Two steps forward, three steps back

Just heard back from the happy-peppy offsite computer repair folks.

The good news is that, yes, they confirm there’s something wrong with the display on my machine, with its intermittent pink-and-or-cyan ghosting and flickering on and off at odd moments.

The bad news is that, no, they can’t really do anything about it there. IBM will only ship them one, two at the most, replacement warranty parts at a time. They’ve identified at least three things that are (or may be) behind the problems — the LCD, the ribbon cable, and something else the customer service manager couldn’t remember.

So their recommendation is that it needs to be sent back to IBM for depot service. Which is easily a 2-4 week turn-around process.

(That loud, rhythmic thudding you hear is my head pounding on my nice wooden desk.)

Given Thanksgiving, then my Atlanta trip early next week, I can’t send it off now. A week and a half after that, we’re off to Orlando, then California (working holiday vacation).

So I could send it off for repairs after Atlanta, relying on the holidays to minimize my need to use it. Least painful course, perhaps, while I use a loaner notebook. Safer, perhaps, than waiting to see if the thing crashes and burns and dies a horrible death while I’m away in another state. And, on the bright side, it makes for a lighter briefcase whilst traveling. Of course, last thing I need is something else interesting to do in the week before we leave.

But I so do not want to go through migrating between machines again. Words cannot begin to describe. Unfortunately, it sounds inevitable. I just feel like the guy whose house is being remodelled in one, long, constantly-inconvenient nightmare scenario …

Rrg. And, again, rrg.

UPDATE: And imagine my joy, my sheer giddiness, when I picked up my computer, brought it home, powered it up — and no display came up.

Many unprintable words later, and three calls to the repair shop, and a trip down there, I have it back. But clearly I need to get the frelling thing fixed ASAP. I still plan on taking it on my Atlanta trip, but I’ll be sweating little bullets along the way.