*spla*

[ksmith]

I haven't had any luck setting up the wireless internet in my house. I have theAirport Extreme base station, and I had installed a card in my iBook. But every time I tried to set things up, I ended up with the blinking amber light on the base station and no internet connection. But all indications were that the iBook would soon be toast, and may therefore not have been behaving. So last night, I decided to install an Airport Extreme card in the iMac, and see what I could do. I had already added memory to the thing, so I knew how to install things. Set it face down on a towel. Pop the back. Touch metal. Install card. Reattach back.

I did all that. Then I plugged the power cord back in, pressed the Power button...and nothing. No sound. Not a flicker.

::insert swear words of choice here::

I've had this happen before. I blitzed out the iMac by cleaning various parts with canned air, then trying to turn it on. I heard a bzzt, and then nothing. Called Apple Help--the guy talked me through a resetting operation that made it all right again. Apparently canned air can dry things out and cause static build, and it doesn't take much charge to trip iMac circuit breaker equivalents.

That's what I thought/hoped had happened, an accidental overload that shut the system down. I prayed that I hadn't blitzed everything. I didn't remember the reset steps, so I figured I would talk to the folks at the Apple Store, since I already had the iPod appointment.

(Ah, the iPod. I think I figured out the issue there. It only malfunctioned in the car, which was when I used the Sony tape thingie that plays through the car system. Sony tape thingie is old. I figured it was the problem. Solution--don't use it anymore. So far, the iPod seems to be behaving.)

But I digress.

Boxed up iMac. This morning, drove down to Northbrook Apple Store. This is the first time I've been to an Apple Store. First time I ever saw a Genius Bar in action. Patted myself on the back for having had the wit to schedule an iPod appointment through their online concierge service, an exercise that I thought would prove to not be necessary, because otherwise I would never have gotten to talk to anyone.

Thing is, you have to schedule an appointment with the right person. I had scheduled with the iPod person, and now I needed to see the iMac person. Who didn't have an opening until 215pm. It was then 10am. Fine. I didn't want to spend 4 hours in the mall, so I decided to go home, then come back for the appointment. Left iMac behind. Wandered about the store before leaving, checking out laptops. Talked with one of the salesmen. Got his card. Decided that if the iMac was toast, to get a MacBook Pro and use it as my main computer. Ran into shsilver. Compared computer/iPod woes for a little while. Then to home.

Errands. Groceries. Feed pups. Lunch. Back to Northbrook. Kill a half hour sipping a Starbucks mocha and people watching, which can be entertaining in Northbrook, which is populated with well-off folk some of whom don't know how to dress. Got my bitchy on, a little, but mostly relaxed and realized how really, really tired I was.

Back to the store. My appointment. Genius listens to what I did, and what happened afterwards. Pops back of iMac. Removes and reinserts card. Reattaches back. Attaches cord. Turns on iMac, which of course, of course, OF COURSE behaves nice as you please. Could've been that I hadn't installed the card properly, even though it clicked into place and all seemed well. Could've been that I didn't press the power button long enough. In any case, all my concerns about salvaging the contents of my hard drive prior to consigning my iMac to that great Apple Orchard in the Sky were for nought. It was fine.

While Genius, who was a really nice young man, checked out iMac to make sure it was ok, I asked him about my iBook. Repeated warnings I had heard here, that the loss of use of the ethernet port was likely a sign that the motherboard was on its last legs. Genius agreed, and added that another thing that happens in that the hard drive runs really loud...which it had done last night, when I tried once again to see if I could use it to go online.

Can you guess where this is going?

I wanted to wait a few months, but I succumbed. I am now the proud owner of a new black MacBook that I think is more powerful than my iMac. It's a lovely, dull-finished thing, that shouldn't show the scrapes and scratches that the white polycarb iBook did. The alesman who had given me his card, however, was not the salesman who got the credit for the sale. The salesman who got the credit for the sale was the nice young man who asked "Can I help you?" as I stood in front of the MacBook I wanted and waited for the salesman who had given me his card, and who stood an arms-length away with his back to me, chatting with another customer. Now for all I know, this customer was an old friend, or brought in $$$ worth of sales, or who was just about to buy something. But I was there, I had said I was interested in buying earlier, and if I had been a sales person who knew that a possible sale would be returning at a particular time, I would make sure to seek them out at that time and let them know that I was there and would be ready to help them when they knew what they needed.

But that's just me. And I probably should've tried to get the guy's attention, but part of me thinks that that isn't my job. But I could be wrong. I am, sometimes. Hard to believe, I know.

Anyway. My iMac is back, and he works. Tried once more to set up the wireless, and this time got the green light on the base station. But I must be doing something wrong, because I'm not getting the connection. In any case, I have two reliable computers again. Got a free printer as well, an HP that prints faster than either of my current printers, and scans and copies. Spent some time after I got home cleaning my desk. and will spend tomorrow dusting and vacuuming and organizing so that I can work in here.

I haven't even taken my MacBook out of the box yet.

I want another Saturday. This one turned out ok, but I'm wiped out, dammit.

Coffee. Timberwolves hockey.

I'm so glad I didn't blitz my iMac.

Comments

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the new MacBook! Woo hoo! I'm jealous. Though I love my MacBook, it needs more memory and I'm afraid to do it.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

The teeny manual that came with my MacBook actually suggests that you have an Apple service person install new memory. Given that my old iBook and iMac manuals contained instructions on how to install cards yourself...something must have changed.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

My only problem is that I can't get it to connect to the internet. I want to use it mainly for writing, but I will need to download updates and such, and so far it's a no go.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I wound up with a new ipod, so the Apple Store seems to have done well by us yesterday.

And I was wrong about where Deer Park is. It is further west, at Lake Cook Road and and 53, so NBC is the closest Apple Store to you.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It's actually a pretty quick run, once I get on 41.