freezing eMac

HayleyAJay,

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!

What model (CPU speed) emac do you have? (You can add useful information such as your Mac model, OS version, CPU speed, amount of RAM, notable peripherals, etc. using the My Settings link in the box on the right of the Discussions pages.)

If you have a 1.0 GHz model eMac, check it's serial number against those covered by the eMac Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues (rndom freezing is one of the known symptoms of the problem covered by that repair extension). If indicated, you can contact the nearest Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) to arrange for a replacement logic board.

If your eMac doesn't appear to be one of those possiblly affected by the bad capacitor problem, please post back with some additional information: how much space is there on the hard drive? How much RAM does the Mac have? What OS version? When you tried to reinstall from the OS X Install disc, was this the install disc that came with the eMac? If so, had you ever upgraded the base version of the OS since getting the Mac (e.g., upgrading from 10.3.x to 10.4.x)?

You may be able to keep the Mac running a bit longer than one minute in order to check it's settings and drive space and the like by Starting Up in Safe Mode.

I'm having a similar issue. We have a ton of these at our school (1GHz, 512MB, 40GB) - this is the 1st to show this issue. I swapped out the RAM and the hard drive, but the issue continues. The video doesn't get scrambled or distorted. The screen freezes such that I can still clearly see the desktop and the mouse continues to move, but the computer is completely unresponsive to keyboard or mouse commands (other than mouse pointer movement). Keyboard & mouse are known to be good. This is not one of the symptoms listed in the extended repair program.
I've run TechTool Pro and AHT with no negative results.
I've booted off a firewire drive and it still freezes.
I've reinstalled the OS.
I've reset the PR-ram, the NV-ram, and the PMU.

So, any ideas? Perhaps the logic board? Perhaps the hard drive cable? ?

Ditto for me. I have a 1.25 GHz eMac and it freezes up either in the first 30 seconds. Before the freezing right after startup, I had freezing problems when I used Skype. The keyboard will not respond, only the mouse, and I cannot do anything except hold the power button down to shut it down.

Help?

eMac 1.25 GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Oh yeah, my eMac's serial number begins with G8429

Nova, LeMac, HayleyAJay,

Check your serial number against the range shown for the eMac repair extension program. Freezing is the first symptom. If you're not getting the "video and power" symptoms that Apple lists for the program, they will start coming soon. Trust me on this. If your serial number is in the range and your eMac is freezing, you've got the plague and need to have the logic board replaced.

http://www.apple.com/support/emac/repairextensionprogram/

Sitting inert beside me is an eMac ATI version 800 MHz with 128 and 256 memory sticks. It is running 10.3.9 and bears serial number YM345ATUPPA.

It had no problems until recently, when the user put a home-burned DVD in the drive. All it did was show a couple of the first frames of the video and then the machine froze completely.

Since then, the machine will sometimes boot, but freezes completely (no mouse movement, nothing) after a few minutes. When I try to start it up after such a freeze, I get the chimes and a power light but nothing after that... or more often, all I hear is the sound of the power supply and fans and then diddly-squat; screen stays dark, and the power light in front does not light up at all. All that happens is the fan runs.

If I let it sit without power for about an hour after one of these instances, I can get it to boot again, but then it freezes and the machine refuses to boot for another hour.

All of the folowing tricks have been tried: safe mode, single user mode, resetting the little power button on the logic board, and resetting the PRAM. I have tried to boot from an install CD, removed one or the other sticks of memory, disconnected the CD drive. None had any effect.

I have read about the capacitor problem in these machines, but cannot find them in this model, at least nowhere near the RAM ports. The serial number does not fall within the range posted elsewhere on the Apple support forums, unless I have seen an outdated list.

When I cracked open the case to look at the logic board, all tha capacitors I could find seemed completely sound and intact... no bulge, no ooze, '+' is prefectly flat. These caps do have the '+' and not the 'K', though, so maybe they are just beginning to go bad... pre-ooze?!?

All I can find on this subject that matches the symptoms so far is info about the capacitors causing these sorts of freezing problems. What else could it be?

Thanks in advance for your help!

