Start planning to replace it, then. ;) It shouldn't be too hard to open up the case and pull it apart if it hasn't changed to much since the 2006 model. I cracked it open fairly easily. And there are sites like ifixit that should have good instructions. Think of it as a "geek adventure" maybe? The problem with my wife's laptop was that the LCD screen went blank after a while. Its a known issue with the nvidia graphics chip on the mainboard. The DVI port still works. So might put it back into use by connecting it to the TV and try an older wireless mouse and keyboard on it.

No, buy one with a guarantee and swap it yourself.

It's easy to be blase about how it's not that hard, but there's a pretty high penalty for failure and I'm just not a computer hobbyist. I'm not going to buy thermal paste or other specialized tools (spudgers and the like) to do this myself. It's something like $325-$350 for the logic board alone, tools would cost more. And then there's the cost of my time.

From doing some research, it seems as though Apple offers a "flat-rate depot repair" if you know what to ask for, but from what I can tell this service is only available for computers built in the last 5 years. I'll have to contact them directly to find out what it would actually cost to fix this thing, but it's not looking super encouraging.

Edit:
Oh, I see. Eh. See above. Not crazy about doing that.

If Apple works on your machine they replace everything that isn't 100%, and when I say 100%, I mean 100%. When I had my video card replaced (under warranty, there were some bad cards out there) they also:

replaced the keyboard (sticking keys)
replaced the aluminum around the keyboard (cosmetic)
replaced the back/bottom of the laptop (cosmetic)
replaced the ports on the left side which is a card of some kind (cosmetic)
replaced the touch pad (cracked)

The only thing they didn't replace on the surface was the screen.

It would have been $400 (2011 15") but due to warranty work required all work done on it was free. They also checked RAM, harddrive, etc. This was January or February of this year, when I picked up the laptop I had my dad and there was a lot of snow.

I don't know what the warranty is but jeepers. I felt like they gave me a new machine.

Yeah, once I get as detailed an error code as possible I'm going to get on the phone and see what they'll quote me (I have confirmed the CPU temp sensor error with the fast hardware test, running a detailed test now). It sounds like you got something like the flat-rate depot repair they'll sometimes offer. Which sounds amazing, and under $400. BUT this computer is very old (model released 7 years ago, purchased over 6.5 years ago), and I've seen some posts on the web suggesting they might not offer this for computers over about five years old. So we'll see. It's so old, I kind of want a new computer anyway, it's just the price tag I find a little hard to swallow.

they'll replace the mobo for $300, flat rate? apple, directly?

honestly, i wouldn't pump the $$ in that computer without a significant guarantee. and if it is not apple, directly, then i'd beware of the 30-day type of guarantee that you see on non-apple batteries and stuff.

some software that exists for reporting temperatures of various sensors is worthless as it can depend on the model of computer you have. IOW, your finding of -128 may or may not indicate anything meaningful.

it's kind of silly, but i'm thinking of replacing the video card on my PC. I've had it since 2008 (it's a core2duo with 4gb ram and a gt210 video card) and, considering how much zwifting I do, thought maybe a slightly better video card would help a little (under $100 of course), although I'm so out of the loop with PC stuff that I don't know if it really matters upgrading the gpu if the cpu would be a limiter. Objectively, my PC probably isn't worth upgrading or changing, but it just works

Maybe they will; I'm going to see if I can get them on the phone today. And I agree, I'm not sure putting any money in this computer makes sense. But as I said this computer might be too old to qualify for the depot rate.

Software-wise, I did run the Apple hardware test and there is indeed a heat sensor problem. So that's not imaginary. But I'm leaning toward just getting a new computer anyway... It's just convincing myself that I can afford the expense.

Update: I called tech support today, and holy moly, they're making a special exception for me to fix the computer for free! Turns out, years of being a loyal customer does have SOME rewards :D. This is nice, cause even though I wouldn't have been too heartbroken to end up with a new computer, now I can save my pennies and wait another 6-12 months first, hopefully. I was pretty stressed-out about the money aspect of this.

