I’ve been a Unix guy ever since my first job out of college tending to a handful of Microsoft—yes, Microsoft—Xenix-based Altos computer systems. In my time I’ve played or worked on them all: Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and so on. Of course, my work-a-day machine was Windows-based, and I ran Linux at home (RedHat, Suse, etc.). On occassion I would have access to a Mac, I’d click around some, maybe lust after a Cube a little, but just not getting what all the fuss was about. Until OS X.
After that my lust began in earnest, and in January of 2004 I bought myself a 15″ PowerBook G4 (and my wife a 12″ iBook). It was love at first sight. It truly did everything it was supposed to do: a Unix-based OS, with a “lickable” UI, that just worked. I even liked the dock (mostly). I was an instant fanboy, converting the great unwashed and annoying those who actually preferred Windows (although, interestingly, they always attacked first).
But by the end of the 10.3 cycle of releases, my Mac was suffering from some serious bit rot. Hey, that wasn’t supposed to happen! At the same time my wife’s iBook blew out its hard drive and had to be sent back for service. By the way, AppleCare is highly recommended. If this was a Windows laptop, it would have been tossed in the dustbin and replaced. But you spend good money for a Mac, and, frankly, grow a little attached to it too, so repair is a better option.
Now my PowerBook has joined the choir invisible.
Here are the symptoms. When the PowerBook goes into sleep mode and is unplugged from the wall for an unknown amount of time, it won’t wake up. All I get is the spinning beachball of death, and I’m forced to shut it down the hard way. However, on restart, I’m presented with the grey screen of death (followed by the swearing of death, the walking-away-in-disgust of death, and the cigarette of death). I don’t get the apple image and I don’t get the spinner, just a grey screen. This has been happening for the last few weeks. If I then leave the machine plugged in and alone for a while, it will boot up just fine. A “while” is around 12 hours, i.e., overnight. If I leave it for just a minute or even a few hours, no dice. Once working, however, it will keep on working forever, going in and out of sleep mode and everything. That is, until I repeat the sequence of removing the power while the PowerBook is sleeping, and then it’s the SBOD/GSOD combo.
I’ve been all over the Internet and Apple’s message boards and support pages looking for answers. There are all sorts of proposed solutions: resetting the power management unit and PRAM (no effect), repairing the hard disk (disk healthy), uninstalling non-Apple drivers (none installed), sacrificing a kitten (wife wouldn’t let me), but none of them work.
Finally, earlier this week, the PowerBook shuffled off its mortal coil completely. I called Apple, had a more-or-less pleasurable experience with support, and arranged to send the ol’ boy in for surgery. I’ll send it to Apple tomorrow, and expect to have it back in a few days. So, yes, the bloom is off the rose. Macs are just computers after all. But when my PowerBook is returned to me, it will once again be my machine of choice. Because, despite these tales of woe, OS X still runs circles around Windows and Linux.