First Generation Mac Pro (in the shop please help)

Question

My first generation Mac Pro is in the shop and I am hoping one of the experts on the list can give me a good reason to have them go beyond what they would normally do. Effectively it is six months out of AppleCare Warranty but I was told that if there was a problem related to an earlier fix they would take care of it.
The story:
I bought this machine with two 500 GB hard drives with one to run XP on BootCamp. I only intended to run XP software on this machine and only went back to mac due to the "do everything on your Mac that you could do on you PC" campaign. The other drive was for /eventual/ use of OSX.
About a year and a half in I bought two extra gigs of RAM to boost XP 3D software performance. I ran this for about a couple of weeks did not see much change and tried to verify that it was seeing the 4 GB. It was seeing two. I spend a couple of weeks sorting this out with Crucial (who said it was a "special issue") and then I got through to Apple and eventually sent the 2GB back.
Later I found out from a technical forum that I could "flip a switch" and get XP to recognize an extra gig of RAM via some technical settings. I bought the two GB of RAM again, installed it, and tried to run the software switch. After /endless/ go rounds with MAC I was told that the MacPro will do "anything that a PC will do" (which I tried to indicate was not the case) and that I basically had to consult the Forums. At that point I got in touch with Cupertino was told that this was a Firmware issue that could not be fixed.
I was told by the tech that I should just wait until Windows 7 comes out.
So I waited. About eight months ago I set down to upgrade the Office with a new MacBookPro with Windows 7 and I went to upgrade the MacPro with Windows 7. No go. I looked this up on a technical bulletin that described "Late 2006" Mac Pros as not running WIndows 7 (mine is 2007) and spent more time troubleshooting this.
Again after getting through to Cupertino, and having them consult the serial number I am told that this machine will not run Windows 7. Huh? I am stuck with a computer that I bought for apparent durability and endless RAM expansion and I am stuck with only 2GB or RAM which came out of the gate from the factory?
It is now in the shop for an apparent dead power source. It was previously in the shop for a weird, hairy and extremely difficult to troubleshoot (again more time) issue with the display. First it was thought to be the display, then the mother board, then something was loose, then it was the display, then we replaced the Video Card, and eventually we settled on a bad mini DVI converted they had to give me because they busted my Display when it was in for fix and had to give me another one (not complaining). After this was fixed the computer had to go in for a bad CD/DVD drive.
The question is - can I argue in any way that there is something defective with this machine and base the new problem on an old one?
Longer term, I am thinking about trying to sell it for one that will run Windows 7.
Do these things last as long as they /look/ like they should last over the long haul?
Thanks for any help,
Jonathan

Answer 1

Hi. Look.
I do have an IT guy but I have to first be able to explain the problem to him and to do this I have to understand it myself. [BTW let's also not go down the road where I get insulted about my perceived lack of technical skills. This gets very old very quick and if you knew what I did for a living you would feel a little silly talking to me about "a couple of latches" etc. etc.)
I /also/ have to figure out what questions to ask and attempt to get some minimum amount of support from Apple. Even the Tech Supervisor at the Apple store told me two weeks ago he remembered how hard it was to get good information on this issue. The guy /works/ for Apple and he's probably /does/ have some degree in computer science.
The point is I don't have the TIME to address this issue and this will be the sixth or seventh time I have looked into it. I think this machine is not doing what it was advertised to do and I think in the past Apple would have done something for the consumer about it. It doesn't make sense for me to not say so - and it doesn't make sense for us to argue about this. The only reason something is not being done is because there is a very small class of people who are having this problem. If there were a larger class there would be a ton of comical takes on the PC Guy Ads on YouTube and they'd /have/ to do something just for the sake of the bad PR.
Perhaps I can ask you to post the links to the procedure for doing this if I get the time and decide it is worth it? Can you also clarify if this applies to both Win 64 and Win 32?
Thanks.