Apple deserves some huge props. I took my g5 imac into the Apple Store Oak Brook to get fixed Thursday afternoon and the computer was fixed EOD Friday! On Thursday they told me it would take 7-10 days for me to get my computer back. I was pretty happy with that turnaround but a one day turnaround was incredibly impressive considering they were going to replace potentially up to four different parts. They wound up replacing two parts: the logic board ($732.81) and the power supply ($85.94) tagged with level 2 repair costs ($135.00). My extended warranty covered it all.
I've done my fair share of office tech duties and I have seen other manufactures take 7-10 days to look at a machine, then another two weeks to get the parts and another 7-10 days to install the new parts.
for the tech heads:
G5 IMAC SLEEPING PROBLEM
My G5 iMac would fall asleep after about 15 minutes of use. After about 7 minutes following the bootup, the fans would get very loud. The loud imac fans were just about as loud as a window air conditioner. It was unbearable. Then in the next few minutes the iMac would just fall asleep on its own. It didn't matter what i was doing. The machine would fall asleep on its own even if i wasn't doing anything on the computer. Then I would try waking it up and i would get about another 2 minutes of work out of it until it would fall asleep on its own again. Then if i tried waking it up again, it would not want to wake up. A force-shut down was necessary.
I did all the common troubleshooting steps. (I'll detail everything in the comments section if you're experience the same problem with your G5 iMac.) At one point I completely reformatted the hard drive. Apple phone support had me reset the PMU and move a bunch of preferences. They eventually told me my imac needed one or more of the following replaced: thermal sensor, fans, power supply, inverter.
The interesting thing is that the new logic board is now a different color. It is blue. Previously it was green. I wish i took a before and after picture. Actually, I was able to track down what my imac looked like before the fix and after. See how the "before" has a green logic board and the "after" has a blue logic board.
So if you have a narcoleptic iMac G5, hope you still it covered under the warranty or under AppleCare, cuz it'll cost $953.75 to fix!
Here's the notes i kept during the troubleshooting process. I have to break it up into two entries because of the length:
IMAC LOUD FANS AND GOES TO SLEEP ON ITS OWN AFTER ABOUT 15 MINUTES OF WORK (AFTER BOOT-UP). Fans go into full blast after about 7 minutes. Very loud sound. Almost like an window air conditioner.
If the iMac is sleeping, then the loud fans will kick in quicker and fall asleep after about 10 minutes of work.
1st generation G5 iMac
Mac OS 10.3.9
Build 7W98
1.8 GHz, 256 MB RAM
steps taken in attempt to resolve issues. Each step resulted in the noise
and sleep problem still happening:
- Upgraded to OS 10.3.9
- Disconnected all peripherals
- booted from system cd and ran Disk Utility and verified permissions
- logged in as different user
- ran Tech Tool Deluxe
- zapped PRAM
- booted into single user mode and ran daily, weekly, monthly maintenence scripts
- COMPLETELY REFORMATTED THE HARD DRIVE (ERASE AND INSTALL)
DOWNLOADED ALL SOFTWARE UPDATE from software update system preference
rebooted
launched software update
(2nd round)
ran all items
rebooted
launched software update
(3rd round)
ran all items
rebooted
gave me message:
The "iMac G5 sleep light updater" UPDATES THE FIRMWARE on your imac g5 so that the sleep indicator light is not as bright during the evening. The daytime brightness remains the same. Note: Once the update has started, do not cancel or interrupt it. The updater takes about one minute to
complete. During the update your fans will run at full speed, but will return normal once the update completes. Your computer will need to be shut down after the update is complete. Choose "update" to start the update process.
The firmware update successfully completed.
ran software update
(4th round)
only one item this time
ran the one item
restarted
ran software update
(5th round)
NO NEW SOFTWARE UPDATES AVAILABLE
NOISE & SLEEP PROBLEM STILL
(the system never fell asleep during a software update.)
when my powerbook died last year, i took it to the Apple Store for a diagnosis and repair. turns out my hard drive had corrupted itself. this was covered under my warranty. but i asked them to try and pull my data off the hard drive [i had no backup - slap my wrist!], so they had to charge me for the attempt. that cost me $99, which is actually the cost of a ProCare membership. this just means that now i am able to get special VIP treatment with my Apple needs. ultimately, they were not able to save my data. but now i have a fancy black and silver ProCare card.
