One of these days, Mac! POW! Right in the kisser!

[thewayne]

My iMac died.

*sigh*

It's had a bad display for probably around a year now, and at $800 for a new LCD, it just isn't worth it. For 50-75% more, I can get a new(er) refurb model from Apple. Well, last weekend it crashed BIG TIME. It got in to a reboot loop, and since I don't have a wired Apple keyboard, I can't do the suggested trouble-shooting things.

I rebooted it in verbose mode, and I saw a fleeting error that could indicate a hard drive problem, which would suck because I had the drive replaced during the summer. So Monday I get to shlep it to Phoenix to take it to my repair guy: if the drive failed, they'll replace it. If it's more serious, then I guess it's time for it to go away. I guess I might be able to sell it to the repair guys for parts, after they give me back the few months old HD.

That leaves me with my MacBook Pro laptop, which is working OK. But it's not a desktop, and I need a desktop. So I dug out my two Dell desktops that I bought in January. The school that I worked for buys all their computers from an outfit that refurbs older Dells (and other brands) and sells them at pretty good discounts. They had a special, two desktops for $200 with Win 7 Pro. And when my monitor on the iMac started going bad, I bought a 28" Viewsonic. Its colors aren't as good as an iMac's, obviously, but it was fairly inexpensive.

And I left the power cable in Phoenix at a friend's house. And she can't find it.

And the bastards at Viewsonic don't use a standard power cable for this model! It's called a Mickey Mouse connector. So a new cable had to be ordered and should arrive tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, I've been using a 15" CRT display! It's an amazing culture shock to go from a 27" iMac to Windows 10 on a 15" SVGA monitor. Even my 15" laptop has higher resolution!

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Eek! That's not much fun at all. =:P At least when Dandelion perished in 2013, it had the civility to do so in a decline, which first manifested itself as spontaneously powering off now and then, later progressing to being reluctant to turn on. Eventually - and thus it has remained - it simply wouldn't turn on at all, despite SMC resets and suchlike. Thankfully, by then, its successor had arrived.

Ah, for direct neural connections - no need for monitors of any kind. ^_^

Small CRTs are rather mind-boggling these days, indeed - hefty, heavy chunks of electronics, all for a resolution barely up to an original iPhone. Much as I appreciate the skill involved in "pixel art", I'm perfectly happy with Hazel's 2880x1800 display, and fonts that are essentially almost high-end print quality. (And to think, my BBC Micro could go all the way up to 640x256 1bpp, taking up 20K of the already precious 32K RAM)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

The story gets even better! My friend at whose condo that I left the power cord at: she says she's found it and she's going to ship it to me. Then she loses it again. Finds it again, Loses it again. Finally she's going to buy me a new one. So I email Viewsonic support to get a part number. Get an email back from them saying the part number is 123-CHINA. So I reply back and ask 'Uh, your part number has the word China in it. Will it work in the USA?' Get a reply back with a different part number. Friend orders it Tuesday or Wednesday, it's going to be delivered Friday.

Friday morning she gets an email from Viewsonic that says the following:

"Validation- Further information is needed to process your order.

In order to ensure that we are able to process your order 123 (Confirmation #XYZ) in a timely manner we require some additional information.

For your protection, please complete the attached Credit Card Authorization Form. You can fax it to 909-444-5616 or email to store@viewsonic.com, along with a clear copy of the card holder's driver license or government-issued photo ID. We do not process Non US Issuing bank Credit Cards..

We apologize for the inconvenience. This request for additional information is to protect your credit and to ensure your credit card is being used with your authorization."

Wow. This $10 power cord was costing over $22 additionally for the shipping, and it took them two days to figure out that they didn't like the flavor of her American credit card?! So I told her to cancel it, and I'd hit Fry's Electronics when I'm in town next week and try to find a replacement.

Here's the good part: I found out the socket type's name -- it's called a Mickey Mouse plug! Found one on Amazon for $7, so that's my worst possible case if I can't find it at her place or at Fry's next week.

Absolutely insane.