eMac freezes randomly, open window turns into broken up jibber

I am totally outraged. I spent hours and hours on the apple care line. I bought books. I did everything. All they had to do was tell me to open the emac up, and yes, lo and behold, the capacitors are all leaking.

What really ****** me off is that why didn't the people at applecare, the so called emac specialists, tell me to do that first?

Why didn't apple inform all of us of this problem?

It is really, really horrible.

But thank you all for these posts, otherwise, I would never have known. So, yes, your post did solve the problem, in a sense. Now, I know what is wrong.

carol,

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences with Apple over this matter. The Repair Program was started in late June, so I don't know why the tech staff wouldn't be fully aware of it, and suggesting it as the likely cause of your problems, saving you a lot of heart ache. 😟

A few pointers, if you haven't already found them in this humungous thread:

To avoid the freezes in the short term, start the computer in "Safe Mode" by holding down the SHIFT key while the computer starts up. This however does affect various aspects of the computer's abilities.

Instead of pulling the power cord, hold the Power Button on the side for about 10 seconds. Basically - just hold it in, and eventually the computer will perform a "hard shut down" - the power will be cut off.

In future when dealing with Apple, tell them you've found the "bad caps" by looking inside the RAM hatch. Tell them about the Repair Program.

As to a few of your other q's... There's nothing to say that every eMac made in the known time frame will develop the problem, and as such there is no real obligation to tell every eMac owner about it. What is wrong however is the fact that the Repair Program does not mention:

capacitors
freezing
crashing

This should be changed.

I too had this problem and apple has a warranty extension program for eMacs with faulty logic boards.

I took my eMac in for repair on Sept. 19 and was originally told it would 1 week for the repair. After the week had passed I was then informed that the logic board was back ordered until Oct. 31!!

When that date had passed with no results, I placed a call to Apple and was transferred to a dedicated customer service rep that tried to locate a motherboard. He said that if he could not find one within a week, I would have my computer replaced with a new iMac!

---
time passes..........
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Update as of Nov 9, 2006

Great news!!! Apple has authorized a new iMac replacement and is issuing call tags for my dead eMac! They offered me an equivalent current iMac model to the specs of the eMac except for the following:

eMac
17"
1.42ghz G4
256MB RAM
80GB HD
SuperDrive

iMac
17"
2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo
1GB RAM
160GB HD
Superdrive

They had to offer the upgraded 17" due to the fact that my eMac has a superdrive. Otherwise, it would have been the base model with the Combo Drive (Still an upgrade to the eMac's specs, though)


So for those with an eMac with a back ordered logic board. Call Apple and tell them you are tired of waiting.

eMac 1.42Ghz G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Can you tell me where I can find info on the eMac Warranty Extension? I have been having problems where, when I come back to the computer, it is still running, but the screen is black and because of this, I cant access any commands. I then have to shut the eMac off manually, then turn it back on and wait until it reboots, to be able to use it. This eMac was purchased in Sept 2002. Thanks for any info you may be able to give me. Cheers.

Hi whiskey sour,

http://www.apple.com/support/emac/repairextensionprogram/

Judging by the date of your computer, it wont be covered by this program which relates to eMacs manufactured between mid04 - mid05...

Have you tried re-installing the OS and running Disk Repair etc?

By all means check inside the RAM hatch to see if the caps are bad, as from what I've read, the batch that were used in the 04/05 eMac were around a few years before that, but I don't recall hearing of Apple using them at that time.

Thanks Cos, will check that out and I agree that it doesnt look like mine will fall into that range because of it's age. I'm seriously thinking of an iMac in 2007 so will hold off on any major repairs, but will have a look at those capacitors one of these days. Cheers.

