You may remember me writing about my past computer problems with my PowerMac G5. To recap the problem, it simply wouldn’t turn on. Mid-June, I was working on it, finishing up an image in Photoshop when it suddenly turned off. No warning, it just turned off. Since it was on UPS, I knew something was wrong, especially as it had been doing odd things beforehand. So, after phoning up AppleCare and running through some basic troubleshooting, it was time to bring it in for repair. No big deal I thought, they’d simply replace the power supply and as I had the three year extended warranty, it wouldn’t cost me anything.
Fast forward two weeks and it’s the end of June. I’ve gotten the computer back but it still doesn’t turn on. Since I’m leaving for Finland, I decide to let it sit in my room until I get back in the first week of August. August rolls by and I bring the computer back to the repair center. It still doesn’t turn on and they discuss the possible remedies: new logic board, new processor, or new power supply. Two weeks pass and it’s still not working.
At this point, I’m fed up. This is the third time the computer has broken down and I don’t want to deal with this anymore. So I phoned AppleCare and asked to speak to a supervisor. After a bit of being transferred around, I spoke with a product specialist name Justin. He listened to me describe the problems I’d been having and while he couldn’t authorize replacing the computer at this point, he did say he’d phone up the store and see if he could be of assistance to them. He also promised me that if after attempting to fix it once more it failed, he would go ahead and authorize a new machine. The next day I received a phone call back from Justin. He explained that he had spoken with the store and that they’d like to try two more fixes: replacing the power supply and the power button on the machine. I agreed as the most important thing for me at this point was to get the machine back in working order for the start of the new semester and to get my data off of it.
Yesterday I received a phone call from the store where I had dropped off the machine. Bill, the technician, explained to me that he had replaced the power supply and power button and the computer had turned on, leading him to believe that it would all work out. He told me that come Monday, after he had run a couple more checks, he thought I would be able to pick up the machine. So at this point, the CPU, logic board, power supply, and power button had been replaced (the logic board and graphics card had actually been replaced earlier on too). I was happy. It wasn’t going to be a new, problem free machine but it was going to be in working order. A few moments later, Justin phoned me back, explaining that the issue should be solved and that come Monday, I would get the machine. It was nice to know that he was personally following up with the case.
Twenty minutes later, as I was setting up for a BBQ, I received another phone call from Justin. He told me that the computer had failed once again in the store and that it would be best to simply replace the machine. Asking if I had a minute, we set up the exchange of my machine. So, as soon as I send back my old machine to Apple via a label they’ll email me (Monday or Tuesday), I’ll be receiving a brand new Dual 2.3 GHz PowerMac G5. This is quite a step up from my single processor 1.8 GHz machine. Not only is it faster, it has an additional CPU, dual layer 16x DVD burner (as opposed to a 4x one), slightly better graphics card, and a larger hard drive (250 GB as opposed to 160 GB).
Now, the only problem is getting my data off of the old machine’s hard drive.
Copyright © 2000 - 2007, Aram Kudurshian. All rights reserved.
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I don’t believe it. Aram as ever your persistance pays off. Well done.
Or as the Pythons might have said, “You lucky, lucky, lucky b*******”. Good to see you back.
Chaz on August 30th, 2005 at 09:11 am