Is it worth repairing an iMac G5??? (Blown capacitors)

[gmark2000]

Well, after a few months of sluggish performance and random hangs, my kitchen iMac G5 decided not to start up.

The screen is scrambled at boot then gets to the blue screen with video artefacts until the fans start revving up. Nothing advancing to the desktop.

I opened up the iMac to look at the diagnostic LEDS and the three green lights were showing normal power and communication.

However, I noticed two of the many capacitors were blown/leaking. Reading up, I found out that the iMac G5s were plagued with capacitor issues and the repair program unfortunately ended in 2008.

Now, in my research, I've been seeing repair costs of about $200 for replacing all the capacitors on the motherboard. I don't know what the local Apple Repair depot will actually charge. Replacing all the capacitors might not even fix the machine if the CPU has been over-heated.

So at this point in time, is it worth repair this machine??? What do you think? Has it served it's life cycle in its eight years?

 

[cocacolakid]

If you can't do the repair yourself, and from what I understand it's a royal pain in the behind, and it's going to cost $200 or so to have a tech do it, I would say it's not worth fixing. You can buy a G5 for not much more than that, sometimes less than that, depending on 17" or 20", on eBay. The better option, if you have the money, is to either sell that as-is for $100 or so, which you could probably get, or part it out, but use whatever money you can get towards another Mac.

 

[INSURGENCYmusic]

Funny thing happened to me in the Last 3 days.

I have a 1st gen, imac 17", A1058. my brothers friend gave it to him because he said it was broken, so it was just sitting there, for like 2 years. And I just figured out today, after a couple of days of messing around with it, thinking it was the capacitors, that it was just the hard drive, LOL. So im probably going to get a solid state for it.

But yea man, do it yourself. a couple of hours a day, no big deal. Make it a project. You already have the thing fully open, might as well. Good luck.

 

[gmark2000]

from what I gather, it's a tricky soldering job. You need a high heat precision soldering iron, not a 25 watt cheapie. The capacitor set will cost from $20-$30 on eBay.

I don't think I have the balls to attempt this so it's sad that this iMac died like this. Not sure if parting it out will be worth it.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

Depends... what do you want/need this iMac for? Can you afford that?

 

[Goftrey]

I personally don't think it's worth it unless you're good with an iron and you know what you're doing. If I were you I'd sell it as it is (there's loads of G5 iMacs on eBay with blown capacitors) for £70 or so ($125) and I'd get a 1st gen intel iMac. Just my two cents but it seems to me a no brainer...

 

[gmark2000]

Thanks for all the responses. This seems to be a project for a DIY hobbyist to resurrect. I guess I will probably Freecycle this locally. ::sniff::

 

[WG81402]

Would you be willing to ship this to the US? I'll take it off your hands for the cost of shipping.

 

[Hrududu]

I've done capacitors on several of these. Its really not hard at all if you've done any soldering before. The caps are cheap, so whats the worst you have to lose? Go for it.

 

[bigeasy_uk]

I've had a quick look through a walkthrough I found http://www.instructables.com/id/Imac-G5-DIY-capacitors-repair/
And it seems pretty straight forward to me, you've half of the work by taking it apart and identifying the blown caps, you might as well go for it. Just order the caps you need from an electrical components shop rather than buying a set from ebay, $30 seems a bit steep to me.

 

[Macman756]

I've fixed a good number of these, and can tell you yes, it is an involved job. I have a fairly expensive soldering station that is required to desolder that lead-free board. It's 70watts/900 degrees. That, as well as special desoldering flux to lower the melting temp, and rosin core lead free solder is required. I have fixed 3 successfully, and just started as a hobby. I am a Computer Engineering major, and have been soldering for years. I am very comfortable doing the repair, but it is vary challenging and time consuming.

I believe yours is a 20", correct? I am trying to get my parents to upgrade their 20" G4, but they have to have a 20" G5 to replace it. No 17". . If you are willing to replace it, I'd like to buy it from you and go about fixing it. Let me know!

 

[gmark2000]

I found a local shop who'll replace all the caps for $100. I think I'm going that way then.

 

[INSURGENCYmusic]

not a bad deal at all.

 

[choirboy]

I'm awaiting arrival of a capacitor kit from http://www.thecapking.com/applg5.html $21CDN. incl. shipping.

My G5 iMac went wonky last week, but thanks to my elderly iBook I was able to get back online and do some research. Upon opening the iMac I too found leaky capacitors, and was dismayed until I queried a friend who had done a previous electrical repair for me. He said "sure, just order that kit and I can do the repair in an afternoon". Excellent! Especially since I had been a little slack in my Time Machine back-ups and had a few days of emails stuck on the thing.

In the meantime, I took this as a sign that I really need to get up to at least an Intel machine, and I located an '08 iMac with Lion and 4Gs ram installed for $400 and am very happy with it. Once fixed (presuming all that is wrong is the capacitors) the G5 will either remain as a back-up or get sold cheap.

Mark