This sounds like it could be another component failure on the logic board, or possibly a bad analog board. I had an analog board go in a 700MHz eMac and it had been showing symptoms similar to yours. Unfortunately, if your serial number is out of range, you are likely not covered by the program, and will have shell out $400+ for a new board.

Sorry if this is not the kind of answer you wanted to hear!

My friend has a 1.25ghz emac that has the bulging capacitors and the serial number falls within the range for extended repair.

The problem is he bought it off ebay and don't know if when it was originally purchased and I don't know if the emac would be covered or not.

Anyway to find out without paying the AASP a fee to do this check?

Perserverence pays off...

I put in the install disc, ran disk utility. It crashed and the eMac would not boot up at all for over an hour.

For kicks, I ran it again next time I could get the machine to boot. Repair Disk crashed, but the progress bar got a little further to the right. Encouraged, I waited another hour until it would boot, then ran Repair Disk a third time, getting a little further through the process before a crash.

Fourth time, Repair Disk finished and the eMac seemed OK.

I plugged in a Techtool Protege firewire drive to clean things up some more, but it didn't have much to do.

I have shut down and restarted the eMac several times now and it seem to be a lot happier. Keep on trying that Repair Disk- it took several tries and most of a day, but I got the machine up and running without replacing the logic board or anything.

My advice would be to contact Apple (the company) direct, and ask them.

My thought is that it should still be covered, because regardless of who paid Apple for the product, the product is still faulty... [but that may be a bit too Aussie of me]

OK, found the info on the Apple site. I entered the SN and it gave me a Oct 2004 date so it should be covered. I went by the AASP, showed them pictures I had taken of the capacitors and they seemed to agree that it should be covered.

I'll take it in later today and see what will happen. (It's too heavy to lug around just to talk about the problem)

Hey Guys I'm having the freezing problem also, my serial numbers dont match any on the Apple list. The computer is showing all the problems listed here. What is the situation with Apple for machines with non matching serial No's? I've not had the panel off yet. Can you just take the Mac to the nearest Apple shop?
Help!

Alister

OK, found the info on the Apple site. I entered the
SN and it gave me a Oct 2004 date so it should be
covered. I went by the AASP, showed them pictures I
had taken of the capacitors and they seemed to agree
that it should be covered.

I'll take it in later today and see what will happen.
(It's too heavy to lug around just to talk about the
problem)

Just wanted to let everyone know, Apple fixed the eMac. I just picked it up so haven't tried it yet but, the AASP said it was fixed.

emac Mac OS X (10.4.9) 1.25ghz

emac Mac OS X (10.4.9) 1.25ghz

HMNS IT:

I doubt if Repair Disk (which just repairs the hard drive's directory) is what allowed your eMac to come back to life. It's almost certainly coincidental. A damaged hard drive directory won't cause the symptoms you were seeing. If the problems don't return, then something like a bad connection may have become reseated, and that'll be great, but it's still possible your eMac may have bad capacitors, and the problem may return--when you play a DVD, part of the eMac's video circuitry (the ATI graphics chip's "acceleration" circuit) uses some capacitors that may be bad, but there are other things OS X does (some screen savers like the default "Flurry"; Quicktime movies; and some other things) that can cause the accelerator portion of the ATI graphics chipset to kick in and use these capacitors. If you don't find any bad behavior occurs when Flurry activates, or when you play Quicktime movies, your eMac may not have the bad capacitors, or at least not in the graphics circuit, or they're there and they've "settled down", at least temporarily.

Bottom line is, you might want to call Apple and ask them if they'll replace the logic board even though your eMac's serial number isn't in the range listed in Apple's Repair Extension Program.

Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Door, dual 1.25 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2 gig RAM, two serial ATA drives connected to a FirmTek SeriTek/1VE2+2 card

To correct myself: the graphics chip in the first eMacs (700 mHz and 800 MHz) was made by nVidia, and the chip used in later eMacs (800 MHz, 1 GHz) was made by ATI. I don't know if the raster shift problem occurred in the second and later eMac models, but my impression from reports I've read, is that it might not.

Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Door, dual 1.25 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2 gig RAM, two serial ATA drives connected to a FirmTek SeriTek/1VE2+2 card