eMac freezes randomly, open window turns into broken up jibber

I agree with Kirk Brownridge about calling apple.

Me Too!!! I've written an email to the guy who sold it to me over the phone (at the Apple store) in the first place and have left him a phone message. Catherine

emac Mac OS X (10.3.4)
emac Mac OS X (10.3.4)

[snip]

Exploded/leaking capacitors on the logic board

This would be the problem. Dead caps means dead motherboard. The thing is, if there are dead caps your system should not start up. Period.

My system no longer starts up. It just opens up to the white page with the apple- then the wheel spins forever and that is all. Catherine

My system no longer starts up. It just opens up to
the white page with the apple- then the wheel spins
forever and that is all. Catherine

The wheel spinning usually means that either there's a very serious problem with the kernel or there's a major hardware problem. If you can boot from a CD, then it's a kernel problem. If you can't boot from a CD, it's probably hardware. If it's a kernel problem, the only cure is to reinstall using either an archive or an erase install. I hope you have a backup. If it's hardware, well, it's probably the motherboard. Take it in to have it checked out. Sorry.

Seems wise. I'll ring Monday.

I'm out of warranty and in a position to get the logic board checked for dead or leaking capacitors in-house (well, in-apartment); should I arrange to do that prior to calling, or would Apple look dimly upon the effort?

If you're out of warrenty, they really shouldn't care one way or another.

I agree somewhat with Charles Dyer. Yes, if the computer is out of warranty, they won't pay for it to be fixed(they'll most likely try and sell you their applecare warranty). But, by calling apple and explaining your situation, your going to help others in the long run if this problem becomes more wide spread and if they recall this model eMac they'll probably end up fixing it regardless of warranty (hopefully).

PowerBook G4 (DVI) Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Actually, you are both right in a way.

I'm out of warranty, but the issue started while it was still under the original 1 year warranty.

I inherited the machine from my son who got fed up with the problem and bought a PC (shudder). It was only some time after I had the chance to use the eMac and discovered the seriousness of the issue and only then did I discover it was beyond the 1 year and I could not longer buy Apple Care.

However, an Apple Customer Relations person here in Canada, offered to pay for the part and the Apple Tech diagnostic if it's a hardware issue as a "one off".

But further, Apple may in the long run offer a replacement program if enough people let them know it's happening. Right now, they have no idea.

So, for the greater good, and possibly our own good, each of us with this issue must contact Apple and let them know exactly what we've learned.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

In case anyone is interested, I did some testing since I could reliably reproduce failure (freeze) very quickly by zooming the widget screen a few times using the F12 key under Tiger.

1. I've already installed the 10.4.5 update and tested it and the problem is not fixed. Sorry =8^(
2. It appears that it's the 8500 set of ATI drivers that the eMac video uses.
3. By disabling what I presume is the OpenGL driver my eMac quits freezing. It's called "ATIRadeon8500GLDriver.bundle."

The reason I mention it is because it seems that with all the other driver files (including all of the 8500 ones) installed in /System/Library/Extensions, the video on my eMac seems considerably faster. When I was testing this, when hitting the F12 key without any the 8500 drivers loaded, the animation was very "chunky," just as if you were booted up in Safe Mode with all of the extensions disabled. However, after reloading all of the Radeon8500 extensions except for the GLDriver, It became difficult to tell if OpenGL video was accelerated or not by zooming the widgets; I had to install an OpenGL screensaver just to make certain. There was a big difference of course with the screensaver.

Anyhoo, I just thought I'd pass this along since I feel a lot less aggravated by this problem when only OpenGL is slow instead of all of the video. But then again, I'm not a gamer. My ten year-old son is still quite unamused.

YMMV,
Peter.

eMac 1.25 gHz purchased 7/04 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hrm. Bounced up to 10.4.5 via 10.4.4 combo, pulled the bundle. Widgets and system animations were once again fine, if a little draggy. System Preferences crashed with a bunch of OpenGL framework errors when I went to preview the Flurry screensaver, which was to be expected. ("There is no driver! Panic!") I had hope. I did.

Then I started watching a video in VLC. Fine. Lovely. Set it fullscreen. No problem, nothing, smooth, fine --

windowserver transforms into a stuck process, leaving nothing in the logs to explain itself at all. I manage a reboot via ssh, thank goodness.

GUH. I keep being nowhere near a phone during Apple's UK business hours, but at least the list of possibilities is getting shaken out ahead of time.

Ok I have my emac back after COMPUSA had it for a MONTH! Yes that's right, a MONTH! It was the logic board which apple replaced free of charge even though I was out of warranty. Just for clarification I purchased this unit in September 2004 which seems to be the period where problems are occurring. Comp USA needed 2 weeks to diagnose and then a week to get the part and then a week to repair. Very poor service if you ask me. Apple was great and I give them an A+ for taking care of this. I paid only the labor to replace ($99).

We'll see how it holds up. Oh by the way I also upgraed the ram by 512 when I purchased it in September 2004.

Ok I have my emac back after COMPUSA had it for a
MONTH! Yes that's right, a MONTH!

Heh. If the way CompUSA does things around here is any guide, you're lucky you got it back so fast.

It was the logic
board which apple replaced free of charge even though
I was out of warranty.

It's looking more and more like there was a bad batch of motherboards, and Apple knows it, they're just not willing to admit it in public.

Just for clarification I
purchased this unit in September 2004 which seems to
be the period where problems are occurring.

This is beginning to get me worried. I'm now waiting for my personal eMac to start showing symptoms...

Comp USA
needed 2 weeks to diagnose and then a week to get the
part and then a week to repair. Very poor service if
you ask me. Apple was great and I give them an A+ for
taking care of this. I paid only the labor to replace
($99).

We'll see how it holds up. Oh by the way I also
upgraed the ram by 512 when I purchased it in
September 2004.

No modern computer, Mac or Windows, should have less than 512MB if the user intends to do much more than basic email and web surfing. OS X and WinXP simply grab too much system resources, RAM, disk, CPU. (Well, Linux boxes can get by with maybe 384, depending on the distro...)

Argh. Apple UK don't even want to know. Go to an AASP, they say. I don't know if I'm the only person over here to report this.

I'm now not sure if I should head into London and talk to someone at the Regent Street Genius Bar (since I bought the eMac from the online Apple Store to begin with) or what. At the very least, they might be able to tell me if other people have had the same issues. I can't carry the thing that far on public transportation, but UK phone support was not particularly helpful.

Just talked to Apple again. They are denying any problem and basically told me that you and others posting on the web are frauds. Nice customer relations. Guess that makes me a fraud, too.