Re: Be happy you don't have an imac...

justin wrote:
> ...friend's imac died and she took it to apple service. They told her
> the logic (mother) board died and a replacement would cost over $900.
> It was the second logic board that died on the imac in a little over
> two years, the first was covered by warranty. I did a search and this
> appears to be very common with imacs from 05, 06 and 07- popped and
> leaky capacitators- much like a few of the Asus boards in 04. So much
> for Apple reliability. But the price to replace a motherboard... we
> could do it for less than $300 and getting a freaking great board in
> the bargain. Apple is such a rip off- lucky for them they've achieved
> cult status.

There is no reason to assume Apple will be more reliable than
any other company. They contract out the manufacturing of things
like the motherboard. It really all depends, on whether that
contract includes controlling the source of the components or
not.

The $900 is still an outrageous price, and I'd probably
want to double check with Apple, to see if that price
is accurate. Maybe there is labor included ? Sometimes, the
terms of motherboard replacement, include returning the old
motherboard. So in fact, you're paying $900. and shipping
back the old one. You may not even get to keep the old
motherboard.

You could check on Ebay, and see if the motherboard is available
there. Make sure you're looking for the correct part number.
Check the back of the Mac, for a model number. Otherwise,
you could end up buying the wrong one.

In this picture of an iMac G5, you can see they use ordinary
electrolytic capacitors, instead of the solid polymer capacitors
used on at least some current day motherboards. This in itself
is not all bad - electrolytic capacitors can survive for a long
time, if they are constructed properly. The reason that some
manufacturers switched to solid polymer, is a potential buyer would
be less concerned about exactly what kind of electrolytics were
being used, if solid polymers were used to replace them. So the
main reason for switching, is to put some distance between the
"capacitor plague" and modern day design. Apple doesn't have to
do that, because they don't go around showing pictures of what is
inside.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...IMacG5guts.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imac

Paul