Close on six weeks have gone by since I was rudely reminded about technology still being a fickle thing. I've mentioned my "change of heart" before. Imagine my surprise, and concern, when I came home and Clare explained she hadn't been able to play backgammon.
What am I going on about? Our lovely iMac wasn't working. The machine had been asleep when Clare tried to use it, but didn't respond to any keypresses, or mouse clicks. Normally either would revive the machine quite promptly. Not on this occasion. In fact, Clare had to force the power off to see any response. And that's when the fun started!
The power button did nothing but make a slight whirring of the fans, followed with no comforting "bedang" sound as the machine confirms it's found the System to boot off. Friends will know I'm not that ignorant of resolving problems with PCs. This, however, was a completely different ball of wax. Unfamiliar territory does not describe the feeling.
The Internet really comes into it's own in these situations. I found the odd document relating to debugging problems with a Mac, but most assumed the System was already loaded. One approach that carried more credibility was the Apple Diagnostic--boot the machine off the System Install CD while holding the Command-D keys. Supposedly bring up tools to run Disk Utility amongst others. I faithfully inserted the CD, rebooted only to find there was likewise no indication the machine could find the system on the CD. To top that, I couldn't remove the CD, aaargh!
Thank the Lord for AppleCare. They were pretty good, although somewhat scripted. We went through the various diagnostic approaches to reset the PRAM, holding down Command and 3 other keys (finger gymnastics) simultaneously. That simply made fans run at full speed. Never knew the machine could be that loud!! Needless to say, the technician on the line was perplexed and suggested we take the machine to an Authorised Apple Support Partner / Reseller.
We found one fairly nearby, however they had a three to four week waiting period. OH NO! Nothing for it but to wait for the call. Four weeks later we carefully repacked the machine for transport last Monday (May day) while they worked on it for a week. They advised us on friday afternoon at around 16h30 that it was fixed ... not much time to collect it before the weekend, and bank holiday one at that!
Tuesday morning I finally discovered what the issue was ... the Logic board had gone. They didn't know why but it was replaced under warranty. And they hadn't seen this issue before either.
I would say I'm happy, :-D, but then Clare is also happy too. Particularly, since she has her Backgammon back again, albeit a seemly cheating computer version.
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