I’ve been a fan of Apple’s computers every since I started on them in my design classes back in 1997. Around 2000 I bought my first Mac, a Power Mac G4 with a 17” Graphite monitor and fell in love. This machine treated me well for about 5 years until I finally gave it away to my younger brother. Through the years I added extra hard drives, increased the memory, swapped in a Superdrive, and updated from OS 9.0 to Tiger with every major OS X update in between.
Sometime around 2004 I decided I needed more horsepower to do some video editing. I couldn’t afford a Power Mac G5 so I focused on the iMac product line. I can remember holding out for months waiting for Apple to update from the lamp-shade form factor to the new slim and white design. And then waiting a few more months until they updated these new iMac’s once again, knowing Apple traditionally has all kinds of hardware issues with a new form factor. I really wanted to make sure I got a computer that would last me as long as the G4 did.
In February of ’05 I finally decided it was time. Went to the Apple Store at the Walden Galleria Mall and looked around. Back in 2005 Apple wasn’t putting Bluetooth modules in the iMac’s as standard option, so I had to pay extra for that. I really hate having a wireless keyboard and mouse since they eat batteries, but I wanted the option of Bluetooth in case I needed to wireless sync my Palm Treo with it. I also had them double the RAM which was stupid since everyone knows it’s more expensive buying memory from Apple. Oh well.
For the next 6 months my new iMac worked fine. The 4th of July was right around the corner and I was super pumped for a nice long holiday weekend. When I went to use my computer that weekend the screen was blank and it was turned off. Weird. I turned it on and the white pulsating light in the right corner flashed and I heard the startup chime. Then the machine died. Ugh.
Tried the obvious stuff like unplugging everything, resetting the PRAM, and rebooting. Nothing worked. Called Apple Care and they had me open it up and check some LED diagnostic lights to see what was up. Ever try to unscrew and open a computer while on the phone with some dude walking you through it? Yeah it sucked. After trying everything the customer service rep suggested he told me to take it to the Apple Store for a look.
Blah. Had to carry this heavy 20” iMac through half of the mall to get to the store and have an Apple Genius play with it. He determined it was dead and I had to send it away for repairs. Everything would be covered since it was still under warranty and I had Apple Care. But it would take about a week to repair because of the holiday.
When I got it back everything was fine again. I was worried my hard drive would have been wiped but all my data was in check. Turned out they had to replace the display bezel, power supply, and a bunch of other innards. The parts cost close to what I paid for the computer, so they probably replaced everything to be safe.
Flash-forward two years later to my 28th birthday. Go to use my computer on my day off and guess what? Blank screen and it’s turned off. Great. After some troubleshooting I decide to take it back to the Apple Store to have a Genius look at it. No way I was sitting on hold for 2 hours again with Apple Care Support.
It was the middle of the day so no one was in the store except for a few goons who had problems with their iPods and were trying to scam new ones. The Apple Genius looks at my machine and says it’s the logic board and power supply. “Umm I just had those both replaced.” Well whatever, Apple Care was covering it and they could do the repair in store this time so I wasn’t too annoyed. Came back an hour later with a new logic board, power supply, and something called an ambient light sensor installed in my iMac. I guess when they replaced my logic board the first time it was with another bad one and before a recall on that part. Everything should be fine with it now going forward….yeah right!
Yesterday I woke up for work and went to check my email. Walked into my office and noticed my iMac was pretty loud because the fans were going strong. “Uh oh…that funny pixelated pattern flashing on my screen doesn’t look good.” I didn’t panic yet since I thought maybe it was software related and just needed a fresh restart. Force rebooted my machine and the gray Apple logo came up fine.
Then the funny pixels and static showed up again. Tried to run the diagnostic disc that came with Apple Care to see what was wrong, but that wouldn’t work either. Everything seemed to be functioning fine except for the display. Made an appointment with a Genius later in the day and hoped that I’d be eligible for the iMac G5 Power & Video Repair Extension Program since my Apple Care Warranty ran out in February.
Got to the Apple Store early after carrying my iMac through the Galleria Mall for the 3rd time! The Genius Bar was an absolute mess with all these people waiting to have their precious iPhone’s and iPod’s looked at because they did something stupid and broke them. One Genius in particular seemed extremely knowledgeable. All the other Genius’ were asking him questions and for help, so I was pumped when he was going to look at my broken iMac.
Fired up the iMac and he knew right away what the problem was. “You need a new logic board.” Come on are you kidding me? How many times can this stupid part go bad? The worst part was this would cost me around $700 to repair since my machine wasn’t under warranty. He wasn’t even interested in the fact that they’ve replaced the same part twice before. The machine obviously has some major flaw if the same thing keeps breaking.
I refuse to pay $700 to have something replaced that would probably break again. After thinking it over I decided to buy a new iMac 20” Intel Core 2 Duo and pray it doesn’t have any issues. As much as I love Apple products they really need to figure out these quality control issues. Everyone I know has had a major hardware issue with their Apple products. I guess the days of getting 5+ years out of a Macintosh are long gone. =(
The only thing I’m worried about now is transferring all my data and applications to the new machine. I’ve been running Time Machine to backup everything so it should be a non-issue. But we’ll see just how painless Apple has made this. Since my old machine still turns on I’m going to try and put it in Fireware target mode and see if I can move everything over first. We’ll see…
Had the same damn problems. Mine's still going, just about.
