Is anyone having eMac freeze-ups and Bad video distortion issues?

Ivan Marshall,

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!

You appear to have missed the eMac Usage thread eMac freezes randomly, open window turns into broken up jibber . It does appear that some number of mid-2004 Macs were bitten by the nortorious bulging/leaking capacitor problem (due to the Taiwanese manufacturer using a pirated electrolyte formula --- there are only about two or three capacitor manufacturers left, and suspicion is one dumped its stock of bad caps back on the market; it's near-impossible to really test that if they mix the bad batch up with good ones.)

Contact Apple (via the links at the bottom of the Discussions pages) or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. Describe the problem, and include mention of the eMac Usage Discussions link. Apple does appear to be trying to handle this responsiblly (let's hope they've got a good supply of replacement logic boards!). As repair of the problem requires replacement of the logic board, be sure to back up your hard drive onto some form of removable media such as an external Firewire hard drive, DVD-R, or CD-R.

I am having the same issue...

This is what it looks like!

http://www.swinglight.com/jibber.jpg

Hope you have AppleCare, Either way...... Sounds like you have to contact Apple. If you don't have AppleCare you'll probably end up quite frustrated.(Like all the rest of us)

Contacting them WILL be about the most helpful thing you can do. (for OUR "collective" cause). Without having the AppleCare policy all of us in this boat together are screwed. Unless, we can expose this manufacturing/Engineering lack of concern, in a way that Apple will honor our requests to "cover an Out-Of-Warranty repair", We are stuck. They did NOT tell me (in any of my 3 frustrating calls) that they were not aware of any problem. They simply told me that it has not been a big enough problem to issue any program, it won't effect enough people.... AND, I should not expect help if I did not buy AppleCare, because lots of people do purchase the insurance... And, "legally they could not authorize the repair"(?) That is exactly what was quoted to me....including, "They are legally obligated to provide the service to those who have purchased the AppleCare coverage, it could be illegal for them to provide for us",(those who have opted to NOT purchase the extra warranty)"since they do actually charge for that kind of coverage...."
Now, I really hope other postings to this post will not beat me up for what I am reporting, for that is exactly what I am doing. (I should probably record the future conversations with them)
I discovered the leaking/bad capacitors and took my machine to my local AARP (Authorized Apple Repair Provider) for documenting purposes, I was given a quote of $375. Which is less than I had expected from reading other postings at this site, I was not charged for the inpection. I did NOT have them complete the repair, though I did educate the staff at that shop about all you folks out there like me.... The staff had told me I was a rare case and too bad I did not buy AppleCare, this problem would be a manufacturing issue, WITHOUT A DOUBT !!!
We need exposure - Or we will just slip into history quietly. Disabling ATI extensions have been extremely successful, thus far.... I have downloaded and printed the "take-apart" manual. My plan is to open the beast, remove dust, discharge the CRT, remove the digital section and evaluate the possibility of replacing the caps myself. It has been an excellent machine in my household and an investment I'd hate to lose...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=366668&tstart=15
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300109&tstart=15

There are two other threads with people having the same problem. There seem to be workarounds, but no fixes. I plan to open some of my problem computers and take some digital camera pictures of the bad caps.

I am experiencing this problem in about 17% of 240 eMac 1.25ghz computers purchased summer of 2004.

Hey everyone,

Back on the "Using your eMac" forum larios has started a thread for us to post our eMac's serial number if it is experiencing this problem.

So, if your eMac is freezing, and you've looked inside the inspection hatch and found leaky caps, go here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=408912&tstart=0

and post your serial number for Apple to see and hopefully make a decision about this problem.

The above thread has been removed, so instead please go here:

http://www.macfixitforums.com/php/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum11&Number=754025& page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1

to register your details so we may show Apple which eMacs/how many are being affected...

Hello,
I am also experiencing the same problem. I bought my mac in June of 2004. I am getting jibbery screen images, freequent freezes and I opened up the hatch to reveal what? A leaky capacitor! Oh no! I hope apple takes responsibility. I need this machine for my work and this problem is currently losing me alot of money.

Emac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I also had an eMac with a video problem, and of course, it was out of the normal Apple warranty. However, since I had purchased it with a double your warranty credit card, I was able to get the repair costs reimbursed by the credit card company. Credit is due to the people at my local Apple store for pointing this out to me; I would have been stuck with the cost otherwise.

add me to the list. Just was told my emac 1.25 GHZ needs a new logic board after minimal use in 16months of ownership. Very very disappointing!
I will call the tomorrow and bring to light the ever growing list of individuals having the same problems.

Yes. It started on Saturday. Adobe Photoshop CS (part of the suite) crashes the display within the first few actions so, of course, I thought it was Adobe. Then it did the display jibber (photographed in many places, exactly the same) when I tried opening System Preferences with nothing else (except the Finder) open (not even Classic). I then spent a depressing Sunday discovering the vast number of posts from eMac owners with the same problem, salvaged by watching the excellent DVD of The Manchurian Candidate (what is the matter with critics, it's a perfect geopolitical thriler). Following advice on the discussion boards I contacted Apple today (tech support) who said they would log the complaint and told me to post on the Apple Discussion Boards. Tech support was friendly but since I am out of waranty and they know nothing about a recall they couldn't actually do anything. My research showed that (allegedly) Dell, HP and Apple all have the same problem which can be traced to bad capacitors issuing from Taiwan. It appears Dell is fixing the problem at no cost but I don't know this or anything else for certain. My display is fine today but I've switched to an earlier form of Photoshop on another computer. If it is capacitor leakage then I would expect a variety of symptoms since. I also assume that the display will continue to degrade. With luck, and with enough people complaining, Apple will recall and replace the logic board with one that works. In the meantime I'm backing up every day. I expect to have to buy another Mac. This one took 15 months to meltdown. A bit steep for $930 (with ram and shipping). Any suggestions? I do relatively simple graaphics work (I'm a jewelery designer and fabricator). I need to use Adobe Creative Suite CS 2 at a moderate level, simple word prcessing, and SuperCard. I was about to max out the eMac's memory. Hardly any point now 😟
Mark


eMac 1.24 GH PowerPC G4/768 MB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Bought eMac January 3rd 2005

I contacted Apple and investor relations on this issue I was having with my eMac, they did take care of my problem, by replacing the logic board. I am pleased that Apple has taken responislblity for this manufacturing glitch.

eMac 1.25 Ghz/ Mac Mini Duo Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I contacted Apple and investor relations on this
issue I was having with my eMac, they did take care
of my problem, by replacing the logic board. I am
pleased that Apple has taken responislblity for this
manufacturing glitch

Perhaps I talked to the wrong department? Did you have AppleCare? When you contacted them did you contact customer relations or tech support? And where is investor relations? My estimate of how fast my eMac will degrade has plunged since it's now jibbering and freezing in Safari.

Mark

No, I did not have Apple Care for the product, I emailed investor relations from the Apple Home Page.

eMac 1.25 Ghz Mac Mini Duo Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Hi Robert,

Do you mean this address?

investor_relations@apple.com

Interesting approach - I like it! 🙂 Hey everyone, email them too.

Yes I believe that is the email address, I got a call from a nice gentleman in executive relations that arranged service for my eMac. They did verify that I was having the video/cap problem before the service was offered, but once that was done, he arranged for me to take it to the Apple Store and have the logic board replaced.