This is now my favorite word. Charging. It implies an onward rush of motion, speed, and intensity and also the availability of power. Ahhh, power! That elusive three-pronged wonder that is wired to our lives. Power has become all the more special in mine because of it’s painfully-apparent absence. My computer was once equipped with the amazing ability to charge at will and hold on to every hurt with all it’s heart. Now it has abandoned all such dreams forever. This stark and glaring realization forced me to drastic measures. And so it was with a heavy heart my brother Andy my sister Kat and I took my poor ailing Macbook to the genius bar where I was given the heart-wrenching news that my battery was 'consumed'.
If anyone has ever been told that their computer battery has been 'consumed' then you will know how it feels. For those of you who haven't, it's something like hacking your guts out with an ice pick, tossing them into a blender coated with the sour sting of lemon and turned on high while being pulverized by all the spare change you've ever had in your life, served with a twist of costumer service.
There was only one good thing that came out of the whole experience and no it was not the fact that they cleaned my computer screen, although that was a nice bonus. The only redeeming factor was while they couldn't fix my battery (because they couldn't), they could repair the small crack on my computer top caused by over-exuberant slamming and weak plastic. This whole procedure would replace the top of my computer including keys and be absolutely free because Apple is just cool that way. The only down side was that they would need to keep my computer for....3 DAYS!!!! If anyone has ever met me outside the show, you'll know that my computer is usually glued to my side and is the only thing besides my iPod that I always pack with me. My computer is like an extra arm and the decision to leave it behind, alone in a strange mac store all by itself was excruciatingly painful. What if they forgot to leave the night light on and it got scared?
Alright, so maybe I exaggerate, but can you blame me? Wait, that question was rhetorical.
Well, to make a long story longer, I got my computer back yesterday all shiny and happy (with a clean screen too!) and I expect to receive my mail-order battery in...well, the mail, today or tomorrow! Because of this whole dilemma I now know more about batteries and how to make them last than I ever wanted to. Things like each macbook battery only has 400 charge cycles (as a minimum) and then it is classified 'consumed'. Even partial charges count as partial charges, so the best thing you can do is leave it plugged in but give it some exercise (leave it shut down for 2 hours fully charged then run it to the ground and charge it back up) every month. As if I needed to know all that! If anyone else has experienced this problem and wants to commiserate I will be on blogger and available for whining between takes in the studio. Ahhhh, the studio...now that's a whole different story...
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3 comments:
Glad to hear that you now have a computer, clean screen and all!
I know how agonizing that is. My battery picks and chooses the days it wants to charge. It's rather frustrating trying to find wireless signal when limited by, well, a wire. I have yet to muster the courage to take it to the school's tech geeks >.<
Ah, yes well I probably should have taken my computer in and have it fixed, but instead just bought a replacement charge cord and it works well enough...although it no longer gets online, so it's quite worthless......But that's okay because I'm planning on getting my Macbook later this month! YAY! No more lousy HP's, at least mine was lousy...but that was probably me just using it too hard. Not my fault it couldn't take it! Haha, glad to hear yours worked out well.
Now that I have my Macbook I'll probably heed your advice. Just today, my second day of owning it, the isight camera decided to not work, saying not connected....I looked it up and found out that if you shut down the computer, then take out the battery, wait a few seconds, return the battery, and start it back up it should work. And it did, but I still don't think it's a good start to the life of my Macbook! I just have the worst luck with these things.....computers....uh. :-) Nah, I love it.
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