Oh dear, reader. By now, you will have probably realised that everything I do or attempt is tainted with failure or things just going a bit wrong. For me, there is no straight path from A to B. I take the roundabout way, the scenic route and embrace the daftness of the world with idiot glee.
The story of my new iMac is no exception. Well we’ve had the story about how my new Logic recording software went missing, but was subsequently replaced – taking a week longer than necessary. But what I’ve not told you is how my new computer is now winging its way back to Apple.
I bought a refurbished iMac because I wanted to save some cash. That’s the bottom line. I couldn’t justify the expense of a full price iMac so I went the cheap route. I’d read good things about refurbished iMac’s and so was in no fear of purchasing one. I was impressed with the service and the speed of delivery. I got the girlie giggles unpacking my new machine* and enjoyed find my way around an unfamiliar operating system. My eyes recovered after being rendered sore by my previous 18″ laptop. Things were great!
Then the screen started wobbling. I was getting graphics interference, the likes of which resembled me imbibing certain psychedelic material from the 60s and I began to panic. “This wasn’t part of the Apple experience!” I bleeted. It was bad enough living without a “DELETE” or hash key, but this graphics nonsense was a step too far.
I phone support who told me how to reset the video RAM and how to disconnect the computer from the mains and hold the power button in for five seconds to clear whatever was wrong. The Apple guy was polite and helpful and again I was impressed with the service. His solution worked for a while.
Then the problem returned and I reset and held in the power button. This problem seemed random, though it did seem to happen after the computer raised itself from sleep mode. But sometimes, it didn’t. I couldn’t replicate the problem. I ran disk checks, I even reinstalled OS X and some of my software, which was a pain.
After a week of prodding and poking and trying to get things to work, I gave up and called Apple support. It was time to return this dud and get a refund. Again, the other Apple guy was polite and the process was done over the phone in less than 10 minutes. The courier came yesterday and my iMac is winging its way back to Apple HQ.
On Monday, I went to the local PC World and bought a new iMac 27 so that I could backup all the software and stuff I bought on the old one. So for a time, I’d gone from having no iMacs, to having two iMacs, I looked like the Loughton branch of the Apple Store albeit being a noisier and less visually appealing Apple Store.
But I now have a working Apple iMac 27 with all my software installed on it and I am moving towards getting back into production mode. I’ve set the bar too high as I’ve got too much new software to learn. But I like the way things are going, I like the speed, the clarity and no eye strain. My iMac also talks to my NAS via wireless without the problems I was having with my Windows 7 laptop. My laptop also has issues with my router, which my iMac does not.
Onwards and upwards, I guess…
* When I worked for Web User there was this jumped up squirt of a production guy who came up to me once to object about my use of the word “machine” in one of my reviews. A PC cannot be a machine, he said. I don’t like that word. Replace it – blah, blah, blah. I agreed and completely ignored his suggestion. A PC is a machine – albeit it an electronic one with minimal moving parts, but I am not going to argue the toss with someone I don’t respect. Heigh ho!
