help with deciding

[Ih8reno]

I recently found an iMac g5 1.8ghz with isight for sale locally, the owner states in the ad that it takes 4-5 tries to boot it on but when it is on it works perfectly. Without seeing the machine what do you think the problem could be? I am thinking pram battery but not completely sure.

 

[harrymatic]

Failing electrolytic capacitors on the logic board - it affects nearly all of the iMac G5s. If you're good at soldering it's a fairly simple and cheap fix.

 

[Intell]

I concur that the capacitors are likely failing.

 

[LOLZpersonok]

I honestly would stay away from it. The iMac G5 is known for logic board failures due to bad capacitors/power supplies/both. The issue the seller is describing could likely be related to the capacitor issue.

The late 2006 iMac looks very similar, and I would say stay away from those too, they are known for faulty GPUs.

 

[Ih8reno]

Thanks for the info, I don't have any soldering skills so I'll let this one go.