iMac Saga, Conclusion?

This part three of my iMac saga. Part 1, A Hell of a Hiatus, had me pulling my hair out in frustration. Part two, The Saga Continues, left me spitting fire. Will this be the conclusion?

I was at work today when I decided to call Dave to see if anyone called at home about the iMac repair. Dave wasn't home, so I checked the messages. Again, despite requesting that I be called at work, there was a message on my machine. The service guy has "the part" and I should call him back to schedule a time he can come out.

I called back and he could come out today. I'm all about fast service, so I left work at lunchtime and he arrived at the house at 1PM.

He disconnects all the cables, takes off the bottom panel, then whips out another new logic board! What the hell? I just got a logic board! But hey, if it's gonna solve my lag in startup time, go for it, buddy.

He then tells me he's never worked on a flat-panel iMac! He's pulling out instructions and everything! Oh my god, what the hell kind of people does Apple send out for these repairs?

To give him credit, he was a very nice guy, and it appeared that he knew what he was doing, even though my iMac didn't match the diagrams in his instructions, but come on!

So after a boatload of maneuvering, he got the new logic board installed, screwed everything back together, hooked up the cables, and powered up the computer.

All seemed to be going ok, then there was a black screen with a bunch of startup code or somesuch stuff - it cycled through the code, then booted normally. When I asked him about that black screen, he said something about UNIX and how UNIX did that and stuff. When I said it never did that before, he was yammering something about firmware. Um, no. This should not be doing that, and if he thought I was going to let him out of my house before we found the cause, he had another think coming. I was ready to knock him down and chain him to my desk, if that's what it took.

So I got a bright idea and zapped the PRAM. The guy said "what are you doing"? When I told him, he had no idea what PRAM was and what zapping it meant. Hell, I don't either, but then I'm not a service repair technician. Well, zapping the PRAM solved the black-code screen. Just for good measure, I booted into Open Firmware and did a reset-nvram and reset-all. Booted back up, and all was good.

Until.

Until I realized my scanner wasn't initializing. Usually it makes two noises on startup, one prior to the gray screen with the Apple, and one during the spinning wheel. No noises. And no light on the scanner. Can I not get a fucking break?

So I check out the printer list (since one of the scanners is a multifunction) - no printers, either. Damn it! Panic mode set in and I was ready to ask if the USB ports were functioning normally (hey, can you blame me after all this crap I've gone through?). But the keyboard worked in each of the USB ports, so the ports themselves had to be ok. It must have been something that went screwy when I did the Archive and Install.

I let the service tech leave on his own accord, then I set in to find out what was wrong with the printer and scanner. I've got an Epson CX6400 multifunction and an Epson 2580 scanner. I reinstalled the software, then downloaded the TWAIN drivers from the Epson site. I got the printer to work, but the scanners didn't. I again reinstalled only the SmartPanel software, and now my 2580 would work, but the CX6400 wouldn't scan. It said there was no scanner installed. So I uninstalled the scanner software and reinstalled it, along with the TWAIN driver again. No go.

Ultimately what I ended up doing was trashing ALL my Epson software and my Epson preference files. I then reinstalled the CX6400 software and TWAIN driver. The TWAIN driver on the Epson site is bundled with several drivers for different multifunctions. I found the custom install and installed only the CX6400 driver. I think maybe there was a conflict with the other drivers in that TWAIN install package. I got the CX6400 to work, then just for giggles, I tried the 2580 without installing any more software. It worked fine.

Not bad for 5 hours of frustration.

The only other symptom of my Archive and Install was with Photoshop. For some reason I could no longer drag files onto the Photoshop dock icon to open them. I could open them from the Photoshop File>Open menu, but not by drag and drop. Damn, and I use that a lot! I found a fix somewhere on the internet - reinstall Photoshop CS. Works like a charm now.

I seriously hope I run into no other issues. I've just about had it. My poor little Mac is only a year and a half old, and I was seriously ready to throw it out the window.

After all that, though, would I go back to Windows? Not on your life!