Psychotomy

So, the problem with the mac? Turns out the contacts on the power connector were corroded. Rusted, kindof.

Kiir suggested that I look it up online and see if I could get an appointment with the “Genius Bar” at the Apple Store from online, that way we only had to go when we were actually going to talk to someone (we being me, and then Kiir and DK if he was up from nap ; we figured they could go down to the play area if I was waiting long)

Turns out that, at 11AM, the only appointment for that day it was showing was at 3:20. Damn am I glad I didn’t go over then. Especially glad since I would have been going over at like 2 or something otherwise. When we got there at 3, they were saying they were flat out of appointments for that day, and someone was ending up with an 8pm TOMORROW night as the next available. :o

Got there ~3:10ish, Kiir took DK to the Disney Store to look around while I waited, came back just as they called me to say “so, what seems to be the issue?” I explained that it wasn’t charging, that it had had some issues for a while, but the no-charge thing was new since Friday. Because, lets face it, if it won’t charge or run off the adapter, I can’t use it. Gonna be hard to develop new symptoms ;)

He started to look at the bits, and saw the end of the power adapter and immediately said “ah, this is probably it. This is awfully corroded. Did this get wet or something?” And I pointed at DK and said “It’s possible someone may have been sucking on it or chewing on it yeah”

He plugged in with their adapter , worked fine. Booted up to check that it was registering the charge etc. Looked it up in the computer , and apparently my AppleCare was never activated. When I purchased the laptop and the plan, they told me I didn’t need to activate it, they’d done it all for me. The box for the applecare was policy and contained the information about what it covered/etc. Apparently that was incorrect. Apparently I was supposed to activate it. He looked it up in the computer to check it’s warranty/etc, and could find that I bought an applecare when I bought the laptop, but that the laptop had new registered applecare. Ooops :o I’m almost positive that I no longer have that “worthless box”, but he suggested that, if I can find the receipt, I can call the support line and ask them to activate it for me, so I’d get the third year of service & support.

Mind you, infants chewing on the power adaptor connector isn’t covered by standard warranty or the extended care applecare policy. But he was a cool guy. Decided that, given that we didn’t waste his time or insult his intelligence by trying to snow him, and we came right out and TOLD him “yeah, it was probably the infant sucking and chewing on it, in that case”, he went ahead and marked it as warranty replacement so I didn’t have to pay the 80$ for the part. YAY! I wasn’t looking forward to paying, but I was totally ready to do so since this is really NOT “normal wear and tear” (irregardless of how many people with infants might actually encounter a similiar problem, it’s still not the ‘normal’ usage :o)

So he was cool, it was all good. Thanks man!

Posted in: general by attriel /