Logic Board Fix Needed

Ok, this offers more information than your other post so will comment here.

As I said in the other post, I have numerous Macs, some very new, some many years old. I have never had a logic board failure. Others on these discussions have had failures. And, of course, the expense depends on warranty and AppleCare coverage. Outside that coverage, a logic board replacement is a few hundred dollars, or more. And you are correct, for certain models that is well along the way to a new computer.

When a logic board fails there is no alternative but replacement if you want to continue to use that computer. If you have a great deal of material on the hard drive and decide to just buy a new computer instead of repair, remove the hard drive from the failed computer. You can buy an enclosure for around $20 from places like OWC and then use the hard drive information on a new computer. So no data loss occurs.

As noted in your other post, large production items will fail at different rates. The vast majority are reliable and last a very long time. A small number will fail early in use, and that is not comforting to the user experiencing the failure. But it will happen because nothing is perfect. Just make sure you have adequate warranty coverage to protect your investment. Keep good backups of your storage since hard drives fail much, much more frequently than logic boards.

Only you can weigh the cost of repair vs replacement...what will fit your needs the best only you can determine.

I can well appreciate your position, would be upset myself, especially if the failure was shortly out of warranty.

No one can predict what will happen with a new computer. That was the point of what I was saying in this and your other post. All I can offer is that statistically you should not experience an early failure. But to be honest, there is a finite possibility of failure early on in the life of the new iMac. No matter how unlikely that may be it is still there. The greater likelihood is that the new computer will not fail as did the current one.

Personally, I would have little hesitancy in a new purchase. My experience with Apple products has been very good ever since the Apple IIe came out.

That sounds promising, my experience with Apple has been very positive, they try to do the right thing so hopefully they will help you.

Just to let you know for the future. This is the board for Logic the DAW software product and not the computer part 🙂

I am in no way suggesting you should not share your troubles with us however, just letting you know.

Depending on where you live, there may be third parties that can repair your logic board for cheaper using genuine Apple parts.

It should not costs you more then $400 for Logic board.you can contact www.macpalace.com for pricing.I had such a good experice with them.

http://www.macpalace.com/index.php?p=catalog&mode=search&search_str=imac%2024%20 logic&search_in=all&pg=0&CatalogSetSortBy=id

I'm going to try and explain this simply, becasue we are now entering the world of the Apple technitian. This pretty above the port and call of the average advanced Apple user as it is in the realm of hardware.

Your logic board is pretty much the only board in the computer and is a 'iWord' really. (An 'iWord' is a word that really means something else but is used by Apple to differentiate thier own products from everyone elses. e.g 'PC' as a Mac is a PC too, Time Machine is a NAS, etc etc also all 'iTems' aka Apple products starting with i are 'iWords').

What you're looking at is a motherboard. Specifically a laptop/AIO motherboard, due to the fact that the Graphics and Processor are non-removable from the drive.It may be worth getting the hardware looked at and repaired rather than replaced as your Logic board is essentially the entire iMac minus the screen, hard drive and power conversion.

The problem here is that Apple loves it's price premium, and part of that is making sure that the parts and repair cost a price premium too. To do that, it makes all it's stuff in as few parts as possible and basically glues a lot together too (see iDevice batteries and cases). It then makes repair insanely easy for it's own staff by instructing them to just replace one of these large parts rather than diagnose and repair. Your iMac is essentially a Intel laptop, maybe it's time you took it to go and see a doctor instead of leaving it in the trash and getting a new one.

http://www.macfixcentre.com/shop/desktops/imac/logic-boards

If the worst comes to worst, you can also trade it in on that website, or buy a working 2009 iMac from eBay or some such and have the Hard Drive swapped.

Finally, you can buy one from here for example:

http://www.galaxyhp.com/b24-inch-Intel-iMacb--Logic-Board--REPAIR_p_254.html

Then have it installed by the guys above.

So, it was the GPU on the Logic board.

Well, if this is soldered to the board, in the 24 inch screen models, this explains why Apple just wants to switch out the Logic board.

Obviously, the Apple Stores have no real competent repair people who know how to work on logic boards or know how to desolder or solder old and new conponents off of the board.

I hope this is a cheaper repair alternative for you and I am glad you able to find a solution that works for you.

I hope they get your iMac back to good running condition.

That said, I don't like the repair service of the Apple Stores for this very reason.

Instead of identifying and fixing the issue, because of the limited repair facilities, at these stores, they just want to replace whole assembled conponents that make the repair much more costly.

I am glad and really grateful to have another, more competent Apple reseller and repair center that is not very far from where I live (about 20-25 miles or so). They have much better skilled technicians there than the ones Apple hires for their stores.

I had them do my Seagate 1TB hard drive replacement and had them do a complete diagnosis of my iMac for any other issues as I still had about a week of extended AppleCare left on my iMac.

I am happy that you finally got this resolved.

Hope you are feeling better about this, now.

Good luck to you!

MichelPM wrote:

That said, I don't like the repair service of the Apple Stores for this very reason.

Instead of identifying and fixing the issue, because of the limited repair facilities, at these stores, they just want to replace whole assembled components that make the repair much more costly.

I agree with thier intentions, but only partially. Well, tbh i agree with the idea and not the execution. Apple do keep things this simple so that a repair can be done as quickly as possible. Whether in warranty or not, a Logic board replacement is about as technical as building a Lego tower once you have a little practice and that means their staff require less qualifications, lower pay and as a result cost the company less to maintain. Swap the Logic Board then send the old one back to the factory for repairs where you won't have to hire a real pro for every store.

The deception is the fact that a new Logic Board costs so much. Not only will they fix your Logic board for chump change and then resell it, they would have paid less than $100 for that hardware wholesale, as it's pretty outdated by complexity standards.Over in the UK I can't find the part on it's own for any less than 1200% of that price.