My Apple Care Story

So.... around July 25th I decide to load bootcamp. I download the app, run the tool and go to burn a cd for drivers. The cd won't burn and I get a failed to calibrate error. So then I continue to try and burn several different cds - different typed and brands. All of them fail to burn. So the next day I call Apple and schedule a repair and to send it to their facility in Texas. The box arrives the next day and I send it off.

On the 28th I checked my status online and it showed it was ready to be shipped back. On the 29th when my laptop didn't show up I called Apple care - they said it was waiting on a part and would be shipped after the part came in.

So 11 days later, on the 9th of August my laptop showed up - but DHL sent it to the wrong house down the street. So I had to track it down and convince the people that it was delivered to that the package was really mine. After I finally got it home, I started it up and found that they had wiped my HDD. No worries since I had backed up the computer before I sent it off.

So I started to reload all my apps - when I went to reload my saved data I found that my backups were bad and I was unalble to recover any data. Not anyones fault but my own for not checking my backup after it was performed.

To make things even better, when I went to burn a cd (the initial reason I sent it to applecare) I was still unable to, and was getting the same errors. I found that they had replaced my system board but didn't even touch my super drive.

I decided I would try to clean the lense on my superdrive and see if that would fix my issue. While I had the mac open I also noted the part number and model number of my superdrive just in case it needs to be replaced. At this point I'm afraid to call Applecare again and loose my mac for another 10 days.

I used an Isoprpyl Alcohol wipe (for electronics) and cleaned the lense, then reassembled the mac - booted it up and tested it, it successfully bured 2 cd-r's in a row, with no errors.

So - for a trip to applecare I got a wiped hdd, a new systemboard and it still had burning issues, I should had just tried to fix it myself in the beginning!