Computer went kaput

My laptop died Monday night. I was playing a game with Shane watching and *BEEeeyoooooo...*

It turned off never to turn on again.

Terrible timing with a foal in the hospital....or was it? The computer was just shy of 4 years old. We bought it from Costco who supplies a 2 year warranty. But we used a Costco credit card which tacked on an additional two years of coverage!

Carrie called to make a claim and they told us we had to get the laptop inspected by professionals as part of the process.

We headed into town on Wednesday to drop the laptop off at Compu-Tune Up.

But first we had to drop by my school. I had to turn in my work laptop Tuesday to be reimaged. I wanted to pick it back up in case it was going to be my summer computer, as well! Shane wanted to run in with me (and, yes, he brought the octopus, too).

The recycling center was on the way, so we stopped there next. I assigned Shane to carboard boxes, because you can see the compactor crush them. 

Our scheduled stop ended up being our third. Carrie took the computer in to explain what we needed. It cost $40 and they discovered that the motherboard had fried itself. The estimated price to repair the laptop was nearly $1,000.

We asked them to back up our old tax data and a few other things and then headed over to Costco. We needed customer service to print up a receipt of the transaction. The laptop originally cost us $1200 on sale.

Thankfully, we had a spare laptop at home. Carrie had bought one for herself to use for pleasure and work during our WoW days. She'd shifted to using "Shane's" computer in the kitchen and no longer needed it. We'd dropped it off at Compu-Tune Up and they loaded the important data from my busted laptop onto it.

I picked up both laptops on Friday afternoon. I almost made a career out of computers multiple times. 

Amazingly, our claim was approved. We were awarded nearly the full $1,000! I don't think Costco has the best computers for the best prices, but they are a good computers at good prices and their warranties are fantastic! This is the second time the extended warranty from the Costco credit card has paid off for us! Since I can use Carrie's old laptop, the money will go towards paying the vet bills Kitsune has been amassing (Which will be substantial!).