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my mid-2012 MBP finally came back again around 3pm this afternoon. i spent all day waiting for it. it was well packaged and took a while to remove from the box. i was nervous to turn it on but it rebooted effortlessly, like a brand new computer. a fresh system was waiting for me to set up. i didn't believe it but those guys at L2 computer really pulled it off! i even told my mother the good news when she called. i was happy but still wary, but confident enough about the repaired MBP that i cracked open the case and reinstalled the secondary 500GB internal hard drive plus swapping the 4GB of RAM back to 8GB. i kept checking to make sure this was actually my original computer and not just a replacement. i then plugged it in and restarted the machine and everything went to hell again.

a lot of the symptoms from before came back: it wouldn't restart, the battery capacity display wouldn't turn off, the power cord LED was green when it should be amber (for charging), the power status wrong (running off of battery when it should be running off the power supply), and the bottom of the laptop turned hot. i ended up pulling out the RAM and replacing the original 4GB memories, which seemed to be better, but later removed the 500GB secondary drive as well, just to revert the machine back to the way it was before. L2 did fix the rebooting problem and it now reboots fine, but there's something wrong with the power management. sometimes it says the battery was zero, other times it said the battery was 75%. the external capacity indicator wouldn't turn off, and sometimes gave the wrong capacity. and it may or may not be charging the battery, since the power cord LED only glows green, but i did manage to get it to glow amber just one time and managed to charge the battery up to 100%. so it could be a bunch of issues. the charger itself was one suspect, but the machine won't reboot from the battery now (even if the battery is full charged) so it's more of a battery/power management issue.

i ran the apple hardware test (D-key on reboot, my very first time using those mode), which initially gave me an error code of 4SNS/ICOR (optical drive, which is normal, i don't have an internal optical drive anyway), but all subsequent tests gave me 4BAT as the error. i worked on this problem for several hours, but finally decided to buy a new replacement battery (which is easy to swap out) and see what happens: a HUSAN brand A1382 battery 7200mAh/77.5Wh for $60 (168 customer reviews, all 5-stars, A rating from fakespot), scheduled to arrive in belmont on wednesday (it wouldn't arrive until thursday if i had it shipped to cambridge).

if the new battery works, great, if it doesn't, then i'll need to contact L2 and see what they say. would they fix it again for the 3rd time? sending back the laptop is no big deal, and a working MBP beats a dead MBP any day, even if i have to spend another $12-15 to ship to back to NY. but at this point i wonder if it's even economical for them to try fixing it again. but it's either that or return my money.

later in the evening i managed to boot up the old MBP from battery. it booted fine, superfast from the SSD into the desktop. when i closed the lid to put the machine into sleep, it didn't like that, refusing to wake up. the battery capacity indicator strip was also all aglow and wouldn't turn off. i only managed to get it to wake when i plugged in the power cord. but the battery capacity still wouldn't turn off and remained on while the mac was sleeping. it only turned off when i shut down the machine. i really hope it's just the battery. the alternative - shipping it back to L2 for a 3rd repair - is doable but more of a hassle.

the MBP wasn't the only thing broken today; i discovered the electricity meter at my parents' place is acting funny, hasn't recorded any data since friday. occasionally the smarthub data gets glitchy, but i've never seen it not report for this long before. i called belmont light this morning but the receptionist told me their meter manager wouldn't be in until wednesday. so i wrote their customer service department an e-mail, which turned out to be the same woman in charge, and she wrote back saying that she didn't know how serious the problem was, and said they could send out a meter inspector this afternoon at 1pm to replace the meter. unfortunately i had to wait for my MBP, so i asked to schedule for 8am tomorrow morning.

my parents and my sister's godmother came by my place around noontime. they were all going to market basket but dropped by so i could sync up my sister's godmother's new xiaomi band 2 (which i got her while she was working on the west coast) with her xiaomi phone. my mother also wanted my help in transferring my parents' home owner insurance payments from one credit card to another, but i told her the premiums weren't due until another month and we had plenty of time to make the chance (like next weekend).

for lunch i made an english muffin sandwich stuffed with a fried egg (sizzled in butter), a spread of goat cheese, slices of prosciutto, and a sprinkle of furikake. the japanese seasoning was the wrong way to go but the goat cheese was a nice addition. for dinner (before GC came home) i ate half the ribs and corn from last night's barbecue, saving the rest for tomorrow. i also ate a white peach and finished some leftover cherries.