So - I am the unlucky owner of an iMac ultimo 2009. The other day the video card broke down. I called my local Apple repair shop (Humac) and top my surprise the response was: Since your computer is more than 5 years old we do not repair it.
Is that Apple's official repair policy or Humac's? I am surprised the a fairly priced computer is denied repairs just because it's slightly more than 5 years old.
Apple shops no longer repair products after a certain time period partly due to the fact that they are out of date and partly because parts are no longer easily available.
Apple shops no longer repair products after a certain time period partly due to the fact that they are out of date and partly because parts are no longer easily available.
Vintage and obsolete products
Apple has discontinued support for certain technologically obsolete and vintage products.
Vintage products are those that were discontinued more than five and less than seven years ago. Apple has discontinued hardware service for vintage products with the following exception:
Obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than seven years ago. Apple has discontinued all hardware service for obsolete products with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products.
All retail Apple Stores and the Canadian, European, Latin American and Asia-Pacific operating regions follow the U.S. product list, but make no distinction between vintage and obsolete. When applied to the retail Apple Stores and these operating regions, all products on the U.S. Vintage list are considered obsolete.
I actually managed to fix this. By searching the web I found out that baking the video card in the oven for 8 minutes at 190 degrees Celsius provided a decent chance of reviving the card. And it did. The card was "broken" anyway so had nothing to lose 🙂
Repair Policy
