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My iMac G5: Unaccaptable!

Josh

Josh

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 4, 2004
1,640
1
State College, PA
I bought a 17" iMac G5.

When I first turned it on, I noticed I was one of the lucky ones and got one that buzzed/hummed.

So I called apple, and they sent me a new power supply. I put that it, and it didnt stop the annoying noise.

So I called again...this time they were certain it was the midpane.

After 38 full-size pages of instructions, staring at tiny peices, pulling things apart for 2 hours replacing the mid pain - not only is the problem still there, its worse!

The annoying humming sound is now accompanied by a definite buzz.

I cannot even tell you how mad I am right now.

I do NOT want this machine any longer. I love Macs, but certainly not this one...
 
Did they offer to take it back in return, or do they normally send customers do-it-yourself fix kits? :confused: That really sucks!
 
Did you buy it at a store or online? If you bought it at the store, go there and bring the computer back and tell them whats going on. And if they refuse to fix it themselves or give u a new one, then start getting pissy. If you bought it online, do u live CLOSE to an apple store? If so, drive there and if they dont fix it or if they don't get u a new one get pissy cause u've been driving so long.
I find that Apple has a very good customer relationship when you start to get pissy and yell.
Try and start a scene. Who cares what people think. They're only gonna see you once.
 
nosen said:
Did they offer to take it back in return, or do they normally send customers do-it-yourself fix kits? :confused: That really sucks!
Click to expand...
Apple, along with most major PC vendors, has begun to send repair parts and instructions to customers whenever possible. The relative ease of disassembly of the new iMac has caused Apple to begin this practice - and we'll see more and more of it in the future. Another thread on this site has links to an article about this, but I don't recall it off-hand.

I'm sorry the iMac isn't working properly. However, it doesn't sound like any particular Apple employee has screwed you over, so I'd avoid getting all pissy as soon as you call or walk in. I'm sure it will be worked out.
 
I bought my wife a 20" iMac G5. We've had it a week. REALLY nice machine, for the money. Today she was surfing and BOOM, the display goes blank. End of story. The system was still running. I could ssh into it and mount its network drive shares, but no display.

I went to the online iMac G5 support site and walked through their troubleshooting assistant dialog and found the problem (bad inverter). I ordered the replacement part, at no charge. I assume I'll have it in a day or two. The whole process took me 45 minutes, and I don't have to ship the system back. I'm rather pleased, under the circumstances. Of course, I'm taking for granted that the root cause of the problem was correctly diagnosed. We'll see. All in all, it was a good experience. The idea of shipping the thing back was less than appealing; I don't live close to a city.
 
I have an iMac G5 17 inch and it has a high pitched whinning noise. It is just the fans though and compared to my emac it is much quieter so Im quite happy with it. I am not quite sure why apple chose fans that produce such a high frequency noise. If you have ever looked inside, they are some quite funky fans.

my point, buy and iMac G5 if you are in the market. dont be scared. its not silent...but its a G5. Whaddya want? a cracked case conspiricy?
 
Just to give you guys an example on just how loud my imac is:

When I was on the phone with the product specialist before they shipped me the midpane, the guy on the phone asked "Is that an air conditioner in the background?"...I informed him it was the iMac that I was about 6 feet away from.

He then asked me to open iMovie and record an audio file of the noise that he sent to the engineers. Thats what made them "certain" it was the midpane.

Either they werent too certain, or they sent me a faulty midpane.

EDIT: I just recorded another one so I could show you. I don't know how well iMovie captures it (when I play it, it sounds the way my mac does 100% of the time so its hard for me to tell). But it will atleast give you some idea:

http://www.tibathon.com/iMac G5.mov

^^ Just imagine that sound being loud enough to hear in a different room, or over the tv, or over iTunes. That's what I've got going on.

This has seriously soured my taste for apple. Its even a joke that the midpane is a user-serviceable part to begin with. Im a PC-type, and have built many PC's from nothing. Replacing the midpane on the mac nearly had me pulling my hair out. Its long, tedious, and frustrating to do. Not what I would say should be expected of the average user.

I am not one bit satisfied with this. In my opinion, this has gone on long enough, and apple needs to do something besides send me parts to waste my time putting in. I will not accept anything less than a new, quiter machine.

I shouldnt have to pay thousands of dollars for something, have it not work, put up with it for weeks while the problem is examined, go through tedious installs of hardware -using my rare free time - only to have it not do a single thing.

