Monday, April 9, 2012

I'm lost without you

I went to the Apple store on Friday. I had an appointment at the Genius bar. I had ordered new ram for my MacbookPro.....it wasn't quite fitting in and I opted to let a professional look at it. He helped and I thought all my troubles were over. (insert du-dunnnnnn) I told him my Iphoto wasn't working well. I'm sure it was the ram and now that he'd fixed that it would all work perfectly! He hoped so.....

He pushed a few keys along with the power button and it started booting up! YAY, I just know my computer is going to be like new. I'm chatting away with the guy and he just looks at me and asks if I've seen the screen that is on my computer before...Sure! It does that when the battery dies and it's coming back to life!! No, that's a hash tag...this is a bar....have you ever seen this before? Well, no, when you put it that way. I have never seen that. This is what happens if your computer is having trouble. UH-OH! So, he says, we can take a look at it and see what's going on. Great, I'm thinking. I will still leave here with a perfect computer! He points out some wording on the black screen and tells me in a very serious tone, "this could be a hard drive issue". Wha? No, surely not. My computer isn't even a year old! He tries to stay calm and tell me he's sure it's fine. Then it starts saying that terrible thing over and over and over and over....its just scrolling on the screen! He says, we have a problem. I'm still pretty calm.  I mean, I'm at the GENIUS bar, Hello!! They are going to fix my apple that never has problems!! I just know it!!!!!!! He asks if I've backed it up recently.....of course not. Then he asks how often I turn my computer OFF. N-E-V-E-R. I just close the lid and walk away! Not good. He then asks if I ever close the lid and turn it up right with the fan still running. uh, probably. He proceeds to tell me that this is HORRIBLE for the laptop. I should turn it off weekly. So that it can refurbish the hard drive. Every Friday Apple will run something I can't remember and when you turn your computer on on Friday, it will have refurbished the hard drive so that it runs to it's best ability. oh. Then he says if I do that thing where you close the lid and pick it up and the motor is still running it could warp the hard drive. oh. He says college kids will go through 2 or 3 hard drives a year because of this. oh.

So, mr. Genius, can you fix this for me? NO, sorry, we don't do that here. oh. Can you recommend somewhere for me to take it? NO, sorry, we don't endorse anyone. I finally get out of him to take it to Perry Computers at Brookwood. Ok, I've heard of that place! I will do just that. Oh, but the girl that was here before you? Same thing happened to her and she called Perry and they aren't open today. Good Friday. oh.

I'm on the ole macbook from 2005. it's slow as molasses and can't get any updates because the system is out of date. At least I can blog and facebook. I took the other one in to Perry this morning. She said they would probably get to it by Wednesday. She couldn't promise they would get anything from it, but they would try. She also didn't know how long it would take at $90/hour. At least after I get it back from Perry, I can go back to the "Genius Bar" and they will install my warranty-covered hard drive. Always ending on a happy note!

Have a good Monday!