My old Apple is a good Apple — Apple computer that is.

I've been using Apple computers pretty much since they first came out as the Apple Macintosh somewhat after their Orwellian introduction in 1984.

Back in 2009, I bought my current iMac — a 27-inch model with 1T of hard drive that I've upgraded with 16G of RAM. It's been a powerhouse. I often have a dozen programs open at once while I put together California Update, research the Internet, and compose songs.

Along the way, I needed a second monitor and picked up an ASUS 27-inch for around $200. This turned out to be a wise decision, for after a while, the screen went black on my iMac, but shifting over to the ASUS as my main screen, everything's been working just fine.

Well, not everything. I've added an external DVD drive, an external camera, and an external microphone. I'm thinking — better than new.

So one evening I'm setting to go onto a Zoom meeting and my camera goes weird. I try the next day, it seems to go weird in a different way. I try three different cameras, try different USB ports, and upgrade my Zoom app. Nothing works. Is it time for a new computer?

So, I'm happy with the one I have, so I try to get a similar replacement. I went to the Apple store only to learn that Apple stopped making the 27-inch iMac a year or two earlier. But Apple did sell their 27-inch iMac on their refurbished unit website.

Whoever designed Apple's refurbished unit web site designed it more like Craig's List than as a storefront. It was disorganized and I had to click onto one of about 50 images to get the details of each. Once I found one I wanted, I had to return to the first page, find the unit, and click to get to the ordering info. I thought I ordered a 27-inch 16G 1T iMac and placed the order. It was around $2,000 less a $65 gift card from a previous MacBook I had returned.

After I received the unit and set up the transfer, it turned out that the new machine only had a 1/2-T drive and not enough memory to accept all the data from my current machine. So, back to Apple it went.

At Apple, I broke down and agreed to buy the current model, a 24-inch. But because I was returning another unit, my gift card wasn't working. My wife also noticed that the sales tax in Sacramento is higher than where I live in West Sacramento. So, I opted to order online and have it shipped.

When I received the 24-inch iMac, all was well until after I transferred my data, I realized that several of my most important programs were unable to run on the current, Ventura system, and found that it couldn't be downgraded to an earlier system. Back to Apple. Back to trying to get my gift card credit.

Back online to the refurb site, and being really careful this time, I checked out every specification. But nowhere was the operating system listed. So I called Apple and after their rep did several minutes of research, assured me that the 27-inch iMac was running the High Sierra software — same as I was currently using. OK, I ordered it.

Turns out, the machine came in with the Monterey system — one step up from the High Sierra and incompatible with my software. Back to Apple. Back to trying to get my gift card credit.

So I'm back with my original 2009 27-inch iMac. Still works great except for Zoom. What's this? Zoom has an update. I updated Zoom and now it works like a charm.

I mentioned this to one friend, who noted, "Zoom seems to have an update nearly every hour." I guess I should have paid attention to the old adage, "If at first it doesn't work, wait a while."

~ Al Zagofsky