Posted by: laura k. on Apr 04, 06 | 12:08 pm
i saw signs for ProCare in the Apple Store Oak Brook. The only benefit I noticed about ProCare is that you can schedule an appointment with the Genius Bar ahead of time. I had bring my computer into the store, then set up a time for them to look at it. I had to wait 90 minutes. It wasn't bad. I just walked around the mall.
I couldn't figure out what the other benefits of ProCare were. I didn't ask any either. I'm content having my AppleCare coverage. I figure i don't need to give apple any more of my money.
the cost of having them try to retrieve my data [not covered under the AppleCare warranty] was going to be more than the cost of a ProCare membership. i give them credit for alerting me to this. with the ProCare membership, they tried to retrieve my data for free, plus i get the other benefits of membership.
Posted by: laura k. on Apr 04, 06 | 1:53 pm
i'm glad they were able to bring your iMac out of its coma!
rite on, my imac has an isight i duno wat that is or whether it is a new version of g5, it hasn't done the sleep thing yet, but...if it doesn't work my IT teacher (uni) told me to re install os x tiger. and all games over a month period, and get 2x 512mb ram.
So let's see, they were going to charge you about $1,000 to fix an outdated computer that failed due to parts that were known to fail.
However, they fixed it for free after you paid them $100 per year to own your computer - for what, about 5 years? This is of course after you paid 2.5 - 3 times the cost of a PC computer. Then you got to buy special MAC software at twice to four times the cost of PC software.
So, for roughly $2,400 you have a computer that is working again, as its known failed/problem parts were replaced for "free", but all your data is lost - value????
I guess you could have purchased about 6 PCs for that amount of money and still have all your data!
You know why they fixed it the same day? Because the problem is so common, those parts fail so frequently, that their techs can make those repairs blind-folded, they do it so often.
I own a G5 (POS computer), 3 Mac laptops, 4 Ipods, an iPhone and a iPad 2. So I am not a generic, never tried it Mac hater. Just a realist.
Mac is the best run scam in the world. Are their computers better? Only from not getting viruses - but that's only a matter of time. It just happens that the virus writers/hackers haven't bothered with the Macs since their ownership has historically been so low.
I will be replacing my G5 with a PC.
When my son's iPhone's battery dies (they aren't replaceable!!!), his next phone won't be an iPhone. $400 for a phone that is designed to die in 30 months (due to battery death)! Of course, for about $100 per year, you can buy a warranty and they'll replace the phone for free (acutally $300 - since that's what the warranty cost). But not to worry, they won't have your model available, and for only a few hundred more, you will be able to upgrade it to the current version.
Apple/Mac are ingenius marketers that have figured out a way to charge 4-6 times as much (total cost of ownership) for a product that at best is only incrementally better - if even.
They are a fad now, but will they always be? I doubt it as the problem with maintaining the success will require keeping customers happy and leaving enough money in their pockets to feel like they got a decent deal.
Posted by: Chris K on Oct 24, 11 | 9:42 am
Oh, another thing you should be aware of now they fixed your computer. Story is that they fixed it with the same make of parts that failed in the first place.
This means that the PSU and motherboard will all have to be replaced again. Word is that the time frame for the new parts to fail ranges from a few months up to about 18 months - so keep paying for that Applecare!
The caps failed, the caps were never built properly. The replacement caps are reportedly the same failing caps, but they are now a couple years old. Caps age even when not in use. There are reports that the motherboard caps on recent repairs have failed in as little time as one month.
but having that Applecare will help insure that your outdated computer won't cost $1,000 to fix again with more faulty parts.
Posted by: Chris K on Oct 24, 11 | 9:47 am
Chris K,
Thanks for your spirited comments. However, you have overlooked one simple fact: the date of this blog post which was April 3, 2006. So the numbers and much of your information in your comments are completely inaccurate.
Some people are mac people. Some are PC people. There's advantages to both camps. Many mac users find OS X more useable and reliable than Windows. Some Windows users find their OS more useable and reliable. I work in the graphic design business which heavily favors the Mac OS over Windows. So my industry has dictated which OS I use and I'm not complaining about it.
And I won't blindly say Apple does no wrong. They do things that tick me off as well. I think it's thievery when I buy an iPod in 2007 and then a simple 2.5 years later Apple releases iOS 4 and refuses to allow that 2.5-year old ipod to run iOS 4.
