eMac freezes randomly, open window turns into broken up jibber

Richard, I don't know whether it will do any good, but I would write a letter of complaint to the store manager, cc'd to Apple( s_jobs@apple.com ), cc'd to whatever consumer rights group you have in your area.

That is appauling. I have the "luxury" of living in a city with at least 4 authorised repairists (1 exclusive Apple dealer, 1 PC/Apple dealer, and at least 2 smaller repair-type companies). Before lugging my eMac (and I know what you mean!) around the city I called each and spoke to their tech people about the problem. The first (exclusive) were very much of the mind-set that it was my problem, my expense. The 2nd however agreed that the situation was "not good" and invited me to bring it in whenver I could for them to examine. They helped as best they could to get a repair, though ultimately that came from my email to Steve.

Added my name and serial# to the MacFixit thread. About the Win98SE that should be "scarred for life" not scared.I'd go without a computer rather than go back to PCs.

emac 1.25Ghz G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hooo boy. Looks like my first foray into Apples since the Apple IIe has stuck me with a lemon. I bought my refurbished eMac from a local Frys after too many frustrating years with Windoze. Now I've got the freezing up issue after only a month or so of use. I believe it is a 2004, not sure of exact manufacture date, serial number ym52719kscg.

I have an extended warrenty from Frys, but no Apple support whatsoever. Frys is just likely to want to replace the whole unit rather than get a new motherboard, which is going to leave me high and Macless. Replacing for the purchase price isn't going to bring me anywhere near the cost of anything recent (except possibly the bottom line minimac). I may be **** out of luck and heading back to HP or Compaq.

And I had such high hopes for my Apple relationship...

Well I contacted Apple Customer Assistance & Support by phone. If you have an out of warranty emac they're not even supposed to talk to you! Fortunetly
the guy I talked to would listen.(Pays to be polite,and clear about the problem. Also have your computer info ready) After convincing him the software and optical drive were OK and telling him about the bulging capacitor on the logic board, he offered to report the problem, which was all I really expected anyway.Just doing my part to help those in charge become aware of the situation we have. I used the site www.apple.com/contact
Customer Assitance&Support
Phone Support
1-800-275-2273
My emac is still kinda' working and I have an old G3 backup and nothing better to do all day then be a squeeky wheel until Apple gives us the grease.
Heres to all us emac ants, trying to move that Apple Tree Plant. Hi Hopes

emac 1.25Ghz G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

FYI, according to this yours was made in July 2005.

iMac Core Duo 20" 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6) also have a iMac Mini Core Duo 1.66GHz (Media Center) and a 17" eMac G4 1.25GHz

Hi left rev.
As MauMan pointed out, your eMac was built mid2005. From all the stats we've collected so far, that's 6 months beyond anything we've seen with badcaps. Of course, that's not to say this isn't the problem... but first step would be to open the inspection hatch on the underside of the eMac, and look at the 2 capacitors on the right hand side (kinda look like 2 miniture coke-cans). If they are bulging out of shape, or expelling brown stuff, they are bad...

Otherwise, try reinstalling the Operating System, and running programs like "Cocktail" and see if that helps. Also the eMac's Hardware Test program which is on the original System Disks. (I'm guessing you may be able to download it from Apple's site if you don't have the original disks).

Hey leftrev sorry to here about the problem.(I got it too) I know you didn't have the option of purchasing the Apple Care extend because the mac was not new,but to anyone buying ANY new Apple computer REGARDLESS of model or date of manufacture, better get the Apple Care 'cause if you don't, Apple Don"t Care, about you.

emac 1.25Ghz G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I followed your advice and made a reservation at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Salem, NH. I brought my eMac in at the scheduled time and explained the problem with the caps. The Genius nodded and seemed to understand exactly what I was talking about. He didn't even open the RAM hatch to check the caps for himself. He then informed me that it would cost $400 to have the logicboard replaced, as there is no repair extension program for the eMacs because not enough of them have the problem. Needless to say, I took the computer back home without leaving it to get fixed, as a new Mac mini is not much more than the repair charge. What should I do now, call up Apple and try to get them to grant me an exception for repairs?

ericemac, I suggest calling the Apple Store back up, talk to the technician, and ask him to "Escallate the problem to A.C.E" (Apple Certified Engineers).

This is what Apple Australia first told me to do, after my local Apple Store had confirmed I had bad caps (but before my email to Steve Jobs).

Alternatively of course - email the man himself at s_jobs@apple.com and POLITELY ask what is being done about this problem, etc etc, and you may get lucky.

Here's my story.

My father has a eMac he purchased July 2004 with serial G842xxxxQQH. And about three months ago it started freezing during video calculations. I knew this from testing it with xBench, a popular benchmarking program. The system would only freeze during the 3D OpenGL test.

We took it to a local Mac repair shop (we're not near an Apple Store) and they were convinced it was the RAM, go figure. So they replaced the RAM, gave it back to us, and obviously neglected to actually test the unit. Still froze. Sent it back to them and explained what's been going on in this thread.

They finally took a closer look and indeed saw the start of a capacitor problem deep inside the machine (not near the RAM slots). They replaced the motherboard (or logic board depending on your persuasion) and now it works again. Now if only they had remembered to give us a new serial number...

So that's my story. Thank God my father bought AppleCare, but considering how widespread this problem seems to be, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple started an eMac repair program for you all. Keep an eye out.

Best Regards,
Zenskanitsky

Hello everyone
I've got the same problem as all of you, I purchased my emac (1.25 GHz PowerPC G4) on August 7, 2004. just a few months back it started freezing once in a while, then every day, then every few minutes. I am now only able to run in safe mode. I wouldn't call myself computer savvy at all but I've tried everything I could manage. Then I found this discussion board and have lost hope since even people who know what they're doing can't fix it. Anyway just adding my name to the list of unhappy customers.

I picked up a 1.25 eMac second-hand recently and seem to be having a very similar problem. The video on mine goes crazy in exactly the same way that has been pictured here. The serial number is G8439BVGQJ8 which puts it in the September 2004 manufacture date time frame. Neither of the two caps under the door look bad at the moment and one is the "X" type while the other is a "K" type.

The video is not always bad. For example, I did not have a problem all throughout this last weekend but this morning I brought it out of sleep just to see massively corrupted video all over. Waiting about ten minutes or so sometimes makes it clear up. Other times it's just done for and I give up and turn it off. Sometimes turning it off helps, but other times it just re-boots to messed up video again, right from the first light of the tube.

Anyways, I have called Apple, been escalated to a Product Engineer who assigned a case number to me and asked me to take it to an Authorized service center with instructions to call him. I'm going to try to get there sometime this week. Hopefully something good can come of it.

15" Powerbook G4 1.25ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Well I emailed steve@apple.com, its been almost a week and no response. those of you who email steve and got a reply within a week, was it by phone? email? etc. I didnt give them my phone number but im wondering if sending another email will do any good.

Try s_jobs@apple.com. I got a reply. I'm taking the eMac in to the local Apple Store sometime after 13:00 today, or perhaps tomorrow, if I don't wake up in time to make a reservation for the Genius Bar today, there being at least another hour before I can get to bed tonight and it's 00:30...

Suffice to say, I have suffered the same problems with my eMac, bought in August 2004 - the jibber and unexpected freezes discussed in this thread. My Mac guy opened up the computer and saw this brown mess.

I'm sure eMac owners in the same boat will agree that this is not an acceptable state of things for a machine that is hardly two years old. Apple's reputation for making simple to use, reliable workhorse computers, is at stake here.

And, it amazes me now, but I've never, ever bought a PC in my entire computing life of almost three decades!


eMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

eMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)