This is the site I use to see where my CPU and GPU are at; its not perfect but gives and indication of how much an upgrade will do for you.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/

When I first got into IT, I used to be completely up on this stuff, not so much these days.

Grolby, nice. My limited experience with Apple is that they will give you a break one time as long as there is no sign of abuse.

Good for you. Its good to see Apple stand behind their product once in a while. And your laptop is really not that old and is good enough for most things that you would want to do I bet.

That's awesome.

I'm no idiot, I understand that this kind of thing can happen only if Apple is making crazy money on their products, but the fact that these kinds of things happen help justify the higher initial entry.

A guy I worked with is a teacher at a high school, one of the things he teaches is graphic design, on Macs. He is absolutely a 100% Apple fan and really the reason why I gave it a shot. His big thing is that they have incredible customer service. Again, it has to be built into the cost of doing business somehow, I understand that.

Are you paying shipping? Or can you just drop it off? My Acer seems to have an issue with the video card (discrete laptop) and it cost me $55 or something for the shipping, just UPS ground. A somewhat large box plus $1100 in insurance adds up.

That's a hefty price for a warranty repair.

Honestly I haven't really had to deal with customer support from Apple before, apart from getting the lint cleaned out of a Lightning port, but I've never heard from anyone that their service was anything less than excellent. I have to respectfully disagree on the age of my computer, though - it is old, and it feels old. I'm not a big gamer, but I do like to play some Civ V every once in a while, and it runs pretty close to the limit of what this machine can do. And that's before I lost a bunch of CPU cycles to the system trying to protect itself. Right now my needs are pretty lightweight, but I've needed horsepower before. You never know! Age aside, the quality of this laptop has been pretty amazing. No problems with the screen or hinge, and until the thermal sensor went bad, not a single hardware issue. This is versus the Dells I had before, which were pretty awful. It helps that I'm reasonably kind to my stuff, especially in its old age.

I think even after the customer service they still have a hefty margin on the computers! Which some people think is unjust, but whatever. I was actually a Mac user for most of my childhood, but when it was time for the kids to get computers of their own, my parents got most of us PCs because the cost difference (especially back then, early 2000's) was pretty significant. But I switched back in 2009 when it was my own money, and I've had no regrets. I suppose it's true that there's no $300 laptop option from Apple, but I don't want a $300 laptop. I've gotten well over six years out of my ~$1300 computer so far, so I don't mind the cost. It amortizes pretty well when you can get that kind of lifespan out of them.

Civ 6 comes out in October. :)

Between that and the annoyance of moving the computer every time I use Zwift I will be buying a new computer this fall.

Well, my laptop is on its way back to me from Acer, or will be shortly. All I got was an e-mail that says "Repaired". No idea what they fixed, hopefully it was the right thing. Maybe there will be some documentation in the box when I get it back. Who knows. Seems strange that there aren't any details. How hard would "replaced discrete video card" be to say?

Final update on my computer saga: turns out Apple won't fix it, because they can't. Because it's old enough to be classified as a "vintage" model, they don't have parts anymore. Apparently the communication between whatever department that runs Tech Support and the Apple Store isn't great, because apparently the advisor I spoke to was not aware of this policy (presumably she wouldn't have promised a free fix if she was). So I'm back to deciding between a DIY logic board replacement, or just a new computer. I went with the new computer. 12" retina MacBook is on its way, should get here Monday. Not the worst outcome ever. The biggest stress was choosing the model - would the base processor be enough, or should I upgrade to the top-level for an extra $225 (hell yeah education pricing saving me $75 on that option)? Ultimately I swallowed the prideful part of me that wants to think I'm a power user and went with the slow one. It'll still be way faster than my MBP, which is good enough for me.

