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My G5 bites it-fix or upgrade? Opinions valued

S

soulphone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2008
8
0
Hello. I became a happy Apple family member 2 1/2 years ago when I bought an imac G5 17". Wonderful experience until now when it wouldn't boot up. Took it to the local dealer and found we had the recall issues so he installed new logic board and power pack no charge. However, now he has found that both the hard drive and super drive are shot too! Apple won't cover these items and I'm looking at a $700 fix - dealer recommends a new machine.

So I'm sitting here in front of my dusted off 8 year old pc clone a little discouraged. I'm thinking that running on a failing power pack for months could have easily caused the drives to fail so soon, and it's still under the three year apple-care plan.

Anyway, stuff happens. My question is: Should I put $700 into this imac or invest twice that in another machine when this one only lasted 30 months? Opinions?
 
EricNau

EricNau

Moderator emeritus
Apr 27, 2005
10,728
281
San Francisco, CA
soulphone said:
Hello. I became a happy Apple family member 2 1/2 years ago when I bought an imac G5 17". Wonderful experience until now when it wouldn't boot up. Took it to the local dealer and found we had the recall issues so he installed new logic board and power pack no charge. However, now he has found that both the hard drive and super drive are shot too! Apple won't cover these items and I'm looking at a $700 fix - dealer recommends a new machine.

So I'm sitting here in front of my dusted off 8 year old pc clone a little discouraged. I'm thinking that running on a failing power pack for months could have easily caused the drives to fail so soon, and it's still under the three year apple-care plan.

Anyway, stuff happens. My question is: Should I put $700 into this imac or invest twice that in another machine when this one only lasted 30 months? Opinions?
Click to expand...
If you bought AppleCare and your computer is under 3 years old, the HDD and Superdrive are still covered.
 
hayduke

hayduke

macrumors 65816
Mar 8, 2005
1,177
2
is a state of mind.
It depends on your budget and needs, of course, but if it was me I would ditch it on eBay and get a new machine. I might feel differently if it was an Intel based machine, but I expect that Apple will drop the G3/G4/G5 support at some point and I suspect that increasingly they will run like dogs with the new OSes.
 
S

soulphone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2008
8
0
EricNau said:
If you bought AppleCare and your computer is under 3 years old, the HDD and Superdrive are still covered.
Click to expand...

The repair tech at the dealership says that the drives failed under "normal wear and tear" and are therefore not covered. Perhaps I should give applecare a call to confirm this.
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
Sorry, $700 for a HD and a Superdrive!?

Am I understanding that bit correctly? The logic board and power were sorted under the recall but he wants $700 for $200 worth of bits? :confused:
 
R.Youden

R.Youden

macrumors 68020
Apr 1, 2005
2,093
40
Both those items should be covered by AppleCare, I think the sales guy is trying to pocket a sale there :rolleyes:

And EVEN if it is not covered, replacing the HD and Superdrive is not a $700 task. In the UK a 500GB drive is £70 or so, a slot loading DVD ± RW is only £35. You you are looking at £100 max (about $200!).

I smell dodgy sales rep.....

EDIT: Bartelby beat me to it!
 
S

soulphone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2008
8
0
My notes are at the office but as I recall he quoted me $259 for the Super drive, $189 fir the HD and 2hrs service @$100/hr for the repair and data salvage/transfer. plus tax :) Damn your Euros anyway! The dollar aint what it used to be
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
soulphone said:
My notes are at the office but as I recall he quoted me $259 for the Super drive, $189 fir the HD and 2hrs service @$100/hr for the repair and data salvage/transfer. plus tax :)
Click to expand...

I'd do it myself. I got a Pioneer dvr112 for £20 ($40) last week. A local computer store wants £99 ($200) for the same drive! So you can get parts much cheaper. I know you'll need a slot loading superdrive which are abit more.

Adding a HD and an optical drive isn't that tricky and you'll save $200 minimum.
 
EricNau

EricNau

Moderator emeritus
Apr 27, 2005
10,728
281
San Francisco, CA
soulphone said:
The repair tech at the dealership says that the drives failed under "normal wear and tear" and are therefore not covered. Perhaps I should give applecare a call to confirm this.
Click to expand...
Yes, do, because I'm quite certain he's wrong.

soulphone said:
My notes are at the office but as I recall he quoted me $259 for the Super drive, $189 fir the HD and 2hrs service @$100/hr for the repair and data salvage/transfer. plus tax :) Damn your Euros anyway! The dollar aint what it used to be
Click to expand...
Those prices are a quite high.

