Never say things can't get worse.
On one hand, Apple is being fantastic about trying. Within 24 hours, I have had a service tech from an Apple subcontractor, Mac House Calls, bearing a new logic board. He laid my computer on my worktable, completely dismantled it, laying out the organs and their screws in neat rows, and then put it back together.
The only problem is, this logic board is broken too. The temperature sensor is bad, meaning that the fans are roaring at full speed. It sounds like you're on the window seat just behind the wing, as the jet is accelerating down the runway. It's really loud. I can't work in my office if my computer is on.
But, I have a working sata connection, and a great new storage box. I'm going to direct all my hard drives at it, and then I'll leave the house. Monday or Tuesday, my tech guy will be back, to do it all over again with another replacement logic board.
Somehow, it seems like it would make sense to just hand me another computer. It would be cheaper for Apple.
The best thing? I've had a computer tech here for hours, and this one knew how to fix it. When he had me sign the invoice, the total at the bottom was $0.00.
finally, progress!
Posted by: Chuq Von Rospach | December 14, 2007 at 07:04 PM
Doug,
Does this mean that you think you have solved the problems? it was the motherboard in the macpro?
I am about to bring on some more help in my office so sharing files and having more working space is about to become a top priority. I appreciate hearing about your struggles, as I doubt they'll send a tech to Homer, Alaska for free! But maybe they would send a new computer . . .
Do you share files at all or are you purely in this for storage/backup space?
Thanks,
Posted by: Scott Dickerson | December 14, 2007 at 07:15 PM
Yes, the problem was a wonky motherboard. I just have another motherboard wonky in an entirely new fashion, but that nonetheless lets me connect to my sata box.
You're talking about networking, which is another bugaboo in my life. Allegedly, one could imagine a box such as this being available as a share on a network.
Regard storage and backup as different animals entirely. You need backup for the files you have in storage. I have three copies of everything, only one of which is connected to the computer.
Posted by: Doug Plummer | December 14, 2007 at 09:36 PM
Glad to hear something is actually working, even though it's only 98% for now! And I especially like your daily photo for today. When I saw all those screws, my gut tightened until I read this post.
Posted by: Jeff Carlson | December 14, 2007 at 11:08 PM
This is the trouble with personal computers of any type - finding out what happened when things go wrong. what happened to self diagnostics? My car can tell you almost to the nut & bolt what's gone wrong, and then tells the mechanic what was happening when it did. Oh, for a computer that would tell me what's broken & how to fix it.
Posted by: martin Doonan | December 15, 2007 at 12:23 AM
Wow -- congratulations. I'm glad you are making some progress. Even though I try not to get caught up in the computer/OS religious wars, I get upset when people have this kind of unacceptable trouble with a Mac.
Your troubles remind me of an issue I had way back when Apple released the first version of MacOS X. I had a computer that ran OS 9 just fine, but would crash within minutes of booting OS X, crashing so badly that the disk became un-bootable (if that is a word).
After many e-mails and phone calls, Apple wanted to replace the motherboard at my expense, but without knowing whether or not it would fix the problem. I finally convinced them to give me a just a replacement drive, and if that actually fixed the crashing, that I'd pay for the drive, etc...
As it turned out, replacing the drive did fix the problem; OS X ran fine on the old machine with the new drive. Hardware and software have an intimate relationship. Small, transient errors can cause catastrophic crashes, crashes that may not happen with different combinations of software.
As someone in the industry, I'm still shocked when large, complex systems of hardware and software function well; here are so many potential points of failure.
I certainly hope you are close to a final solution for your problems.
Posted by: Eric Hancock | December 16, 2007 at 08:48 AM