New 2019 iMac, question regarding logic board

[Sir Ruben]

Hi All,

Some of you may have seen my previous topic and the fact that the logic board on my 1.5yr old iMac failed for no obvious reason. Anyway under UK consumer law that was resolved and I have a lovely new 2019 iMac arriving next week. It may be a stupid question but is it possible that an externally connected device (eg: speakers, external hard drive etc) could have had some hand in causing the logic board to fail?

I am assuming not, however, I will be re-connecting all of the same devices that were connected to my previous iMac and would appreciate some thoughts. Conversely, could a logic board failure potentially damage externally connected devices in the same way that it can damage internally connected components?

Thanks

 

[Rockadile]

Hi All,

Some of you may have seen my previous topic and the fact that the logic board on my 1.5yr old iMac failed for no obvious reason. Anyway under UK consumer law that was resolved and I have a lovely new 2019 iMac arriving next week. It may be a stupid question but is it possible that an externally connected device (eg: speakers, external hard drive etc) could have had some hand in causing the logic board to fail?

I am assuming not, however, I will be re-connecting all of the same devices that were connected to my previous iMac and would appreciate some thoughts. Conversely, could a logic board failure potentially damage externally connected devices in the same way that it can damage internally connected components?

Thanks

Did you get a reason for failure of the previous logic board?

I would get a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) or at least surge protector. "Unfiltered" power eats away the internals of electronics like voltage changes and spikes from brownouts.

 

[Sir Ruben]

Did you get a reason for failure of the previous logic board?

I would get a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) or at least surge protector. "Unfiltered" power eats away the internals of electronics like voltage changes and spikes from brownouts.

No. There was no indication as to why it failed, no power surges or anything like that (that I am aware of), and no symptoms leading up to the failure.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP asked:
"It may be a stupid question but is it possible that an externally connected device (eg: speakers, external hard drive etc) could have had some hand in causing the logic board to fail?"

I will guess that might have something to do with WHAT you had connected to it.

 

[macduke]

No. There was no indication as to why it failed, no power surges or anything like that (that I am aware of), and no symptoms leading up to the failure.

Power surges aren't really something you see or are even aware of a lot of the time. And even if you have a surge protector, I recently found out that you should replace it every few years as the way it blocks surges is actually eating away at some piece of material inside of it or something like that. Maybe more often if you live in an area like me that gets storms all the time. I replaced all the protectors in my house with Tripp Lite surge protectors of various sizes. I had some protectors that were probably 10 years old and it's no wonder I had some issues with speakers in my house which seem to be sensitive to lightning. After doing a lot of research Tripp Lite seemed like the best without breaking the bank. Anyway, there is your PSA for the day, lol. But sometimes things just fail because of a small manufacturing defect or whatever that only presents itself over time by getting worse from the intense heating/cooling cycles inside of a computer causing tiny fissures to open up, etc. Could be a lot of things. But computers are designed to have lots of things plugged into them. Just make sure anything you plug into it is also on a surge protector if it's not bus powered.

 

[Sir Ruben]

Power surges aren't really something you see or are even aware of a lot of the time. And even if you have a surge protector, I recently found out that you should replace it every few years as the way it blocks surges is actually eating away at some piece of material inside of it or something like that. Maybe more often if you live in an area like me that gets storms all the time. I replaced all the protectors in my house with Tripp Lite surge protectors of various sizes. I had some protectors that were probably 10 years old and it's no wonder I had some issues with speakers in my house which seem to be sensitive to lightning. After doing a lot of research Tripp Lite seemed like the best without breaking the bank. Anyway, there is your PSA for the day, lol. But sometimes things just fail because of a small manufacturing defect or whatever that only presents itself over time by getting worse from the intense heating/cooling cycles inside of a computer causing tiny fissures to open up, etc. Could be a lot of things. But computers are designed to have lots of things plugged into them. Just make sure anything you plug into it is also on a surge protector if it's not bus powered.

Thanks for the input. I am planning on replacing my surge protected extension block with a new one for the reasons you stated. I am also considering having the new iMac connected to a different power outlet to that of the extension block with all of the accessories attached. Like you said though, it may just have been some tiny manufacturing defect that got slowly worse over time. It’s made me a bit paranoid now though!

 

[macduke]

Thanks for the input. I am planning on replacing my surge protected extension block with a new one for the reasons you stated. I am also considering having the new iMac connected to a different power outlet to that of the extension block with all of the accessories attached. Like you said though, it may just have been some tiny manufacturing defect that got slowly worse over time. It’s made me a bit paranoid now though!

Well at least you have good consumer protection laws compared to the US, but I can see how it would be annoying to go through the process. At least you got a newer machine out of it! I'd jump through that hoop any day.

 

[Rockadile]

No. There was no indication as to why it failed, no power surges or anything like that (that I am aware of), and no symptoms leading up to the failure.

My UPS occasionally switches to battery power for a few seconds even though the room lights didn’t flicker or went off and on. These imperceptible power changes can only mean no good for electronics.