Q: Intel Imac with bad logic board.

My early 2009 24" IMac worked fine till early thursday morning when it prombtly stopped working. When i turned it  on the fans started up and the start up chime sounded, then it turned itself off and attempted to restart with the same results. Screen remaned black.  As we have no offical Apple store in the country (NZ) i had to take it to their offical reseller and am now waiting to here back from them on what they believe the problem to be. they quoted 4 to 5 days of wait time as they we're backed up, which is a worry in itself.

To me it sounds like the logic board is shot, to get that replaced here would cost me around $2000.

However, we have a similar consumer law to the UK so im hoping to take them on with this, as Garrod has done. If i'm paying nearly $4000 for a computer i expect it to last longer then three years. Ironicly my thrashed  $1200 5 year old Dell Inspiron is still puttering along, even though its been dropped, stolen and recovered in a bush.

It is comforting to know that I am not the only one having this type of problem but it is also worrying at how widespread the iMac "logic board" problem is. I also have an iMac from mid-2008 which stopped working a couple of weeks ago (just days after a 10.7.3 update, but maybe that is just coincidence).

It simply stopped booting beyond the grey screen and the spinning wheel stopped turning after around 30 seconds each time. Originally, I bought the iMac direct from the Apple Store when I lived in France (it shipped from Ireland, I think) and I now live in New Zealand where I have just taken the iMac into a repair place in Auckland to be fixed.

They have replaced the hard-drive and they told me that it was working, initially, after they replaced the HD. However, today they have called me to state that it also seems to have failed a load of diagnostics tests and that there was a problem with the logic board.

In ten years of using Apple products I am quite disappointed. I bought the 24" 3GHz iMac so that it would last "a few years" of normal use. Now I end up with no computer and a hefty repair bill still to pay ? This iMac wasn't really very good quality compared to a lot of other apple products I have bought in the past (iPad, iPod Touch trouble and two macbook pros). The iMac also had a screwed optical drive and has always generated excessive heat most of the time. Unfortunately, what made this company great just doesn't shine through anymore. I can't believe the need for paying even more cash for "insurance" / apple care for a computer that should be built correctly and to the right quality in the first place. Does anybody have any options ? The "rest" of the iMac was fine (screen etc.) so is there still any hope or am I looking at saving to buy something else ?

I don't have an iMac but I am thinking of purchasing one of 2011 models for my son. However,  I am now a bit sceptical with all the logic board issues I am reading about, have there been the similar type of issues with the newer versions of this macs or is it too early to tell. 

That being said, I have had a Macbook pro since 2006, which is still running and apart from a faulty battery in the first year and a broken screen due to an accidental drop , obviously its now clunky and takes forever to start up but its still usable.

Anyway, back to my original question, is it a good idea to get one of the new ones and just purchase the Apple Care or should I stay clear of it?

Thanks in advance

Nugo2003: Personally I would wait, I had a June 2011 model iMac the top of the line one with a lot of memory SSD drive and the best video card. Ever since 10.6.8 update and then going to Lion it died a misrable death! Lucky for me Apple gave me a credit on my purchase and I bought a top of the line Mac Mini, not a quad core which I miss, but the dual core with a SSD drive and 16gigs of memory. Does a decent job but not nearly as fast as my iMac. The newer 2012 models should be coming out soon, I would wait, or buy your son a Macbook Pro 15" quad core and an extra screen and do not forget the Apple Care, I would not stear clear of that as it helped my situation out greatly.

If you want to breath life back into your Macbook Pro try OWC online as they have kits where you can stick faster and larger hardrives into your Macbook Pro. I put in a SSD drive and the unit boots up in about 10 sec, and runs much faster and smoother, and look for SSD drives to drop in price.

Depending on what your son is doing I would get a Macbook Pro or Mac Mini right now, or wait till the 2012 models are announced at the end of the month.

Mine 24 inch 2008 iMac is doing exactly the same with the Apple Logo and pinwheel spins & then frozen....beside folking over $800+ to replace the logic board, anyone have other ideas...its in mint condition and it is hard to just store it away in the basement for part...=(((

I have a 2007 2.33 ghz Intel core 2 duo. After using Macs for 20 years, It's the first one that has died on me. I was using it, heard a 'POP', and it died. No lights, no sound, no fan noise, no picture, no restart. I took it in for a new power supply, but turns out the logic board is no good. They quoted $700.00 to replace logic board (for a 5 year old computer?).

