Last Thursday, after being really careful not to have my computer on while all the severe weather and thunderstorms pounded us, I had my computer on. A beautiful, sunny day. There wasn’t even any wind.

I had just replaced my old behemoth of a printer with a wide format version. The software install required a restart before using the printer for the initial time. The computer was in the process of booting back up when there was a power blip. Off – on. That quick. (I believe the road crew playing with their back hoe and dump truck knocked the power line leading to our house.) But that evil blip was just enough to fry my hard drive but good.

The computer was only purchased 4 months ago. So I called the MAC store. 3-5 business days before they even LOOKED at it. And they wanted me to bring my external hard drive and leave that with them as well. This meant an hour drive each way to drop the thing off. And having complete strangers hold all my client files and sensitive info. Plus, they would only cover labor under the purchase warranty. I’d still have to pay for any parts. Unless, I wanted to pay for expedited service. That would move my MAC to the top of the line. And it would still be 2-3 business days before they’d get it fixed. Um. No.

I called my regular guru guy. He was here in a matter of hours. Only problem? This newfangled iMAC has no visible screws! After searching all over for a way to get at the guts, he finally went to the super secret computer guru repair web site and pulled up a YouTube video.

The video started out “…and you take your suction cups…” Suction cups?

My guru did not have suction cups. Or the required torch screwdrivers. MAC? Really? It was now late in the day on Friday. He promised to be back first thing Monday with suction cups and torch screwdrivers.

He did come first thing Monday. But the torch screwdriver he was able to find was one size too big. he managed to get the iMAC apart and install the replacement hard drive (much larger than the original one) and put the machine back together again. He was here for several hours. Lucky for me, I had Time Machine set to automatic back up, so I didn’t lose anything. Or so I thought.

The iMAC i purchased didn’t come with a boot disc, I ordered the new Snow Leopard earlier the previous week, so I figured I’d be all set to go.

I began to go through email and answer the emergency things and get caught up on things I had fallen behind on during the interim. All was going swimmingly, or so I thought when the computer started squealing. Loudly. Continuously. In a high pitch. I called guru again. Let him listen to the squeal. He said I could use the machine, it was a mechanical noise and it would do no damage. He was hopeful the noise would go away. It didn’t. I called him the next morning and told him so. He promised I’d be his next stop.

In the mean time, I forged bravely ahead trying desperately to ignore the high pitch whine. And slowly losing my mind.

Several hours later, he showed up. This time he had the proper size torch screwdriver. Yeah!

He took the machine apart again and found the cause of the squeal. A wire had slipped down onto a hidden fan under the CDRom drive. Easy fix.

I had to turn off my back up. The new hard drive was too large for the old external drive. I ordered a replacement. The old surge protector was scrooched. I ordered a replacement. The new OS had rendered two pieces of software unuseable. I ordered upgrades.

It’s been a week.

The doodle was something I woke up and drew. There were more barnyard animals in my dream doodle, but there is only so much you can remember from dreams! Have a great weekend you all!