Its Apple's turn to sort this out. I'll give them a call tomorrow, and update this with more info.

btw - the imac noise issue seems to be fairly common. I would think Apple would catch on and either figure out what's causing it, or issue a recall. When a measurable portion of a product is plagued by the same problem, something's wrong, and the company should do something rather than rely on the user to solve it for them.
 
I came here looking for possible solution to silence my iMac G5. No, not The Hum. The endless grinding sound of hard disk. 7200RPM of goodness just waiting to explode, it seems. It annoys me to no end, and is way louder than the hum.

Hum? Pffht.
 
Well, hmmmm, you have the choice!

nosen said:
Did they offer to take it back in return, or do they normally send customers do-it-yourself fix kits? :confused: That really sucks!
Click to expand...

Hi there,

I understand that the custumer has the choice to do the repairs @home or sent it to Apple / drop it at the dealer.

That's fine imho. I had lots of trouble with my past macs, and when they were out of order, they have been shipped to Apple, longest repair time was over a month (it got lost at Apple ...) :mad:

I'd like to fix my macs @home, since it will definetly shorten the turnaround time. But, anyway, I love my computer most, when it makes no probs ;)

Cheers,

Andreas
 
Josh said:
Just to give you guys an example on just how loud my imac is:

When I was on the phone with the product specialist before they shipped me the midpane, the guy on the phone asked "Is that an air conditioner in the background?"...I informed him it was the iMac that I was about 6 feet away from.

He then asked me to open iMovie and record an audio file of the noise that he sent to the engineers. Thats what made them "certain" it was the midpane.

Either they werent too certain, or they sent me a faulty midpane.

EDIT: I just recorded another one so I could show you. I don't know how well iMovie captures it (when I play it, it sounds the way my mac does 100% of the time so its hard for me to tell). But it will atleast give you some idea:

http://www.tibathon.com/iMac G5.mov

^^ Just imagine that sound being loud enough to hear in a different room, or over the tv, or over iTunes. That's what I've got going on.

This has seriously soured my taste for apple. Its even a joke that the midpane is a user-serviceable part to begin with. Im a PC-type, and have built many PC's from nothing. Replacing the midpane on the mac nearly had me pulling my hair out. Its long, tedious, and frustrating to do. Not what I would say should be expected of the average user.

I am not one bit satisfied with this. In my opinion, this has gone on long enough, and apple needs to do something besides send me parts to waste my time putting in. I will not accept anything less than a new, quiter machine.

I shouldnt have to pay thousands of dollars for something, have it not work, put up with it for weeks while the problem is examined, go through tedious installs of hardware -using my rare free time - only to have it not do a single thing.

Its Apple's turn to sort this out. I'll give them a call tomorrow, and update this with more info.

btw - the imac noise issue seems to be fairly common. I would think Apple would catch on and either figure out what's causing it, or issue a recall. When a measurable portion of a product is plagued by the same problem, something's wrong, and the company should do something rather than rely on the user to solve it for them.
Click to expand...

What are you complaining about! You should be happy you have a new computer. Anyway it is probably your fault any way. What's so bad about a Two hour operation to replace the mid-pane? Some people just like to complain.
Yes that was all in jest. Why some people around here always feel like they need to fight the good fight for apple is beyond me. You are the customer and you parted with your cash. It amazes me when I read some of the threads around here. If some one has a complaint there are always those few that feel like you are attacking them.
I hope they fix your problem soon.

Frump.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your problems, and listening to that audio clip just scared me. That thing is load, not to mention grating! Just writing to say that don't let one bad experience sour you too much. I've recently pruchased a 17" 1.8 GHz iMac and it is a dream. I hardly ever hear the thing, even when doing intensive work and gaming, and it really is a joy to use. Hope you get it fixed soon.
 
pauld said:
this has just put me off buying an iMac G5.
Click to expand...

Why? You are hearing about a few peoples problems with their iMac, you are not hearing about the hundreds possibly thousands of people who are happy are you?

Happy people don't complain. I wouldn't of posted unless I saw your post but I'd also like to inform you my gf got a new imac G5 within the week it was announced and she has had not problems with it. Quiet as a mouse you forget it is there when sleeping.

Buy one, don't let a few bad Apples have it their way. In general more people post about their woes than successes anyway.
 
CrackedButter said:
Why? You are hearing about a few peoples problems with their iMac, you are not hearing about the hundreds possibly thousands of people who are happy are you?

Happy people don't complain. I wouldn't of posted unless I saw your post but I'd also like to inform you my gf got a new imac G5 within the week it was announced and she has had not problems with it. Quiet as a mouse you forget it is there when sleeping.

