4 beeps are not better than 3

We were stilling in the lap at ICA the first time it happened. Our 3 and half year old iBook was turned off and when we tried to turn it on there was a flash of the screen and 4 scary beeps. Without prior warning, it wouldn't turn on. After an hour or so of charging up, we tried again and phew! we had liftoff. Not thinking much about the beeps the next time we tried to power it on, it happened again. Ugh! Well, when it Guatemala it isn't so easy to walk into the Genius Bar at Apple, so we came up with a new plan.....don't turn it off......for 2 months! No problem.

Now that we're back in D-Town and the Genius Bar is at our fingertips we decided it was time to address the issue. After waiting days during this busy holiday season we finally got an appointment and soon learned that it could be our logic board and hard drive. Oh yeah....now we do sort of remember that rainbow pinwheel spinning a lot lately. But to fix it we have to send it out. Hmmmm....let's get a second opinion.

Yesterday I ponied up and made a visit to the Mac Outlet. Well, it seems that 4 beeps are pretty rare. Apparently so rare that none of the tech nerds had even see it before! All their cheering and applauding made me feel pretty proud for a few seconds, but it soon ended when I was told that 4 beeps = processing problem = very expensive, maybe not even worth the value of the computer. Boo hoo hoo!!!

We haven't given up all hope yet....after all when it's on, it works. It's just that turning it on and off seems to be an issue. So, if you have any experise in the area of this problem or happen to be a Mac Genius randomly reading this blog, PLEASE offer your advice! Until we get this little problem under control, our days of blogging (and everything else internet based) will sadly be few and far between. Wish us luck!