Mac Book Pro Track Pad Making Mac Unusable. Already been replaced once! (I need to write my law school paper, help me please!!!!)

Question

I got my Mac Book Pro repaired in late July of this year. The repair summary says that they replaced the display claim shell, glossy (item number 620-5153). I believe this was due to a clouding on my screen. However, they also replaced the top case with keyboard (item number 605-2953) and the track pad (605-2712). When I took it in I was having problems with the track pad. It would not respond to touch. Wouldn't follow my figure movements, ect. The guy at the Apple Store took it in the back and opened it up. He said it looked like there may be water damage because there was gooey stuff by the battery, so in that case the warranty would be void. I told him that I was 100% certain that no water ever got on it and that if there is gooey stuff in side my macbook that there must be a battery leaking issue. He said that they would have to send it in and the people at the repair center would determine if it had been water damaged or not.
Well, they sent it in to the repair center in Florida (leaving me with out a computer for a week at summer school) and they made the before mentioned repairs. They never asked me questions or anything so I am assuming that meant they rightfully determined there was no water damage.
Aside from some wireless issues the Mac Book had been working okay until tonight. I was typing a paper and all of a sudden the track pad problem came back tonight. I tired to use the computer with the broken trackpad for about 45 minuets but then gave up because it was impossible to use. I shut off the computer and left it off for a good 3 hours before plugging it back in and turning it on. (I tried turning the computer off and then back on again when the problem first occurred and that did not help). I have noticed recently (like the past week) that sometimes it gets way louder then it used to and the last couple of it will randomly will turn off when it still has battery left. Also, ever since I got my mac book pro back from the repair  center Microsoft Word crashes once every 2ish days, but I am unsure if that is related to the current issue.
As I am typing this the touch pad is getting touchy again :(. And as I type it is randomly switching lines so I think the touch pad is being extra sensitive now, Im not sure. Anyway does anyone have any advice? I am in my first year of law school and I NEED MY COMPUTER. It is not an option not to have one for a few days and if I absolutely have to give it to apple I will be forced to buy a cheap computer from Walmart to use in the mean time (Which I REALLY cannot afford).
I am assuming it is the battery pushing of the trackpad or something. Is this correct? I have an appointment with Apple tomorrow but since it is somewhat functioning right now I am unsure of if I should go or not. The store is 45 minuets away and I need it during class each day. But exams are in a month and I cant have it break during those.
I really do not see why Apple would not have replaced the battery when I first brought it in. I identified it as an issue; I am sure someone who works on these computers all day long could have seen it was an issue too. At least, if my assumption that that is the problem is correct. Would getting a mouse that plugs into the USB fix my problems? Or would Apple be willing to just give me a replacement computer since this is the second time this has happened in 2 months and their 1st repair didn’t help? Would Apple be able to fix it in the store or would they be forced to send it to me? Any idea how to fix this?????? Thanks so much! I truly appreciate any help you might have! I am really stressed about this!

Answer 1

BTW (speaking as a Dad of 3 daughters in Grad school) if you don't already have and use a DropBox account, or some other similar online "cloud" based backup of your school documents, you should start doing so immediately. By keeping all of your important documents in the Dropbox folder on your computer, you have instant access to them from any other computer (or iPad), should you be w/o your computer while in for repairs (or if, God forbid, it is stolen). It's free for 2 GB of online storage, which is more than enough for a few years worth of Word documents, etc. (If you get other people to sign up via your email "invitation", then Dropbox gives you even more free storage space.) Every time you close a document, it is updated on the Dropbox servers (encrypted), if it is in the Dropbox folder (assuming you give it a few seconds to update before turning off your computer). Do a google search of "Cloud based storage comparisons" to compare the amount of free space each of the competing services give you.