Computer Update (or "The Continuation of My Infinite Woes")
Well, they gave me a loaner, finally. It's got a quarter the RAM my machine had so it's really slow, and half my Adobe software won't even attempt to install on this old iMac (it's a PowerPC rather than Pentium), so I'm working with one hand tied behind my back, but I AM working. Yesterday I was at the computer shop at 8:02 a.m. to pick the loaner up (it was supposed to be ready for me Friday night, then Saturday morning, then Saturday afternoon, then "I'll have a guy drop it off at your house Sunday," then Monday morning) only to find that the tech wasn't in yet. "He's not supposed to come in until noon, but he said he'd be here at nine today." So I go walk the dog and come back at nine. The tech said, "It'll be just seven minutes!" I waited from 9 to 9:30. He came up and told me, "Just ten more minutes!" I waited until 10:30 before he came up to me and said, "I just started to restore the information from your backup now, it'll take at least a few hours."
"Whaaa?" What have they been doing? Why did he tell me it would be "seven minutes" if he KNEW he hadn't even started the restoration yet?
He's done this to me time after time -- last week he promised he'd have my computer fixed Thursday night, then he said I could pick it up Friday. Friday he told me it would be "just a few hours." On Saturday he called me to tell me he was "Starting to run some tests." Man, I can understand that this stuff takes time, but you HAVE to know that you're not going to have a new hard drive formatted, restored, and installed in "a couple hours" if you haven't even started yet...
I didn't get the loaner until after 7 last night. "I had to cancel your backup, so you might not have everything on your hard drive that you need." Fine, fine, just give me my backup drive then -- I'll go through my data folder by folder and find what's missing. Turns out he hadn't gotten around to restoring anything but my apps and photos -- all my data and working files were missing, the apps didn't work because some of the system files weren't there (Adobe's "common" files, notably)... So I had to reinstall all my applications. That led to licensing problems with Adobe, so now I'm on the phone with them...
But I AM up and running! Slowly and staggeringly, but I'm running.
I actually like the guys at the shop, believe it or not, and I'm sure the tech has been working on my problem. It's the false promises that anger me. If, on Thursday, he'd have said, "I'll do my best, but it might be next Tuesday before I can get you up and running," well, I'd have been disappointed. But I would have been able to give MY customers a solid answer when they called asking about their projects, and I could have gone and done something else rather than sitting by the phone for five days.
"Whaaa?" What have they been doing? Why did he tell me it would be "seven minutes" if he KNEW he hadn't even started the restoration yet?
He's done this to me time after time -- last week he promised he'd have my computer fixed Thursday night, then he said I could pick it up Friday. Friday he told me it would be "just a few hours." On Saturday he called me to tell me he was "Starting to run some tests." Man, I can understand that this stuff takes time, but you HAVE to know that you're not going to have a new hard drive formatted, restored, and installed in "a couple hours" if you haven't even started yet...
I didn't get the loaner until after 7 last night. "I had to cancel your backup, so you might not have everything on your hard drive that you need." Fine, fine, just give me my backup drive then -- I'll go through my data folder by folder and find what's missing. Turns out he hadn't gotten around to restoring anything but my apps and photos -- all my data and working files were missing, the apps didn't work because some of the system files weren't there (Adobe's "common" files, notably)... So I had to reinstall all my applications. That led to licensing problems with Adobe, so now I'm on the phone with them...
But I AM up and running! Slowly and staggeringly, but I'm running.
I actually like the guys at the shop, believe it or not, and I'm sure the tech has been working on my problem. It's the false promises that anger me. If, on Thursday, he'd have said, "I'll do my best, but it might be next Tuesday before I can get you up and running," well, I'd have been disappointed. But I would have been able to give MY customers a solid answer when they called asking about their projects, and I could have gone and done something else rather than sitting by the phone for five days.
posted by Chris the Hippie at
7:39 AM
9 Comments:
The saga continues. I really hope this get resolved quickly and is not too costly for you. Wish I had a spare Mac to loan you but I only have PC's.
I think the problem with most of the computer service guys in Sioux City is that they don't really know what they're doing. He may very well have thought he would have you running in "a couple of hours." Mac Doctors in Sioux Falls are really good. They do have a guy in Sioux City every now and then. It might be worth a call the next time. At times like these, the old cut and paste days look good.
What a drag! My offer of my old iBook still stands, but I believe it would not have enough disk space or memory for your needs. It is too old!
TJW -- I speak PC as well as Mac. Ironically I chose to spend the extra dough to get a Mac precisely because THEY DON'T BREAK. Silly me.
Bluz -- That's run through my mind... I dunno. I think the guy knows what he's doing, but is poor at communicating what he's doing and why it's taking more than the promised "seven minutes." If I could only hook my old Selectric typewriter up to the Innernet...
SkyDad -- I sure appreciate the offer! But yeah, I've got a 1 terabyte drive and as much RAM as the machine will hold in my machine; not sure another computer would work. And I'm running into licensing problems with Adobe -- since I've reinstalled their software three times now, I've had to call them to get a new activation code. After the second or third installation they think you're reselling the software, or using a bogus serial number. So I can't simply install all my software on another computer and keep on truckin' -- I kinda gotta be careful about the number of installations...
ugh...i have a grudgingly workable relationship with most things mechanical (except my basses) and a serious distrust for all things electronic...and the first thing i do with any piece of electronic gear is figure out if there's some way to add another cooling fan...heat is the big killer...heat and dust destroy things here in the desert...
...hope you can find resolution to your computer brouhaha...
He was probably playing WOW in the backroom. *wink*.
Chris... this has been too much. It has to be over now. Has to be.
Love.
really didn't have much to add except that my word verification code today is "orklextr"...just what part of the ork is that one wonders...or perhaps that is the part of your computer that's broken...
"Well, here's yer problem Chris...yer Orklextr is burned out!"
Oh Lordy...now the word is "gropyr"...the fun never stops...
So you're half up and walking rather than running but it's a start. I hate the promises and lies unless I'm the one making and telling them.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home