Tech year from hell so far

[Kaens]

So it starts with Powerbook G4 dieing on me. Apparently they have a high rate of hard drive failures, at least at my work, but hey no biggie few days later I've got a brand new one. Since it was my work laptop I didn't really lose anything.

Then a battery in my ADT (home security system) ran out of juice and somehow caused my phone lines to short out. I replaced the battery in that sensor and 2 hours later the phone are good to go. Whew, so far so good.

A week later, the ADT again is having problems and I lost my phone lines again. Phone company cannot help me because there is nothing wrong with my lines they say. I call and schedule a service call with ADT only their computer system is down and they can't schedule it yet, but they take my information so they can call me back. Now I've explained that the system killed my home phone so I give them my cell to reach me. For the next week they proceeded to call and leave me messages on my home phone. As you've probably gathered this far into the story I didn't get those because my home phone doesn't work! So I called and finally got one schedule for next Tuesday.

Windows Vista. Hey, I make a good living, I pay for software.. let's go upgrade! Two hours into my install (went well btw), it had marked my raid bad and suggested I back up immediately. Which I intended to do, right after I defragged. I wanted to mark sectors bad first and nothing bad ever happens on a defrag right? Wrong! System crash during defrag and box will not come back up. This time I seriously lost all my stuff - movies, music, pictures, important files (tax records etc). I do have backups, but they are probably a year or two old. My main computer is now down, no more Vanguard for me *sigh*

Remember that replacement Powerbook I just got earlier in the story? Well the f'n hard drive is failing on this one too! Haven't gotten this replaced yet but I'm so done with these Macs.

Then my Jap 360 started locking up, followed by full on graphical glitches. I didn't even screw around I just went downstairs and ordered me another one. Hopefully it will be here before GSL and the one I have won't completely die before then.

Oh yeah, my alternator died on my car and when I got it fixed my car stereo needs a code of course to work. I don't have a code and I need to go to the dealership and pay them to yank it out and get the code off the back so they can look it up. Not a chance! Forget it, I'll just buy a new one! So now I'm listening to my ipod in the car until I can get that fixed. Oh yeah, but I can't update my podcasts because all of those were on my main pc that died! ARGGG!

So that's how my year is going, you get the point.

[Norad45]

Your year sounds like my life :(

[magictroll]

Let's just move to the wilderness! Who's with me men? :)

[highpass]

Holy golden testicles batman that's one crappy series of unfortunate events so far.

Where are you/your work getting these Powerbooks from? It seems odd that two HDs have failed; i've never had a prob with any i've been looking after (and over half of them were refurb'd).

Here's hoping your year starts perking up from here on out mate.

[Tron]

do you have a honda or an acura? i had a similar problems... i loaded vista on a test box first, worked fine as far as the OS goes, but lost all my programs...

how long have you had ADT, ive had it for a year and swear it doesnt work sometimes... ive set off the alarm (motion detectors all around the house) and turned it off but only once in a while (half the time) those bastards dont call... doesnt make me feel safe... i also thought my installer was a shady fuck, asking what we do, what we have in the house... what an a hole.

[Kaens]

Your year sounds like my life :(
I actually left this out because it's not tech related but a rock hit my windshield and it's cracked all the way up the side because of the cold so I need to replace that too.

Where are you/your work getting these Powerbooks from? It seems odd that two HDs have failed; i've never had a prob with any i've been looking after (and over half of them were refurb'd).
Far as I know, Apple. But they are definitely refurbished units because that's why I got another instead of waiting on mine to be repaired. They give me someone else's that came back and ship mine off (later to be given to the next guy who's breaks). Work handles it's all, I just open a ticket with IC (Internal Computing).

do you have a honda or an acura? i had a similar problems... i loaded vista on a test box first, worked fine as far as the OS goes, but lost all my programs...

how long have you had ADT, ive had it for a year and swear it doesnt work sometimes... ive set off the alarm (motion detectors all around the house) and turned it off but only once in a while (half the time) those bastards dont call... doesnt make me feel safe... i also thought my installer was a shady fuck, asking what we do, what we have in the house... what an a hole.
Yup Honda. And I know I can pay like $25 online to get the code myself if I had the serial number off the back but yanking it out of the dash doesn't seem that easy. And paying someone else to do it, add in the $25 lookup charge, it's almost same as getting a non stock stereo anyways.

As for ADT, I've had it for about 5 years now which is no doubt why all of the batteries are finally dieing out at the same time. I know mine works because I've actually had it go off a few times and had to deal with them. They only call if you don't turn it off within a set amount of time.

[Tron]

i changed the battery on my crv and lost the stereo...luckily my wife had in on a sticker in the glove... good look brother.

[Blind Fool]

I had a Sony radio installed in my old Toyota and I lost the code for that, when the battery gave up I went to the local car radio specialists and they sorted it out and didn't charge me.

Apperently most the codes are the same, they usually use 20-30 diff ones so a dealer can just input them one at a time til they get fixed.

They added that applies for most makes as well, so maybe you can get that done?