I find myself idly considering picking up one of those old workhorses, which (before RAM and hard drive upgrades) would cost about the same as repairing this computer.

Then there’s the sexy new MacBook Air, which will likely be my next purchase, once the hard-drive-free version drops a bit further in price. Lightweight and plenty fast enough for me, if the battery life is close to what is claimed, then that looks like the ultimate road machine for a wandering writer (except for the price).

The time required to get everything going on a new system, however, is time better spent preparing for the writing workshop and getting a release of Jer’s Novel Writer out. Repair makes more sense. Still, if anyone has an old mac laptop they’d care to donate…