replacing the motherboard

[jovada]

The fan of my iMac died. As a result, also the motherboard has to be replaced.
The cost:
€ 80 1h work
€ 40 fan
€ 770 motherboard

... which is too expensive.

I'm looking for a way to replace the motherboard myself. Should I just start looking on eBay for similar iMacs? (early 2008, 3.06GHz EE, 24")
Or should I simply give up?

 

[32gb3gwifi]

wow that sucks. how did you notice it was dead. you didnt moniter fan speeds and temps? or didnt your computer shutdown before it overheated?

 

[jovada]

The fan was quite noisy, so I tried cleaning it with the vacuum cleaner, but without being able to open the thing, it didn't help a lot.
A couple of days later the iMac was absolutely silent again. I hoped because it magically cleaned itself, but alas...
The iMac overheated (I suppose) and froze after about 1 minute, both in Lion and Vista.

After paying €30 they examined the iMac and concluded that it was indeed the fan, but the machine kept crashing after a couple of seconds. That's why they also want to replace the motherboard.

 

[phantax]

Did they already replace the fan and it is still crashing? If not, I would just have the fan replaced and see what happens.

From your post it seems like they just determined the fan was bad, but haven't replaced it, so it is no wonder it still crashes.

Also, never clean your computer with a vacuum cleaner, they generate a lot of static electricity which can damage components.

 

[32gb3gwifi]

you had to pay for a diagnoses? i hope this wasn't an apple store. and from know on you should always monitor your vitals with i stat pro or the like. but i would sell that for what you can and get a refurb 21 or new 21 imac.

 

[jovada]

Did they already replace the fan and it is still crashing? If not, I would just have the fan replaced and see what happens.

According to their email, it seems they did test the system with a new fan.

Also, never clean your computer with a vacuum cleaner, they generate a lot of static electricity which can damage components.

That's what I found on Google Use the vacuum cleaner to clean the strip on top and the hole behind the stand...

 

[jovada]

you had to pay for a diagnoses? i hope this wasn't an apple store. and from know on you should always monitor your vitals with i stat pro or the like. but i would sell that for what you can and get a refurb 21 or new 21 imac.

You always have to pay €30, but when you agree with their quote for the repair, they will refund the €30.
Sadly we don't have an Apple Store in Belgium, but the Belgian chain Switch is an Authorised Service Provider for Apple.

 

[jovada]

Little update: I'm going to ship my iMac to the UK: http://1stcomponents.com/
Their repair (if they succeed) will be a lot cheaper.

Just one more question: can I put an iMac hard drive in an external enclosure and make a backup of the Windows/NTFS partition using my PC?