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Shouldn't I be able to purchase Mac service parts from Apple?

Jigglelicious

Jigglelicious

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Ok i'll admit it. I broke a little something in my mac. I can easily repair it, but I need a replacement part. I called up a local Apple service center and asked if they could order the part for me so I could purchase it. But they told me they can't do that. I'm a bit confused. I work in a store where we repair tools, and if a customer wants to purchase just the part so they can attempt to repair the tool themselves, we do that with no problem. So why won't these people allow me to do the same? Has anyone else had experience with something like this?
 
Well, with Apple, I dont think you can just purchase "parts", because if that was the case, people would just purchase the bare essentials they need (apple mobo, powerpc processor), and buy everything after-market, and thus, they loose control of exactly how the machines are made.
 
JeDiBoYTJ said:
Well, with Apple, I dont think you can just purchase "parts", because if that was the case, people would just purchase the bare essentials they need (apple mobo, powerpc processor), and buy everything after-market, and thus, they loose control of exactly how the machines are made.
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I suppose that could be true. But i'm not trying to purchase a motherboard, only a fan! Besides, everyone knows that companies have like a huge markup on the price on spare parts. If you tried to build an entire Mac this way, you'd probably end up paying like 2x the price than if you were to just buy a new one.
 
Actually I would check Apples support page, some parts are user replaceable. See if you can find that part and they will send it to you.
As a person that works at an Apple Service center, we never sell parts to customers. Apple has very strict rules about what parts can be sold, and what parts have to come back. Keeping a returnable part can cost a fortune, thats why we never sell parts.
 
Macmaniac said:
Actually I would check Apples support page, some parts are user replaceable. See if you can find that part and they will send it to you.
As a person that works at an Apple Service center, we never sell parts to customers. Apple has very strict rules about what parts can be sold, and what parts have to come back. Keeping a returnable part can cost a fortune, thats why we never sell parts.
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I just checked the eMac service FAQ and the eMac DIY service guide, and neither one mentions anything about fans. My guess, therefore, is that the fan needed is a part that Apple keeps internally, so Jigglelicious will need to bring the eMac in for service.
 
If it's for the eMac, nothing on the inside is user replaceable on the inside -- they don't really want you playing around the charged CRT anyway.
 
Apple is very strict about who services their machines. Like someone else said, if they offered just any part then someone could buy all the parts they need to build a Mac and build their own Mac. This would create a TON of problems for the entire Mac community. I know you only want a fan, but Apple just isn't going to let you do that. If the eMac is under warranty still just take it to an AppleCare Certified Service Center and they'll fix it for you for free.

Apple is starting to lean more toward user serviceable computer with the iMac G5, which is just about 100% user serviceable. There are just a few select parts that the customer cannot change. You just have to send the bad part back to Apple or they'll charge you for the new part.


Search around on eBay and you just might find with you're looking for.
 
Wow thats pretty a pretty horrible practice imo. I build computers for a living, and i've already opened up my eMac several times to replace the optical drive and hard drive. I have no intention of paying someone $100 to install a fan for me which takes 5 minutes, when I can do it perfectly fine myself. The eMac is technically still under warranty, but since i've made several modifications, they might not accept it. I'm willing to pay for the part, but i'm not going to pay for the service when I can do it myself.
 
There's actually no risk of anyone purchasing all the service parts for a machine, and just assembling it themselves, as in every case, the boxed machine costs less than the sum of its service parts, by a considerable amount. A $1500 iBook is worth about $1400 for its logic board and LCD alone, service parts wise. As for ordering the parts, Apple tends to be very strict, but the strictness lies more with who would be ordering it. That is, if you're talking to an Apple store, or something owned by Apple, they want to replace the part themselves. A number of service providers (like our tech at work), really don't mind ordering someone a service part for self-installation. He always warns of the risks, certainly, and suggests that if one is at all uncomfortable inside the machine (especially in the case of a laptop), that it would be wise to have him do it.

In short, you really just need to find someone with access to the Apple Global Service Exchange, who understands that you have no particular desire to pay for unnecessary labour. The smaller the business, the better. Be prepared to pay for the part upfront, however, as smaller businesses are likely to have such policies with very specific parts (it's a policy of ours).
 
There are a bunch of places that sell Apple parts online. Some of them order them from Apple directly and resell them to you with a small markup. I've found most parts I've needed through google.

I don't buy the argument that Apple fears people building cheaper computers from parts. They can control that easily enough through pricing too.

