This is the land of blowing dust. The yard is dust, patting a dog will raise a cloud, food can be…gritty, and because of the heat, we keep the house totally open, windows and doors. Dust is everywhere. It blows in, it comes in on hairy dog feet, on your clothes, you can’t escape it. (I guess you could climb into a big plastic bag, but you’d suffocate.)
Today, I replaced the battery in our MacBook Pro, which it three years old and no longer maintaining a charge. This involves taking the entire back (bottom? it has feet on it) of the computer off, only to see a notice, on the battery, that says, “Warning: Do not remove the battery.” In four languages. Apple no longer loves do it yourselfers.
Once I had unscrewed all the little screws (two different sizes) and carefully placed them in bowls to keep them organized and unstolen by dogs, I pulled the back off the MacBook and was greeted by this:
The battery is the black rectangular thing on the right. All the available free space was filled with dust. No wonder the thing got hot and needed a cooling pad, it couldn’t breathe. Surprisingly, the only place I pulled any dog hair from was the fan. Which might explain the grinding noise. I guess there just wasn’t room for hair in there, because the space was being taken up by dust.
The braaaiiins.
After blowing all the dust out of it, I replaced the battery and was finally able to correct the anomalous, previously uncorrectable, incorrect time. (I have no idea how a computer that spends most of it’s time connected to the internet was able to maintain a clock that was fifteen minutes fast, even after being corrected multiple times. Time warp of some kind, I guess.)
I think a yearly back removal and dust blowing would be in order in the future.
(Note: I started this post on my iPad, which I like very much, but which sucks fairly hard for typing. Unless you two-finger it all the time, like Brett, and thus do not notice how infuriating it is to type on a slick surface with no feedback. I switched to my wireless keyboard, which worked beautifully in EVERYTHING BUT WORDPRESS. Any other page in both Safari and Chrome was fine, except WordPress. Go figure.)
“Apple no longer loves do it yourselfers”
NO ONE does. DIY types usually don’t rush out to buy the latest and greatest gadgets….
I tend to keep my devices until they die a permanent death. Computers until the hardware is no longer supported on the OS or by Photoshop.
My last MacBook had an access door on the bottom to change the battery, though. You didn’t have to take it apart, which is ridiculous. You shouldn’t have to have a battery changed by ‘geniuses.’
Your macbook needs a stillsuit.
My iPod has one.
Coming from a full blooded tech… Very impressive Jess
ifixit.com. Really. We tend to keep our computers til they die or require such a complicated fix that I can’t do it, and at that point it becomes more economical to buy a new one.
I can do the fixit thing with dogs, too.
Oh that’s evident. Very impressed for a long time Jess. Love ya Jess.
Thank you