Buy one, don't let a few bad Apples have it their way. In general more people post about their woes than successes anyway.
Click to expand...

Totally agreed. There seem to be a fair number of noise complaints about the iMac G5, but consider that Apple has already sold probably hundreds of thousands of them.
 
The best thing is...

Apple will fix it. Period. You can bet on it. I bought a refurbished iMac as my first mac years ago and it was a three month hassle. It all came down to a stupid bad mouse and keyboard. It was a hassle but it did get fixed, and I have had no problems since. This is complicated machinery here. Give em a break and have some patients. I can understand the frustration as well. Call them, and work with them, they want to make you happy.
 
Coca-Cola said:
Apple will fix it. Period. You can bet on it. I bought a refurbished iMac as my first mac years ago and it was a three month hassle. It all came down to a stupid bad mouse and keyboard. It was a hassle but it did get fixed, and I have had no problems since. This is complicated machinery here. Give em a break and have some patients. I can understand the frustration as well. Call them, and work with them, they want to make you happy.
Click to expand...

and be happy you didnt buy a dell!!! they are the most un-helpful people around. youll spend hours trying to diagnose the problem only to have difficulties understanding the Indian on the other end of the line. then once you recieve your replacement part you actually have to get it installed in a certain amount of time or risk a larger fee!!! and even when bad things happen apple will fix it! take the iBook logic board problem. even after the normal warentee expires they will still fix the logic board for free. apple will recognize when there is a big problem and get it taken care of, dont worry!
 
Hope my iMac doesn't get all these troubles when it arrives..
It has taken so long time to arrive (i ordered though a local reseller three (?) weeks ago, but with BTO options, BT, 250GB, 1GB)
 
Josh said:
Thats like buying a car that doesn work as it should, and having someone tell you "you have a new car, dont complain".

And how is it my fault? Did I magically enter the box before I got my iMac G5 home and screw up whatever it is? This problem existed before the mac was even brought home - it is a faulty mac, and that has nothing to do with me other than I am the one who got stuck with it.

If you do not have something productive/progressive to add to a thread, perhaps you should go elsewhere and waste your own time rather than that of other people.

The imac g5 noise issue is common enough now that apple should have it pretty well figure out.

Let alone the fact that customers shouldnt be expected to pay thousands of dollars for something that dosnt work as it should. I understand a faulty product comes out the line from time to time, but the numerous iMac G% noise complaints are of high enough number that it is just not rare - its not one "here asnd there". A measurable percentage of the imacs have the issue, and I think apple should be taking it more seriously than they would for a normal faulty product.

If you dont mind getting products that dont work right, thats fine - thats your money to waste. But dont tell people who spent thousands of dollars to get something faulty no to complain, thats just ridiculous.
Click to expand...


Did you read at all what Frump wrote??? :D
 
ThomasW said:
Did you read at all what Frump wrote??? :D
Click to expand...


hehe I guess not...my first 2 seconds awake were spent reading this thread, so I just glanced with out reading.

*that* is my fauilt :D
 
daveL said:
I bought my wife a 20" iMac G5. We've had it a week. REALLY nice machine, for the money. Today she was surfing and BOOM, the display goes blank. End of story. The system was still running. I could ssh into it and mount its network drive shares, but no display.

I went to the online iMac G5 support site and walked through their troubleshooting assistant dialog and found the problem (bad inverter). I ordered the replacement part, at no charge. I assume I'll have it in a day or two. The whole process took me 45 minutes, and I don't have to ship the system back. I'm rather pleased, under the circumstances. Of course, I'm taking for granted that the root cause of the problem was correctly diagnosed. We'll see. All in all, it was a good experience. The idea of shipping the thing back was less than appealing; I don't live close to a city.
Click to expand...

I always knew that you could replace the midplane yourself, but replace an inverter? Are they letting you fix anything in your Mac now?
 
Abstract said:
I always knew that you could replace the midplane yourself, but replace an inverter? Are they letting you fix anything in your Mac now?
Click to expand...

In order to replace the midplane you have to take out the inverter so it's really not that big of a job. Actually I would say it is one of the easier parts to replace...besides maybe the optical drive (4 screws and pull up!).
 
All of these issues make me feel surprised to hear SJ say (in something I read at ai: http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=719) "The iMac G5 has received the best reviews of any product we've ever had," said Jobs, who kicked off the event by citing captions from favorable reviews in Time Magazine, PC Magazine, The Detroit Free Press, and The Wall Street Journal. "We're thrilled with these reviews and we think this is going to be a very good Christmas for the iMac G5."
 
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