I'm all about learning. I'm just not crazy about learning that suspicions can come true. For years and years I've had Apple computers. From an old Power PC to a G3 to a G5 (my present Mac). Nick has a 17" Mac Powerbook, an I phone, Rachel has a Powerbook and a newer than mine desktop (also Mac). Sarah has tended toward PC, and that's fine- whatever works for her. To date, unless I'm missing something, none of us Mac users have had any hardware issues in all this time. I had some minor glitches on my G3, but nothing that would preclude using it.
Why am I bringing this up? Well, why am I pecking away on my Mac to send this post? Because. Because my high end, hand built high power PC does not work. Well, it works- it turns on, buzzes, the cooling fans work, the lights come on, it looks way cool, the keyboard lights up, the cap lock works, the mouse is active....... no picture. Neither monitor is getting a signal. Nada.
I call Cyberpower in Los Angeles (tech support). I get a knowledgeable guy, Mike, and explain my problem. Mike asks the standard "are the monitors connected, are you plugged in" questions. Yes is my answer. He goes through the re-boot process, plug in, unplug, etc. and still no pic. Now is where things get dicey. He says- "power down, unplug computer and remove the side panel". S***. Now I'm worried. In all my years as a Mac guy the only need I ever had to open the box involved adding some RAM. This is new territory for me. Anyway, Mike tells me to reach in and remove/replace each RAM stick (3@2GB each). He explains how to un-clip and clip, so I do it. Then he says to plug in and power up the unit (with panel off!). I do, and he says try powering up to see if this process helped. No. Still no pic. So now Mike says to check video card (which is not really a card, but a video cassette sized mechanism with a cooling fan, attached with 2 screws and a clip, monitors plugged into back through computer box, also plugged into mother board and back wall. I say nothing is loose. He says take out screws, un clip and unplug monitors. I do so. He says reinstall. I do. He says try to boot up. I do. No pic. S***. He says he thinks video card is bad. This is a high end, 1 GB on board memory kick ass gamer video card gone bad trying to run a CAD program that requires 30% of the capacity of this thing. It's lasted 2 months. So- they will replace it. All I have to do is pull the thing out, package it and send it to them so they can send the new one which I will kindly install (with my now vast knowledge of PC internal workings). Meanwhile, I can't use my PC.
There must be something said here. To all computer users. While most of you are PC owners, many of whom I've heard the horror stories of crashes, meltdowns, motherboard problems, data losses, other crappola... consider this. Any PC you decide to buy= Dell, HP, Sony, IBM, etc., can have the same components as the other. There is no exclusivity in PC hardware. Different manufacturers produce the components in these units and the controls are on them. While MAC also uses different manufactures for components, they are installed as proprietary items. Mac owns the rights to these components and can take responsibility for their performance. The difference might seem slight, but failures seem to be less when the responsibility is on MAC. My video card can be used in most PC's but not in a MAC. In this case, the video card manufacturer is responsible for it's performance- not Cybercore. It's like a general contractor giving yo the phone number of the plumber instead of taking responsibility and calling for you.
All this being said, I'm sure, when I'm up and running again I'll be happy as a clam.
