Intel Imac with bad logic board.

After it seemed that my imac was dead for good I tried the same thing. It worked great, thanks for the extremely helpful post!

Add me to the list of those with a failed logic board on a 51 month old iMac. Mine is a G5 iMac; however the symptoms are the same. After running about a dozen tests on the iMac, including the Apple Hardware Test, I took it to an Apple authorized repair station. The tech said that there were 15 blown capacitors on the logic board. My Apple Care policy expired 15 months ago.

I will contact Apple and see if there is anything they are willing to do to help offset the purchase price of a new computer.

Me and other 2 friends bought Intel Imacs 24" in late 2006. Seemed great for design work we do. All 3 had a logic board failure (according to apple techs) within few month from each other. Worst part is that you can't even use them as a monitor, apple made sure there is no possible way to recycle the **** thing. This was my first mac, and the last one. Back to PC for me 😟

(writing from a 5 year old HP laptop which still works)

Add me to the list please, my iMac (early 2008) is only five months out of the one year warranty and was diagnosed at the apple store with a bad logic board. It would cost $900 for me to fix it and I think that I might just have to spend my money elsewhere this time around. It's terrible to think that such an expensive item could go bad at only a year and 5 months old. It was a very expensive 3.06ghz with nvidia 8800 graphics and a 500mb hard drive...now it's an expensive door stop.

Not a fix for this and similar problems because it looks like there is NO FIX but I would just like to highlight to Apple that their current Green Campaign could present as a little bit of a concern to those that have such issues as described in this and other similar posts ....

I would also like to highlight how sad, and empty the goody goody feel goody Apple Retail Experience is, in reality, when you are an existing Apple customer visiting an Apple Genius @ an Apple Owned Retail Store with a real fault that cannot be fairly addressed.

A fault that has been there from the beginning, a fault that thousands of people are experiencing, a fault that Apple are responsible for, a fault that the Apple Genius in front of you would probably have fixed no questions asked and FOC, a fault that Apple will take no ownership of, or at very best, if you are one of the 'lucky', a fault that Apple will provide some assistance to, albeit still at a cost, via what they call a ' case-by-case basis !?

What kind of case am I ?

I wanted to know, so I visited an Apple Genius today.

As you'd expect, the visit was quite surreal and maybe even a little entertaining.

I sat reading a little angled plaque just placed on the bench next to me with a heading something like ' Apple and the Environment ".

I started to read the plaque while I waited for the verdict from my Genius .... I didn't really digest what I had read as I was anxious for a verdict, luckily, there were so many happy people waiting to buy new Apples, I found them quite distracting and entertaining as they were everywhere and really happy. Happy Apple Mums & Dads & kids everywhere.

And then 'he' the wise spoke, and it was as I feared, the MBPro confirmed as faulty, a faulty ATI X1600 GPU, and a repair bill of $1580 presented as my only option, and that that option would not be a wise choice as brand new, and much faster 15 inch MBPro's started @ only $2299 !

I felt like a naughty boy, was I in trouble ? What had I done wrong, I must leave quickly, before they call someone : /

I left in a hurry being chased by really well intentioned and overly kind Apple kids, asking things like, 'All fixed !?', 'Catch ya soon mate !', 'All good yeah ?', 'Right on Bruv', and even 'Churr' ....

And then the clincher, as far as feeling strangely happy, my Genius sang to me the words from afar, ' You are but a drop in the ocean dear Apple friend '.

At home, exhausted, perplexed, and hungry for all things and more things 'Apple', I thought it might be good to visit it apple.com.au on my old trusty Pentium 4 PC, running, ahem, a bit of the old ahem.

Looking at Apple's latest Environmental Life Cycle Breakdowns left me staring blank faced and feeling like an empty case-by-case case. Within this breakdown they have established that recent past Apple users are getting ' a three- or four-year period of use ' out of their Apple computer !?

Well, I need to follow up with the rest of my story. After the iMac died on Christmas Day 2008, I kept trying to get it to start over a period of three weeks but it remained resolutely flatlined despite every combination of power cable and peripheral I could think of. I went through every online forum and tried every trick but to no avail. I was travelling to the USA in February on business so I thought I would go through all the hassle of carrying the very heavy computer with me to Nashville and I made a Genius bar appointment at the local Apple Store.

