Third time is [the hopeful] charm.

[BarkingGhost]

A couple of weeks ago, the wife and I purchased an iMac from our local Apple store. We took it home, unboxed it, ran through the setup as complete Apple newbies, and after migrating her email and music started noticing some strange things.

The strange things took place only on cold boots, could not be explained during an Apple Genius appointment, led to an iMac swap. The swap unit was setup in the store with a couple of Apple employees watching, and the same issues arose. Employees couldn't explain it and advised to live with until solution is found or return for refund.

We took the refund, left, and 2-3 days later discovered a discussion on Apple's discussion boards from July expressing the exact same issues. That discussion thread panned through a revelation that hopefully will be tested today during a 3rd and final attempt to buy our first Apple computer.

Issue was that after initial setup, cold boots had Bluetooth's Discoverable option enabled. This cased the system to hang, and then fall back into Safe Mode. In safe mode no hardware video acceleration (experienced choppy video), no menu bar loading (had to be forced), 802.11 wireless was broke (Wi-Fi: No hardware installed), USB devices were not being auto-detected or auto-mounted, and software would not permanently install.

All of the issues would disappear if one rebooted after a cold boot. Someone discovered that if you do not power up the Bluetooth KBM before hitting the iMac power button during cold boot the booting into Safe Mode would not happen. Someone also suggested turning off the Bluetooth Discoverable option.

So, we will buy another 27 iMac (i7 3.4 GHz), do the initial setup in the store and test to see if disabling Discoverable works, or at the very least not powering up the Bluetooth KBM before the login screen appears.

Any advice on what to do today during the store visit?

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BTW, the story of the issues can be found here. Cheers!

 

[BarkingGhost]

Update

+290 views and no advice?

The wife and I went to the Apple store this morning and purchased a 3rd unit. They opened the box and watched us go through the initial setup, and we were surprised that this unit wasn't even on Lion (ON SL). The problem that was experienced previously (units #1 & #2 on Lion) was not found in Snow Leopard.

Unfortunately, the Apple store employees could not get Software Updates to work on SL while in the store, and I refused to leave the store with this unit. Enter the Apple store manager, swaps unit out for unit #4, which is on Lion.

I must have explained the issues to half a dozen people and with three people watching me (including the store manager), the Lion initial setup progressed, and the first Cold Boot reproduced the issues previously reported. At this time I took the liberty to Uncheck the Bluetooth Discoverable option and that seemed to work.

Also, the option of not powering up the KBM before the login screen appears is a viable option as well. I took unit #4 home. I have cold booted the unit several times, in all cases the BT Discoverable option Unchecked (disabled), but if I power up the KBM before the iMac the problem persists.

No problem, I've trained the wife (and myself) to not follow the iMac manual and wait for the login screen. Problem solved.

Tomorrow I will go through all of the Software Updates, which I know will include EFI and applications. Then, I'll test for a week with stability, and if all goes well migrate the wife's materials over (email, music, etc.) and hopefully live a life with less maintenance.

BTW, I was chatting with a fellow customer during today's store visit. Like myself, his only purpose in Apple was when he got his wife off Windows and onto Apple to reduce his husband-maintenance of his wife's computer. He just laughed out loud as his wife just looked away in mild embarrassment.

My wife was out in the mall shopping. Color me sucker.

 

[r0k]

..

BTW, I was chatting with a fellow customer during today's store visit. Like myself, his only purpose in Apple was when he got his wife off Windows and onto Apple to reduce his husband-maintenance of his wife's computer. He just laughed out loud as his wife just looked away in mild embarrassment.

My wife was out in the mall shopping. Color me sucker.

My situation exactly, except it wasn't just my wife. It was my kids...

Dad! Daaaad! I can't print and this paper is due tomorrow. Dad! Daaaad! I can't get on the internet! Dad! It says my antivirus is expired and I need to enter your credit card number before I can use the computer.

One by one I replaced their windows boxes with Mac minis. My "support workload" went down from 50 incidents a month to 1 or 2 incidents a year. Our household flipped from 5 windows boxes to 5 Macs and I have my life back.

I know that whole boot / bluetooth thing was spooky. Especially for a Mac. But trust me your whole life is nothing but direct x 11, bluetooth, wifi, antivirus, printer down, corruption, safe mode, and all with no credible help. Call Microsoft about it? I think not! You had a problem with an Apple computer and got help from the guys who built the computer and wrote the software. Apple isn't perfect but Microsoft strives to make Apple look perfect every day. I'm glad the 4th computer worked and I'm sorry you didn't get this resolved sooner but most of all I'm glad that you are still able to put Windows in your rear view mirror where it belongs.