I can't keep up with this stuff, heh. Shows you how much a "gamer" I am these days. I never had it as my top priority with my limited, and so I mostly play games on my iphone/ipad and a few old favorites on the laptop. Which is why I think I'll be fine with the limited performance of the new machine going forward. I like Civ V, and it should run just fine on the new machine from what I can tell.

I wouldn't spend money on a processor upgrade unless it was really significant.

Yeah. The MacBook has a 1.1 Ghz Core m3 256 GB build and a 1.2 Ghz Core m5 512 GB build. You can configure either with a Core m7, top of that chip line. From all reports the m5 really is a fair bit faster than the m3, but the m7 isn't too different from the m5. Sadly, the m5 model is a good $300 more than the m3, which was more than I wanted to swallow right now. The sweet spot would've been 256 GB/m5, but that's not an option :(.

Despite the difference in speed, it's mostly in things like processing large numbers of photos, or running pro apps, or transcoding video, encoding audio, compiling code, stuff like that - things I just don't do that often. I encode an MP3 for my podcast every other week and that's about it. And this computer will still do ALL of this stuff faster than my old machine, so it's all upside for me, really.

Man, this one has been dormant a while.

I've been doing some home networking for my in-laws since I'm staying at their house. They have Comcast (ugh) 50Mbps service I think, with a stupid Surfboard modem/router/wifi combo that they bought for some reason. They were getting like 20Mbps speeds often and most of the house had atrocious coverage with a cheap extender that would lose connection to the other router frequently.

My brother in law had some 200Mbps powerline adapters lying around, and I had a TP-Link Archer C7 in the basement, so used that to replace the wireless extender, which helped some, but those powerline adapters are limiting to about 25Mbps in the old wiring.

I bought another TP-Link Archer C7 for them, put that stupid Surfboard into bridge mode so it's just a cable modem now, and now they get 120Mbps near that router. I'm going to put the other router into WDS tonight and get rid of the powerline limitation.

I had no idea those surfboard router/modem combos were that bad. I knew they were bad, but wow. I'm also expecting that this will eliminate some of their spotty coverage (although some of it is on Comcast's side with the cable coming and going, I think they might go to Fios soon).

It's been interesting, and I've dusted off a bit of my networking knowledge getting it all working. At work I generally just submit firewall rules and someone else takes care of everything else, so I've forgotten a lot of the nuts and bolts.

This is so geeky.

I recently found a 5 parameter set of exact solutions to the two dimensional steady, nonlinear, and incompressible Euler equations. They are a set of nonlinear partial differential equations in fluid mechanics that has very few known nonlinear solutions. I have now found a whole bunch of new ones.

Too bad I am retiring this spring because something like this is a career defining result for a fluid mechanics person and I am not even that. I work in combustion. I just stumbled upon it screwing around one afternoon when I was bored.

you just brought me back 25 years in time :foo:

Wow, that's really impressive. Well done.

i've poured quite a bit of hours into my motorcycle, trying to get it up and running. last time I worked on it was a few months ago. the stupid thing wouldn't start. the starter motor works, fuel line is clean. i'm guessing it's a ground wire, because the headlight isn't working properly either. at this point, it's probably worthwhile to spend money on someone who knows this ****, right?

You're overthinking it. A gasoline engine only needs a few things to run. Fuel. Air. Spark. Compression. You need to check all of those first. Fuel won't do any good sitting in the float bowl. If you can't see gas vapor in the intake then you've got clogged jets. Next is the spark. Pull one of the plugs and hold it against the head or rocker box, then crank the motor. No spark, then it's the plug, wire, coil, or trigger mechanism. Do the simple stuff first.

I'm just finishing up writing a SOP on how to clean and maintain a Thermo ICP-MS - a document I started in June of 2015 :lol:. It feels good to finally get this thing done.

LOL.

Ours is rather short, it basically says ask someone more experienced or RTFM.

my problem is spark right now. bike's not cranking. it's an electrical issue. everything else should be just fine.

I had to google RTFM haha :innocent: . It's something that I'll begin to toss around at work here and there :).