Very easy tutorial:)

Let me know how things get solved!

I will say at the outset that the personnel I have dealt with on the phone at OWC have been unfailingly polite and helpful, with particular kudos to Tracy from customer service and Travis in tech support, but there are clearly issues in the back rooms where the actual work is getting done as well as with internal documentation of problem cases. There is a clear disconnect between what is promised and what is actually delivered.

Here’s the saga:

Drop shipped a 27 inch i7 3.4 Ghz iMac to OWC in the beginning of September. Due to some issues at Apple, there was some delay in the arrival of the machine , but it did get there eventually. The actual turnaround of the upgrade (eSATA port, add 480GB SSD as new boot drive, upgrade existing conventional HDD to 2TB and add additional 8 GB RAM) took around 24 hours and then the machine found its way back to me 2 days later. So far, so good.

The machine arrives with one of the styrofoam packing blocks around the monitor screen cracked, which is of concern. I take several pictures to document this before unpacking. Once I get the machine out of the box and inspect it, everything looks to be ok.

Plug in the machine and boot, then observe the dreaded folder/question mark icon. My first thought is that there is invisible damage related to the cracked packing block, perhaps a loose connection. I call OWC and we quickly determine that the machine will have to go back for evaluation and possibly filing a claim against the goons from FedEx ground. During this conversation, I am assured that the computer tested fine before leaving the facility. Very disappointing, but a real world hazard when shipping items like computers.

The iMac goes back to OWC the next day and arrives 2 days later. It is supposedly “fixed” and they hold it for 5 days to await shipping, as I am out of town during the time frame when they otherwise would have shipped it. While I’m on the road, I call OWC to get a followup on what happened. Here’s where things get interesting and weird.

I speak to someone in customer service and ask what was found when the unit was inspected. I’m told that the operating system wasn’t installed! I’m left scratching my head on this one, big time. First, how on earth could you test the dang thing in the first place, to know if everything you did worked? Second, the day I placed my order, someone from OWC called to confirm my details, where it was made explicitly clear and acknowledged that I wanted Lion installed on the new SSD. How in God’s name is it possible to send a machine out the door after confirming an order like that? At this point, I don’t know what to believe, so I decide to sit tight and wait for my computer to arrive, which it did yesterday.

I hook up an external HDD with my Time Machine backup via the eSATA port and I boot it up. Initial boot is verrrry slow, but eventually Lion comes up in the usual fashion and asks me if I want to transfer data from my backup, to which I say yes.

While going through the initial boot, I immediately notice that the fan is running flat out. It’s all over the OWC blog pages that they have engineered a hardware solution to this known issue with iMacs and non-factory HDs, so I’m scratching my head again, wondering if these bozos have any clue about what they are doing over there in Illinois.

But wait, it gets better.

The data transfer from my external HDD via the eSATA port hangs. Nothing I can do to unfreeze it, so I take a deep breath and reboot. Unbelievably, I get the folder/question mark icon again! My initial assumption is of course that somehow, the OS was corrupted during the failed data transfer, so I pop in a Lion disk to try a reinstall/recovery.

Here’s where the icing is put on the cake.

Lion can’t find the SSD!

I switch out of install mode to disk utility and the SSD is no longer there! Zero, zip, nada!

Called OWC immediately and the machine is now being expressed back to them again, with sincere assurances that they “will make everything right.”

I was supposed to have a conference call with a supervisory team today no later than 1:30 EST. It’s now an hour past their self-declared deadline and I’ve heard nothing. Of course, I’ve also been without my computer for over three weeks, have nearly 4 grand tied up in the machine, upgrades and ancillary equipment purchased to go with my new iMAC and over a month’s worth of work opportunities down the toilet.

I’ll leave all of you to draw your own conclusions about the reliability and trustworthiness of OWC.

I quickly got back a response. Though it was polite, it asked the bone-head question: Did the optical drive work before it was installed in the enclosure? “Of course,” was my response.

It has been two weeks and I have since heard nothing from them. I had an event that took a week of my time (and was grateful that I had a second Macbook Pro with an optical drive in the interim). I contacted them again when I had time. I asked for my case to be passed to a supervisor. I have still heard nothing.

While my experience is not equivalent to the writer’s here (I don’t think I would drop ship any new item to someone else until I had received it first and assessed its condition, nor done some warranty-ending mods), it has undermined my confidence in Other World Computing. I was considering an SSD from them but don’t think I’ll go there at this time.

Nice implementation. I am looking to extend this too, with the eventual aim of adapting it to work with the iPad. At the moment though I am looking on adding a feature.

I have successfully adapted it to load images locally, with thumbnails that change to different images on spacebar. The problem I am having is for the original thumbnail image to return when you zoom out.

I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to work out how to do it, do you have any ideas how this might be achieved? I would be happy to share the final version if I can get this working, that should also respond to touch events.

Cheers,

Simon

I know more people that not who are car enthusiasts. Maybe you should find a local auto-cross event, get some footage there, and also interview real drivers to ask them about the passion they have for cars. This should help sway your unenlightened tutors