well, that was unexpected ...

I haven't been able to use the USB ports on my laptop for a while. It's been quite annoying, actually. I finally decided to do something about it yesterday and packed it up with a flash drive and went to my favorite computer store, The Mac Toy Store, which fixes out-of-warranty Apple products and also refurbishes and sells them.

It at first sounded like my beloved 13" MacBook Pro might just have a software problem, but after several tries and a look under the hood it turned out to be the worse possible outcome — a fried motherboard that would cost $800 new or $600 used. My 2009 computer, however, was worth at least $300 as a trade-in. You can probably see where this post is going.

A little later, after a swapped hard drive, I am happily typing away on my "new" 15" MacBook Pro.

Everything old is new again

I was pretty sad to bid goodbye to my 13" laptop, but the store owner and Mac guru assured me that it would live on in other computers. He also threw in a free silicone keyboard cover and soft carrying case for the 15" laptop to help soften the blow. All in all, not a bad deal at all, but not how I thought the day, or the transaction, would end.

genius bar

We have an appointment today at a local Apple Store to see if there is any hope of restoring my old PowerBook G4 for the kid to use (and also so that she won't constantly be bugging me to get on my laptop). It has been in endless boot mode and is rather hot to the touch, so I'm frankly not too enthusiastic, especially if repairing it would be costly, but it's worth a shot. I have learned through other misadventures with computers that it is simply not possible for me to have a PC at home. The last time we had a small PC it suddenly transformed into German-language only mode. Ach du Lieber! I need Macs in the house, PCs are fine anywhere else.

I just hope that if there isn't much we can do for this 'puter that I don't get myself talked into purchasing some other shiny gadget to fill the gap. But I don't rule out that as a possibility, either. I know myself too well. I do have a birthday coming in a few months ...

That endlessly spiraling circle is getting annoying

Update: The geniuses can't fix anything that old, but they suggested a Mac specialty store that could — I actually have seen it, it's near my acupuncturist. For $150 this old laptop gets a brand new hard drive and my kid gets her own computer in a week. A good deal, and way less expensive than I feared. And now I have a new resource of helpful, geeky Apple enthusiasts. Win win!