My powerbook has been crashing the past few weeks. We are talking about hard (kernel-level) system hang-ups here. For weeks, I tolerated the inconveniences associated with system crash and rebooted my machine every time without complaints. But when my mac crashed over 20 times over the course of last weekend, that's when I told myself "enough is enough."

I really like the way Apple set up their Apple Stores. A typically Apple Store personifies the Apple culture right on the mark. Its uber coolness and hipness appeal to both the young and the old (like me). The staff are friendly, passionate, and knowledgeable on their products that they sell. I have grilled the store staff with several hard computer-related questions before and they have responded well to my questions. But far from being satisfied because of my powerbook problem, I brought my mac to the Apple Store in CambridgeSide Galleria last night for a technician (or what Apple call an Mac Genius) to look at it. As I described my problem to Mr. Mac Genius at the store, it suddenly dawned on me that I had added a new variable call extra RAM into system a few weeks ago. Innocently enough, the 512MB DIMM module fits right into the powerbook and it is even recognized by the system; however, but I was starting to suspect that the DIMM is the cause of my problem as the problem started surfacing after I had installed the RAM module. For this reason, I told Mr. Mac Genius that I am going to revert my machine back to the original factory memory configuration to test my hypothesis, thereby possibly avoiding my powerbook from being sent back to Apple for service. So far, my powerbook has not crashed since the reversion.

Unfortunately, we found another problem during my visit to the Apple Store. Apparently, the base of my powerbook is slight warped and not laying flat onto the table surface, consequently causing the powerbook to wobble when I type. Mr. Mac Genius told me that I should send the powerbook back to Apple for service. There is actual a good chance that I may actually end up with a brand new powerbook as replacement for this flaw. Hmmm... That's quite an appealing suggestion.

8/17/2005 11:04:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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