very simple

My iMac? Is dead again. I’d like to point out that I got it back from the shop, after over $800 in repairs, only four days ago. I’m back on the powerbook just to post this (and hoping that my internet connection doesn’t go out again, because it’s been ridiculously spotty this week – the cable guy is actually coming between 2 and 6 on Saturday to check it out).

The story – got the mac back on Saturday, spent the day restoring files, re-downloading necessary software, etc. On Sunday, my internet connection started going out regularly (it’ll work for about an hour and then go out again for another 5-6), so I don’t spend as much time as usual on the machine (kind of hard to keep up the morning routine of reading newsfeeds when there’s nothing to feed). This morning, the internet seemed to be up, so I got on the computer. Everything seemed to be fine, until I started getting ready for work – came out of the shower, to discover my (new!) disk drive malfunctioning. The tray kept popping in and out, like someone was repeatedly hitting the eject button on the keyboard. The only way to get it to stop was to power down. So I did, and then I went to work.

Got home today and turned the computer back on. And it won’t boot up. At all. I just get a little folder with a "?" in the middle. I even try to option-start (which is a way of starting up your computer from a diagnostic screen), and there’s no hard drive/operating system indicated. Basically, my computer can no longer even find the hard drive. Which, by the way, is the one component they didn’t replace (even though when I first brought it in a month ago they said they might have to do that).

So I figure it’s one of three options. (a) they fucked up when installing the new optical drive and logic board; (b) they installed defective part(s); or (c) in the three weeks that they held on to my computer (which was two weeks longer than originally promised), they somehow failed to diagnose what was actually wrong with my computer, and installed hundreds of dollars of unnecessary replacement parts instead of a new hard drive.

After a month and a half of this, including defective disks and hours of phone calls to Apple, not to mention spending hours of weekend time waiting for my number to be called at TekServe, all I can think is that they’re playing some sort of huge practical joke on me. That I’m going to walk in there on Saturday and it’s going to turn out that I’m, like, their millionth customer and they’re going to give me a new 20" G5 iMac for all of my trouble.

Because I’m about three seconds away from walking in there on Saturday morning with my 10 pound imac shaped paperweight and a sledgehammer.

Tags: apple, bitching, technology