Oh, my aching stomach...
Sep. 25th, 2005 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithThere I was, typing merrily away. Always open to new ways to distract myself, I decided that I should rearrange my desk a bit and plug my flash card reader into my new USB hub. First, I unplug it from the back of my iMac, then I dust it off with some canned air. Then I try to plug it into my USB hub, at which point I realize that it's a FIREWIRE connection, dummy, and my new hub only has USB. So I go to plug the card reader back into my iMac, and just as the connector contacts the iMac firewire port, I 1) see a small spark, and 2) watch my iMac go completely dark.
You know that "Did I just see what I think I saw?" moment of stasis? The one that occurs when you realize that yes, you really did hit the Delete key and no, you really didn't want to trash that file? Felt that, followed by WTF, followed by pressing the Power button to see if it was all some sort of sick joke, followed by more dark screen/dead keyboard, which led to more WTF.
I then and there thanked my friends who talked me into springing for the Applecare contract, and dug out the phone number. Waited. Listened to bad CW. Tried the Power button a few more times. Nothing.
Got through after 10 minutes or so. Explained issue to Tech Guy 1, who asked a few questions, then put me on hold in order to bounce me to a Product Specialist. Product Specialist asked a few more questions concerning smoke, flames, melting, injury, etc... Immediately assumed static electricity surge/blowout, mostly due to the fact that he thought I said that I had dusted the card reader off with a feather duster. No, I said, Air Duster, which was the proper name of the canned air I was using. He said that changed things a bit, but still felt static,or some flavor of short-out, was the issue. I assumed that he would tell me that I needed to hie my poor little soldier down to the nearest Apple service center, but instead he told me to get a towel and a Philips head screwdriver.
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate working on computer issues over the phone? Software issues are bad enough, but this had hardware written all over it and I really don't like to get involved unless there's someone standing OVER MY SHOULDER to tell me "Kris, don't touch that."
Anyway, under the long distance direction of Product Specialist, I unplugged everything from the iMac, turned it over on its display side and rested it atop the towel with the stand facing me, and unscrewed the three P-h screws that hold on the back of the case. These are captured screws, btw, which means you turn and turn and they show no signs of loosening, which does wonders for one's confidence until PS explains the concept of Captured Screws.
Popped the back. Plugged the power cord back in, and saw to my surprise/relief that there was one little green light shining in the midst of what-is-all-this-stuff. I was then directed to two little aluminum blocks located under the fan. First, I had to find the fan, which I did. Ok, found the blocks. They have little buttons in the centers. First pressed one, then the other. Heard the lovely sound of my iMac starting up.
Was then instructed to shut system back down by depressing the upper button for several seconds. Reattached the back, righted the iMac, and hit the power button. It came back on. Things appear ok so far. I lost some of what I had written, but luckily it wasn't a lot. I asked PS whether any ill effects could still crop up--he said that he didn't know, and that I needed to keep an eye on the system behavior and get back to them if I noticed anything acting funny. He advised that I not use the card reader again. It's been deep-sixed.
Can anyone rec a flash card reader?
You know that "Did I just see what I think I saw?" moment of stasis? The one that occurs when you realize that yes, you really did hit the Delete key and no, you really didn't want to trash that file? Felt that, followed by WTF, followed by pressing the Power button to see if it was all some sort of sick joke, followed by more dark screen/dead keyboard, which led to more WTF.
I then and there thanked my friends who talked me into springing for the Applecare contract, and dug out the phone number. Waited. Listened to bad CW. Tried the Power button a few more times. Nothing.
Got through after 10 minutes or so. Explained issue to Tech Guy 1, who asked a few questions, then put me on hold in order to bounce me to a Product Specialist. Product Specialist asked a few more questions concerning smoke, flames, melting, injury, etc... Immediately assumed static electricity surge/blowout, mostly due to the fact that he thought I said that I had dusted the card reader off with a feather duster. No, I said, Air Duster, which was the proper name of the canned air I was using. He said that changed things a bit, but still felt static,or some flavor of short-out, was the issue. I assumed that he would tell me that I needed to hie my poor little soldier down to the nearest Apple service center, but instead he told me to get a towel and a Philips head screwdriver.
