Computer woes

Oh dear....yesterday, my lovely Powerbook G4 died on me....

It was quite frustrating. In fact, I had been wipping around the internet, doing my usual daily tour (NY Times, WWD, etc) when all of a sudden my computer froze. I left it alone for awhile, vacuumed the apartment, then came back to find it was still stuck. I tried to force quit, but that didn't work. I finally had to just press the power button for awhile until the computer shut off.

Then I turned on the computer again - to find that I was perpetually stuck at the login screen! I went and turned on the H's computer, a now ancient Power Mac G4, and scanned the apple.com support pages. I tried everything to turn on my computer - meaning a various cocktail of buttons such as command-shift-power button, etc etc etc. I finally managed to get the computer past the login screen, but then everytime I clicked on something (hard drive icon, Mail icon, etc) the computer would freeze.

Finally in sheer desperation, I called the Mac Customer Support line in the U.S. The technician informed me that my Apple Care Extension Plan (the one that costs like $300 or something) had expired back in February and I would have to pay a whoppig $50 for her to solve my problems over the phone. I said fine, whatever, and gave her my credit card number.

After a good 45 minutes, she couldn't get the computer to start either, and said I needed my installation CD in order to get the computer to start again, and to run disk aid on it. I explained that I didn't know where the CD was - I was pretty sure I had brought it to France awhile back, but I turned the entire apartment upside down looking for the damn thing, with the sinking realisation that the CD just might be at my mom's house in the U.S.! She saaid it would be possible to send me a new installation CD at a small price, but wasn't sure she could send it to France from the U.S. She put me on hold for 15 minutes and then came back to tell me that I would be transferred to Apple France customer support. Unfortunately after a good 10 minutes, the line was still busy, so she gave me the Apple France phone number, said she wouldn't charge me the $50 for the non-help, and hung up (after wishing me a nice day, of course).

And so I had to call Apple France, one of those horrible 0825 numbers that costs a zllion dollars a minute. In typical French fashion? I waited a good 15 minutes before someone picked up the phone on their end; I explained that I needed an installation CD mailed to me and the technician was all "Well, it will cost you mone, you know." "Yes," I said, "but could you tell me how much?" The technician sighed and said, "Well, I can't tell you that right now, it's very complicated to just check the price." "Yes," I replied, patience wearing thin, "but if I order the CD, you're going to have to tell me how much it costs anyway, no? I mean, I'm not going to just buy something without knowing the price!" "Yes, yes, of course," she muttered. "Hold on while I check." Of course, I was then put on hold for 10 minutes before I GOT CUT OFF!!!!!! I was really miffed about it, and then I ended up calling back a couple of hours later to explain how I was so rudely cut off after 30 minutes on the phone on a very expensive phone number, then I ordered the CD (it only cost €95) and it should arrive here soon via UPS.

The H is pretty annoyed about the whole thing, pointing out that I am going to buy another computer soon for sure now, so why bother paying for the CD, until I explained that lazy person I am, I had not gotten around to backing up all the wedding pictures, which are ALL in my computer.

Now I am stuck using the H's giant mammoth of a computer - not only is it an inconvenient desktop, but it is so old that it runs on OS 10.2! Granted, my Powerbook is only on 10.3, but still...10.2 seems so outdated compared to 10.3. The H is once again furious with Apple, raging that the whole thing is a rip-off what with their stupid OS systems and how you get screwed over when they come out with a new OS - your computer becomes unbelievably outdated in a matter of 2 years. Plus I guess I am just so used to working on a laptop now, plus my computer is so organized in its files and programs that everything is basically all linked together (my email accounts, etc - now I have to log into like 3 different sites just to check all my of email accounts). I guess I will be pretty scarce for the next few days until the CD gets here.

Oh, Mac. How I love your computers, but why do they always literally die on me after about 3 1/2 years? I love how I spent the $300 for the Apple Care Plan, which lasts 3 years, yet I never have an issue where I need to call in for help, but bam! Just slightly after the 3 year mark is when I start having problems, and then you all charge me for customer support! Not cool, Mac, not cool.