Recently in Computer Stuff Category

I just saw this article on CNN.

The third paragraph is what interested me:

"...users stood in front of a large screen and controlled a Windows computer with hand gestures: thumb left to go left, index finger right to go right, victory sign for Enter."

Does that mean giving the screen the middle finger is for CTRL-ALT-DEL?

Sorry, couldn't help it.

I've been away from this blog for ages, mostly due to tons of stuff to do at home (like reroofing the house and gutting the bathroom), partially due to tons of stuff to do for work (using lots of home-time to do work-time stuff), and slightly to do with laziness. I've been meaning to write, I just haven't gotten around to it.

What prompted me to write today was Photoshop CS3 going all wonky on me. I just finished creating an image - the windows I had open were the image I created, a source file image (it was a large one, print-quality, about 250MB), and one other small file. As I was saving the image I created, Photoshop crashed. Pisser, too - I spent about an hour or so making it.

No biggie, though - I reopened Photoshop and did a File>Open to re-open my source image. Photoshop crashed again. After checking things out, I could no longer open any files in Photoshop. Well, that is a bit inconvenient, isn't it? So I went through the regular routine I usually do when things on my dear little mac are going wonky:

Force Quit Photoshop, and go to repair permissions - permissions repaired, Photoshop still won't open file.
Deleted com.adobe.photoshop.plist from User>Library>Preferences folder - still no opening files.
Restarted computer - still no files.
Logged into another user account - my admin account and opened Photoshop - Updater came up and I decided to run it. 10 minutes (!) later the updates were downloaded and 5 minutes after that they were installed. I opened a file and it worked fine.
Switched back to my regular account and it seems to be working ok.

I can't remember what versions of stuff were updated, but hopefully this will solve the problem (as in, it's working now, but for how long?). When I googled the problem, I found several other people running into the same thing, but most were running Windows and it had something to do with a default printer setting. I was hoping I wouldn't have to remove my default printer to overcome the problem, especially since it's been working fine for the last 6 months I've had that printer, so I'm glad it seems to be ok. I haven't gathered the courage to try and open my 250MB source file yet (usually takes a while to open when operating normally) - I wouldn't want to wake Dave up with my swearing if it doesn't work again. Maybe tomorrow.

So I thought I'd make a quick post just in case anyone else is having the same problem. I know it saves a lot of headaches when searching for an answer to a problem if you can actually find a little help.

Well, it's off to bed for now - I think the cron jobs are starting to run on my mac right now because the HD is making a bit of noise. Hopefully it's not Photoshop self-destructing.

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...

Is it actually physically possible to have a headache for 15 days? Yup.

It all started on September 17.

I was spending my weekend working on a poster presentation for work. The presentation was on September 28, and I needed one 24"x36" and two 12"x36" posters. I got most of it done, but I needed a couple of photos and images to add to it yet. I wasn't at all stressed about it. As long as I got the files to the printer by the end of the week, all was going to be fine.

Well, Sunday I was checking email when my darling little iMac decided to freeze up. Very unusual - no kernel panic or anything, everything just froze. I had to press the power button to shut down. I let it go for a couple of minutes, then powered back up. While it was starting up, I took Cragar out to pee.

When I got back into my office, the screen was gray with stripes and what looked like a ghost image of the screen when it froze up before. It refused to boot any further. So I did the usual, zapped the PRAM - didn't work. Tried to boot up from the Panther CD to check the disc and repair permissions - didn't work. I finally called AppleCare - the tech had me reset NVRAM (which I already started doing while I was on hold). Did nothing. I finally got it to boot from the Hardware Test CD - after running the test, I got an error code for a bad video card.

Sunday, September 17 was the LAST DAY of my AppleCare warranty. Yes, my computer had the good sense to take a shit while I still had 6 hours of coverage left.

So Apple said they'd ship a new part and schedule me for onsite service. Fantastic. I can still get my files of my hard drive and get them to the printer on time.

Monday morning I got a call from Qualixserv, the onsite repair place, letting me know they received the information from Apple and a technician would be calling me to set up an appointment within 24 to 48 hours.

24 to 48 hours pass - no call. So I call Qualixserv back and ask what's going on. They had the technician call me to give me an update and apparently Apple sent my replacement part to the wrong place. They sent it to Washington, PA, which is CLEAR ACROSS THE STATE FROM ME. He said he'd have the field service location in Washington send it to him, as well as order another part from Apple. Whichever one he got first, he'd be out to replace it.

This is the same technician who helped me out with my previous sagas. I asked him what part they were shipping. Guess what? ANOTHER LOGIC BOARD. This will be logic board #4 in three years.

By Friday, I still hadn't heard a word. I was really getting stressed about getting my presentation done for work. I guess I could have recreated it, but it took me hours of work to do what I already had done. I got home from work early that day, so I decided to give Apple a call. After waiting on hold for 60 minutes (seriously, that's ridiculous), I got someone who didn't know what the hell was going on, either. I'm trying to tell her Apple shipped the part to the wrong place, she's asking me where it should go, and I'm telling her, "I don't know where the hell it's supposed to go!". She let out a sigh of impatience and then I lost it. I told her, "All I'm trying to do is get my computer fixed. I'm in the middle here. All I know is Apple said they sent it on Sunday night, the repair place doesn't have it today - 5 days later. I don't give a crap where the hell it is now, but I want a part at my house on Monday morning and I want my computer fixed."

