Cello and I went to the Apple Store Thursday after work. You can't just walk in, you have to make an appointment, so it isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. I mean, you can walk in and buy something, of course, but if you need to talk to someone about a repair or something, you can't.
He needed to take his laptop in, and he offered to go with me if I wanted to take the eMac in at the same time. I jumped at the chance, mostly because the eMac is SO heavy that, while I can pick it up and move it (and have, but just from the desk to the table), it's way too heavy for me to carry any distance. And the store is on the Plaza, so finding a close parking spot is definitely not guaranteed, and I didn't want to end up having to carry it a couple of blocks from a parking garage.
So a couple of weeks ago I brought it in to work with me, pulled up to the back door and called Dave, who came out and carried it into the office for me, where it's been sitting since.
Getting it fixed wasn't really an emergency, since I have the iBook, so I just waited until it worked out for Cello. And since he was going to have to carry it, I wanted it to be on his schedule. So anyway, we met there Thursday evening, he carried it in for me, and we waited probably about twenty minutes until we could see someone. He showed the "genius" his laptop (I'm not being sarcastic there, they're called geniuses, and the place where you go is called the "Genius Bar." Kinda silly, but memorable . . .
The guy asked me what the story was on the eMac, and I told him that it would power on, but it didn't have any video. So he got out a power cord and plugged it in, and got an external monitor to see what was going on. He pressed the power button, it started up, and Cello and I both gasped as the monitor came on! The genius said, "You're kidding, right?" The monitor was facing away from him. We said no, it's coming on!
He restarted it three or four times, and it worked like a charm.
Way back a month or six weeks ago, when it stopped working and we took it in to CompUSA for it's two week stay there, Bob had said, "Before you take it anywhere else, let's try plugging it in again, just to see." But I'd done that so many times, restarted it so many times, spent so much time on the phone with Apple support, that I just didn't see the point. But now I see that maybe he was right.
So I went and got the car and doubleparked in front of the door, and Cello carried it back out to the car for me, and I drove home, and Bob carried it into the house and I plugged it in, and it worked perfectly.
I have no idea what was wrong with it, or why it spontaneously healed itself. Cello said maybe it was his Mac mojo. The guy at the Apple store said maybe it was just his magic touch. David said maybe it was the prospect of an internal examination that scared it into cooperating. Whatever it was. it's perfectly fine now. I used it all weekend with absolutely no problems.
I'm very happy to have it back! It's much easier to do actual work at the desktop -- I like sitting with the iBook (and a cat) in my lap, too, but the trackball and larger keyboard makes it easier when I really need to do some programming, or work in Photoshop. And that means I can play my Sims, too! I have the game on the iBook, too, but the last time I tried to play it, the display kind of freaked out--I think I don't have enough memory on the laptop. I talked to the guy at the Apple store about that, too (memory), and I'll probably take the laptop in there soon and have them put in some more memory.
So, at last, some good news!
