MacBook Woes
Added: December 11th, 2007 (tagged with: computer)
A few short months ago, I bought a shinny new MacBook, and immediately had problems. I couldn't connect to the internet through the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router (that my Nintendo Wii could connect through) until I downgraded the firmware. Then I got to experience the joy of installing software that doesn't come with a .dmg that you can drag and drop into the Applications folder, but instead have to install from source and require a dozen or so other packages that they don't bother including. Well, last Thursday, I was prompted to upgrade Tiger to 10.4.11 - a 100-something MB download that was crawling and (after a company Christmas party) I wasn't in the mood to wait around for the hour or two it would take to download the update, so I let it run overnight. The next day, I move the mouse to wake up the display (I have my power setting set to turn the display off after 15-30 minutes of inactivity, but to never put my hard drive to sleep if I am connected to a power outlet) and I am unable to get a video signal. So I power down, reboot, and am stuck watching a little spinning gear while the system tries to load. A few minutes later, still nothing, I am locked out of my system.
To troubleshoot the problem, I fire up my wife's 4 year old Dell and start searching the net. I found a few forums that looked promising... I tried booting into safe mode, no luck getting there. Booted from CD and ran a disk and permissions check, it repaired two permissions, but no luck booting up. So this morning I finally broke down took my MacBook over to Lapin (a Mac Specialist store). I was told that Software problems (even Apple Updates) were not covered by the one year warranty you get with a new MacBook, only Hardware problems. So, I left my MacBook in the care of the Specialists, and for only $129 an hour they will diagnose my problem. But it's going to be another 2 days before they can even look at it. Good thing I have Super Mario Galaxy at home waiting for me.
