So I made an appointment and brought my laptop in to the Apple Store today. It appeared that the hard drive had died, although I wasn't 100 percent sure it wasn't a system software problem. Anyway, the little Apple guy looks at the laptop and informs me that it is too old for them to work on. Parts for "vintage" computers more than five years old are not stocked. I asked why that was a problem since any internal hard drive currently made of the correct size would work. He said that if they did any damage while installing a new drive, they wouldn't have parts to fix it. Uh huh. He did tell me how I could buy and replace the drive myself.
Next I took it to a place called Mac Shack, which is an authorized Mac repair place in town. The guy there put the laptop on a diagnostic test right away to see if there really were any hardware problems. And, it appears there may not be a problem with the hard drive, but corrupted system files. For $69 they will check this out and repair any system file problems, and then IF there is a real problem with the hard drive, they will replace that with a new SSD for $150. Meanwhile, I'm also getting a new battery for $119, which Apple also wouldn't do for my "vintage" computer.
If there are, indeed, some system software problems, they likely happened because of the most recent High Sierra system software update. Great. Nice job, Apple. I've had Macs since way back in the Mac 512K "toaster" days. I guess things aren't all rosey in PC land, either, but this situation does make me rethink my relationship with Apple for the future.
Next I took it to a place called Mac Shack, which is an authorized Mac repair place in town. The guy there put the laptop on a diagnostic test right away to see if there really were any hardware problems. And, it appears there may not be a problem with the hard drive, but corrupted system files. For $69 they will check this out and repair any system file problems, and then IF there is a real problem with the hard drive, they will replace that with a new SSD for $150. Meanwhile, I'm also getting a new battery for $119, which Apple also wouldn't do for my "vintage" computer.
If there are, indeed, some system software problems, they likely happened because of the most recent High Sierra system software update. Great. Nice job, Apple. I've had Macs since way back in the Mac 512K "toaster" days. I guess things aren't all rosey in PC land, either, but this situation does make me rethink my relationship with Apple for the future.
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