iMac dies after airport card insertion

Question

iMac dies after airport card insertion

I have an iMac G5 (edu version) that I wanted to upgrade with an airport card from another iMac G5. I inserted the card and connected it, did not touch or change anything else, and when I pressed the power button, an explosion occured about where the power unit seems to be and smoke came out. Since the the iMac is dead. How can this be?

MacPro, iMac G5, Macbook, Quicksilver G4, iPod Nano2, Mac OS X (10.4.10), ...Mac Plus 4MB

Posted on Feb 21, 2008 11:42 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

DaddyPaycheck

Level 6

16,037 points

Feb 22, 2008 3:45 AM in response to Mathias Dubois

Hi Mathias Dubois1-

It sounds like the card was either not compatible or was installed incorrectly, or it was just a coincidence.

At a minimum you probably need a new power supply.

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

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Answer 2

Feb 22, 2008 4:12 AM in response to DaddyPaycheck

Hmm- the card must be compatible. It's an original Airport card that came from another iMac G5. Installed incorrectly is a possibility, but I don't see how. The installation is quite idiot-proof and I'm only a 50% idiot 😉

Coincidence, however, sounds quite unprobable.
Maybe some loose part fell into the power supply and caused a short circuit while I moved the iMac from a vertical to a horizontal position. Maybe some mean little animal that had chosen to live in there got effraid and urinated on a circuit. There are indeed many more possibilities than meets the eye 😀

m

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Answer 3

MGW

Level 7

27,041 points

Feb 22, 2008 6:06 AM in response to Mathias Dubois

Coincidences are just that, and the airport card may not have had anything to do with the failure, but in any case, take it in and have it repaired. If you can pull the drive and out it in an enclosure, you may be able to rescue your data, hopefully you do have a full clone on a Firewire external (I use SuperDuper!)

Let us know what the ultimate diagnosis is, please.

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Answer 4

Feb 26, 2008 1:35 AM in response to MGW

First thing I did was of course to physically extract the drive which I now use at my Macbook with a firewire enclosure until I find a decent replacement solution.
I actually doubt that getting the old iMac repaired is actually wort it. Its second hand value is rated around 400€ or less (it's an edu model) while a repair would probably cost me around 300€.

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