My MacBook Pro died... what now? Part One.

So the title says it all, my MacBook Pro finally gave up the ghost and passed over to silicone heaven, the place where all the calculators go. It was a good, long run. Full of happy moments, sad moments, annoying moments, and, well just, moments.  Sadly, the MacBook Pro part of my life is now officially over, I have ended my mourning, moved on, and I am ready to take a new bite out of my Apple experience.

Cause of death.

Total graphic card failure. Indeed, the dreaded "2011 Video Issues" syndrome, which blighted many similar MacBook Pro's from 2011, finally struck mine down, it didn't stand a chance. 

I originally purchased my MacBook Pro back in early 2011, I had gotten tired of Microsoft Windows and the idea of a "PC", so I chose to make the switch to the "it just works" side. I can say, with no bad feelings, but for me, Mac is far superior to PC in every way I need, and I am happy I made the switch. 

The MacBook Pro I purchased was almost maxed out, 8gb ram, 750gb HDD, interpreted graphics card, and most importantly, matte screen. It was fantastic, and worth every penny.

For 6 years it ran smoothly with no problems, even when beta testing new OSX software, but in it's last year it started to have senior problems. Firstly, the battery, once full of life and long lasting, would last only an hour or two when using Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator CS6. One day a "service battery" notification popped up. It had a strange habit of coming and going, one day it would need servicing, the next it would say all was ok, but it never went under 60% battery life. Next, using programs such as Adobe CS6, it became painfully slow. It could have been argued that the problem was to do with Adobe, and the software not being up to speed, but I'll get to that soon. Skipping to the chase, after rattling fans, fans which sounded like they were about to take off, abnormal shutdowns, and long boot up times, I finally chose to do something about it.

 I upgraded the hardware.

I took out the old 750gb HDD, and replaced it with a spanking new 750gb SDD, then moved up from 8gb to 16gb ram. The difference was mind-blowing. My old MacBook Pro which was on its last legs was suddenly spiritely and as lively as it was back in 2012. For about 6 months it ran blisteringly quick, boot up times were almost non-existent, Adobe CS6 ran normal again, and I was content in thinking I would get another 2-3 years out of the old dog. 

 Disaster Strikes.

As with any other dy, I opened my MacBook Pro up, checked my emails, and started editing images. All was going well, until the screen froze and it became unresponsive.

"hmm... that's a little strange" 

Thought I, somewhat annoyed that I just lost my edits. I decided to do a hard reset to bring it back to life, that worked and I continued with my work. After an hour or so, it went terminal. The screen suddenly glitched out, let out a screech, then turned itself out. It was as if I witnessed its very soul depart and vanish into the ether.

After a few moments, I realized that it was dead, no matter how many times I rebooted or hard reset, it wasn't coming back on. All that stared back at me was a grey screen with a graphical glitch present, it might have well been a ASCII-style death emoji.

After the moment. 

It wasn't too long before I came to terms that I had lost my MacBook Pro and it was no more. Luckily, I had backed up the hard drive a day before, so the damage was limited. The big question was, what to do next.

Should I go with a new MacBook Pro or switch to an iPad and iMac? 

The decision will be revealed in Part Two.