Seriously, if she was sitting in front of me, I would have hit her.

So I get a call from Apple guy Rodney later, telling me they're going to get this all worked out. I told him it wouldn't be such a big deal, but this is the fourth time I've needed a logic board in three years! That's insane! I told him again I needed it fixed Monday (which was 3 days before my presentation). Later that night, I got a call from Qualixserv chick Sarah and she told me Apple shipped another logic board Friday. The times were a bit screwy - I talked to Rodney around 5:30 but she got the request for another part at 3:50. Hmmmm, strange. But she said it's shipping DHL and I can call back later for the weigh bill information. I wanted to make sure it was shipping to the right place!

I tried calling ALL WEEKEND LONG, and there was no weigh bill information. I had no idea what was going on. Finally, Monday at around 12:30PM, I got a tracking number from Apple. I asked Dave's mom to go to DHL online and see where it was, and it was in Reading. Great, at least it's in the proper location. I called the technician and told him the part was there. He came to replace it around 3:30 Monday.

So, he replaced the logic board, waited around while I started up, and everything was working great. I opened the three files I needed and transferred them to a flash drive.

But wait. That's only a 8 day headache. Oh, yea. Twenty minutes after the technician left, the fucking thing froze up again! I know, I know, you're thinking, "Surely, you're shitting me!" Oh no, I'm not shitting you.

So I'm back on the phone with AppleCare, and they're of course confused, so I get transferred to a product specialist, Jamie, who tells me she's the "end of the line" as far as this problem goes. I'm not sure how it was intended, but I took a little offense to that. I'm fucking sorry I'm being a pain in the ass, but when I spend $2200 on a computer, I do not expect it to take a complete and total shit in three years. But she said, "We'll get you up and running".

After doing more of the same diagnostics, guess what? MY LOGIC BOARD IS DEFECTIVE. Hey, I got an idea! STOP SENDING ME FUCKING DEFECTIVE LOGIC BOARDS! Where's Carlos Menica with his "Dee Dee Dee" award when you need him? Good God!

So now they're shipping another one. But this time, they're also shipping me a new hard drive and new RAM. And it's a replacement, not a repair. I think that means I get new, not refurbished parts. But I don't know. All I do know is that because it was a replacement, I was not allowed to keep my old hard drive. So not only did I lose a couple of files since my last backup (data recovery NOT part of AppleCare warranty), now all of the stuff that was on there is somewhere at Apple. Stuff on there like my mortgage receipts, taxes.... fun stuff like that. Great.

So I pretty much abandoned having my computer operational before my presentation Thursday. I would have liked to do a short video presentation to accompany my poster, but I guess it just wasn't going to happen. At least I got the files I needed off my hard drive before it decided to die again. I finished them up at work, then took my flash drive to Staples to get everything printed.

That made my headache worse.

I dropped off the files on Tuesday, September 26. They told me they wouldn't be ready until after 6PM, so I told them I'd stop in Wednesday morning at 7:30 to pick them up. So bright and early Wednesday morning, there I was. And the lady tells me, "Oh, it looks like they didn't print" My head started pounding so hard I could see everything in my field of vision pulsing. I thought I was either going to pass out or explode. Luckily, I did neither, and left Staples wondering just what kind of bad karma I put out in the universe to have things get so completely fucked.

I ended up using our printing service at work to get the posters printed (at a cost of about 15 times what I would have paid for my regular online printing service), so the presentation ended up going ok.

When I got home Thursday night, there was a call from another technician to set up a repair appointment. I called him back immediately, left a message on his voicemail, then didn't hear from him again until Monday afternoon.

So he came out, replaced my logic board (so this is logic board #5), HD (and was nice enough to ask if I was sure I wanted to replace the HD since loading everything again would be a pain in the ass), and RAM. We started everything up, and of course since it was a brand new disk, I had to install an OS. I took the opportunity to finally upgrade to Tiger.

One thing I learned about installing an OS on a brand spanking new HD: hold the mouse button down to eject the CD tray on start up, insert the install disc, when the disc boots up, choose "Disk Utility" and click the Erase tab. Erase the drive to reformat (I guess partition and initialize) prior to installing the OS or else when it's time to ask for a "Destination location", there will be nothing there.

Yes, I literally had a headache for the 15 days of this saga. Two of those days the headaches were actually migraines.

My new replacement parts are warrantied for 90 days.

If anything breaks again, I will need to be heavily medicated.

I've decided to give my weblog a little makeover. I was growing bored with the old design, so I threw it all out and started over. I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the banner, but it'll work for now. I just hope I didn't miss anything important - my eyes are so blurry from allergies, it's difficult to even read what I'm writing!