Filed under: Hardware
Should Apple recall the iMac G5?
The iMac G5 is one sexy machine. The screen is flawless, the industrial design is unrivaled, but why are so many of them encountering numerous problems shortly after they arrive at their new homes?Damien Barrett thinks it might be time for a recall, and he just might be right. It seems that one of the boards on the early iMacs many not have been manufactured as well as it could have been which is leading to many reports of dead, and dying, iMacs.
This is just a theory, however, the large number of these machines that seem to be failing point to some sort of systematic problems. The only person I know who bought one had several problems with her's (all covered under warranty) until she got so feed up that she sold her iMac and bought a Dell.
Have any of you iMac G5 owners out there had similar experiences to Damien's?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Andrew Kaufmann said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I've got an iMac G5, and I'm scared to admit it at the risk of jinxing things, but I haven't encountered any problems (knock on wood). Are there certain serial numbers more susceptible to these problems?
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teece said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I have an iMac G5 1.6 that I got in Dec '04, and it has not given me any problems. Once in a blue moon the fan can get a little annoying, but only when really taxed (i.e. playing Halo or Unreal for a long time), or when the PM daemon in Tiger quits updating the firmware with status. But it is absolutely nothing like Peter K describes, unless I am deaf... but the iMac does share an office with a Linux server that has about 9 fans, so maybe it just seems quiet.
In any event, I am sure I just jinxed myself.
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Porchland said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Shhhhh!! Steve Jobs may be reading this blog! Are you nuts! Stay calm, keep your doors locked, and everything will be fine.
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tom said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
My iMac started turning off on me. Each time i started it back up, it would stay on for less and less time before turning off by itself. Eventually it stopped turning on all together. AppleCare had me order a new midplane. I installed it. Machine still wouldn't boot. They decided it was the power supply. I installed that, when it came, and that worked like a charm.
Other than that big problem, I have only had one other problem and that is that my screen dims sometimes. Putting the machine into sleep and bringing it back out of sleep sometimes resolves the issue. Othertimes I'll just ignore it and eventually when I let my machine idle, to the point where the screen dims automatically, I will move the mouse and the screen will brighten back up to full brightness. Oh, and by the screen dims, I mean the screen dims but the brightness settings are at FULL. I have been too lazy to get a new inverter, which is most likely the problem. I will eventually get back on the horn with AppleCare and get the brightness issue resolved though.
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christine said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
(also at the risk of jinxing myself) i've had my g5 imac since december '04 and have not encountered any problems save for the annoying fan sound. it seems to kick on right away and won't stop until after i put the comp to sleep. RETARDED!
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Garett said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I had a similar issue with my iMac. I got it back in November and it died on me back in March. They sent a new midplane and I replaced it and that didn't work, so I took it to an Apple tech and they ended up replacing the power supply which fixed it. Never had any issue with fan noise. All this was annoying, but I was more annoyed with the recent upgrade that made bluetooth and airport standard options.
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Shaun said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I have a 20 inch rev B. I got it May 10th and it's been great. I LOVE IT!
The fan is a little louder than my iMac G4, but not much. it seemd to get just a tiny bit louder after I installed a 1GB after-market DIMM, I wonder if I bumped something while I had the back off?
I got a scare when I started having a problem a week ago when the computer would not wake from sleep. Turned out I had to update my USB overdrive.
Other than that, the computer has been on 24/7 for the last two and half weeks and there has been no trouble at all so far. I do sniff the vent every few days to check for any sort of "burning" smell.
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Robert Pettit said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I was in the first wave to receive a iMac G5 when they came out. So far, no problems at all. Had issues with reconnecting to Airport network after sleep but those were software related and were fixed by an Apple update. Solid machine for me so far.
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Jean-Michel said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
My iMac G5's midplane had to be replaced, it looks like the graphic card had a problem, no wonder why they changed it on the new iMac models (ATI instead of nVidia). Take a look at this page for screenshots of my desktop prior to the midplane replacement.
http://jmv.ca/midplane_kapout.html
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Random said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Well, it depends. Is the iMac G5 statistically failing at a high percentage rate for a computer? The voice of one or two bloggers does not mean everyone is having a problem with them. Just like the Discussion boards at Apple are filled with only the people having an issue... You never hear about the people not having problems with their computers.
