Sunday, March 5, 2006

A (mostly) positive user experience Last Thursday, my primary home computer (this iMac G5) started showing the symptoms of the dreaded unintended instantaneous shutdown. I heard no popping capacitors, but dang if it didn't shut down all on its own. With the weather being wintery here last week, I suspected power brown-outs, and began cursing the UPS. So I unplugged the iMac and plugged it into another UPS. Ten minutes later, another shutdown. Friday night after work I read up on similar problems reported on Apple's support discussion boards. Seems there's an actual Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues that covers such problems. And my iMac's serial number was within the suspect range. So first thing Saturday morning, I drove the iMac and myself over to visit the good folks at the Apple Store at Oakridge Mall in San Jose. Within minutes the staff had filled out the paperwork, and told me that parts would be ordered, probably to arrive Monday, and repairs wouldn't take long. . . but still perhaps a week. A bit disheartened, I sent myself home. At 8:30 Saturday night[~]less than ten hours after I dropped the computer off[~]Apple Store staff called to say they had found parts in stock and completed the repair. I was back at Oakridge minutes after they opened at 11:00 this morning. Everything seems fine, except. . . no serial number. The neither the system profile application, nor the login screen, nor the About This Mac tricks reveal a serial number. OK, it's still there on the bottom of the foot, and in the warranty paperwork, but it seems that swapping out the logic board destroys iMac's internal record of its number. And, of course, iTunes doesn't think this computer (which is now in part a new computer) was ever authorized to play music purchased from the ITMS. Phooey. Seriously now, if you knew that your computer was sick, and that once you turn on your computer it might be only minutes or seconds before it shuts itself down again, would the first or only thing you do be to deauthorize it?!!? Hell no! OK, it's only a minor annoyance at this point, but if I buy another Mac I could wind up using my precious 5 authorizations. And by the way. . . if you go looking for Apple authorized retailers from apple.com, select the Oakridge store, click the map link and get taken to a Google map: it's wrong. The location that Google shows is miles from the actual location on Blossom Hill Road. Better to find the actual Oakridge store's page (the link's above), which describes the location. Some days, Google is not omniscient. 7:16:18 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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