Is something strange in your neighborhood? Is something wrong, and it don’t look good? Are you seeing things, running though your head?

Well then, maybe you need some tech support! This open thread is where to post your ‘how the hell do I do that’ questions and get help from the BGM community. Be sure to give specifics (versions, machine types, …

God, I hope someone gets these obscure references…

On Wednesday afternoon, I had the occasion to stop into my local Apple Store in Alpharetta, GA. The reason for my visit was that the hard drive in my Macbook Pro had given me quite a scare on Tuesday morning by failing to be recognized by the rest of the computer. A minor quibble, sure, but enough to make me nearly soil my Dockers as I realized I hadn’t properly backed up my Parallels documents and some very important stuff was hiding in there.

Eventually on Tuesday evening I was able to coax it into target mode and recover my data. Wednesday morning though, it booted up and ran great for about an hour before it bit the dust again. I attempted a half hearted flatten and recovery, to no avail. So I made an appointment at the Genius Bar and headed over around lunch time.

Now, a little history is on order to properly prepare you for the big ending.

Back in November, we ordered a 17″ Macbook for work via Amazon. After a few weeks of it not being able to take a disk image or function properly at all, it turned out to have a faulty logic board, so I took it to the same Apple store referenced above. The mandatory tests were run, and the question came up as to when and where I purchased it. I told them Amazon and that I wasn’t sure of the exact date. I hopped onto a demo machine, logged into Amazon and we printed an invoice from some 25 days earlier.
I walked out of the store with a new, replacement machine (no box, discs, cables or anything - just a receipt and a 17″ Macbook Pro) thanks to Apples in store replacement policy - though I honestly was amazed they replaced a machine that wasn’t even purchased there.

That was (I learned today) December 12th of last year. I ended up using that machine and giving the other employee MY Macbook (which had a larger hard drive and a glossy screen). So for the past month I had been using the replacement unit Apple had given us.

Enter Tuesdays issues and Wednesdays trip to the Apple store. I walked in a few minutes early for my appointment and was greeted by Adam, who invited me to belly on up to the bar. We chatted for a moment and I explained the symptoms (failing tests using SMART tools, clacking noises, failure to write data, lockups, etc.). Adam agreed that it did indeed sound like a drive on it’s way to heaven. He began to write up a repair order when inspiration struck and I told him about switching out last time instead of waiting for a repair.

A minute or so later, we had determined the date of the ‘purchase’ (12/12/7) and Adam made the executive decision to bypass the normal 30 day grace period for replacements and to proceed with switching the machine out with a new one. He even went so far as to take my broken Macbook into the back and switch the memory between machines (mine had 3gb, 3rd party, whereas the new one had the stock 2gb).

So, 15 minutes after stepping into the Apple store, I walked out, for the second time in as many months, with a brand new computer to replace a faulty one. Oh, and I also had a full set of 10.5 install discs instead of the stupid upgrade drop-in discs the second machine had shipped with. Cool.

You might be thinking, wow, that’s awesome and it’s too bad other companies don’t step up to the plate like that. But wait, there’s MORE!