Apple less rotten this time?

I don't want to be too premature here, but I guess I am inviting slightly bad karma by being hopeful. But today I went BACK to the Apple store . . . again in the hopes that I might finally get to the bottom of my substandard laptop performance.

If you recall, this is my third trip on this issue. Trip one was to try and find out what was causing my iBook to suddenly cut off in the middle of things--whether I was plugged into the wall socket or sitting on the couch. The Apple Genius thought that the problem was maybe the main logic board. So, off shipped the laptop and I waited.

When I got it back about a week later, the problem was not resolved. So I took it back again and they again took my computer from me and I waited. When I got it back again, I saw that the main logic board had been replaced again but this time they also swapped out a component that conducted the electricity from the wall cord into the laptop itself. And since then, the computer has performed fine while plugged into the wall. But if I unplug, after about ten minutes, regardless of how much power the battery meter says, it shuts off. So, since a laptop is most useful when used as a portable . . . I went back for the third time.

I knew from my first visit that batteries have a finite life. And even though I was pretty certain that the battery was now the sole problem, I didn't want to pay for a new one. (Given that I've paid $300 for the initial repair, as well as gas and time for every visit.) And Lynda backed me up. Though she knew that my ability to be firm and angry about things was not my strong suit. I suggested that maybe she go in my place and put her own foot down--but she didn't.

I took Grace with me--half joking that if things got bad and if the Apple people didn't want to give me my free battery, I'd get her to start crying on cue and try to chip away at their cold, corporate, silicon hearts.

Turns out I didn't have to be a bad@ss and Grace didn't have to cry. They told me that my battery was old and they offered to replace it for me. And they said that they would do it for free. So, here's hoping that third times the charm.

I'll let you know.

*****

In other news, the Soup for a Year blog has been added to a bit over the weekend and tomorrow is the big start date. I'll try to keep you updated with how things progress by linking to the Soup blog from Why Won't You Grow?! And I'll try to prevent that blogging from making this blog suffer.

I hope y'all had a good weekend. Mine was pretty good and I'm going to find a way to not work tonight and relax a bit before conking out for sleep.