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Saturday, May 26, 2007

Ruin the whole bunch???

I currently have a Mac iBook G4.

As is my lot in this world, I apparently purchased it right before they discontinued the iBook for being ginormous piles of crap that break down regularly. This is when I buy everything of any large dollar value - about thirteen seconds before it is announced that it will be discontinued.

In the eighteen months that I've owned this, I've had to buy no fewer than six new power adapters ($80 a pop), had to call their non-helpline four times because it wouldn't turn on, had to listen to their non-help representative insist that I don't recognize the difference between "nothing" and "the serial number" when they tell me the incorrect location of the serial number (hint: it's not behind the battery, even if you make me look twice), and had to take it into a shop twice. In the shop, they told me nothing was wrong with the computer, that it must be my outlet at home.

Because, you see, everything else in the house works, and I've tried different outlets and still had the same troubles, but they tested it, so it must be the house and not the computer. I didn't buy a Mac-compatible house. It's all my fault.

The latest drama is that the computer-shaped junk decides at random times to shut itself off. It does this sometimes when awakening from sleep (well, wouldn't you be cranky?) or when I'm typing an e-mail, or playing a game, or writing up a pattern. No distinguishing program, online and off, no distinguishing time. It shut off last night around ten and wouldn't come back on until after six pm tonight. But, you know, there's nothing wrong with the computer. It's just not a Mac-compatible house.

So there's no way in hell I can afford a new computer right now, nor do I think I should have to, since I don't see a purchase like that as falling into it's "time to replace it time" in eighteen months, but I'm faced with the decision of what to do. The only option I can see is to do more work than I'm really healthy enough for right now, and see if I can get more money to come in, and then decide if I want to try to have it repaired (even though there's nothing wrong with it!), buy a new-and-improved Mac, or decide that this (boa-sized) worm has ruined me for all Apples and go back to PC. And there are things I like about Mac, not the least of which being that a Mac is far better suited for some of the less publicized aspects of my income. But I don't think it's a significantly better system than a PC - evidently I'm very much not a member of the Mac-arrazzi.

So tomorrow I'll spend a little time doing some of that extra work (the networking phase, anyway) and if you don't see me a while, it's because of this little overheated pile of plastic (which should be working it's little USB port off and counting its lucky stars that, only owing to a hurculean sense of self control, I haven't thrown it across the parking lot and under a - Mack, of course - truck by now) has decided it needs its beauty sleep.

10 Comments:

Blogger KT said...

I hate those darn non-Mac compatible houses!

Can you imagine? iHouse!

2:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

iHouse! That's hysterical!! I just got a Sony right before we went to KG and totally love it and the help peeps are actually helpful (and are even named appropriately... my favorite is Milton). Sorry to hear that you have computer woes... I've missed reading you (that sounds oh soo kinky... but you KNOW what I mean!).

5:55 PM  
Blogger zippiknits...sometimes said...

That is just about the best written rant I've ever read. Thanks for laying it all out so beautifully!

I surely hope that your fairy Godmother comes with her wand and turns your personal "a house" into an iHouse, very soon.

1:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like you got stuck with a serious lemon. I've had Macs for years and never had any trouble with any of them, but from what I've heard, if you get a bad one, it's bad for good (if you know what I mean.) If I ran Apple I would give you a free replacement and fire the "help" people who gave you 'tude. Jerks!
Luann

11:24 AM  
Blogger Bess said...

Uh Oh. I was thinking we might go Mac next time. Even though there isn't a mac repairman within 75 miles of me. It would be almost a drive to your house to get it worked on. ugh.

hmmm.

thoughts.

2:54 PM  
Blogger ellipsisknits said...

Not to eliminate the possibility of them feeding you a line just to get you to shut up (was the fix it place an apple store, or somewhere generic?)

But it really could be your electricity.

We used to live in an older part of town (ahem, campus apartments), and in the summer, when people turned on the AC, our voltage would drop, just a little bit. We noticed it because we had a battery backup on our computers, and it would beep and make an annoyance of itself. Everything else in the house worked fine, but computers are picky, and problems with the power supply can be notoriously erratic and hard to diagnose.

On the other hand, since a laptop has a built-in battery backup which should compensate for any power irregularities, I'm not sure how it could be an issue.

Random thought - do you use AOL? we traced a similarly erratic and nefarious problem with a friend's old mac to AOL 8.

-C

4:34 PM  
Blogger Amie said...

Never had these problems with any other computers in the house, and we use DSL, so access any AOL needs through AOL.com, not AOL itself. It was an actual Apple store.

4:56 PM  
Blogger vi said...

do you have lemon laws there amie?
also is there a mac techie forum you could ask around at?

vi

9:55 PM  
Blogger erica said...

I've used family Mac's since the old Mac Classic and have never had a problem. We love our little Mac Mini. I'm so sorry to hear that you've had so many problems. A few years ago they had a lot of problems with their iBook power supply units to the point that there was a class action suit filed against Apple. Sounds like yours still has problems. Argh! Hope things are worked out soon. Sorry to hear that you've had so many problems. Some days I think our lives would be so much easier without computers and then I think, "Oh I'd like to send an email." Maybe not completely without them.

11:12 PM  
Blogger Jody said...

You know... if this little rant made it's way to one of Apple's higher ups - you could maybe get some action to fix yours or get a new one. Blogs are powerful things!! We could start a knitters compaign -a new computer for Amie campaign!

3:12 PM  

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