My 27" iMac dropped dead, why? DOP 12/09

[ststephen]

27" iMac, i3, 8 Gig Ram, 10.6.6: My 14 month old iMac just fried itself to death: power supply, video board?, Logic Board, as per Apple! Their estimate to fix is $1700!.. & the tech had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to repair it!!

Any way: This was the first i3 model in late 2009, the one with the video problem's as well, (which I never experienced).****Have you heard of other instances of this model going dead, with no apparent warning after 14 or so months?****
It is run 12 hours a day for 4 day a week in my office doing Fusion/Vista and Snow leopard at the same time. It has functioned flawlessly until last month. Fusion suddenly would take forever to close. Then the apple menus would disappear. "Pull the AC wire to Force crash" would be the only way to shut down. I'd restart the friendly way, rebuild several java related virtual permissions, all would be well for a few days, then a repeat of the above when I'd close fusion at the days end. I reinstalled Snow 2x, and the disappearing menu act took a week instead of days to appear, when fusion was closed.
Last thurs, The Login Screen:Name /password screen switched to the finder for a second, then returned back to the login screen. This repeated itself 3 x, then, the screen went black and the iMac died. Nothing Would Boot It! Apple couldn't start it at the store. They later diagnosed a dead logic board after they placed a new power supply, & video board in it while evaluating it.
In my 18 years of macs, from (all still working) the Quadra 650, upgraded beige G3's, PCI G4's, 2004 iBooks, G5 iMacs, my 1999 iMacDV400 that used to run my office apps, and countless others, I have never experienced a Mac that stopped working, let alone just DROPPED DEAD!

****WHAT COULD POSSIBLY CAUSE THIS MASSIVE DEATH?****A Defective early design fault?**** I figure you guys will have a knowledge base if this model was a lemon, and Apple doesn't wish to say so.
**Do I have any recourse?

**Can the LCD be adapted in any way, for external use by another Mac, or am I the proud owner of an $1800 HDD, the only salvageable part?
**Wanna buy 8Gig of brand new OWC RAM?**
**Did God take it so I can be the first one on the block to buy, (beta test), the new model 27" Rotten Apple, that was just announced?**
Thanks.

[MacHamster68]

sorry mate , but there is nothing wrong with your iMac , your iMac did pass its 1st year and without trouble , thats great, you should be thankful , but after 11 month you forgot to make one desicion , selling and upgrading to a new one or to buy apple care and use the Mac for longer , the days where a Apple computer would last several years or even a decade trouble free are long gone , but not surprising at all , we live in a throw away society , use it for a year or two and dump it , because repairing is not economical

my iMac g3 700mhz runs flawless since day one , even my PowerMac 5500/275 runs perfect since 1997 and the only part needed in all the years had been a PRam battery , my eMac's(1.42's) not even needed one of those ...while the iMac i have down in my sig needed at just before the end of apple care ALL internal parts replaced, one part after the other in monthly intervalls , which is a good thing too , so now i know that by 2012 i need to sell it as long as it runs or dump it later when the parts fail again , and i am not surprised about that
i have a fridge too its now 12 month old and i suspect it to fail by end of may after the warranty ends , ok i might sound pessimistic , but i see myself as realistic and believe that no product is made to last longer then warranty time without needing parts replacing

[spcdust]

Have you contacted Apple Executive Care? You can often contact them using the Steve Jobs e-mail address (just search these forums). Unless it can be proven that the problems you are experiencing are due to your negligence they may do something as a gesture of goodwill. No one in their right mind would expect such a catastrophic failure in an 18 month old computer - especially at the premium price we all pay for iMac's. If you do go down this road just keep it polite, don't start threatening legal action, emphasise your disappointment, ask them to phone you to discuss your issues and take time to construct a well thought through e-mail which leave's the ball firmly in Apple's court.

[ShiftyGray]

Originally Posted by MacHamster68

sorry mate , but there is nothing wrong with your iMac , your iMac did pass its 1st year and without trouble , thats great, you should be thankful , but after 11 month you forgot to make one desicion , selling and upgrading to a new one or to buy apple care and use the Mac for longer , the days where a Apple computer would last several years or even a decade trouble free are long gone , but not surprising at all , we live in a throw away society , use it for a year or two and dump it , because repairing is not economical

my iMac g3 700mhz runs flawless since day one , even my PowerMac 5500/275 runs perfect since 1997 and the only part needed in all the years had been a PRam battery , my eMac's(1.42's) not even needed one of those ...while the iMac i have down in my sig needed at just before the end of apple care ALL internal parts replaced, one part after the other in monthly intervalls , which is a good thing too , so now i know that by 2012 i need to sell it as long as it runs or dump it later when the parts fail again , and i am not surprised about that
i have a fridge too its now 12 month old and i suspect it to fail by end of may after the warranty ends , ok i might sound pessimistic , but i see myself as realistic and believe that no product is made to last longer then warranty time without needing parts replacing

I think you're grossly overestimating the iMac, or even technology as a whole, break down odds.

