Wow, I can’t believe I haven’t written in almost two weeks! There is a reason for that, unfortunately. You see, about two weeks ago on one of my days off, a glass of water spilled all over my laptop. I was enjoying a lunch that I had just made and was listening to Sara Bareilles’ new album while I was about to respond to an e-mail. I went to pick up my heaping glass of water and unfortunately, my wrist knocked it over. It was one of those moments where everything went into slow motion. I swear, I saw my whole life flash before my eyes. After all, for a poor 20something, a laptop with water damage is death.
My brain sort of shut down for a second. I had no idea what to do. I immediately texted a tech-savvy friend for advice. He suggested that I shut down the computer, dry as much as I can on the outside, and then remove the battery. Now, on the old Macbook models, the battery was easily accessible. On the Macbook Pro, which I own, the battery is guarded by ten microscopic screws. I searched my entire apartment to see if perhaps my room mate owned a very small screwdriver. No luck.
The first place I could think of to find a screwdriver was CVS. After all, there are two CVS stores, right across the street from each other, on my street. The CVS employee was very helpful but alas, no screwdrivers. She pointed me in the direction of a hardware store and told me that some of the dollar stores along the way might have them. I dashed over to that hardware store to find a sign that said, “Closed today. Death in the family.” Of course.
I turned around and decided to stop into every dollar store I saw on the way. Now, they all had screw drivers, that is for sure. The troublesome part about this was that I need a size #00 Phillips screw driver. 00 means that it is one whole size smaller than a size 0. Very tiny. Of course, none of these dollar stores had what I needed!
I finally found a hardware store, and they had this great little four-in-one screw driver with the size that I needed. I bought it and went back home to open up my laptop. I got through about six screws when it suddenly ceased to work. I thought I might have stripped the screw, but it wouldn’t work on any of the other screws. I decided that I needed another screw driver. I didn’t want to walk all the way back to the other hardware store, so I had to find something else. In a panic, I went to the RadioShack right under my apartment. It was just my luck that they had what I needed, but it was included in a big set of screwdrivers. I bought it, of course, and went right back to unscrewing the back of my laptop.
I should add here a “Don’t try this at home” warning. Apple does NOT want you to open up your computer. It actually voids the warranty, I later learned.
Lo and behold–I open up the back of the computer and I can see it plain as day–little bits of water residue on the motherboard. A Google search advised me that I should let the laptop dry out for at least twenty four hours but that I should let it dry for as long as possible.
For me, as long as possible ended up being about another week, since I was so busy with job interviews and working at my PA job. Fortunately, I had applied for dozens of jobs the weekend before my laptop got fried, so I had a few interviews lined up. It was tough not being able to apply for more over the following two weeks. I think that fact is hurting me right now.
Back to the laptop… Long story short, I turned it on, and it turned on just fine. Unfortunately, the screen did not light up. I knew then and there that I had to take it to the Apple Store. I got a “Genius” with a very “tough luck, kid!” attitude. You see, Apple can’t fix just the pieces that are damaged. They have to replace the entire “logic board,” mainly as a safety precaution in case there is any damage that can not be seen by the human eye. The price tag for such a repair costs as much as a month of rent for my apartment.
I decided to get a second opinion at this place called Tekserve, which is basically an independent Apple store. The employee at Tekserve suggested that even though they could fix it for about $100 less, getting it repaired by Apple would restore my warranty, of which I had about a year and a half left. So, I decided to cough up the money to Apple so that they could repair it. At this point, it was going to take almost a week to fix, and I just wanted my computer back.
And now it’s back. Money is extremely tight right now, unfortunately. I am still in the mix for a really big corporate job, and even though I feel like it would kill my soul, I really need the money. I have one more interview lined up for Monday and hopefully there will be a few more in the week.
In other news, I stopped biting my nails on April 1st. Nope, not an April Fools joke! I have good feelings about this week. Time to keep my head up and get back to work!