A Rotten Apple

I'm aware the whole "rotten apple" thing is probably overused, but there's no other way to describe it.

The hard drive on my imac died two weeks ago. Funny things were happening for a little while, but I just dismissed them as nothing big. Things like the mouse freezing up one night, sluggish performance, and a weird kernel panic when the screensaver was running. So on Feb. 20 when I tried to open Mail and it quit immediately, I wasn't really surprised. When I could repeat it even after repairing permissions, I started to wonder. I had to reboot to get it working again.

I decided to check software update to see if there were any important updates I was missing, and I downloaded the 10.4.8 update. Everything installed fine at first, but after the system restart I got a kernel panic when it booted. I powered back down and tried again with the same result. I zapped PRAM and reset NVRAM to no effect, so I decided to boot from my Tiger CD so I could check the disk.

Guess what? Couldn't boot from the Tiger CD. Couldn't boot from my Diskwarrior CD either. Sounds like another fucking hardware problem, eh?

I could luckily boot from the hardware test CD and that's where I get the lovely error, 2STF/8/3:ATA-100ata-6-Master, when it was testing mass storage. Looks like the hard drive took a shit this time.

I know you're thinking, "Whaddya mean, this time?"

Do you want the whole gory story? Well, sit back and get yourself a cup of coffee. It's a long read.

Oh wait, before I start, a little history... I got my imac in September 2003. It's a 17"FP (you know, the "iLamp" style), 1.25GHz G4, 160GB HD, 1GB RAM. It originally came installed with some version of Jaguar, I don't remember which exact one. It worked great for the first 15 months.

All the trouble started with a defective superdrive.

The trouble continued when I got it back after the superdrive repair

Oh, it's not over yet, there's more!

Then I wished this was the conclusion.

It wasn't.

The warranty for that last complete replacement expired at the end of December. The hard drive died on Febuary 20. Was I just going to let it go? No fucking way. After spending oh, about, $2300 on this imac about three and a half years ago, I've had:
5 logic boards
3 sets of RAM
2 superdrives
3 hard drives

Seriously, enough is enough. Although it wasn't under warranty, I called Applecare - I tried the extension of Jamie (the "this is the end of the line" chick from my last fiasco) with no success. I finally got some kind of switchboard and found that neither Jamie nor that extension exist. I was transferred to someone named Chelley, and she graciously agreed to cover the cost of repair. Personally, I didn't want any more repairs - look at my track record! I asked if I could just get a deal on a new computer instead. Apparently that's not possible.

Small tangent here... why isn't that possible? When I got the receipt after repair, the total cost was over $500. Couldn't they just give me $500 off a new computer? I'd gladly give them the old crappy one for their Quality Control department so they can dissect it, if they'd like. I just don't get it

OK, so they're going to cover repair. This time I have to take it to the Apple Store. You know, at this point I was almost numb. I could have cared less whether or not I heard another startup chime out of that piece of crap. But last Saturday morning, Dave said we should just go take it down there.

After the hour drive, we get in there and it's mobbed. Of course it is, it's a freaking Saturday. I had to have Dave's mom make me an appointment at the Genius Bar before we left (I couldn't do it since I DIDN'T HAVE A COMPUTER - real funny to have a web-only appointment system in place for technical support). When we finally get up to the Genius, I tell him the latest problem and he confirms it's a dead hard drive. They can repair it in three days.

I also ask him if they can check the integrity of the rest of the components in the computer. He looked at me like I was an alien, so I laid out laundry list of replacements I've had. Yea, he really wasn't interested. Either that or he wasn't shocked. Not sure which. Either way would work out to be pretty bad though, wouldn't it?

Anyway, they were true to their word and we picked up the computer Wednesday night. Everything is working fine. For now.

I must be a glutton for punishment because I bought another iMac Thursday night. I decided I just can't count on this one any more - If it dies again, it's going in the trash. No more fuss. I'm keeping it bare bones - I'm only installing Full Tilt Poker software (so Dave can play online poker) and DD Tournament Poker so we have a blinds timer for tournaments we have here. I'm going to stick it out in the living room with an adapter going to the tv and a wireless keyboard, then Dave can play online poker from his recliner in 50" widescreen tv glory.

After I clicked "Submit Order" on the new mac, though, I felt like I was going to throw up. If that one is going to go down the same path this one did, I may become one of those people that have absolutely no computer at all.

Keeping my fingers crossed for luck...