Issues like this are the rare ones which give me a twinge of envy of PC users, for whom parts and upgrades are cheap and readily available.
 
you still have the original fan right?, just check with the people that acctually make the fan (usualy delta or papst) and buy one off them, if you cant do thta just buy a pc one and rip the plug off the old fan and put it on the new one, you would probably gain a quieter emac with this option
 
I just got a replacement power connector board for my old 500MHz iBook from a company called VIS. While this company is British I think the probably ship internationally (although their prices can be insanely high depending on the part.) Anyway you'll find them at http://www.applemacparts.com/
 
Hector said:
you still have the original fan right?, just check with the people that acctually make the fan (usualy delta or papst) and buy one off them, if you cant do thta just buy a pc one and rip the plug off the old fan and put it on the new one, you would probably gain a quieter emac with this option
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Unfortunately, the fan in the eMac is a very non standard fan (see here).

Actually, my original project, and the reason why I need a new fan, is because I attempted to replace the original, noisy fan. I found the instructions on how to do it HERE. It involves cutting out the original fan from its special chassis, and then inserting a new fan into it which must also be cut out from its chassis. I replaced it with a Nexus 120mm fan, which is arguably one of the quietest fans in existence. The project went well, and when I turned on my eMac, I was greeted with silence! It was amazing. It was now as silent as my old slot loading iMac.

However, upon closer inspection, my screen was now shaking! It seems that the new fan is releasing a lot of magnetic interference, and since the fan is only about 1 inch away from the CRT neck, is causing the display image to wobble. The original fan did not exhibit this behavior, so I can only guess that it was heavily shielded (which might explain why it was about 3x heavier than this new fan). Since I can live with some slight noise, but I can't live with a jittery monitor, I need to put the old fan back in. But since it was cut out it would involve a lot of work and might even be impossible. I would LOVE to keep this new fan - its nearly inaudible. But while I can stand a bit of fan noise, I can't stand my eyes slowly going bad from reading text on a jittering screen. So now i'm stuck trying to track down a new fan, which is what brought me here 🙂
 
Jigglelicious said:
Unfortunately, the fan in the eMac is a very non standard fan (see here).

Actually, my original project, and the reason why I need a new fan, is because I attempted to replace the original, noisy fan. I found the instructions on how to do it HERE. It involves cutting out the original fan from its special chassis, and then inserting a new fan into it which must also be cut out from its chassis. I replaced it with a Nexus 120mm fan, which is arguably one of the quietest fans in existence. The project went well, and when I turned on my eMac, I was greeted with silence! It was amazing. It was now as silent as my old slot loading iMac.

However, upon closer inspection, my screen was now shaking! It seems that the new fan is releasing a lot of magnetic interference, and since the fan is only about 1 inch away from the CRT neck, is causing the display image to wobble. The original fan did not exhibit this behavior, so I can only guess that it was heavily shielded (which might explain why it was about 3x heavier than this new fan). Since I can live with some slight noise, but I can't live with a jittery monitor, I need to put the old fan back in. But since it was cut out it would involve a lot of work and might even be impossible. I would LOVE to keep this new fan - its nearly inaudible. But while I can stand a bit of fan noise, I can't stand my eyes slowly going bad from reading text on a jittering screen. So now i'm stuck trying to track down a new fan, which is what brought me here 🙂
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Well, you should have explained that to begin with, Jigglelicious! You had us all on the wrong track there. Is there any reason why you couldn't do some more research, track down a third fan that meets your needs, and do much the same thing to install it?
 
Counterfit said:
Next time, don't screw around inside a machine that's still under warranty 😉
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I purchased this eMac so that I could screw around with it. As a matter of fact, I had already cracked it open the first day I bought it, and overclocked it from 800mhz -> 1.4GHz, installed a larger HDD, and an 8x Superdrive.

Well, you should have explained that to begin with, Jigglelicious! You had us all on the wrong track there. Is there any reason why you couldn't do some more research, track down a third fan that meets your needs, and do much the same thing to install it?
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I could attempt it. But since manufacturers don't list the amount of magnetic interference their fans produce, finding an adequate fan would be next to impossible outside of just random trying. And since the process takes a while (and the fans are kinda expensive), i'd rather not.
 
Jigglelicious said:
I could attempt it. But since manufacturers don't list the amount of magnetic interference their fans produce, finding an adequate fan would be next to impossible outside of just random trying. And since the process takes a while (and the fans are kinda expensive), i'd rather not.
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I would think that there would be at least one resource dealing with this very issue - if not a list of interference levels, then maybe methods to stop the interference from messing up other parts of the computer...

EDIT: A Google Search turned up this. Here's the search terms I used also.
 
ryan42 said:
http://www.welovemacs.com/emsepa.html

http://www.welovemacs.com/9225083.html

eMac Internal Computer Fan

New, Apple original part

WLM gives a 30 day warranty on all manufacturing defects. Defective product can be sent directly to WLM. The 922-5083 in unopened/unused packaging may be returned for refund to We Love Macs within 14 days of delivery.

eMac Internal Computer Fan (p/n 922-5083)
922-5083
$89.49
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$90 for a fan?!? Jeez. I knew this stuff would be more expensive, but come on, thats 1/5th the price I paid for the entire computer - for a stupid fan! Looks like I will have to examine other options after all.
 
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