Wednesday, December 1, 2021, started off like any more work day. I walked into the office and connected my MacBook Pro to my Dell port replicator as I’ve done for several years. I grabbed a coffee pod and headed towards the kitchen for a cup of coffee in my second favorite mug. I went back to my desk with a granola bar started my work day and enjoyed that cup of black gold.
It was a great day, and I accomplished many tasks and was ready to meet my manager for my bi-weekly meeting to discuss my current work load, what’s coming up, and for me to ask questions. All in all it was a typical day. However, just before my meeting, my day was going to get worse.
I disconnected my MacBook Pro and headed into the conference room. I brought my second cup of coffee, sat down and waited for my manager. I opened the lid of my MacBook and there is was, a dead screen. No response from the mouse or the keyboard. Just a rainbow of color and missing rows of pixels. Nothing I could do but a hard shutdown. The computer to the same problem again. This was not going to be a good day.
After the meeting (which I had my notes on my phone and as reference), I went back to my desk and connected the computer to my port replicator. Success!! The computer was functional, but only in this state. It appears I have a bad video ribbon cable. I texted my wife the sad news, and she asked how much will it cost for repairs. That will need to be a call for Friday when I have time for Apple Technical Support.
I called Apple technical Support and they tried to connect to my computer with no success. I was amazed they were able to connect to my iPhone so I could show them the issue. Now the computer looks worse.
We schedule an appointment the next day at the local Apple store to discuss with an Apple Genius. Needless to say, the cost to repair this four year old computer was $650.00 for a new display and ribbon cable. I was prepared for a cost closer to $250.00. Instead, I went through the buy back program for this computer and purchased a new MacBook Pro 16-inch M1Pro. Nice!
I was not in the market for a new computer. I was planning to purchase a new computer in 2023 after more testing and compatibility issues were worked out with the M1 chip. This new MacBook Pro M1 Pro is incredibly fast! I am very pleased with the purchase. I have installed almost all of my applications and my data was retained in Microsoft OneDrive and iCloud.com.
Something I didn’t think about when I made the purchase was my virtual computers I have in Parallels. The virtual computers were setup for an Intel based system and will not work on an ARM based chipset. So my Windows 11 Pro is now a Windows 11 Pro Arm based preview, which is good until Sep 2023. My Windows 10 Pro virtual computer I use for work is not available.
I do not have buyer’s remorse for my purchase. This is a great computer and I got some money for my 2017 MacBook Pro. Once I have the virtual machines resolved, I ca go back to my MacBook full time instead of the work provided computer.
ratedmaxpower 