Thursday, May 03, 2007

new imac woes

Well, my new imac is sickly today. The hardrive/computer seems to be fine, it's the CD/DVD drive (apple calls it the superdrive). I burned a cd this morning of a podcast, and hit the eject button, then heard an odd sound and the disk did not eject. Hmm, strange I thought. Then a second later, itunes asked me if I wanted to import the cd (as if I had just put it in). I hit cancel, went to the desktop, dragged the disk to the trash to eject, and it did. Whew, I thought. BUT then when I tried to put a new CD in, it made a few little "Vzz-click" sounds, and spit the disk back out. Sure enough, no matter what disk I put in, it just spits it back out. SO disappointing this is, as it is only 5 months old.
I made a call to the apple tech line and was able to ask some general questions. It doesn't sound good in that I'll probably have to replace the superdrive. The tech led me to believe that this is something I could do on my own if I felt "comfortable". I do. I've done ram updates, replaced HD's, and swapped out a disk drive before, but these were all in the larger machines of about 5 years ago. The new imacs are JAMMED in to get them to fit in their nice slim design. After a little more digging online, I found a note that said the imacs are not meant to be opened by the owner, and that I could void my warranty if I try. Ugh. So, I may not be able to do this after all.
I also made a call to my local apple store - what a merry-go-round that was. Apple has extended warranties called "Procare". I did not purchase this when I got my computer, because every consumer website says it's a scam/total profit making machine for all stores. So I denied it. I'm still covered under a one year parts warranty, BUT here's the catch... you're treated like a second-class citizen when the tech guy's find out you don't have Procare. First of all, the tech guy would not tell me if they have the superdrives in stock. Next, he said I'd have to make an appointment to come in to have them look at it. Fine I said, Saturday will work. Then after a few more questions, the tech said that since they are usually so busy on Saturdays, they may not be able to give me a full answer as to what is wrong with the computer, so he said it would probably be best if I brought the computer in on Monday. fine I said... but hold the phone... since I don't have Procare, I can't make that appointment. I have to wait until 48 hours to make the appointment. In other words, I have to wait until Saturday, to make a Monday Appt. Oh Brother.
So, I'm very disappointed, and upset that my new imac baby has this major glitch so soon. I HATE to do it, but I think I may actually purchase the procare at this point (For about $170!!!). For, one, it will let me be treated to better service (I hope), and for two, it will extend my warranty for 2 more years (especially since I know I've got a bum disk drive.) There are others on the message boards with similar problems too. So, I got a faulty "mighty mouse" with my computer and now I've got a faulty disk drive. So disappointed.

If anyone finds this post on the intertubes, please post a comment if they've had experience with this. I found a few small "tricks" that might help me (like resetting the PRAM, and shutting down the system by unplugging it for 60 seconds - I hope these will work, but I'm not optimistic.) Also, I'd be interested in comments about ProCare too.

Wish me luck.

PS> The tech guy I spoke to on the phone was very nice and helpful. The local guy at my applestore was not. He gave me such a run-around - he was so afraid to offer me any information.


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