The Jesus Mac
posted by DL Byron on January 02, 2007
Our first day in Maui and I was checking in, looking at the weather, ride options, and spilt nearly an entire glass of water on the keyboard of my black Macbook. With Ninja (and total panic) speed, I picked it up, turned it upside down, and watched water pour out of the keys. Before I could pull the power cord, and pop the battery out, the Macbook booted twice and then went dark. Despite all my efforts with a hair dryer, fan, and towel, the Mac didn’t boot again and I was sure it was dead. Seeing water flow into the LCD is sad indicator that your computer isn’t going to boot again.
I rush ordered a replacement from Apple, (as noted here, .mac saved my ass again), and while Pam was checking her email on it, I did a final check of the dead macbook and boom it boots with 3 angry beeps! Unbelievable — after 3 days, the Macbook was back, and I said to Pam, it’s the Jesus Mac. I rushed to the local Apple reseller, Maui Macnet, to get a firewire cable, connected the two and used Migration Assistant. I also made a disc image of Boot Camp in hopes that I could somehow recover that partition.
Jesus to Phoenix
With the new Black Macbook running, I put the Jesus Mac away to deal with it later and before we left Maui, I checked it, and it failed to boot. It was dead again surely from corrosion and a short on the motherboard. Back on the mainland, I pulled the hard drive out and converted it into an external drive with an enclosure kit and help from the techs at the Mac Store. The Jesus Mac became the Phoenix, lives on, and I consider myself really lucky with the Mac MoJo.
Notes
- Despite all the complaints about the cost and features of .mac, I was up and running with all my bookmarks, personal settings, and keychains in about 10 minutes. That’s well worth $99.00 a year.
- I was also amazingly able to recover my boot camp install using this technique.
- I expensed the Jesus/Phoenix Mac as a loss. The cost to replace the motherboard is $850.00. A new Macbook is about $1500.00.
- I now have an extra battery and charger!
- The Core 2 Duo is noticeably snappier than the Core Duo.
Finally, the best value at the Apple Stores is ProCare — I was in an out of a busy store with a confirmed dead motherboard in about a 1/2 hour.
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