Apple Inc (AAPL), stock hit an all time high today (it closed at 98.84), while my two Macs hit lows.
The Ethernet port on my Macbook (13″ Late 2006) failed. It seems that the connection to the logic board is loose. The nearest Apple Store is 72 miles away, and since I figured it’ll need a new logic board, I sent it off Apple Mail-In Repair in Tennessee. It’s still under warranty. They received it today and the repair status says, “On hold – Part on order (26-Apr-2007).” I guess that means they’ll fix it “real soon now.”
My other Mac notebook, a 4-year-old Powerbook G4 12″ (rev A) decided that it was going to have an intermittent connection with the DC power connector. I purchased AppleCare for this computer when I bought it, but that ran out about a year ago. So I had to fix it myself.
I highly recommend ifixit.com because they give step by step disassembly instructions with photos. It was a pain to take apart, in spite of ifixit.com’s excellent instructions, because the part I needed to fix required that everything else taken apart (except the display) first.
When I finally got everything apart, I could see the broken solder joint (circled in red) that was causing my intermittent power connection.
I guess it did “Test OK” when it was manufactured, but not now. A few seconds with a hot soldering iron and the connection was fine. Then it took me another hour to put it back together. As I said, a pain.
Addendum
I called Apple on April 23rd and they shipped me a box the next day to return the computer. I received my repaired Macbook May 1st, so I was without the computer for a week. Fortunately, I had backups of OS X and Vista, so I was up in running again in about 2 or 3 hours.
So do I consider myself lucky? Reading this Consumerist entry I feel OK. If I were a business user that depended on my computer – that’s another thing.