The fans would occasionally speed themselves way up on this machine, they were doing a bit of that before it blew up. I had also just loaded 10.7, Lion, a couple of weeks before it died on me. I'm waiting on the release of the 2012 imacs. I would appreciate a more generous response from Apple and their Billions of dollars. Especially for customers like myself, who have a loooong history of supporting them. I am saddened and disappointed by the loss of my machine. I'm using a borrowed MacBook now. ...Not a big laptop person. Tiny machines, tiny keyboard...ick.

My wife's 2007 intel imac is trucking along fine, my son's 2009 imac is doing well. All the other machines I've had from Apple have done well. This is the first one that went Boom. Bummed, but still a mac head. I'm waiting on the 2012 imac release, personally. Unless it gets pushed back till fall. They are about 1 month behind their usual release time as of today.

Unfortunately it does look like a production fault for models in the 2007 to 2008 period. Quite unacceptable really, and a huge disappointment for people who expected the same good build quality from Apple. The worst thing about this issue is that despite numerous and widespread discussion, they have not had the decency to come clean and offer some kind of compensation. Do they expect everybody to do their computing on glorified iPads and iPods ?!

I've just had the bill for my "repair" - $1100 NZD. And this is not an isolated incident - the same iMac had had a faulty optical drive and a Hard Drive failure in its 3 young years..... I think the apple core is rather rotten.

Yes, I had to replace my video card a year ago also and costed $$$...I agreed, this batch of apples look nice but they are ROTTEN inside.

I was quoted $1800 NZD to repair, i called apple and after a lengthy conversation they agreed to pay for the parts leaving me to pay for installation, around $250 mark. I'm in no way happy about this, by law they should have replaced or fully covered the costs, this however is completly ignored by them when mentioned. I do, however, appear some what luckier then most people on here. If i were you Nigel i'd give them a call and try get some $$ back. Good luck.

Thanks for the info. I had written to them a couple of weeks ago, but my letter has gone unanswered.

I'll try calling them this week. There's still hope, I guess.

Does anyone have a contact for a qualified engineer who is willing to state that this is likely to be a manufacturing fault?  The evidence folder I have is getting fatter and fatter but would like more confirmations from qualified engineers (another 2 would be ideal), since the Apple registered engineers will only agree in private that it is likely to be a manufacturing fault.   Leave message here or send info to neilmontgomery AT me DOT com - thanks!

I do not have the contact information you requested but I am having a similar problem.  We purchased two iMacs one year ago.  The 20" just went out, tonight.  The 27" is covered under the protection plan but the 20" is not.  Of course the one that was not covered went out.  For this many people to have the same problem, Apple should atleast investigate it.  What ever happened to the old Apple that stood by their products???  $900 is ridiculous to repair a machine that only cost $1,100 to begin with.  Are they kidding me?

I am in New Zealand and left with a 20kg paperweight after upgrading the RAM on my iMac 8,1 2.8GHz EMC 2211.

After installing the new RAM into one slot (leaving an original SODIMM in the other slot) and taking anti-static precautions and following Apple support instructions for this very simple procedure, I started up my iMac to hear a loud single beep followed by further single beeps every 5 seconds. I later discovered this meant that there was no RAM installed (or detected).

I replaced the original RAM but this problem persisted even after ensuring the RAM was properly seated, removing RAM completely, and installing a single SODIMM into each slot.

Unfortunately an AASP did a rapid diagnosis for me and said it was a logic board failure. I don't know how this could happen really since I only changed RAM in one slot originally. I guess it was set to fail anyway when I changed RAM - is there a weak point between the RAM and logic board??

Not really good enough for just over 3 years for a >$3000 NZD machine.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm not confident Apple will help in any way here :/ Doesn't give me a lot of confidence to buy the 27" replacement I was intending on purchasing really ;(

Add another late 2006 Intel iMac to the list of logic board failures. Started with freezing up and random shut downs. Then the screen artifacts started along with lock ups and shut downs. Took it in to a repair center - failed logic board. $1000.00 to replace on a 5 year old iMac. Unacceptable for this many known customers with the same issue. I doubt I'll ever purchase another iMac.