So I just picked up my imac from the Apple Store, brought it home, plugged it in, then what did I see…? Nothing but a black screen. Hmmm…
It made the usual sounds when firing up, it’s just that the screen never came on. 
I then proceeded to shut it down and then restart it. A few seconds later… bam! …it’s working again. In fact, the system seemed to be performing faster than it had before, which would make perfect sense if the logic board had been faulty before the repair.
About ten minutes go by and pretty soon I hear what sounds like someone outside operating a leaf blower. Then I realize the noise is coming from my previously whisper-quiet imac!
I then open up my system preferences and see that the fans are running at 4x the normal speed. The default is 1500 rpm, however they were running as high as 5800 rpm by the time I shut the system down. I had them set at 1800 rpm, but they were in runaway mode. Fearing a serious blowout, I quickly shut the machine off and went for the phone.
I first tried contacting an Apple Genius at the store that’s had it for the past five days, which I’d also just driven 50 minutes round trip to pick it up from. As you may have guessed… no luck there. They took my number and informed me that an Apple Genius would return my call as soon as possible.
I then phoned AppleCare and the technician had me reset the PRAM, which is one of the basic troubleshooting steps for us mac users. So far so good, but I’m still anxiously awaiting a return phone call from an Apple Genius who hopefully can shed a little more light on why those problems may have occurred.
2.5 hours later and still no response from a Genius.
I gotta tell ya folks… I am not the biggest Apple fan at the moment, and here’s why…
After purchasing this computer just over 12 months ago, I have:
- spent nearly three hours driving back and forth between the Apple Store for service
- gone 10 business days without my computer, which I use for business. Ouch!
- had the hard drive replaced
- had the logic board replaced
- had the audio board replaced
- had the graphics card replaced
Considering the computer is barely over one year old and cost me over $2,600US with tax and extended warranty coverage, doesn’t all of that seem a bit excessive..?!
One would think that after having essentially the entire computer replaced within a year’s time, any further hardware problems would result in the issuance of a new computer. Nope. I’ve already tried heading down that road. Apple will gladly replace up to three logic boards, which consists of six trips to the Apple Store and 10-15 business days without your computer, before they will even consider a replacement. How on earth they can deem that an acceptable service policy I will never understand.
I had always viewed Apple as a step up from PC, and felt that the several hundred extra dollars they charge you for a computer translated into increased stability and reliability. Ha!
So anyway, yeah… I’m a little bit pissed. Could you tell?
Alright… enough of all this Apple BS bullcrap. Provided my computer remains stable, I intend on doing some heavy updating within the next week or so. Lots of good stuff on the way for HuntsmansLodge.com – I promise. 