PS - That's the British Pound, not Euro, and unfortunately for us, the exchange rate is even worse.
 
S

soulphone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2008
8
0
Of course! sorry to insult the British Pound with the Euro! I'm up too late over here.

This is all very interesting news. I will inquire around now that I am a little more enlightened. And talk with Apple as well. I am happy to change out the Superdrive but would have a more experienced person do the HD.
 
EricNau

EricNau

Moderator emeritus
Apr 27, 2005
10,728
281
San Francisco, CA
soulphone said:
Of course! sorry to insult the British Pound with the Euro! I'm up too late over here.

This is all very interesting news. I will inquire around now that I am a little more enlightened. And talk with Apple as well. I am happy to change out the Superdrive but would have a more experienced person do the HD.
Click to expand...
I would arrange both replacements with Apple (if there's not a Genius Bar nearby, they'll give you a list of suggested Apple certified repair centers).
 
R.Youden

R.Youden

macrumors 68020
Apr 1, 2005
2,093
40
soulphone said:
Of course! sorry to insult the British Pound with the Euro! I'm up too late over here.

This is all very interesting news. I will inquire around now that I am a little more enlightened. And talk with Apple as well. I am happy to change out the Superdrive but would have a more experienced person do the HD.
Click to expand...

Did you say that you needed to get the data off the HD? That could be more expensive, depending upon what is wrong with it. If anything changing the HD in an iMac G5 is easier.

In the pic below the superdrive is top left and HD top right. There are loads of tutorials on the internet telling you how to change it all:

imacg510.jpg
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
Most HD are given a 3 year lifespan, so you're still with in that. I'd call Apple or whoever the manufacturer is for the HD and Superdrive.
 
S

soulphone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2008
8
0
Yeah - I got the understanding that the large labor charge time was to recover the hard drive data and set up the new drive so I can just pick up where I left off...
I like the idea of Apple covering this stuff. Hope I get a respondent rep. Nice picture
 
Mindflux

Mindflux

macrumors 68000
Oct 20, 2007
1,987
1
Austin
bartelby said:
Most HD are given a 3 year lifespan, so you're still with in that. I'd call Apple or whoever the manufacturer is for the HD and Superdrive.
Click to expand...

The MTBF on hard disks is 50,000 hours (for consumer grade, not enterprise grade). This is just under 6 years. It's not a guarantee of course but I've never heard of HD's having a 3 year life span... especially with a 50k MTBF.
 
J

Jimmdean

macrumors 6502a
Mar 21, 2007
636
627
$700.00 - no way. Buy yourself a new one and sell the parts of that one that are still good on EBay. I'm sure you'd get a pretty good price for the logic board. Or you could just sell it as is to someone who can repair it themselves. Of course be wary of selling hard drives on Ebay, even ones you think are dead...
 
S

soulphone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2008
8
0
Here is an update. Thank you all for your help.

First mystery solved is that although we thought we bought a three-year service plan, it turns out through a search of records that we didn't. Duh.

I found a local tech who is going to fix it for me for half the price. He had the same reactions as all of you. I had half a mind to do it myself but I already have too many other things I haven't even started yet. For $350 the tech is happy, I'm happy, everybody's happy. I picked up my machine from the Appleshop with the REP parts installed - no charge- and he was very cool. Fortunately for him where I live a lot of people prefer to just spend the extra money and not deal with it. But hey - they don't get to chat with folks like you!

Love
 
M

matttrick

macrumors 6502
Aug 28, 2006
372
0
the sad part is many people would reluctantly, but ultimately, pay the $700 and get ripped off for this kind of thing. it really sickens me.
 
S

soulphone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 9, 2008
8
0
Don't forget to consider that this guy was available until 7pm when I needed help in a nice warm store that with rent, liability, utilities etc. Brick and mortar is a nice convenience, especially for Joe Average Consumer like me, but expensive. I don't think he's driving a Masseratti home from the shop.

His problem, as I understand it, is that his hands are tied into buying Apple-authorized parts that cost 2, 3 or 4 times what they cost online.
 
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