By Jove, he was right
 

Computers are just freaking weird freak things.

A couple of days ago, MB called me at work, distraught because his G4 Powerbook wouldn't start up.

Mind you this wasn't a big surprise to me, because the thing is trashed--if Mad Max were to have a laptop after the apocalypse, it would look like this. Keys missing, corners so dented the worthless battery barely fits in, and cover scratched up all to hell. So naturally I assumed it was a hardware issue, and started investigating replacement options.

But in the meantime, we had to figure out how to recover all the files--we both had some important shit on the thing, and I've been way too busy/tired/lazy to do any backups in a long time. So I suggested to MB that he call Springboard (local Mac store), describe the problem to them, and see if they thought they could help us out.

Well, they suggested that we try to run whatever repair disks we had first, because if we brought it in, they would charge $95 just to try the same thing.

So MB managed to dig up his ancient AppleCare and Norton Utilities disks, but not the original system setup disks...okay, I'm just realizing right now that I had upgraded our Macs to Tiger, and I have those disks...

But that's neither here nor there, because his disk drive wouldn't allow a disk to be inserted at all. SHIT.

A funny thing though--during our initial conversation about all this, MB had said for some reason, "I think something just needs to be poked..." I'm not entirely sure what led him to think this, but after my 20+ years experience with Macs, I couldn't discount it. The especially weird thing about his idea was that he had it. I'd never realized before that he would care to have a sense for such a thing. And wouldn't you know...

So earlier tonight, I gathered up the disks I thought I would need, plugged in the Powerbook, and started it up. As before, the gray apple screen came up and the little dial underneath it spun around, and eventually froze.

I shut down and tried to insert the Norton Utilities disk. It stopped just short of going all the way in. I hit the startup button, and tried again--no luck. As it was starting up, I kept trying to push it in semi-gently, over and over, again with no success. It stalled yet again at the same point, and as I tried to push the disk in again...the system broke free, and the startup completed!

MB is sound asleep right now, but I can't wait to tell him in the morning that he was right. Something actually did just need to be poked...in the disk drive. Fuck if I know why that is.

Hmmm...I'd be suspicious: every time a guy has told me that everything would be all better if only something were poked, well, you can imagine the result. ;)

Percussive Maintenance, also known as the "technical tap," has saved many a hardware catastrophe. :thumb:

I'll have to rember that one Pie !!!

Babby Huie Fix it !!!!!

Early man knew this technique: The Fonz employed it many a time. :p

I call that momentum therapy.


One time I fixed two jammed washing machines in less than 30 seconds with it. Damn I felt cool.

It was called a kick plate. Today it has been reduced to a nanoplate. Most hardware has one. But like each plate, information about it has also been downsized.

I would never claim everything, but if we're talking about a number of things... well, then, guilty as charged.

OMG now that you guys mention it, I remember having to do this sort of thing before.

Whatever Mac it was that came after the FX ('92?), the hard drive would stick sometimes on start up...and you had to punch the side of it to get it going! Um yeah, kind of like Fonzie.

I had an ... XT ... (?) whose hard rive would jam on start up - you had to lift the box a tad, restart, and drop it just as you heard the power drop as the HDD tried to start.

And I have occasionally had to beat a starter motor into submission with a very big stick. Kind of fun, in the driveway of a petrol station. :D