iMac G5, Logic Board Failure?

[linuxophile]

Hi!

My G5 has been slowly been getting more and more difficult to turn on over the past few weeks, month at the most. Three days ago it stopped turning on completely. Last night I found this article on apple's site about how to diagnois the problem: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2173

I went through all the steps twice and came up twice with step 12, indicating a logic board failure. I then found out in these forums about the extended warranty fix for this problem.

After a couple of phone calls to Apple today, I finally got them to authorize replacement of the logic board; my G5 is a little over three years old.

The problem is, after getting home today, I redid the diagnostic steps and the computer is now turning on via the internal power button, landing me at step 11, and 'contact your local Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider for service'.

So, does anyone know if this logic board problem can cause an apparently intermittent problem like I'm seeing, or is it an all or nothing sort of thing? Can I be sure that it isn't the logic board based upon what I'm seeing?

I live a couple of hours away from the nearest Apple store, so I don't want to make the long drive only to have them catch it on a 'good day'.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Andy

It sounds very familiar.

Mine had: bad screen (replaced), dead capacitors (-> replaced mobo, DOA, replaced again), dead drive (3 times), dead bluetooth, and finally started the random shutdown/hard to reboot dance. All in separate incidents....

It was turning on only with the internal reset, stay on for a random time (1hr, 1 day) and shut down again.

Well, finally they excanged it for an Intel (about 2yrs ago) (no-lemon policy). I had AppleCare.

I took a new applecare with the new imac.
So I was "lucky", in that I paid only for the first computer.

Anyways, those are bad signs.

 

[maggie2]

3 year extended warrantee success

Hi,
I have a G5 that has experienced the logic board failure you are all speaking of, my G5 was one of the ones that qualified for the extended warrantee for power and video issues, so I phoned Apple Tech support here in Canada to see what they could do for me, knowing the extended warrantee program was over and, of course, my apple care is also done..
The techie passed me on to a service specialist , Alan, who listened very politely but in the end said he could not do anything for me...the 3 years have passed. I was very polite back and said, in my opinion, when you pay $2000 for a computer such as the G5, one expects certainly more than 4. 25 years out of it. He said he sympathized but still could not anything..I said I wanted to talk to someone else, a supervisor.. he said I could call back again but I would get the same answer.. I am just not ready to give up on this.. I think that Apple has a problem here.. and they are not admitting the product is faulty.. Any ideas?
Thanks!

 

[Chuck148]

Just got the bad news 9-5-2009

I had been dealing with various problems like no sound when I turn on the computer and must reboot to make it work.Then everything on my desktop vanished,wound up with more memory so I knew it would not be Back.Then it started to give me the black screen on start up.I am able to boot up with the Leopard disc.Called safe boot {hold down control-shift] on start up.Took it in to The Apple Store here in Escondido Ca.I was told that it was the logic board.$500 to replace and $135 to put it in.I will probably buy an after market board $349-375, just to stretch the life of the computer a little more.Mine is closer to 4 years old.After reading the postings here I truly am disappointed in MAC.

 

[johannmSF]

Back from the Apple Store

just came back from the Genius Bar. Gave it a shot, i have a G5 with bad caps. They said no dice. i do think their attitude is bad - the genius told me "computers die, get over it". Well, computers with faulty boards die young, and Apple should be stepping up. I had planned to buy a new imac today, but they soured me on it. They should be replacing the boards until there are no more bad boards left to replace. i hate the dump it in the landfill attitude.

 

[amm114]

It sounds very familiar.

Mine had: bad screen (replaced), dead capacitors (-> replaced mobo, DOA, replaced again), dead drive (3 times), dead bluetooth, and finally started the random shutdown/hard to reboot dance. All in separate incidents....

It was turning on only with the internal reset, stay on for a random time (1hr, 1 day) and shut down again.

Well, finally they excanged it for an Intel (about 2yrs ago) (no-lemon policy). I had AppleCare.

I took a new applecare with the new imac.
So I was "lucky", in that I paid only for the first computer.

Anyways, those are bad signs.

So does that mean it's possible to replace the original logic board with a brand-new one that would go into a brand-new iMac?

 

[moxxi]

Hi, I'm a 4 year old broken iMac and I'm an 8 year old working PC

I just took my 2005 iMac G5 to the "Genius Bar"...hoo boy, talk about false advertising. I only use my iMac G5 for music creation with Logic and Garageband, as well as iTunes. It gets used on average 10-20 hours a month, if that. Seriously. I use my 8 year old HP Pavilion desktop running XP for everything else, approximately 8 hours per day - as I work from home on the net.

I replaced the Power Supply last year as it had failed and now it appears the Logic Board is gone. I'm just waiting for the official Genius to read it its last rites. 4 years old and it fails utterly and completely. I am absolutely speechless. I NEVER expected that.

As I was walking out of the Apple Store, a red shirt accosted me as I passed the 27" iMac and said "Hey, what do you think of those, eh?" I said "Not much." Then he asked me why, with a puzzled look on his face as though to say "No one is ever grumpy in the Apple Store! I'm not used to this emotion."

I told him what had happened and how I thought that was completely unacceptable for the amount of money I spent and his exact words were "Well, so this is the iMac you need to buy next, just make sure to buy the 3 year extended warranty through Apple Care."

I said my $3000 iMac (due to upgrades) lasted only 4 years so the 3 year warranty wouldn't do much good. Then he made a frowny face and asked what I was going to do. And that's when the "genius" idea struck me, and I told him, I'm going to inquire with the mall as to how much it was to rent a "kiosk" or "table" and bring my 8 year old PC and my iMac G5 and let people test drive them both. Let the curious crowd seekers see which one surfs the net faster, or sends email or which one actually boots up after 4 years. Which one cost under $1000 and which one cost $3000.

If the mall would allow this I would love everyone to join me. Bring your broken iMacs and join the party. Wouldn't it be nice to have that set up right in front of their store? Just let all the happy people know what they can expect in 3-4 years.