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Texas Tech 39. University of Texas 33. You had to see it to believe it.

“Texas does football well.”

If you have ever been to Lubbock, you know why they are so excited about winning this game.

It was an old fashioned shoot-out in the bleak West Texas wastelands, and the young guns pulled it off in the last minute.

Although a moderately subdued Texas Longhorn fan (registered sporadic attendance in the early 70′s) I have to say ,the better team came out on top tonight. Ten gallon hats off to the Red Raiders.

WEEK ONE

I’m in graphic design. Bought an iMac G5 in 2005 for my studio. (Purchased AppleCare. Covers the iMac for three years. Phone support, hardware.) Machine handled everything I threw at it. It handles all the heavy lifting. I just move the mouse around. It’s pretty important to the business. Problems started around six weeks ago. The heavy lifting was getting to it.

Then out of the blue, kernel panic. Kernel panic is defined as “oh sh*t”. Something a software reinstall won’t fix. Time to make call.

Over the phone diagnosis was, my problem was RAM related. Ok, thinking about maxing out RAM anyway. Easy to fix. Bought new RAM, back in business!

WEEK TWO

Kernel panic returns! Machine will not wake up. Another call. Diagnosis; “It’s the logic board, let’s replace.” Pack up machine for a trip to the mall. (If you have a skateboard, it is the best way to transport your iMac thru the mall.) Store orders the logic board, aka Motherboard. Machine spends 4 days at Apple Store waiting on a 4 year-old part. My clients are calling; having to put them off. Helps to have understanding clients. Machine returns to the studio, I’m pleased.

WEEK THREE

Yet more kernel panic. Hard drive not recognized. Another call to AppleCare. Diagnosis, another logic board, AND the hard drive is hosed. Let’s replace the power supply, too. Basically rebuild for the second time. Machine returns to the store. (Foresight averts major data loss. Yessss we have backups!)

WEEK FOUR

More waiting for parts. Await the return of the machine. At pickup time there are gouges (not scratches) in the monitor. Much displeasure at this. We will order the part they say. Prepare for a third trip to the store.

I repeat: If you have a skateboard, it is the best, no, the ONLY way to transport your iMac thru the mall. Plus you get a lot of funny looks and some thumbs ups and every once in a while a “That’s what I’m talking about” from an admiring citizen.

WEEK FIVE

Return to studio with machine. iSight camera (built in) not recognized. Call store, ask wtf?? Oops, they say. Will fix when you come in to replace screen we gouged.

At this point, losing trust in store. Call AppleCare, they will send someone to my house to fix. Awesome, house call! (Buy AppleCare, it’s so worth it.)

Machine is disassembled in my studio by authorized technician. “Hmm, that’s broken… That’s the wrong screw…No screws holding this in… This screw is stripped, can’t fix this… Is this supposed to be ripped? Oh thats why the camera doesn’t work, cable is cut. Sorry sir, I can’t fix this. You need to call AppleCare.”

Sheesh! You gotta be kidding me! On the phone again. What’s the solution Apple? “How about a brand new iMac, sir?” A new machine! That’s what I’m talking about! How about a new iMac with 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2gigs of RAM! This thing rocks!

Back to the store. Leave old machine for migration. Return the next day to pick up the new machine. Fire it up… oh man, I don’t believe this. Dead pixels. In three or four obvious places.

WEEK SIX

Call AppleCare yet again-can I return at different store? Yes, sorry for the inconvenience. Drive to different mall. Pick up new machine, return happy.

Oh and one more thing… Mr. Clean Magic Eraser removes sticky residue from the lovely brushed aluminum on iMacs if the tape stays on the computer and not on the plastic cover used in packaging. Leaves no trace or scratches, quite impressive.

And the new keyboard is awesome, truly sweet.

It took quite a bit of energy and phone calls and trips to two different malls and reinstalling from backups, but I am back in business with a brand new machine. I’m very happy with this new computer. Thanks again Apple, great machine, great service.

There is a caveat or two…

Thanks to my editor and friend Joe for reminding me of the things I left out.
Like, “…no mention of crapped-out dvd backups?”
Backed up entire iTunes libary. Fifteen DVD’s worth of music. Three were usable. The rest were toast.
Tried them on 5 different machines. (Once again Apple came through and let me download 75% of my purchased music.)