On A Day When My MacBook Died On Me

One can start a day with great plans, a long list of things to do… and the anticipated satisfaction when all is done. Then you sit down to wake your computer up. And plug in the cable to charge the iPad… I am always one who prefer a state of preparedness. So having my iPad charged to the max makes feel 'better'. I like my payung ready at all times if I can help it... 8) But all plans no matter how well thought out can go awry....

I plugged in the cable… and almost immediately, the familiar whirring of the computer stops. That was when I looked up and stared momentarily at my darkened screen. It took a moment for my brain to process an ‘Ooops!” and almost immediately too my hands started to toggle the MagSafe power adapter. Everything seemed fine. The next logical target was the power supply. Nothing wrong there too. No matter what I did, the MacBook remained dead as a doornail.

But the surprising thing this time around was even though I was perturbed, I wasn’t very agitated. Maybe age has caught up. Maybe I am more settled. Maybe it’s easier to get a replacement now. Well, there are many maybes… I sent out a message that my Mac had died! Well, we are social creatures in need of connection, especially when certain moments hit. My Mac dying seemed important enough... LOL!

The day passed… it felt kinda long but there was a steady stream of people into my room and that sort of drew my mind away from the 'loss'. But as soon as the bell rang, I was off to Switch. Got to AS Mall, lugged my heavy bags to the outlet and then plonked my computer on their table. Service was prompt and the guy there tried to see to my problem. He took my charger while I plugged out one of their display units.

The charger I plugged in seemed to work fine…. but.... then the yellow light on the charger faded into nothing right before my eyes. I took it out, toggled it, put it back...Nothing! Then I plugged the charger back to its original computer. The darn light came back on again. I took it out… put into mine. This time, it stayed green. I pressed on the button and my Mac came back to life momentarily, as in the logo lighting up being the only sign of life. And then it promptly 'died' again.

By then the sales assistant had come back. Told me my adapter worked fine. I asked him what could be wrong. He mumbled something about the battery being totally dead, which could not have been because the Mac was fully charged when it died. I asked him whether they could do anything. He told me I needed to send it to the Service Centre in Penang. And since I bought it online, I had to do it myself…. I thought as a premium reseller, they had to take my unit and send it for me… charging me, of course. But... no can do.

Well, I was a little riled up by then, but not because of what that guy said but because I need my computer. Minus a computer at work feels kind of debilitating. I told him I needed to order one but not from them since Education pricing from Apple gives a substantial discount. No way I was going to buy from them if they cannot offer me a goodwill service in my time of need, for one which I would have happily paid if it could be resolved then.

Anyway, I lugged my Mac to my friend’s place, thinking that I would try it out again before making my order. To cut the long story short, it takes a very little convincing (but I still needed that little push sometimes) for me to open it up. So armed with the WWW …. (yup! hurray for WWW! Who needs technicians when you have the treasure trove in the WWW?)... and some screw drivers, we opened up my dead Mac. I read the instructions, watched a video, well parts of it… but all from the WWW and removed the battery….. Then we plugged the MacBook back on. The familiar whirring sound came back.. the lights started blinking… and the screen came alive. So much for the need of a trained technician!!!! The dead Mac was resurrected.

And so, here I am typing this out on my resurrected Mac. I probably will need to get a replacement for my current Mac as it is rather slow now. But at least for now, it is still alive and clicking away. I am also feeling a little comforted that tomorrow my ‘trusted companion’ will still be accompanying me to work. 8) I rarely go to work without it.

Learning how to solve a problem is so easy these days. There are so many ‘teachers’ available out there. If reading the instructions is not enough, there are always the instructional videos. And if those are not enough, you can always send a SOS for help. Someone is very likely to answer your ‘distress’ call. But while the instructions and the tools are there, a more important ingredient to make this work is our attitude. The attitude of wanting to learn, try, explore and not being afraid to fail trying…. those are even more important. A great deal of learning takes place when they are there.

Today, I had all the learning models at my disposal.. blended, flipped, personalised, etc, etc. I collaborated too... Sometimes a little 'collaboration goes a long way in achieving greater things. I have always believed that no man is an island. We need people... We can do way better if we can learn to cooperate, collaborate... One of the best ways to become better is to share. Elon Musk has recently become one of those people I admire because he opened up his patents for Tesla's electric cars. It's free for all to use, adapt, modify. His goal... the demise of the gasoline cars!!! 8)

Education is one thing… but learning??? Well, I had a meaningful learning process from this episode. My learning environment was blended. It was a mix of prior knowledge and multiple platforms as resources. It was flipped because my instruction did not come the traditional way. And I had an amazing personalised learning experience because the whole episode served a need that I had. To top it all up.. I am still learning. Yup! Lifelong learning at work here too. 8)

Isn’t that awesome? On a day, too, I resolved an iPad problem for a colleague too!!