As I was packing for the trip I though I would have one last go at getting the iMac to start, so plugged it all back in and bingo, it booted up with no hint of a problem.

It hasn't missed a beat for the last ten months.

Count me in... Very disappointed and cheated.

Mac User here since Illustrator88 came out in 1987. I've purchased only four Macs since that time. My last one was a PPC 533 gray machine....just replaced the power supply myself...fixed it withing 5 minutes....literally. Needed a new one though, to "keep up" for many different reasons. So, I'm now the proud owner of a spankin' new iMac...27incher, duo-core 3.06 4gigs of RAM and Terabyte of HD. Not a "big" problem...but, I started having "horizontal flashes" across the display from about day one, once every few days. I'll reboot and this teensy problem goes away. However, I called Apple. They INSTANTLY offered me two choices......"would you like a new computer ...or would you like an Apple tech to come to your house to replace the display, graphics card, and internal cable?"

I have just finished installing a TON of programs, apps, and info on my new computer so I've opted to try the doctor's-house-call routine. He'll be here in one hour. I'll keep you all posted. 😉

Add me to the list as another disgruntled iMac user. I bought the iMac 2.16 Ghz in early 2007. By the 11th month I reported a problem of repeated crashes with Directories and Catalogues going wonky all the time. I had the Hard-drive replaced under warranty. That wasn't the problem. Since then I tried many solutions.Re-installed several times, updated all operating systems. Still crashes. I currently bought 2 new MacBooks this year so was using this iMac much less but my wife is threatening me to get this fixed. Yikes! I am currently running up the fan speed as someone suggested to keep the thing cool. Is really does get extremely hot on the top and I can go for short or long periods before it freezes of crashes. As of now I am booting of an external hard-drive as well to remove any other unnecessary operations inside this thing. Tech Tool reports that the Directories and Catalogues are still out of whack on the internal drive. I will call Apple if this next attempt fails and give them a piece of my mind. Too many hours wasted trying to keep this machine running for the amount of money payed for it. Faithful Mac user Since 1987 and teach with a classroom of Mac since then but this one has annoyed me to no end! Words for thought. No response required unless you have the answer.

Thanks Steve

I believe that my iMac has joined the ranks of these with a failed logic board.

After having some troubles one night whilst watching a movie, generally involving the screen distorting colours and pictures, hiccoughing then finally freezing, my poor computer didn't boot up the next day. It would go 'BONG', the screen would be covered in boxes, lines and grey shapes and other screen artefacts before freezing at the Apple logo and spinning wheel, then going blank suddenly.

Trying to reinstall OSX, safe boot, reset the SMC and PRAM made no difference. I was able to run the Apple Hardware Test (use the install disk and hold down 'D' before the startup 'BONG') and it said there was nothing wrong. After 2 quick calls to 133-MAC (in Australia) the technician on the phone agreed that it was probably a logic board/graphics card issue, and logged my job with the local repair centre. They called me to inform me that a replacement part would arrive in 2 days' time. Promptly they called to say the part had arrived, a technician *came out to my house* and replaced the parts in about an hour. This was last Wednesday. I had called Apple the Thursday before.

I was astounded that they would send a technician out to my house and do an on-site repair!! I was certainly not looking forward to lugging my 30kg iMac on the bus to the service centre, and then having to lug it back home again.

Parts, services and labour would have cost me about AUD1200 for this repair, on an 18 month old machine. Thankfully, the AUD279 I paid for AppleCare when I bought my iMac is a fraction of that, for 3 years of peace of mind.

Sure - in a perfect world nothing would ever break down, ever. For every PC (or Mac) that we still have chugging happily along from the '90s, how many faulty pieces of electronic equipment have we discarded in the last decade? I think many of these stories represent the exception, not the rule, and I sympathise for those whose Macs have died mere weeks after the warranty has expired.