[ShiftyGray]

Originally Posted by ststephen

27" iMac, i3, 8 Gig Ram, 10.6.6: My 14 month old iMac just fried itself to death: power supply, video board?, Logic Board, as per Apple! Their estimate to fix is $1700!.. & the tech had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to repair it!

Check your consumer rights. In some countries/states you have more than 1 year of warranty.

[MacHamster68]

Originally Posted by ShiftyGray

I think you're grossly overestimating the iMac, or even technology as a whole, break down odds.

no i just realisticly found that you get what you pay for and the iMac's are now really competitively priced , in the all in one sector you get lots of other all in one pc's that are in about the same price range , but offer less e.g.(screen real estate, CPU, GPU ) so why should a iMac then be more reliable than any other AIO system, the parts used come after all from the same manufacturers , and apple like dell, sony , acer.... buy where they can get the parts for the cheapest price in biggest quanities and quality is not the first priority

[harcosparky]

Originally Posted by ststephen

I have never experienced a Mac that stopped working, let alone just DROPPED DEAD!

I have had a few G4 Power Macs drop dead on me over the years.

Turned them off and they never turned back on.

My current 24" iMac had the Apple Care expire last year, and it's still running.

I may just run with it until it dies before getting a new one.

[shtoat]

Are the new macs really that unreliable? How depressing, and on the day the new iMacs are out. Might have to avoid them then.

[MacHamster68]

Originally Posted by shtoat

Are the new macs really that unreliable? How depressing, and on the day the new iMacs are out. Might have to avoid them then.

not more unreliable then a dell pc , in fact even a tiny bit more reliable then a dell pc but not by much , but if that is reliable enough for you you still have to decide for yourself ...problem with deciding against is there is no other option , mini's are underpowered in comparison but cheaper and a MacPro is overpowered for most and is more expensive then any iMac , for both these other options to get OSX you need to calculate a keyboard, mouse, trackpad, display on top of the price, but the MacPro and the mini are the more reliable options and the macpro is the most user friendly one when it comes to DIY upgrades
apple never felt there is a need for desktop in between the mini and the MacPro with the power of a iMac (i3/i5/i7) but the user friendlyness of a MacPro where you can fit more HDD's and anoher GPU if you like or multiple GPU's

[Kendo]

Did you purchase the iMac with a credit card? Most major credit cards offer an additional year of warranty. You have to pay for the repair up front but they will reimburse you later on.

[ststephen]

Thanks to all. The most important q's:
1. Can the LCD be used, modded, or adapted for use as a monitor for another Mac?,.... if the power supply is replaced, & the dead logic board can be bypassed, and this model has that capability?
2. Does the LCD/ case/ and good guts have any resale value to co's that refurbish macs? The screen is perfect, w/o any of the reported problems. If yes, which co's ?
3 anyone interested in brand new OWC 2x 4gig matching RAM? thanks.

[ststephen]

Good point! Wished I used my Amex for the double warantee- extra year. Will certainly Amex the replacement. Does business ins typically cover such damage from surges?

[Jazwire]

Originally Posted by ststephen

****WHAT COULD POSSIBLY CAUSE THIS MASSIVE DEATH?****

Lightning, power surge, power fluctuation, dirty power.

What type of surge protection you have?

If your power strip cost under $50 it could of been any of these.
If under $100 could be dirty power or power fluctuation.

When you have a really good surge protector with a voltage read out , it kinda makes you freak out plugging anything expensive into anything else.

If you are in the US were are on 110v right? Well...its really anywhere from 100-140volts, and it jumps all over the place throughout the day, heck even minute by minute.

Not trying to deflect completely from being something wrong from Apple. But on the other hand it could very well have nothing to do with a defect either, though given the fact it lasted as along as it did raises question.


Russian Roulette Strip: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812120803 (If your Imac was plugged into something like this, this more than likely was the culprit.)
Acceptable: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812120878
Good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812107550 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16842111035
Best (over the top): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812107800

Personally I'd never plug anything worth more than $200 long term into something less than the "good" power strip.