iMac g5 display problems

The iMac G5s were known to have bulging/leaking capacitors on the Logic Board and IIRC the iMac G5s tended to have bad LCD panels as well (although I may be mixing up the LCD issue with the Intel iMacs). Removing the back panel will allow you to examine the capacitors on the Logic Board to see if any of the capacitor tops are bulging or leaking a brown substance on top. Most of the capacitors with this issue are located on the right side of the Logic Board when you are looking at the Logic Board with the cover removed.

Here is a picture showing some leaking capacitors on an iMac G5 Logic Board. The capacitors are the tall cylindrical components. The bad ones have the brown stuff on top and if you look really close you can see the top is actually a bit rounded compared to the other capacitors which don't have the brown stuff on top. The capacitors with the etched "X" or "+" on top are usually the ones which cause the problems.

Also, iMac G5s and early Intel iMacs (white plastic case) with the "W8" factory code as the first two characters in the serial number had bad display panels. There was a program to repair these at no cost to the user but it expired probably a decade ago.

If you see W8 in the serial number, today that is a write-off. It is a hardware issue requiring new display panel and most good displays have already gone into repairing the bad ones.

The last iMac G5 was made in 2005.

Please go to to Apple > About This Mac and tell us exactly what year model iMac you have.

see > Find the model and serial number of your Mac - Apple Support

Have you blown the dust out lately?

Ah, yes. Capacitor-gate! I remember those days well.

Warmed up a soldering iron several times to repair that mess.

 🤬

Great pic! :)