But buy buying the extended warranty, I buy insurance for my computer that - whatever happens - it will be fixed for free for the next 3 years. Frankly, if you can afford to buy a Mac you can afford the AppleCare. I wouldn't travel, or drive, or own a home without buying the relevant insurance! Why wouldn't I do the same for my computer?

Either way, the haters will continue to hate, but I'll be happy to know that my iMac still has another 18 months' coverage.

TL;DR: moral of the story - if you can't afford the Apple Care, you can't afford a Mac.

Mine is a 20" PowerPC iSight...2006, I think. I bought it used in 2007 for $600, and the logic board just went on me. $900 or whatever. I'm starting to feel lucky that mine lived for almost four years...though I would've been furious if I would've bought Applecare. All this makes me wonder about reinvesting in a new or refurbed Mac. My iBook is still kicking (One failed video card replaced free under the repair program--the second one went too, and I managed to get that one resoldered for $100). I love her, but she's a little slow. I feel like I'm in no man's land though. I can't stand Windows anymore (including 7, from my experience so far) but I'm getting leery about buying a new Mac. I'm a poor grad student and I need a reliable laptop more than I need a desktop (even if PDFs are a pain on this screen). I'm seeing iBooks and Powerbooks that are bigger and faster than mine for $200-250...thinking about just going that route. If it only lasts me a year or two, well, it's probably less expensive than the iMac.

Same issue here, I have a 2Ghz CD macbook pro and I get weird lines colored lines on the screen and it always freezes. Using a fan control application I can cool it down enough to where it does not freeze as much. Of course it is out of warranty and the most aggravating part was that I called tech support when it was under warranty because I tried to install windows under bootcamp and the colors on the screen went crazy. I quickly deleted the bootcamp partiton. All tech support had me do was reset the PRAM and the problem went away, up until I decided to re-install windows (after the warranty expired) and the problem came back. And resetting PRAM worked again and then the lines on the screen started happening, then the freezing. Support has pretty much told me too bad it is out of warranty.

Same problem here.
Had my 2008 iMac diagnosed with bad logic board today. The computer was 4-5 months out off normal 1 year warranty. I called apple care today and they said since there is no history of this problem then they would not consider to take it on them self.
I said it it not like it is an Aser computer we are talking about. The guy was only sorry for my behalf after he spoke to his superior about my problem.
I it hard to accept that a major component like this is a non quality item. That only downgrades my respect to Apple quality department.

Mr. Duo, If the number of problematic IMacs is so small as you suggest, then Apple should not have a problem making their customers whole in the light of premium prices paid for a product whose lifespan is unreasonably short given Apple's past reputation for selling dependable computers. Since 1985, I have purchased several 2 or 3 year old used macs and have had very dependable service for an additional 3 or 4 years. A piece of Stock Market trading software I use is now writing their code only for the intel ship and my Dual 1.25Mhz MDD is not able to run the application without chopping up the graphics and has forced me into seeking a solution in the Mac Intel chip arena. I don't need to risk the hastles listed in these posts so I will probably seek an Mac Intel tower which may be a bit more costly even in the used market but will not have the heat issues that seem to trouble the Imac and Laptop folks. You'll appreciate the plight of these folks when your G4's become obsolete. By then perhaps Apple will handle folks with these kind of issues in a more equitable manner. Fact: hardware fails... it's how the problems get resolved that people remember when it's time to purchase again. Customer service always counts and is the one feature of a business that can separate the 'Great' from the average.

Excuse me, in what universe does your response make the slightest bit of sense? I was coming to your defense. Do you not notice the "in response to" notations above each of our posts? Just because mine followed yours doesn't mean it was in reply to you. What's this about me not being open enough, for what? With respect, you have some comprehension issues to straighten out I think.

I was attacking julius soter1's suggestion that any problems we have 15 months in our entirely our fault for having not extended applecare. When someone begins a sentence with "did it ever occur to any of you", they're not looking to "help", they're sitting upon some high horse scolding you and that in this situation is inappropriate. They deserve to be knocked down!

Apple failed with the late 2006 iMacs. It is a shame it wasn't as obvious then as it is with today's 27" iMacs. How this angers me still.