Intel Imac with bad logic board.

My logic board has died out of warranty and the Mac Dealer quoted c£380 for repair however following a diagnosis it is partly 'repaired' by removing 1GB of memory out . This means that I have lost half of my memory with speed consequences, but my machine does work. It might be worth trying remove one, reboot and if it does not work take the other out. Good luck!

I had the logic board go bad on my Imac Intel purchased in October 2008. I was faced with the same expense. I did not have Apple Care either, as I never suspected a major expensive problem like this to occur.

When I spoke to a tech @ Apple, he tried to get the company to cover the repair and after being online for about a half hour, came back and said his boss said no since it was out of warranty.

I then called Best Buy in NH where i purchased the computer and spoke to a manager there. I didn't get any sympathy there either. She said I should have purchased Apple Care.

I called Apple Care again and spoke to a different person who was sympathetic to my problem. I told him I had purchased well over 3k in Apple products and I felt they should stand behind their product. He agreed to have the repair done at no charge. I feel I was very fortunate, as I have been reading many others with the same problem were left hanging.

The moral of this story is...get Apple Care; especially given the fact on how expensive it can be to fix Apple computers.

Similar problem with the model from my signature. iMac 24 late 2006. Before the user login window appears, a pattern of thin grey lines fullfills the screen. Internally it keeps working, but unusable because the screen is frozen, and nothing can be seen except the grey lines pattern.

It's possible to work somewhat if launched in Safe Mode (with no sound and minor problems with visuals, among other issues).

The repair concerns logic board and video card, according with the technical service, around 800 € (1000 $).

I think that the heat cooling was deficient in those models (plastic everywhere, and not enough heat exchangers), making the electronics inside getting broken earlier than usual. It's only my opinion.

I'm guessing that a lot of these macs are going to fail this year, if I'm right about design and heat problems.

Regards

I am in Japan and my G5 just crashed with a defective logic board. They will not cover me on the extended warranty and will not replace my logic board. You're lucky that they did it for you.

This is clearly a defective product and should be recalled. A simple google search of "logic board, apple, defective" proves how common this issue is. I have no choice but to pay for this repair and to boot I have to wait for over a week to get it done. I need this computer for work and I'm stuck as a result of this. This is really frustrating and Apple is not budging on the warranty of this clearly defective product.

A very unsatisfied Apple user!

This should be recalled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I question whether it is the "entire logic board", which is what the tech at the Genius Bar told me after he tested the hardware. I have WinXP installed on the machine with BootCamp, and it runs flawlessly. On the other hand, MacOS X 10.5 has the graphics problem, which seems to cause the freeze-ups. I still think it is an operating system problem with a bad driver for the Radeon X1600 graphics card that is in there.

Some home insurance will cover these problems - check your policy. Maybe cheaper than applecare, especially as you get a higher spec replacement.. Thats what i did. see my thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9567931#9567931

I couldn't agree with you more!. I didn't buy extended care. I bought my iMac on October 2007. I am taking it in to the Genius Bar sometime this week. It seems the hard drive is gone, and I am hoping it is just that.

I wish I had done my research properly before buying an Apple product.

Overall, I am very unhappy with the iMac and my iPhone.

People would say that hard drives die all the time ... Of course!. But I never had one dying so prematurely on any of the Dell machines - desktops & servers - at home & work.

My 2004 Dell Dimension is still running ... So, as soon as my iMac is fixed I will be replacing it with a Dell. And as soon as my AT&T contract expires I will be getting rid of the iPhone ...

So long Apple ...

UK owner.

My iMac (spec below), new in June 2007, required a new logic board in March 2008 (fan control problems) and then required a second this month because the video RAM failed. This is a problem many people here are experiencing (horizontal lines, triangles, frequent freezes).

I discussed the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (amended) with the Apple Store manager and they couldn't have been more helpful. My logic board was replaced at no cost. I explained that in the UK Apple enters into a contract with buyers of its hardware and that if the goods can be proved defective (up to 6 years after purchase) the buyer can sue for compensation.

So I agree, it's well worth tackling Apple about early failures. UK law expects computers to last 6 years!

