I have to give a plug to Rolf Nordahl, the Head Cheese at MacMouse Club, who offers Mac-related services, upgrades, and repairs. I turned to him a couple of weeks ago in a last-ditch effort to breath new life into an older Mac laptop (a 13″ MacBook Pro 2013 vintage that was experiencing serious “issues”). And Rolf was so successful that I want to give him a shout out. If you have an Mac that isn’t operating properly, or is just dated and running slower than it should be, check in with Rolf and you just might be surprised. I certainly was both surprised and pleased by the results.

Here’s the long version of my story. At some point over the last year, I noticed that my well-used laptop no longer closed cleanly. Instead, when closed, there was a small visible gap where the upper and lower case no longer fit exactly right. At first, I didn’t worry about it, but I did start thinking about replacing it.

While considering a new computer, I checked and found the nearby Apple Store would give me a trade-in of several hundred dollars for this computer. Great, I thought. Then I saw the small print explaining that the trade-in offer did not apply if the computer showed any warping or swelling. The failure to close properly looked like evidence of warping, even if relatively minor.

But then I had to admit that there was a certain amount of swelling, which I only noticed because the laptop had started to wobble a bit when sitting on a flat surface because its the bottom of the case was starting to warp. I had seen this before. Back a decade or so, the battery of an older Mac laptop that was no longer being used started swelling and eventually broke through the cover of the battery compartment. Luckily, it didn’t burst info flames as others had reportedly done.

So now I worried that my MacBook Pro wasn’t just getting old, it was getting dangerous.

So I bought a new computer. I would have recycled the old one if the Apple Store had been open. But in the meantime, I wondered whether a battery replacement could make the old computer useable again. So I called Rolf.

Many moons ago, MacMouse Club was located on South Street somewhere between the state courts and the old newspaper building on Kapiolani. As a Mac enthusiast, I used to stop in from time to time to check out whether anything new and exciting was in the store. If Rolf or his partner at the time, Mike “Big Mike” Palcic, were around, I could get both a Mac fix and a bit of political gossip as well.

So I gave Rolf call. Yes, he said the battery on this model is replaceable. And he could get the job done in just a few days, at a reasonable price, even though he had to special order the battery for overnight delivery. So I dropped off the computer and hoped for the best.

Long story short. Rolf called a day early to say that he had replaced the battery and then run it through a complete charging cycle, just to make sure all was well. And when I picked up the computer, I found that replacing the battery eliminated virtually all of the warping and swelling. A little bit of cleaning and it looked almost as good as new.

So instead of giving it back to Apple as part of their recycling program, my little laptop has gone to a friend who can make good use of it.

In any case, you can reach Rolf at (808) 921-8294. Tell him Ian sent you.