what happened to my iMac??

[Stereobox]

the 20" iMac 1.8ghz G5 i use for work recently exhibited some symptoms when starting up. it would hang halfway through booting up and the fan will start to churn furiously.

so i suspected something was wrong and opened up the iMac. this was what i saw....

what are those and what could have possibly caused them? i have a tendency to put my iMac to sleep when i go for shortbreaks etc instead of shutting down. could that be one of the causes? (highly unlikely right?)

(please note once the iMac manages to eventually boot up, everything else runs fine as usual)

 

[Caspere]

Blown caps.

Aiyo, Apple like that also want to reduce cost. Should have used all-solid capacitors instead of these cheapo ones. There are actually a few of those "All-Solid capacitors" and can be seen here on first image, left of the red "up arrow", its silver in color with light blue markings. And in the second image, below the "green" ring.

 

[denmad]

Hi Stereobox, you need to at least get those capacitors replaced, and there could possibly be some other faulty components too judging from the number of blown capacitors. The probability of so many failure all at the same time is really low. In the meantime, don't power your iMac as it will do more harm to it. Also, good investigative work and you have documented your findings very nicely!

 

[Paul_Yeo]

photos not very sharp leh. can u use macro lens ? :embrass:

 

[quekky]

if you still have warranty, best is to call apple and get the mobo change. If no more warranty you can try to replace all the caps, but it wun be a easy job

 

[Danntbt]

Fan churning furiously is a sign of motherboard problem, as the fan is a mechanism to prevent burn out due to faulty motherboard.

 

[Deceased]

if you still have warranty, best is to call apple and get the mobo change. If no more warranty you can try to replace all the caps, but it wun be a easy job

How to change the caps??
Re solder with new caps?

:embrass:

 

[Stereobox]

How to change the caps??
Re solder with new caps?

:embrass:

thanks guys, for the advice given.

yea i'm quite interested to know, too. is changing of the caps a DIY job? applecare finish already.

i also have another problem with another iMac :sweat: Apps keep crashing on me...i suspect it's a RAM problem. doing a mem test now

 

[kcuf2]

thanks guys, for the advice given.

yea i'm quite interested to know, too. is changing of the caps a DIY job? applecare finish already.

i also have another problem with another iMac :sweat: Apps keep crashing on me...i suspect it's a RAM problem. doing a mem test now

oh man....its apple computers really that bad?? ram is some sort the hardest to spoil one leh..

 

[Stereobox]

oh man....its apple computers really that bad?? ram is some sort the hardest to spoil one leh..

the OS, software, product design, marketing etc are damn good :thumbsup: unfortunately sometimes the QC doesn't match up and the consumer has to suffer for it

 

[dreamerz]

desolder the old caps out...n solder the new caps in lo...all u need is a sholdering iron n a desolder gun...n may sure cap are of same value...

 

[jumbocrab]

Does your iMac belong to one of these:
http://www.apple.com/support/imac/repairextensionprogram/

Additional reading for information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

 

[nightpiper]

oh man....its apple computers really that bad?? ram is some sort the hardest to spoil one leh..

not true. RAM can also have a short life span esp those no brand ones that dun conform to the JEDEC specs.

i dun think anyone shud try to replace components on the board. its not as easy as doing it in school projects where the PCB is only double sided. this kind of board is multi layer & might have traces running inside connecting the caps.

bring the iMac for a service or buy a new intel iMac.

 

[bowwow]

i had the same problems as u before on my imac and had my motherboard replaced by apple.

as for the apps crashing, also had that problem and found it was a RAM issue. took out the suspected RAM and all has been fine since.