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…
Dripping a laptop is never a good thing.
Your namesake is full of praise for his new Air, and I will admit that he’s having a lot more fun than I am with my new computer, which has the twin disadvantages of NOT really being designed to be portable with its gorgeous wide-screen display that really does major motion pictures (and Pirates of the White Sands) justice, and of having Vista.
However, switching to Vista on the eve of NaNo didn’t seem to hurt me much, so maybe switching to the newest Mac version, which I am sure must be far superior to Vista, isn’t such a bad idea.
Interesting thought to pose to your nephew, who has become a favored customer at the local Apple Store … does the Apple Store have a listing of customers who have upgraded and have older Macs for sale? Or does the Apple Store have trade-ins that they can resell?
Dropping didn’t hurt my laptop! Well, if that’s what happened to it that is. Is would explaing the dent, however (there is a documantary in production about the incident, so I can’t give away too many details right now!)
Isn’t that what happened to SOupBoy’s computer just a few weeks ago? That, and my buddy Larry just got his out of the shop…after a month! Man, no wonder Vlad The MacImpaler is getting so rich!
Asus and Linux – that’s the way to go if you ask me!
pL
Oh, I’m sure dropping a laptop is bad. But dripping it might not be so bad … I guess that depends on viscosity and things like that.
Or is that where you spill your drink, and then you have to drip it to get it dry again…
How hot does a computer have to get to start dripping? If it is getting that hot, might I suggest a cooler machine?
I do like my Air, although I’ve got the conventional hard drive. People say that you should have a camera everywhere, but with the air, i can take that a step further and upload pictures everywhere, at the time a event’s taking place. Plus, I don’t even notice it’s light weight, which is great since I walk 3 or 4 miles a day just getting around town.
So I took my laptop to the shop, where it immediately stopped showing any problems whatsoever. They ran a bunch of tests, and everything worked fine. So now I have it back, and I’ll drive it until it breaks completely (likely somewhere between Albuquerque and Kansas).
Isn’t that typical? When you’ve got a problem all you need to do is a get a problem solver to come and look at said problem. Example: when I was in Germany for two weeks, my mom tried to start the Cherokee to run some errand or another. We email and try to brain storm solutions, but nothing worked.
Fast forward to night of my return. I try to look for problem and see nothing. On a whim I try starting the car, and it starts up with no hesitation. Figure that one out.
P.S. I’m still running on my battery as I type this.
If you truly want photo portability and uploadability, I suggest a Nokia N95 – Much lighter than the airbook, and you can, but don’t have to, use WiFi as well. It can even upload photos to a GPS track on a Map as you take them. Well, sort of. The GPS track does not always work…
I have an old Titanium PowerBook I could donate. 9GB drive, tho. I’m in NorCal this week, SoCal next week. -b.
Ooo.. I quite liked my old TiBook! I’ll drop you an email.