While traveling to Minnesota, the screen on my MacBook Pro started behaving oddly. A green shimmer replaced most dark shades, rendering pictures distorted and unrecognizable. White backgrounds with black text were reasonable, with only mild distortion, so I debating waiting until the trip was over before initiating a repair. I had some time yesterday morning. At about 9:30 AM, I logged in to Apple’s support page and booked an appointment for 10:40 AM at Apple’s Mall of America store. I arrived about 20 minutes early, but only had to wait five minutes before someone was ready to help.

I showed them the problem. After some quick tests, the friendly rep took the computer to the back to see if it was a simple case of a loose cable. It wasn’t.

He told me there were two options – either the screen needed replacing or the motherboard needed replacing. The former could be a quick fix, the latter would take about a week. I explained I was on vacation and leaving the next day. No problem, said the rep, they’d try the quick repair today and, if that failed, mail the computer back to me if a more extensive fix was needed.

2 hours later, I had a call that my computer was fixed with a completely new screen and lid.

Charge: $0

P.S. Yes, AppleCare is worth it.