Tonight, armed with a soldering iron, 2 capacitors I’d ordered on the web, and this site, I repaired my dead Airport base station. It works! It only took me about two hours (mainly because I botched the removal of the old capacitors and spent ages just trying to get the little tiny bits of leftover pins out of the damn card without setting the house on fire or burning myself) and about $20 in parts and tools (actually, less than that, methinks).

So, to the Apple tech I spoke to on the phone who told me I was SOL and he’d be happy to sell me a new one, you may officially bite me. I’ve done so bloody much for Apple. I was part of the committee that kept Macs the default computer at Dartmouth and lord knows how many Macs I sold when I worked there. I’ve been an evangelist for Apple, an apologist for Apple, and a standard bearer. But the fact that Apple wasn’t going to replace my base station which had a well known problem just because my unit wasn’t within the “blessed” serial number range was just petty. After everything I’ve done, I feel a bit cheated. Maybe Apple’s changed for the better in other areas but their policies toward their own customers is still poor, in my opinion. I admit that expecting Apple to know who i am and what I’ve done is rediculous but it still rankles me. And I don’t even know what a rankle looks like. Here endeth the rant.

Tomorrow the laptop is off to Apple for expensive repairs. At least that one is covered by the company, not me. And the cube has been behaving wonderfully since I rebuilt it. So, for now, knock on wood, my Apple stuff seems to be in good shape.

Now the new game begins: how long will my fix last (ie, how good a job did I do?) Place your bets…