July 2006 – Travis Tubbs

LATEST UPDATE: 12 July 2006 9:24 PM CDT

And other references to an Apple Computer not working.

As stated previously, I had purchased a 20″ Apple iMac for video editing. Well, I gave that to my brother instead (he’s paying for it). I decided instead to get a Mac mini as it would be more portable, yet cheaper than buying a MacBook or MacBook Pro. To save money, I went with a refurbished 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo system with a 120GB Hard Drive and a 1GB of RAM. With the 3-Year AppleCare Protection Plan and Taxes, it ran about $1000.

I purchased the computer with the AppleCare on June 2nd from the Apple Online store with the items to show up the next Friday (June 9). The package arrived and the box seems small, but it was a Mini, so I expected it to be small. I open the box and what do I find? The box for the AppleCare Protection Plan. Turns out the actual computer who not appear until the NEXT Friday (June 16). What am I gonna do with a warranty for an item that hasn’t even shown up yet??

Well, the next Friday rolls around (with FedEx doing its usual great job of just leaving the box on the front porch). I hook it up and everything works fine and dandy. With Mac in hand, it’s time to register the AppleCare. Only one problem. When attempting to register my computer, Apple kept thinking my computer was a MacBook Pro. As I had purchased AppleCare for an iMac, it would not allow me to register it. After spending 45 minutes on the phone with Apple, I finally got the issue resolved. Or so I thought. More on that a little later.

One week later, the trouble continued. I had just finished creating a test DVD to get a feel for iMovie and iDVD. I had forgot to create an image for the DVD just in case I wanted to create another copy, so I pop in the DVD into the computer, but it never showed up on the Desktop. This worried me a little. I tried using the Eject button on the computer, but it would not eject. One method to eject a disc from the computer (as there is no place to put in a paper clip to eject the disc manually) is to hold down the mouse button: nothing. But to make matters worse, now all I could hear was the disc trying to spin up. Oh yeah. And I couldn’t get the computer to go paste the Apple logo anymore.

Luckily, Apple opened an Apple Store near my parents’ house within the past week that this problem occurred, so I headed on over there on Friday, June 23 to get it fixed. Just a couple of problems once I get there. First, the computer won’t power up at all now. Wonderful. Next, although Apple Support said they would fix it, my computer was STILL showing up as a MacBook Pro. I was told that it would take a week to get repaired. Fun.

In the middle of the next week, I decided to go to Apple’s web site just to see what was going on. According to the status page, my repair was canceled. Needless to say, only one thought came to my head: “WTF!?” I immediately call Apple Support to see what the deal was. According to their records, I had been called about this the day after I took it in for repairs to let me know it was ready. I was at work that Saturday, so I asked my mom if anyone from Apple called, in which I was told nobody had called. I reviewed the Caller ID as well to see that nobody from Apple had called that Saturday. I immediately head over to the Apple Store to grab my computer as I just wanted the thing back and get home and start using it.

It appears that the Logic Board on the computer had been completely replaced, according to the paperwork. So the computer should be pretty much brand new at this point. More forward a week and a half to Monday. After converting a lot of video files overnight, I had attempted to back them up to several hard drives as I didn’t want to lose my data like I had in the past twice. When attempting to do so, I kept getting a copy error. Also, when attempting to copy the data, the whole computer would freeze where I couldn’t do any other tasks. Something wasn’t right. I ran the Disk Utility software, which reported that nothing was wrong. I used the included TechTool Deluxe software to scan the hard drive. After 18 hours of scanning the drive, it was STILL scanning the drive.

I immediately set up another appointment at the Apple Store to drop off the computer, yet again. For whatever reason, when testing the computer in the store, again, it wold not boot past the Apple logo screen. It seems that whenever I move the computer from my house to their store, more problems occur. The Apple rep said they would have to run tests on it overnight. Oh yeah. Did I mention it is STILL showing up as a MacBook Pro in their system? Yeah.

At this point, the story ends. What’s to happen next? who knows! I do know that every Dell computer I’ve own (most of which have been refurbished) have never given me this many problems, especially within the first month of ownership. One more problem, and I will have no choice but demand I have the computer completely replaced. Maybe with a MacBook Pro, since that’s what they keep claiming what I own.