Hi, my eMac is in the serial no's (VM44013QQJ8) that would qualify for the REP. But my machine has shown none of the symptoms that other owners have reported. I have opened the hatch and seen the two caps (with X, or is it a +, on top) and they look quite normal. No bulging or leaking. This computer was manufactured during the week of 27/09/2004 by Foxconn, Czech Republic as reported by Temperature Monitor, and purchased as a refurb New Years Day 2005. Does anyone know if any/many eMacs out of this factory have suffered? Also does anyone know the history of previous Apple REP's i.e. how long do they extend? Is there an expiry/cut-off date? It seems most users are reporting problems approx 1.5 years after purchase. Well, 23 months after purchase mine is still going strong (as it should be). Have I been lucky or will I inevitably run into this problem?

I'm kind of between hoping my Emac will be fine but hoping that if it goes bad it goes bad soon.

GG

eMac 1.25GHz/40GB/768MB Mac OS X (10.4.7) 512MBx2/1GBx1 iPod Shuffles, M-Audio Keystation 49e

Gandalf,
By the sounds of it, you have good caps with a "X" marking (black & purple colour?), instead of the orange & black bad caps that have a "+". If they were going to go bad, they would have done so by now.

As much as I immediately advise people to check their caps if their eMac starts to freeze up, I also admit that considering the volume of eMacs produced, this really hasn't affected a large percentage of machines. Gauging by the serial numbers, Apple was making around 50,000 eMacs per month (in the US alone), and although this problem has affected - even 2,000 computers - it amounts to less than 1/3 of 1% of the total machines made...

Hi, my "good caps" are orange & black, so I'll just be playing the waiting game, maybe forever.

GG

eMac 1.25GHz/40GB/768MB Mac OS X (10.4.8) 512MBx2/1GBx1 iPod Shuffles, M-Audio Keystation 49e

Add another victim to your list.

S/N: G8429BC6QQJ
eMac G4 1.25 GHz
SuperDrive, 256 MB RAM

And the evidence:

http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~reinholz/unhappy_emac.jpg

Bought this eMac directly from the Apple Store in the USA in July 2004. Worked beautifully until the same symptoms ruining everyone else's day started happening about 2 weeks ago.

Rebooting in Safe Mode and moving every extension with the name "ATIRadeon" in its name out of /System/Library/Extensions seems to have helped, but the system still freezes, albeit less frequently. (No jibber anymore, though).

I plan to contact Apple Support (naturally I didn't buy Apple Care) and will report on what they tell me.

I had a PowerMac 7600 for years and years and never had a problem with it. That thing was rock solid--a little sluggish under System 8, but beautiful running 7.

Hi,

Perhaps people could let us know what colour the "good caps" are on replaced logic boards.

GG

eMac 1.25GHz/40GB/768MB Mac OS X (10.4.8) 512MBx2/1GBx1 iPod Shuffles, M-Audio Keystation 49e

Update:

Took my eMac in to the Apple Store in Cherry Creek (Denver, CO) and told them about the leaking capacitors. They told me this was a known problem and that they would repair the computer for free (replace the logic board). Labor is free as well.

The only downside is that they said it will take 2-3 weeks to get in a replacement logic board.

Thanks Apple for taking care of the problem even though I didn't buy the extended warranty. 🙂

I had the same problem. Check the serial number on your emac. The Apple Store gave me a brand new computer. I am soooo happy. I feel Apple really does stand behind their products.

ANOTHER freezing eMAC IN THE WALL

I have exactly the same big freezing problem with my eMac bought directly from the Canada Apple Store in Augest 2004.
Serial Number: G84340EWQJB

All parts of the eMac were mounted by Canada Apple Store and I never changed anything on it since then.

There was beautiful shipping box in flowers with so beautifully designed machine in it but unfortunately its content turned out to be not so beautiful..

eMac Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1.25 GHz G4 1G

Wow! I have just saw this apple's "eMac Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues": http://www.apple.com/ca/support/emac/repairextensionprogram/
It seems to be good for my sick eMac!......


eMac Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1.25 GHz G4 1G