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate working on computer issues over the phone? Software issues are bad enough, but this had hardware written all over it and I really don't like to get involved unless there's someone standing OVER MY SHOULDER to tell me "Kris, don't touch that."
Anyway, under the long distance direction of Product Specialist, I unplugged everything from the iMac, turned it over on its display side and rested it atop the towel with the stand facing me, and unscrewed the three P-h screws that hold on the back of the case. These are captured screws, btw, which means you turn and turn and they show no signs of loosening, which does wonders for one's confidence until PS explains the concept of Captured Screws.
Popped the back. Plugged the power cord back in, and saw to my surprise/relief that there was one little green light shining in the midst of what-is-all-this-stuff. I was then directed to two little aluminum blocks located under the fan. First, I had to find the fan, which I did. Ok, found the blocks. They have little buttons in the centers. First pressed one, then the other. Heard the lovely sound of my iMac starting up.
Was then instructed to shut system back down by depressing the upper button for several seconds. Reattached the back, righted the iMac, and hit the power button. It came back on. Things appear ok so far. I lost some of what I had written, but luckily it wasn't a lot. I asked PS whether any ill effects could still crop up--he said that he didn't know, and that I needed to keep an eye on the system behavior and get back to them if I noticed anything acting funny. He advised that I not use the card reader again. It's been deep-sixed.
Can anyone rec a flash card reader?
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 01:06 am (UTC)I also plumped for the AppleCare.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 01:15 am (UTC)I wasn't planning to get Applecare--the contracts are not cheap, and I have both an iBook and an iMac, which meant two contracts. Then one of the Applefolk on SFFNet said that replacement LCD screens for iBooks weren't cheap, either. I hunted around, and found a good discount deal on Applecare packages at Small Dog Electronics.
The iMac turned one year old earlier this month. I think I would have had to pay for that phone call without the service contract.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 01:19 am (UTC)It's another to buy a really good quality Apple and skimp on the service extension. Even my notoriously cheap husband agreed!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 01:24 am (UTC)I confess to being a little concerned about whether Apple would have covered any necessary repair work had things blown, given that a third party peripheral was involved. Probably not fair on my part, but there you go.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 03:02 am (UTC)How horrifying for you!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 03:23 am (UTC)The Product Specialist said that canned air can leave some material behind that could serve to cause a short. Another thing that just occurred to me--it was a pretty damp day here today, with off and on rain. I wonder if there was enough moisture in the air that it condensed inside the card reader when the surfaces got chilled by the cold cleaning air. I tried to plug it back in within a minute or so after I sprayed it. It takes water a long time to evaporate, so if any was present when I tried to reconnect the reader...
What I hate about things like this is that most times you're not doing anything special. You're just working along,doing stuff you did a hundred times before, and blammo.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 08:30 am (UTC)Thank goodness Macs are so well engineered though, hm?
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 11:36 am (UTC)But I managed to do that with, I believe, the parallel-USB cable for my old HP 1100 printer, so I know that issues aren't limited to Firewire.
What surprises me the the extent of "R&D" software and such available for the Mac. It's all designed by folks who apparently know what they're doing, but it's almost like giving your system a new drug to use it--it will work fine for some folks, but others will have side effects galore.
Maybe the PC world has the same issues. I just didn't see it because I didn't get as involved using peripherals and third party software.
Does the card reader have its own power supply?
I will assume that the chilling due to the canned air cleaning led to some condensation in the reader that in turn led to *zzzzt*. Which means I'm going to be much more careful about where/when I use the stuff in the future.
Yeah, I was relieved that the internal reset/citcuit breaker existed (although when I asked the PS if the two button system was a circuit breaker, he said it was more complicated than that)--does it exist in PCs? I had nightmares about losing all the stuff on my hard drive. Luckily, the *zzzt* apparently wasn't powerful enough to wreck anything. Fingers crossed no latent damage presents in the next few weeks.