12 July 2006 3:18 PM CDT
Just checked the Apple Support site earlier this morning and discovered that they had just started working on my computer today instead of last night, like I was told. As of this time, I still have not heard from anyone. According to the site, the Repair is in Progress. I give them until 7:00 PM CDT until I start making calls because I was told I would be given an update sometime today. If there’s any good news, it does show up as Mac mini instead of a MacBook Pro.

12 July 2006 7:24 PM CDT
After being put for thankfully just a couple of minutes, I spoke to a manager who stated that all “Geniuses” (as the on-site Techs are called) were busy. I explained the situation to him, at which point he said he’d call me back as soon as they know something. ugh…

12 July 2006 9:24 PM CDT
Well, it only took 26 hours after I dropped the computer off for them to finally tell me what I already knew to begin with: the hard drive needs to be replaced. Of course, they could have told me earlier if they… oh… you know… actually ran the diagnostics on the computer last night like they said they would. The manager didn’t call me back. Instead, the technician who took my computer called. After stumpling through his words (working a help desk, you recognize this as a sense of the person either as exactly not knowing what they’re doing or has no idea how communicate to people), I’m told the part should be in Friday. Another rule about working help desk/tech support: NEVER say something is going to take so long, because in reality, whatever estimate you give, it’s WAY off. This gives hope to the customer. So, we’ll see what happens next. All I know is that they actually better call me this time.

Another dream that makes no sense! WOO!

From what I can remember, it appears that I was at a college dorm and then I can only assume a frat party. The earliest thing I remember was that I was roommates with a co-worker at my current job. Literally, nobody likes this guy at work, so I guess this is more of a nightmare than a dream. 😛 Anyways, I hear someone leaving a message on the answering machine (I was in another room). The message is from what sounds like a friend of a friend that I haven’t talked to in quite some time. When I go and try and retrieve the message from the machine, it becomes more complicated than it should be as my hated roommate had changed the machine to some weird as multi-user telecom/phone system that you would normally see at a business. So I wasn’t able to get the message and I was pissed off.

I storm out of the dorm and wander over to another room and knock on the door. This appeared to be the dorm of my boss. The door is opened by this very beautiful lady, who turns out to be the friend of my friend. I see my boss in bed scrambling out of it like he’s nervous about something. The woman at the door explains that the problem she was having isn’t an issue anymore and that it was caused by my brother. I explain how that was possible since my brother is in California. The woman then tries to nervously explain how that was possible. While all of this is happening, I can see there’s someone behind door as his shoulder keeps showing from behind it. As well as the fact that the door was constantly attempted to be shut on me. My boss, now at the door as well, also tries to explain the situation, while still nervous about something, before finally telling me to me go on and leave and not to worry about it. As my boss and the woman leave, from behind the door appears a man dressed in karate attire with a black headband. As I leave the area, the karate man tackles me from behind, explaining all I need is a hug. Once he’s done hugging me, he tells me that’s enough and leaves. I immediately think to myself “Well, that wasn’t right.”

I leave the dorm areas into an open which looks more like a development neighbourhood than a college campus. As I walk around, I see several different things, such as a truck driving backwards and some people playing with water guns. Walking back towards what appears to be sort of like a community hang-out of some sorts, I’m confronted by some person. He appears to have a grudge with me as he lightly pushes me after talking to me about something. He eggs me on as to start some kind of fight. I turned around trying to ignore him, but eventually push him back. He pokes me in the shoulder and again tries to egg me on into fighting him. I poke him back, as he continues his taunts. I finally told him I don’t have time for this while pointing at my wrists as if I had a watch on.

I wander the location more, obviously other things, including people playing around and having fun in a swimming people, people gathered around a barbecue bit and drinking beer, people around a camp firing playing instruments, and people in front of computers playing games. I eventually come back to a lobby-type area where my grandmother pokes her head from behind a chair and tells me I shouldn’t be looking so gloom. I turned around surprised to see my grandma, so and hug her, and sit down next to her to start explaining why I was looking the way I was.

And then I woke up.

There should be reasons why you don’t wake up and immediately type what you just dreamed about. It sounds like pure and utter crap. 😛

Month: July 2006

A Sour Apple. A Bad Apple in the Bunch.

Dream Chronicle: College Life?