Well my laptop.

It's a 2020 and has a touch bar.  Which wasn't a feature I particularly wanted (just happened to have it when I went to buy a laptop) and isn't a feature I use all that much, but it's cool I guess?

A while ago (month?  more?  less?) this touch bar started flickering.  Annoying.  Things not working bugs me.  I went online and searched.  I'm not the only person with this issue, and there are suggested fixes, ok cool.  I tried the fixes.  Nope.

I tried more "serious" fixes.  Nope.  

I posted on an online forum, explaining I'd done all the usual suggested fixes and could this be an indication of a more major issue?  The suggestion was to take it in.  Sigh.

So, I took it in.  

When I initially went by the shop the tech thought it might be covered under a keyboard replacement problem and I was SO hopeful (even though none of my googles had suggested the same) and when I went to drop it off they told me that unfortunately my laptop was not one of those in the keyboard replacement window (the last one I was leasing had this particular issue and so there was a replacement for that old one).  This was stressful to hear but I'd not read anything saying it was covered so I was disappointed but not shocked.  Things on forums suggested a fix might be a few hundred dollars and I figured I'd likely be able to cover that, but most importantly, I wanted to make sure this wasn't a death signal from my laptop.  (I've had those types of issues before and they often come at the least opportune time so I wanted to avoid that if possible.  This is a better (?) time for me right now rather than a few weeks from now so I decided to take it in.)

Unfortunately the process is you take your device in and it goes into the work queue so you don't know how long you'll be without your device and I was stressed thinking about how my main "down time" and "distract from stress" things use my laptop, but Jason reminded me I have a work laptop and that I could use that and while the idea made me not totally comfortable, I am allowed to bring my laptop home so I did.

And let me tell you, using my work laptop for watching shows and a few social sites really made me value how awesome my laptop is, despite this current issue!  Wow!  I get one's a base model but still.... I love me my laptop extra much right now.

Aaaaanyway..... I got the call a few days later that the fix for the issue would unfortunately mean replacing about half the laptop (the ... what did they call it, top case?) I guess due to how they're manufactured and that at the end of the day that would cost me about a thousand dollars.

A thousand dollars.  You read that right.

I was devastated.

Devastated and angry and hurt and upset.

I'd spent YEARS, literally years saving up for this laptop... I'd saved up and it is only a couple of years old and now I'd need to spend a thousand dollars more?  NO WAY.  Not happening.  Not only not happening, but not affordable.  

I was pissed.

I spent most of the morning angry and upset.  I coincidentally had acupuncture booked for that day and I felt calmer after, and when I went to pick it up I asked the question(s) I really needed to know.... was this a big issue and would it screw me over in some way.

The tech, who by the way was really apologetic and said he'd tried all sorts of avenues and was pretty choked at the results, but also that the rest of my laptop is in great shape (which is great to hear), said that worst case the touch bar will die and that is not something I'm bothered by.

I would love a fix of course, I mean you want the things you buy to work properly, especially when they're expensive, but as long as I'll continue to have a working laptop, and not a "suddenly stopped working" laptop I'll probably be ok.

I'm bummed.  But I'm good with the fact that this isn't a symptom of something major like a motherboard going.  

They've since discontinued these touch bars by the way... I just happened to purchase in the last time frame they still had them.  Le sigh. 

So yeah, my laptop's back (thank goodness), the fix is beyond my current financial abilities, but it seems like for the most part my laptop is healthy and just has this one, fixable-expensive issue.