The Saga Continues

Crossing my fingers for luck didn't help my mysterious lag in startup time.

I'm still seriously pissed.

I've isolated that mysterious one-and-a-half minute blank blue screen on startup to some kind of problem with the audio. I'm going to thoroughly document it here since I can't find information anywhere on the internet about an issue like this.

Symptom: on starting my iMac (v 10.3.8), it goes from the gray screen with the apple and spinning wheel to a blank blue screen for one and a half to two minutes. It just sits there. After this, I get the "Mac OS X" window with the progress bar, and everything continues to load normally.

Attempted fixes: I repaired permissions and disk, ran Tech Tool Deluxe, repaired permissions and disk from Panther install disc 1, trashed preferences folder, removed startup items, trashed caches, renamed Home>Library to Library.old and rebooted, reset PRAM and NVRAM, resolved duplicate fonts in font book, removed login items, and disconnected everything except the power, keyboard, mouse, and speakers and rebooted. Nothing solved the isuue. I finally did an Archive and Install, which reverted me to 10.3.5. I still had this mysterious blue screen. I updated to 10.3.9, still no change.

I opened the System Profiler to take a look at the system log. In that log are multiple instances of this error:

The error occurs multiple times over a period of time close to the time the blue screen hangs. OK, so it's trying to execute something that's not working - hence, the blue screen.

I disconnected the speakers (the Apple Pro speakers that came with the iMac) and rebooted. Everything boots normally. I reconnected the speakers, making sure the plug was fully inserted into the jack. I rebooted again to the blue screen.

After being on the phone with AppleCare several times, they told me to take the iMac to an Authorized Service Provider to have them check the audio port. This is when I nearly went ballistic. I told them that I think the AASP I went to in the first place (for Superdrive replacement) fucked up my logic board while replacing the Superdrive, and now after they replaced the logic board, I have this problem. I told them I wasn't taking it back to the same AASP, and I refuse to drive 50 miles to the nearest Apple store. I also refused to drive the 30-odd miles to the second-nearest AASP, which is in a horrendous traffic area, and be without my computer for another one or two weeks. My extended warranty includes on-site service and I asked for it.

I was told that they normally don't do onsite service for diagnostic issues, and since they're not sure if it's a bad audio port, bad speakers, or a bad sound card, they normally wouldn't do that. But they did it anyway. I was told a technician would call me within the next 48 hours.

Well, they called at home this morning, despite my requesting them call me at work, and left a message I could barely understand. Something about ordering a part and if I have any questions, call this number. Well, I called the number and the person didn't even recognize the dispatch number - turns out that 95% of their calls are DELL customers and she didn't recognize the Apple number. Finally got info, and she couldn't tell who is the person assigned to my repair, but it looks like they're coming out tomorrow. Huh? I need a little more warning than this! I need to leave work to be at home! So I call the Apple repair number, and was told there that a part was ordered, but hasn't shipped yet. It's probably going to ship tonight so the service person can be here tomorrow. She was going to put in an expedited-call request for them to call me and let me know what was going on. She said they should call within 4 hours. Well, here we are 5 hours later - no call.

I am so frustrated at the moment. I'm royally pissed at the AASP for possibly fucking up my computer in the first place, and I'm pissed that these on-site people are not letting me know what's going on. It also does nothing to bolster my confidence that 95% of their customers are Dell customers.

I will continue this saga as I get more information - hopefully it can help anyone else with the same problem. As for the problems with the AASP, I wonder if Apple solicits or reviews feedback from AASP warranty repair customers. I did get an email survey for my phone support today, and at the end of the survey where they ask about any issues with Apple Support Services, I put as much of my experience with the AASP as possible (unfortunately there was a 2000 character limit, and as you can see, I tend to blabber a bit). I wouldn't want anyone to have an AASP experience like I did. It would be nice if there was an online rating list of each Service Provider.

To Be Continued...