How do I find out if my machine had an inherent fault?

You can take it into an Apple a Store for a diagnosis, that is IF they haven't declared it a legacy Mac and no longer support it. Your iMac doesn't have an inherent fault.....it's worn out.

Hit add replay before I was done. I believe in order to be an inherent fault it would have had to be present from the early stages. Your fault didn't surface for six years.

Since you allege the condition exists and would be covered under UK consumer law, you would likely have to collaborate that with some form of proof acceptable to the UK legal authority, and Apple, Inc.

If a third party did the diagnostic, using acceptable practices, tools, training, etc they'd be accountable to both Apple and the UK authority regarding consumer laws. Others have written in these discussion forums about issues covered under UK law, and some have provided a link to the official consumer law details.

So you likely have a plausible case to present; though there may be some extenuating circumstances; one such would be if there were damages not consistent with normal wear. Like a seismic fault-like crack across the case; or some condensate of oxide from dampened interior corrosion due to leaky beverage contents, etc. There usually are some pages of fine print that could be argued by legal experts, on both sides. In this country, they're usually not so pre-argued.

Anyway, hopefully it works out.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

It's not simply 'inherent fault' or not. If you can convince a court that 'reasonable quality' or 'fit for purpose' isn't the case for what many might consider a high quality, expensive item, then you may get somewhere. Did you buy it new, from Apple ?.

No electronic (or really any) product is made to last forever. They are not guaranteed to last forever and it is unrealistic to expect such. It would hasten a worldwide economic slump if everyone purchased an item just once in their lifetime and then the manufacturers would have to repair or replace it forever.

UK hardware warranty for iMacs:

http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/mac-english-uk.html

and the consumer laws for Europe:

http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

It appears that the claim period in the UK is 6 years with the following (important) foot note:

Good luck in pursuing this.

Is it a model that was ever included in an Apple repair program for the issue you have now ?.

If not, you'll struggle to prove a specific inherent, but persist anyway.

By the way I'm not asking it last forever. I'm perfectly within my legal rights to go to Apple and claim in the 6 year period if there is an inherent fault with the machine.

I assume you have proof that the defect existed on delivery?

Good luck.

I see; perish the thought, but could it be that you are looking for a way to get a new machine at no cost after 6 years? I am a bit more realistic - I do not expect electronic components to last more than 3 years (or whatever the mfr's warranty is as that is how it is normally expected) and do expect that something will fail as everything will - I'd be thrilled to have it last more than 5 as 6 years is a very long life for a computer/electronic components. If you should be successful, be sure you have the replacement diagnosed and checked thoroughly by an independent certified specialist immediately upon delivery so you can use that after another 6 years.

And, to answer your initial question: yes, you can take it to an authorized service provider and have them give you a diagnosis and estimate.