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Faulty Logic Board

After two trips to Apple Stores and one trip to an authorized Apple Service Center I have not been able to resolve the problem of a very, very noisy fan on my iMac G5. I was told by the Apple Store it was the power supply and they were kind enough to replace it for free. They also said they replaced the logic board as well. Anyway, this didn't fix it. Now I found a local authorized service center who has again said it is the logic board. And they said the repair records in Apple's history does not show the logic board was ever replaced...even though that's what the Apple store told me. Bottom line is I know this was a rampant problem with this computer. I take excellent care of my Macs (own 6). Now they want nearly $500 to replace logic board (second time?). Is there anyone at Apple I can contact about help? Is there any chance for a decent trade-in since I don't think based on recent service history that $500 will put an end to this problem.

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 11, 2009 8:19 AM

34 replies

Sep 21, 2009 6:34 AM in response to Vince Garrenton1

I sent my iMac G5 17" to the company Michael is affiliated with. Turned out that in addition to the logic board failure, my power supply was going bad also.

They fixed all the problems, and were very professional through out the entire process. My computer is home and functioning properly.

With $70 in shipping from Michigan and back, it was just over $400 for the repair.

I still think Apple should have covered this repair.

Regardless, my experience was such that I would recommend this company for anyone needing this repair.

Bill

Sep 21, 2009 8:15 AM in response to 1967Donzi

Hi Bill,

thanks for your interest and the endorsement. I've been in contact with Michael who answered almost immediately and then gave me a very generous and detailed list of suggestions. It seems very unlikely to be the capacitor problem associated with the earlier models. I would happily send the machine to be investigated but for the factor of around 5000 miles which puts a bit of a kink in that plan.

Cheers,

L2K8

BluSky

Level 1

73 points

Sep 21, 2009 11:46 AM in response to Michael Lafferty

I'm not sure that my iMac falls into this group but I'll describe my problem. Several months ago my fan started running at full speed. I read of similar problems here and reset the SMU and that solved the problem but I had to do it several times over a number of days. The computer rans fine for about the next two+ months. Now it went to sleep with the full fan effect again. I tried the SMU reset again to no affect. The light on the front would come on, the fan ran full blast but the screen stayed black. Has some part died now?

Sep 26, 2009 10:40 PM in response to BluSky

As I stated in another thread, these machines can also have the bad capacitor problem. I had one of the early iMac G5 Rev Bs, and it just died (the video did--the rest of the computer was fine). I will give you one guess what I found when I opened the machine. 😟 Mine did not fall into that apparently arbitrary group of serial numbers--though its failed power supply did a couple of years ago.

Just because your machine doesnt fail at the time Apple randomly specifies it should do so by, you should bear the cost of replacing the logic board?

I didn't, I sold mine for parts. This machine has been too much trouble (this was the third failed hardware component, only one of which was covered by Apple) and I was just over it. But I feel burned 😟 We do pay a lot more for our Macs than PC users and so I expect premium service--which I usually get. But I feel let down on this one. A $1900 machine that lasted just four years. I will always believe that these iMacs had a severe heat issue (my hard drive used to reach temps of 190 degrees) and that heat wrecked havoc on the hardware.

I pray this new iMac has fewer problems. I have had Macs for years, and I truly feel the G5 iMacs were just lemons. I've never had this many problems with a Mac, but if it were my first, it would have been my last--so I an sympathise with those who are in that position.

Faulty Logic Board