G5 cooling system leak!

so i read someone else saying he had a leak and most people thought he was making it up...
well my powermac G5 dual 2.5ghz just died the other day from what i initially thought was the power supply. The computer switched off and there was a smell of burned plastic or something. after taking it in to be fixed i was told that what caused it was a leakage of the cooling system. the comp is now about 5 months past its warranty. bought it end of November 2004. have other people had similar problems? is apple doing anything about this problem? any advice?

powermac g5, Mac OS X (10.3.9), 2.5ghz dual (late 2004)

Posted on May 3, 2006 1:10 PM

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50 replies

Sep 15, 2006 6:51 PM in response to Steven Bleyl

Add me too. My dual 2.7 popped sent up a cloud of smoke and died. Restart attempt just made a clicking noise. Smelled so bad I took it outside. There was a small puddle of cooland on the back support. This had run through the 1000 watt power supply and shorted it. 1.5 hours on the phone with apple (mostly on hold) and was told to take it in to the nearest service center (which is what I wanted to do in the first place). This is the second repair for this computer. The first was a dead front firewire port which got me a new main logic board. Sure am glad I got apple care as this will be about $2500 to repair!

dual 2.7 G5 and powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Sep 26, 2006 11:38 AM in response to Miklos Power

Well, it looks as if our G5 has also just gone. Switched it on one day and there was a loud crackle followed by a burnt plastic smell. I wasn't home at the time (at boarding school) so heard about it from my mother, she sent it in to a repair place, the guy said that the power supply was gone and would need to be replaced, he also mentioned a liquid inside and wondered if we knew what it was. Ofcourse as soon as i heard about this i realised what had happened. After checking i found a gel like substance on the inside of the casing and in the cooling system. The power supply is badly corroded... Here comes the best part, we live in Uganda....we didn't get AppleCare and we are about 180 days out of warranty. What i want to know is if you guys think this will become a legal issue and any advice you guys can offer. My parents are seriously mad as this now involves shipping the computer to the nearest descent country and getting it repaired, which itself is going to cost a fortune... What are the chances of Apple paying for this, slim too none i guess. Its soo clear that this is a desgn flaw, how long will it take them to realize this themselves???

Sep 26, 2006 1:41 PM in response to olsc06

I've heard of people getting them fixed 90 days out of warranty, but I'm not sure what they will do for you. You need to talk to Executive Customer Care. Keep calling, even if you get turned down by the first rep.

At any rate, if you can't get it fixed under warranty, don't pay to repair it. Get a new Mac Pro. It will probably run upwards of $2,000.00 to repair your old one.

AppleCare is a "must have" when you start investing 2g+ for a Mac. I bought my Power Mac G5 AppleCare off eBay for $126.00. I had the power supply replaced already, so it's payed for itself.

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Sep 27, 2006 1:46 AM in response to Mac-Medic

Thanks for the advice guys, I feel so stupid for not getting AppleCare, i guess i had too much faith in Apple as i've never had a problem with anything else of theirs. But hay, machines are machines. Can anyone give me a number for customer service, I want to call the States but all the numbers listed are 1-800 numbers which i don't think are standard numbers so i can't dial them from here... Also, i looked again at the liquid, there's hardly any, and it seriously looks more like a grease or oil. Its clear and has no colour. The reason why I assume its from the LCS is that the PMU was rusting directly below it. Another supid question is how do you remove the G5 cover shield that protects the LCS?? Sorry for all the stupid questions, I'd just rather believe that the machine isn't completely fried. -Chris

Dec 7, 2006 10:41 AM in response to alexdellas

I have a few liquid-cooled G5 PowerMacs. One died in September. It made an audible 'bang' and smoke came from the case. The motherboard was fried and replaced out of warranty (I buy Applecare for all the laptops in the lab but not desktops - I'll rethink that strategy in the future). The unit came back for repair and worked for a short while before failing to boot. It's now back in the shop and I just heard that both failures were due to a leak in the cooling system. Too bad it wasn't diagnosed properly the first time. I suppose it's only a matter of time before the other liquid-cooled machines fail.

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G5 cooling system leak!

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