Happy Sunday

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday because I’m not. A few days ago their was a power surge in our building and it fried my UPS. So, that’s a bummer. A day or so earlier my G5 started to act strange. It started to have problems remembering how windows were displayed, my passwords for e-mail accounts and lots of other symptoms and just strange things

Also, it has started emitting a rather annoying humming noise. Others have told me that it is probably the Power Supply going bad and I think that is probably what it is too. Whatever it is, its damn annoying on many levels. The main one is that the computer is only about eight months old (which I know is an eternity in computer world) and should not be having issues already but also because I am in the middle of so many other projects that this is not a great time to be without my main machine.

So I am spending my Sunday afternoon re-installing everything from scratch just to see if that has any effect on the noise. I can hear the Windows users in the crowd about to comment but I will save you the trouble. I decided to do this. Not because my computer would not work or because I had a blue screen of death but because I wanted to try and see if it made a difference.

I deal with computers every day and felt that I wanted to try everything I could think of before resorting to taking the computer in for service. It’s not that far to an Apple store. As we are in Los Angeles, there about five within a 30 minute drive. Really, it just comes down to disappointment.

I know, things break. Electronic gizmos fail. I never thought it would happen to Apple computer. I have had at least 10 Apple computers in the last 20 years and only recently did I have any trouble with them. I had an iBook that needed a new logic board about three years ago and now this. At least the computer still works in this case. With the iBook, nothing worked. On the other hand, I have a Mac Performa, purchased during the dark Gil Amelio years, that still works today.

And if it was just me I would not be so disappointed. Unfortunately, I work with people everyday who use macs and the trend seems to be towards more problems, not fewer. My mother-in-law for example had to have her G5 repaired after only owning it for a few months. She had to have one of her two processors replaced. Fun, huh?

I also work with several other people who have experienced problems that required repair. As a guess, I would have to say that at least 10% of the people that I know who use macs have had some kind of issue that required the computer to go in for service. A couple have had to go more than once.

Perhaps my experience is unique or perhaps I am just unlucky and know a bunch of unlucky people. I hope that’s the case. One of the main things that Apple is known for is quality. I would hate for that to change. If Apple starts making computers that are just average and fail with regularity than I may as well start using Dell all the time. At least they are cheaper.

Although, I really do like OSX and its many features and ease of use. And it only runs on Apple hardware. Damn you Apple!

I guess I’ll keep coming back after all. Oh well, happy Sunday anyway.

Later.