I have an iMac 24" screen. A few days ago the screen went "blue" while my daughter was in iphoto. No warning signs... I have been able to log in only 2 times after many attempts but after only a few seconds screen goes back to blue. Took it to Apple store and I just got a call saying it would only cost me $700 plus tax (after seeing most of you are being quoted $950 + I feel like I'm getting a real bargain. I mean that as sarcasticlly as I possibly can! 🙂 . Needs a new logic board. Computer is 4 months out of warranty, got it in early '08. First Mac and most likely last unless they come up with a less costly solution. Friend who works for geek squad said he took a look at another Mac and when it came down to it, it wasn't the logic board it was a different $25 part. Waiting to hear from him what "part" that was. Will post when I hear.

Has anyone really paid that much money to have it fixed?

I am FURIOUS. we have an iMac that we bought in October 06. A couple of weeks ago it wouldnt turn on. Took it in, they said its the power supply, give us 3 days and we will fix it. Well two WEEKS later they finally call and say its the logic board, which will be almost $800 to fix . Of course its out of warranty, I have talked to three different CS people at 800-apple to no avail. I am so ****** - my computer is basically useless after only 2 1/2 years? RIDICULOUS. The people at the Apple store here are *$%holes too, if they bother to answer the phone (which is almost never) they are completely unhelpful. I'm screwed, because I have a TON of photos on that computer as well as a ton of other stuff, and if I dont fix it I guess I am SOL as to my data on that computer. I cannot tell you how ****** I am, I will never EVER buy another product from Apple.. I guess they do not stand behind their products.. I have a PC that is 10 years old that has never had a repair that expensive.. I expect a computer that costs twice as much as a pC to hold up better, ya know?

Lucky for you.

However, I'm in Turkey and we do not have such a thoughtful law that protects customers from low quality IT products.

I have the same video problems as other users.

At first I thought it was a RAM error so I went into single user mode and tried memtest86. Then, however, I realized there was absolutely nothing wrong with my RAM. Which urged me to look at other potential hardware errors.

Then, I tested my graphics hardware using these tools:

Video Memory Stress Test:
http://www.mikelab.kiev.ua/indexen.php?page=PROGRAMS/vmten

Video Card Stability Test:
http://freestone-group.com/video-card-stability-test.htm

Using the windows xp installation on my boot camp partition.

The first diagnostics program detects hundreds of bit errors in video RAM.

I think Apple Repair must be able to replace the video RAM. If they cannot fix their logic boards, what good are they? Can somebody for the sake of God, sue them in the US? This seems to be a design flaw. Obviously the graphics card is either overheated and the RAM got partially burnt. Also, all the RAMs in the market have lifetime warranty, if apple used defective RAM chips for the graphics chip, that's their fault.

Interestingly, there is also a correlation with my upgrade to Leopard but I think that might be a coincidence.

Any comments welcome,

--
Eray Ozkural
Researcher, Erendiz Superbilgisayar Ltd.

I mean to say either overheated or overclocked, I can't think of any other way a reliable RAM would fail....

Well apparently there are fools here who thinks we should have gotten an extended warranty, because guess what, Apple sells broken computers and somehow the warranty is supposed to cover that up. Sounds like a complete fanboy logic.

It might actually be "overheated".

Per suggestion of other posters, I checked and saw that the brightness of my LCD was almost max. which must have caused the video bus/chips to overheat and temporarily fail. I cooled the machine down for a few hours, I turned it back on with about 50% brightness, and so far I have not seen any of the artifacts! Which I suppose is good news for all those who experience the same symptoms.

Suggestion: first try the video ram test utilities that i linked to. Then, if it doesn't work out, try to cool the machine, and see if the errors persist... You can't be too sure if you're gonna shell out $800+...

More information.

No, the error is not fixed, unfortunately, I'm still seeing artifacts and crashes after a few hours of use. But I did some more analysis.

1) The GPU Diode temperature is high: 59 degrees C

2) It does seem that lowering the temperature a bit diminishes the rate of the crashes and the artifacts

3) The video ram test reveals that the bit errors are inconsistent, meaning that it is a fluctuation in GPU operation.

So, does anybody have any recommendations for me to try out? I really would like
to avoid paying in excess of $1000 for an obsolete computer!

One temporary recommendation I might have is avoiding overloading the GPU at all, so do not run any graphics-intensive apps if possible. That might not be feasible for many users of course. After all, we got the GPU for something. Second is, try to keep the computer as cool as possible.

Is it possible to adjust the fan speed manually? That would be something to try out.

Best,

Eray Ozkural