I would liken it akin to a torch bearing party. One person has the loudest voice and leads the rest towards his goals amid shouts and cries of deceit and treachery.
Trust me, I'm definitely not saying that Apple is infallible. Look at all the recalls that they are doing...
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J said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I bought one for my parents the day they were first released and so far no probs. The fans are pretty quiet even when using imovie and idvd. We love it!
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Michael said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I've had mine for about 3 months, and until I put Tiger on it I had recurring problems with the bluetooth mouse. The machine would spontaneously lose the ability to see the mouse, leaving the cursor frozen on the screen. I'm pretty much an idiot with computers, so the only solution I could come up with was (finally) to reboot. This was happening at least once a week, and under extremely low usage conditions. Frustrating. I put Tiger on the machine a couple weeks ago and haven't had the problem since.
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Laff said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I got one of the first one's off the line the 20" model and the only problem I had was the Super Drive did not work, and Apple sent me a new one over night and I replaced it with no problems and it has been fine ever since. No problems with fan noise or anything else for that matter....:)
Oh and I also purchased 3 years of AppleCare so I'm not worried about future issues.
Pagan jim
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Twig Gravely said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
It will surely be another addition to the famous "Road Apple" gallery. These machines should be replaced by Apple, especially if the new models show none of the original's problems. I returned mine after the noise became an issue, had to pay the restocking fee, and wasn't happy over that. I replaced it with an iBook, which is nice and quiet although not as powerful. A beautiful design, but this was the worst Mac I've ever bought.
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Andrew Kaufmann said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
"Oh and I also purchased 3 years of AppleCare so I'm not worried about future issues."
Maybe, I'm old school, but I believe that a company's product should work for 3 years without having to purchase an extra warranty. To me, it's a ridiculous commentary on the state of business that it's not even a 3rd party saying to buy an extended warranty -- it's not Best Buy saying "hey, buy a warranty, you might drop your iPod" but Apple themselves saying, essentially "if you want your product to work for 3 years for sure, you have to drop an extra $200."
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random said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
That's normal business practice. Dell, Gateway, HP and more offer the same warranty plans.
You don't buy a warranty to guarantee that your computer will work for three years. It is to guarantee that should the computer fail after the one year limited warranty expires, they'll take care of it. It may not even happen, but you have the sense of security in knowing that you won't have to pay for that $500 optical drive when the drive tray dies for some reason. Apple didn't make that part; Pioneer probably did.
Parts do fail. Your hard drive, your fans, your combo drives, and often times, your video card have moving parts in them.
I bought one without blinking for my PowerBook (most expensive one they offer). After having a PC fail three times on me in two years (got it replaced cheerfully after that third one for a computer with 2x everything), I can say that it's good sense to buy protection in case your computer fails.
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R. Patrick Atherton said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I bought one of the first iMac G5s, and have had zero problems with it. It's much quieter than the iMac G4 and the glorious 20-inch screen makes working on it a joy. I sympathize with victims of bad partsI've gone that route myselfbut my iMac runs as reliably as my 7-year-old iBook, i.e. perfectly.
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MIke said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I've had my 20" iMac G5 since November and have had no problems whatsoever.
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Tony Jensen said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
My wife and I both have iMac G5s and like them.
She has the 17" model and the fan noise is a bit loud. Brought it to the local Genius Bar and they replaced the midplane. Seemed to help a little but the fan noise is still quite a bit louder than my 20".
The Superdrive on the 17" makes a LOT of noise when our kids play games on it. Genius Bar said it was "normal". But it is getting worse so I may bring it in again.
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Robert said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I'm currently using a 2 yr old 1GHz G4 iMac (my 4th Mac in 11 years) and love it, excepting the insipid graphics capability. I very much wanted to move up to the new 20" G5 iMac but everywhere you look are posts like those here. A 50% failure rated noted in one lab setting? That's outrageous. I've seen much talk of defective parts, but lately focus on monitoring your internal temperatures -- even on the rev b models. Is it just simply possible this is a flawed design incapable of dissipating the heat produced by a G5? Would the world come to an abrupt end it Apple expanded the case depth from 2" to 3" or *gasp* 4" to allow for better heat dispersion? Power Mac G5's may have a rep for sounding like a jet engine at take-off, but they ain't going up in smoke.
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