A few months ago when visiting a local 'CashBack' store, I noticed that the guy responsible for the computer section was in a bit of a turmoil. I've got to know him pretty well, as every time I look in, I ask if he has any interesting Mac hardware (99% of the computers bought in, and then resold in the store are Win PC's).
On this particular occasion he'd just prepared the sales card for a 17" iMac G5, and during a final test run, found that after booting to the desktop the machine then shut-down. Same after every attempt. He pulled the screen, and glared inside. He greeted me, and asked if I knew anything about that model. The logic board didn't look too clean, and with a closer inspection I immediately recognized the classic capacitor trauma - counting no fewer than 9 that were bulged and/or leaking. I pointed to them and told him, "That's the problem!"
After uttering a mouthful of French expletives, he said his boss would go mad that he'd bought in material that was defective, that he didn't have the parts, and especially the time to perform any repairs on it.
The next question surprised me. Did I want it, really cheap? The immediate answer was, no not really, as I'd never changed any capacitors, didn't have any spares, and had never even laid hands on an G5.
Long story short. He pulled a PowerMac 'Digital Audio' G4 and 17" Apple Studio Display out from a store-room and asked if I would take them off his hands (plus the iMac) for a handful of dollars.
Those sort of favours I don't mind, and arrived home with my 'pocket-money' purchases, and the sole preoccupation of where to store them so that the 'little lady' wouldn't immediately find out!
Checking again inside (can't really believe I bought this, or where to start)......
Defective capacitors marked up........----->
A fair amount of reading on this forum and elsewhere, indicated one could buy complete kits specifically for this repair. A kit was ordered and received, and I started to disassemble the G5.
Ifixit was very useful, but I always make a habit of taking my own photos, which often show the detail of cable runs, Kapton tape locations etc, which is invaluable for rebuild reference purposes.
Now I'm unsure if the previous owner was a purveyor of horse-hair or a barber, but whatever, the interior showed evidence of a hairy environment.
Lower fan inlet location:
I removed the logic board, and then located a very handy and willing guy with a soldering-station to change out all 25 capacitors: 20 were 1800uF 6.3V and 5 were 1000uF 16V.
The guy had never worked on a G5 board before, and confirmed what I had read - that they were pretty difficult to remove. The next day I re-assembled the iMac, held my breath and pressed the power button.
Bingo! Brought back to life.
On this particular occasion he'd just prepared the sales card for a 17" iMac G5, and during a final test run, found that after booting to the desktop the machine then shut-down. Same after every attempt. He pulled the screen, and glared inside. He greeted me, and asked if I knew anything about that model. The logic board didn't look too clean, and with a closer inspection I immediately recognized the classic capacitor trauma - counting no fewer than 9 that were bulged and/or leaking. I pointed to them and told him, "That's the problem!"
After uttering a mouthful of French expletives, he said his boss would go mad that he'd bought in material that was defective, that he didn't have the parts, and especially the time to perform any repairs on it.
The next question surprised me. Did I want it, really cheap? The immediate answer was, no not really, as I'd never changed any capacitors, didn't have any spares, and had never even laid hands on an G5.
Long story short. He pulled a PowerMac 'Digital Audio' G4 and 17" Apple Studio Display out from a store-room and asked if I would take them off his hands (plus the iMac) for a handful of dollars.
Those sort of favours I don't mind, and arrived home with my 'pocket-money' purchases, and the sole preoccupation of where to store them so that the 'little lady' wouldn't immediately find out!
Checking again inside (can't really believe I bought this, or where to start)......
Defective capacitors marked up........----->
A fair amount of reading on this forum and elsewhere, indicated one could buy complete kits specifically for this repair. A kit was ordered and received, and I started to disassemble the G5.
Ifixit was very useful, but I always make a habit of taking my own photos, which often show the detail of cable runs, Kapton tape locations etc, which is invaluable for rebuild reference purposes.
Now I'm unsure if the previous owner was a purveyor of horse-hair or a barber, but whatever, the interior showed evidence of a hairy environment.
Lower fan inlet location:
I removed the logic board, and then located a very handy and willing guy with a soldering-station to change out all 25 capacitors: 20 were 1800uF 6.3V and 5 were 1000uF 16V.
The guy had never worked on a G5 board before, and confirmed what I had read - that they were pretty difficult to remove. The next day I re-assembled the iMac, held my breath and pressed the power button.
Bingo! Brought back to life.
