Private Panic

Perhaps in advance of the stock market crash of 2008, my G5 decided to go legs up, today. Which is bad, because the G5 is the work computer and I seemingly still have a nearly endless supply of the stuff to get through. I had been acting funny and then funnier for the last couple of weeks, and then today at around 2 PM: zetz. Wouldn't even turn on, just pulsed its starting light for a little while, and then the fans got really, really loud. The G5 has about 18 fucking fans, so I'm surprised the thing didn't start hovering off the floor with all that whirring overdrive.

A closer look revealed that the light was actually pulsing in sequence, which meant (according to the online support center) that the computer wasn't recognizing the new RAM I'd installed. Which is great, except there hasn't been any RAM installed in this computer since it left Cupertino in Autumn of 2003, so I got confused, and sad. Still, I dutifully opened the case and pulled out one RAM card - but I realized it would be a fruitless endeavor and shunted it back in.

A quick - very quick - call to Karl (who'd had some other suggestions earlier as to the problem) told me that it wasn't fruitless, after all. His suggestion: the contacts were dirty, so pull out both RAM cards, put them back, and everything would be just fine.

And you know, it was? I'm writing this on the G5, now. Still, I definitely want to back up the big file I'm working on to the Manputer, just to be on the safe side. Sure, the G5 is only five years old, but that's something like 926 in computer years.

D.