Dead Mac (1 Viewer)

So sfter 7 months of ownership, my iMac has taken its second dump...last time it was an image not being found which caused a loss of all data, this time a complete hard drive failure.

Applecare refused to replace the computer because the first incident was a software issue, and this time it's a hardware issue...Maybe true, maybe not as this second incident started the exact same way as the first one did and seemed to devolve as I was on the phone with them trying all their "tricks". I was able to run disk utility on the phone with them for example when I spoke to the first rep, and by the time I was done with the second rep, the computer wouldn't even stay on and shut itself down the moment the apple logo came on the screen. Weird.

At any rate, I realize HD failures can happen at any time to any computer but the fact is that I've never had any computer cause me anywhere near this amount of trouble.

I've enjoyed the Mac when it has worked, but the overall experience has been less than satisfactory. An authorized repair person is coming to fix the machine at my house I guess later in the week (need to schedule it) and I'm hoping after this that I have years of trouble free use of the Mac...But any more problems like this with this machine, and I'll consider myself done with Mac for good.

If the machine is shutting down during the kernel loading, I'd be far more likely to suspect a faulty power supply than a bad hard drive. If the hard drive was really dead, you'd just see a flashing question mark at startup.

This is one of the things that left me unhappy dealing with apple care about this problem. When the trouble first started, I was able to get to the apple logo and the spinning wheel below it, but rather than getting the question mark which I saw the first problem I had with this computer months back, the wheel just spun and spun forever until I ended up with a blank blue screen

I was in disk utility when I called them and had no trouble getting to it. I couldn't do anything as first aid and repair both resulted in an error, but I was there. The drive was there, but not mounted. The mount button was availalbe, but did nothing.

By the time I was finished with the second rep from apple care however, I couldn't do anything. Everything we tried just ended up with the computer shutting itself off as soon as the apple logo appeared.

I suggested power supply to the rep but he kept saying it was the hard drive. I guess I'll bring up the power supply with the repair person when I see them.

I don't know enough about these things to say either way, but it just seemed odd to me that before I called apple care it seems as if I could have at least reinstalled OSx but by the time I was done with them, the computer was completely gone.

Carl,

Please keep us posted. Very interested to see if and how
this gets resolved.

Best of luck!!!!

Thanks Ron.

The authorized Apple repair person was scheduled to come this afternoon to fix my computer. I took a half day from work to be home. It was getting late, so I called. They said he's coming. An hour later, I called again. They assured me he was coming. He was running late, but coming. He never showed.

Gotta love it.

Nothing like taking time off work for a promised tech not to show up.

I hope you are making one very angry phone call this morning.

Took last Wednesday off because the HVAC guy was coming to look at my furnace. When he hadn't arrived by 2:00, I called to see where the hell he was and I got their answering service...the office had closed and everyone had left early for the holiday. The guy never did show up.

I have a good friend at work that she and her husband picked up a G5 desktop and had trouble with it from day one. There never could get it serviced and just gave up on it. They spent around $4K on it and to this day the mere mention of Apple gets their blood boiling.

The bottom line to me is that you can have a great product but if you have poor customer service after the sale then you can lose them as a customer forever.

Carl. I hope they get you up and running soon. And it sounds like a power supply issue to me too.

My wife and I were talking tonight about how customer service has changed over the years. I distinctly recall a time when at least some companies tried to bend over backwards to make a customer happy. That certainly hasn't happened in this case.

The repair company was apologetic, offered me a Thursday appointment but I can't have someone home that day. I asked for tomorrow, they said no way. I asked for Saturday, they said there would be a $125 fee for Saturday service. I suggested they should waive that fee in light of my taking off work only to be stood up. They said no. We're sorry but no. Sorry no. No, sorry. I got a Friday afternoon appointment.

The explanation I was given was that the tech who was supposed to do the repair yesterday was new. He apparently takes a long time due to inexperience fell behind and never made it to me...I told them I don't want him on Friday.

You guys are right, there is nothing like getting stood up by a repair person.

I'm not sure I could have handled this any better, but I'm open to hearing how you guys would have approached this if it were you. It just seemed like no matter what I said, they really didn't care.

Finally got the Mac fixed today. They put in a new hard drive and power supply.

I haven't been able to figure out how to restore a few things such as my connection favorites using Transmit, but all in all, it was pretty easy to restore my computer from the back up.

Hopefully, I'll be trouble free from here on in.

I don't know if this would work or not, but you could try suing the repair company in small claims court. The damages would be your lost wages/expense of a vacation day.

-Keith