[Ham-Mac] iMac crash

[EZ Rhino]

Hi guys-

Jut an update on my mysterious crashes.  I took my Mac to an Apple  
place here, and just got it back.  It had the infamous "bulging caps"  
problem on the logic (mother) board.  My computer was past their  
extended warranty.  After calling and talking to several people on  
the apple help line (and being on hold for an hour), I got them to  
eat the cost of the $715 (!) board.

Some facts:

This is my 4th logic board.
I've owned the computer 3.5 years (G5 PPC)
I've also lost a hard drive and a power supply in that time.

I would call this a lemon, and I wonder how much longer the computer  
will last.  It's expensive to be hooked on Mac's. :-)

The following is a rant, so if you don't want to read it, stop now. :-)

I really do not like the way Apple handles customer service.   
Authorized dealers have no autonomy whatsoever.  They cannot make  
decisions or handle support without approval of the "mother ship".    
Dealers do not stock parts either, which means you've got to wait  
several more days for the parts to arrive.  Also, you cannot buy your  
own replacement parts.  The dealer has to install it, which they will  
gladly do for a $89 fee.  Had I not been able to talk the customer  
service person into the new board, I would have been up a creek.  The  
computer is certainly not worth $715.  It would have been better to  
replace it entirely.  I am surprised that a known issue such as the  
bulging caps problem wouldn't be covered under warranty forever.  If  
Apple orders X number of boards and they have a ration of defective  
parts, that shouldn't be the customer's responsibility (in my  
opinion).  Until recently I was really interested in purchasing a  
powerbook, but I do not want to go through this every time I get a  
hardware problem.  Maybe I'm up in the night and other PC computer  
companies work the same way.  I have always bought my PC's from a  
local place that has free lifetime service and support.  In fact,  
they are now offering lifetime parts warranty too.  Oh well, at least  
I didn't have to ship it someplace.

Have any of you had similar Mac hardware problems?

Chris












On Apr 20, 2008, at 2:46 , dj wrote:

Some of the iMacs had capacitor problems.  You might want to check  
the s/n and go to Apple.com to see if it is one of those affected.   
Apple has extended the warranty for these machines.  I have an iMac  
that had the bad caps and it wouldn't boot up occasionally and  
finally went dead.  Apple replaced practically the whole computer,  
PS, MB. Go here <http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/ 
imac.html> to see if your iMac is in the range of SN affected.

Good luck
Dale, K9VUJ


On 19, Apr 2008, at 16:23, EZ Rhino wrote:

> Hi Group-
>
> I have a Power PC iMac that doesn't like to stay on anymore.  Have  
> any of you guys ever have your computer crash, and get the black  
> screen of death?  The screen gets a "tint" on it, and a black box  
> comes up in the middle of the monitor that says you will have to  
> restart now in a couple different languages?
>
> Also, when my computer sleeps, either by menu or by the automatic  
> timer (in energy settings), it can't wake up.  It basically crashes  
> and you have to pull the plug and restart it that way.
>
> ???
>
> Chris
> KF7P
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ham-Mac mailing list
> Ham-Mac at mailman.qth.net
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