VRAM's failing, Superdrive doesn't work, power supplied died completely...
At least I have the satisfaction of my blog posts about it getting 1st page on Google for things like "Apple vram fail".
Grrrr.
— Sam Deeks · Aug 11, 09:33 PM · #
That stinks. Sounds like you've had everything die atleast once on your machine.
I might be able to salvage mine. The screen doesn't work, but I was able to boot into it via Firewire. I'm guessing I could use an external monitor if I really wanted to, but that sorta defeats the purpose of having an iMac. Meh...
— Michael Rose · Aug 12, 09:02 AM · #
The EXACT same thing happened to me. They replaced my faulty logic board for free because it was still under warranty. On one side that was good but on the other end, I only had the thing for six months before the computer was unusable. Two years later, the logic board they replaced the first faulty one with is also now shot. Of course I pointed out that it could not simply be a coincidence that I have never had a logic board problem with any other computer before this machine and this one has now had two bad logic boards. The “Genius” told me that it was probably fried by a power surge and that I should make sure I have a quality surge protector and not simply something that is a power strip. I think he thought that would stop my questioning but I explained that I get all of my surge protectors from my father who is an electrician… nice try there genius. I was told by a repair guy at the MacMall store that Apple had nothing but trouble with the logic boards from the G5s. So aggravating!
— ng · Feb 5, 06:37 PM · #
Ugh. Sucks that this seems to be a very common problem with the iMac G5’s and and they haven’t addressed the issue. You’d think having it replaced numerous times for the exact same issue we’d be entitled to a free replacement. Guess Apple sees it the other way…
— Michael Rose · Feb 5, 07:00 PM · #
Know what you mean. I have a 20 in G5 pre isight. It had an early ps problem and they replaced it.
2.9 years later I started having minor problems but they took it in and did a logic board and ps replace. 90 days of extended coverage.
But the far runs most of the time now and “temperature” shows the cpu runs hot.
I think that is one of the reasons they went to low power. low heat intel chips. Motorola did not want to fix the cpu problem and Apple was stuck with them otherwise.
Just a thought. I am adding a fan to the back of the unit to add cooling. We will see.
PS, PCs run for 2-3 years before crashing , on average, so if you get 3-5 years from a Mac, you are doing twice as good. My iBook is still running after 6 years.
later
en
— elder norm · Feb 15, 10:01 AM · #
Funny, after I started facing problems with my iMac G5 17” iSight, I started digging in the net to discover that many people are facing the same problems. Let me be brief, I got my iMac on December of 2005, and to be safe, I purchased the Apple care. The phone support sucks simply because the support personnel do not give a damn. My LCD started showing weird vertical lines. After hours on the phone with Apple support, they recommended that I take it for repairs. The LCD was replaced for free plus few extra nice scratches added to the case. Nevertheless, everything was fine.
Just a week after my Apple care expired, guess what, same screen vertical lines but this time it’s like an inch thick! I went to Apple repairs and they said that the screen replacement would cost me around $600.. mmm… that is a nice figure. I can buy a new laptop with that!
It was out of the question to pay that much. For about a $500 extra I would get the latest brand new iMac 20”!
I decided to check on eBay for a replacement LCD. Luckily, I found a 2nd hand LCD for the same model for around $150. I also purchased Apple G5 Service Manual for $10 in the form a PDF document.
I started the repair process, everything went perfect, started the computer and the screen was OK. However, about 2 weeks after, my VRAM started to fail causing some sort of mesh lines on screen. Those lines would show up in certain graphic modes like when using FrontRow Movies, though not that visible. I tried every possible solution without any hope. It is apparent that my iMac is dying slowly.
I discovered that there are so many people facing problems with iMac LCDs as well as other issues. For example, there is a LCD petition to sign online, check
http://www.petitiononline.com/maclines/petition.html
You cannot fix the VRAM unless you REPLACE the logic board which costs around $500 for a 2nd hand one (iSight mode).
I also discovered that most of these iMacs were manufactured in factory W8 in Shanghai/China. If your iMac serial starts with W8 then it was manufactured there. And yes, it is absolutely right that there is no Apple quality control any more. Parts will fail so often and the cost of repairing them is extremely expensive.
There is a nice alternative, check this site for an Apple clone from Psystar: http://www.psystar.com/
At least, you have the Mac OS X on a machine that is much easier and cheaper to maintain. There are some legal issues with Apple but Psystar seems to be winning so far.
I love Apple computers, but unfortunately they started thinking quantity over quality. Check out any of their previous Keynotes, it is all about figures now. As I said, quantity, rather than quality.
— Ali Kattan · Mar 11, 02:23 AM · #
Sigh. You pretty much described my experience with the first generation imac G5. When it happened the second time, a few weeks ago, I decided to buy a new imac since it didn’t make sense to pay 1/2 the cost of a new computer that had twice the power and doodads. It bugs me that I needed to buy a new machine after 4 years. Prior to my first imac, I had owned a powercomputing machine that worked nearly 9 years before showing its age. Before that, I had an SE30 for almost 10 years. Is it just me, or does it seem that Apple is truly into practicing planned obscolescence now? My husband’s imac is now showing signs of dying, and it too had its innards a year-and-a-half ago.
— SE Mac · Apr 20, 09:47 PM · #