Genius

Mrs. D's iMac is in the hands of a genius.

On Thursday I managed to get the iMac down to the closest Apple store which is a mere 30 minutes (ish) from work.  I was able to justify the trip on a couple of grounds;  I had to run another errand in the vicinity which was time sensitive and as my employment with my former job officially ends on this coming Tuesday and I have to send their computers back, I'll be essentially computerless.  The old machine with a Pentium III-450 MHz processor sitting in my office doesn't really count as a computer anymore.  And for practical reasons, Mrs. D uses what used to be my PC for teaching classes.

So I haul the iMac in its rather imposing, stark white box through downtown to the store and find the nearest available Apple store worker.  This fellow, quite expectedly, fits the profile you might imagine of an Apple employee--a little bit nerdy with an edgy haircut that comes off as artsy and a black t-shirt a-la Steve Jobs.  He asks how he might help and I explain that my iMac is rather ill and the phone support people told me to pay a visit to their store.  "Ah," he asks, "Do you have an appointment at the Genius Bar?"  "The Genius Bar?!" I ask, trying to mask any of the incredulity that may have slipped out.

He grabs the nearest mouse to awake one of their display Macs, quickly pulls up a program of some sort and asks me to fill in my information while he goes off to see if the "Genius Bar" can fit me in.  I explain that I live a full hour's drive away and ask whether I might just leave the iMac with them and have the first available genius ring me on my mobile phone where I can explain the symptoms.  He smiles and says, "The Genius Bar is fully booked today but let me see what we can do to fit you in since you came so far."  I obediently fill in my contact information wondering whether purchasing a Mac was really such a good idea in the first place and feeling a little embarrassed that I may have come off as stunned when he mentioned the "Bar."

So I stand over by the iPods for the next five minutes trying to look natural while I wait for my Apple representative to work his magic.  I watch the Apple store clientele.  I see angry looking teen age boys with haircuts and clothes that I think were meant to say, "I don't care," but it is evident that they care enough to choose just the right clothes to make their statement.  There is a guy that looks like a salesman of some sort, complete with a salon tan, asking an Apple guy which firewire external drive he should buy.  Then there is a 40 something looking guy asking how to put music on his iPod.  There are a few people dressed up with the "I'm an artist" look--bold framed glasses, loud shoes, and very tight shirts.  And, there was me--a somewhat nerdy 30 something with a pensive look on his face.

The pensive look came from my thinking that I had better behave myself a little better if I expected this Apple worker to squeeze me in at the Bar.  He comes back a few minutes later and says, "Let's get you set up, Chris will help you out today..."  I follow him over to the far end of the bar and a 20 something fellow with a friendly disposition and a black shirt that says in small lettering, "Genius," says, "Hey Curtis, I'll help you out today..."

So we set up the ill Mac and I explain that it usually takes about 15 minutes and then the Mac will start to show all sorts of stray horizontal lines in application windows and eventually freeze--at least 75% of the time.  Chris says, "Cool.  Let me put a little load on your CPU and you can hang out, browse the web, check your mail, or whatever, until the issue occurs.  When it does, just call me over and we'll check it out."  I go to work opening every application I can think of hoping beyond hope that the Mac will cooperate and clearly display it's illness.

A couple of minutes into my application launching frenzy an evidently frequent visitor of the Genius Bar drops by and notes that her iBook has been freezing up lately.  I focus my eyes harder than ever on my screen to make sure I don't make any silly comments given the kindness of the Genius and his fitting me in without an appointment.  But Chris, the Genius, employs his friendly disposition to put her and I at ease.  He jokes a little, "Yes, but its freezing out there, literally!"

By this time I'm feeling a lot more at ease and hopeful that the Mac will reveal it's issue.  I figure if I open 20 browser tabs within Firefox and fill them with really noisy pages with tons of graphics and perhaps even a few videos, we should be on our way in no time at all.

So the woman and I joke with each other about which Mac will freeze first and I am pleased to note that our little iMac won.  We got the full random line symptom and then when Chris took a closer look, it froze.  Nothing could have made me happier.

"Well, I think we'll start by fitting you with a new logic board," he explains.  "In these iMacs, is that just the video controller or is it pretty much everything including the CPU?" I ask.  "Yeah, everything, this really ought to take care of the issue."  He checks their stock and notes that they should be able to get the new board fitted into the computer and have it ready for me by mid next week.

Wow.  I guess this Genius Bar is pretty cool after all.  Most other service places keep their technicians as far away from customers as possible.  The Apple store puts them right there with you.  And they put you right there next to other customers with issues.  That's pretty bold if you think about it.  Interesting.  Genius, actually.

 

Comments

[Sijbrich]

Does that mean you're going to start dressing in "I don't care" fashion?

[Johndeere]

When I get home,I may go out and buy a Mac just so I can experience the "Genius Bar". That sounds a lot more effective than calling Mr. Nuhruh in India when I have a technical problem with my PC.

[Pablito]

so did you get laid off or did you quit?

[Dean]

Quit. :-( They refused to lay me off.