Rev. A, What does that mean?

The video and power supply problems that some first gen iMacs show are part of a larger "capacitor plague" in the computer industry. It is nothing Apple - or iMac - specific. Bad caps were found in all brands of computers and motherboards. Once Apple replaces the midplane and power supply, you should have no return of the problem.

It has nothing to do with "pushing" your iMac too hard.

Mine were replaced back in August '05 and all is well.

We casually refer to "Rev A" and "Rev B", but there are no such official designations. In a nutshell, the models are as such -

Rev A (or first gen) iMacs had a 1.6 or 1.8GHz G5 processor, 256MB RAM and the 646MB nVidia 5200 video card

Rev B (or second gen or ALS) had a 1.8 or 2.0GHz G5 with 512MB RAM and the 128MB ATI 9600 video card. They also had a light sensor on the bottom that was used to regulate the brightness of the sleep light (called the Ambient Light Sensor - ALS)

iSight iMac is obvious due to the built-in iSight webcam

All come with either a 17" or 20" display.

Lots of info at EveryMac.com that can help you ID almost any model Mac back to the original 1984 model.

Here is the link that explains what serial numbers are covered by the repair program.


I agree "pushing" your iMac too hrad shouldnt be possible. I mean imo they are made to do all the things we do on them. There arent made to do what they can't. Know what I mean? They only thing I could think of that could be bad would be if you operate your machine in a hot environment. Because this machine runs hot to begin with, adding a hot environment to that "weakness" would be pushing it too hard imo. ( That's only my opinion.)

But the reason why Apple has extended their waranties for rev A and select Bs ( it seems, anyway) is that they have isolated problems with power supplies, video inverters, and capacitors used on those machines. ( Some, not all, it should be noted.)

Good luck, hope you get it all sorted out.

Glad to help Dawn.

Stick around when it comes back and check in if your need any help with anything.