While I'm not sure exactly what the problem was or is, TechRestore assured me they had done their best to work out a solution with Axiotron. TechRestore stood behind their service, refunded the entire purchase price, and restored my Macbook to it's original state. For their part, Axiotron apparently doesn't want me as their customer. It appears the Modbook conversion is not compatible with all revisions of the Macbook logic board, several revisions are out there, and Axiotron doesn't seem to want to identify which ones are compatible. I'm told that there are reports of many Modbook users having this "jumping" cursor problem and it's all very discouraging because my unit was working fine for the first few weeks.
Here's how the technician who did the work described the situation:
The Modbook was assembled using Axiotron's instructions with ALL shielding provided in place. Also, the unit exhibited the jumping cursor problem just sitting here in our shop. After we swapped the logic board for another of the same type, the problems continued. When the unit came in we eliminated the theory of software problems by booting the machine from a squeaky clean version of Mac OS X 10.5.4 and Axiotrons installed software. PERIOD. No updates, no add-ons, nothing other than a factory fresh install. Just for the record this was NOT the first unit we have put together. It is disappointing when a product we were excited about does not perform as it should. It is more disappointing when a reseller does not have a solution for a known problem and the only recourse is to refund the customer.
The latest scuttlebutt on the Mac tablet is that it might not appear until early 2010, so I'm compelled to come up with a Plan B. That might be an inexpensive (gulp) Windoze tablet computer like an Asus T91 or a refurbished Lenovo X61, or ... dare I say it? ... a Kindle DX.
For now, it's back to the Electronic Flight Bag drawing board.
