Maintainability: lessons Apple could stand to relearn

Actually, pretty much all of the "all in one" machines have been a colossal pain in the posterior to deal with. There were a couple of big issues with the eMacs, including those hex screws, but all in all, it's not that tough a job. Not for the feint of heart mind you, but not as bad as say, installing ram in an 8100. For reference, I never drill screws out anymore. I use a dremel with a cutting wheel to cut a straight channel into the screw and then use a flat bladed driver to take the screw out. Works every time. I've done this with 3 eMacs. The issue really isn't so much the size of the hex head, but with the softness of the metal in the screws, and the stupid swiveling mechanism that takes the screws. They have a nasty tendency to cross-thread and therefore strip. With lots of practice, you can get them to line up right and the screws are rarely a problem afterwards. Ultimately though, few of the "all in one" units were meant for user take-apart until this current generation of iMacs, and in some cases, servicing the eMac is years ahead of the previous iMacs and swapping out their defective analog boards. The HD was easier to get to, but ended up failing far less. HD failures happen less these days than you would probably assume, although upgrades are still difficult, but then again, Apple doesn't want you upgrading components, they want you upgrading machines.

About 3 years ago I tried to cannibalize the RAM out of a few retired tray-loading iMacs at my workplace. A couple hours later I was spraying Bactine on my knuckles and wrists and cursing Apple, saying "never again." My boss bought 10 eMacs last year. I tried to say No. No luck. Last month we figured out they were 10BaseT and were slowing down the network, and the cards couldn't be upgraded to 100Base or Gigabit. bleah.

Yeah, sorry to say, that the eMac was really probably meant to be more of a "throw away if something breaks" appliance. Along the same lines as a Playstation2 maybe. I've had three of those things go bad on me (the first one I bought costing me $299US, and never once did I think about having the appliance serviced. It would cost me more to have someone crack the case and replace the drive or whatever else was going on. I just went out and bought a new one. Just like back in the first days of Television. If there was a problem with the TV, you definitely took it to a repair person. Nowadays, toss it, or sell the dead set to a hobbyist and get a new one. Just the way it seems to be going. I feel for ya, I do, but next time get a tower that is meant to be easily upgraded/maintained. If that's what you're looking for.

I wish bloggers would go into 'think mode' for a minute or two before engaging 'full bitch ahead'. The first time I saw an eMac I went "Oh wow. Is that case a Tardis?" (For those of you who aren't in the know, a Tardis is bigger on the inside than on the outside.) My mind's eye realized that the case was filled with CRT and the computer was stuffed in around it. That it could be made to work at all is the miracle. Or to put it another way, education was screaming for a computer with a 17" display that could sit on a desk and be cheap. (Actually, education was screaming for an inexpensive mini-tower, but Apple wouldn't design that, for whatever reason.) Apple's solution was a 17" flat CRT with a computer squeezed inside. I've come to realize that cheap and easy to work on don't mix too well. Cheap, easy to work on and small....you can't have it. One of the three has to be thrown out. So next time, instead of bitching about a hard computer to work on, think before you buy. Or bitch...but don't write about it. There are more important things to blog about.

Just the fact that you are taking your eMac apart scares me to death. I'm sure you know what you're doing, but that mofo has a CRT in it. As in, blow you clear across the room if you screw up when you're discharging it. I guess what I'm getting at is that Apple didn't make that eMac to be taken apart by the common man. They were originally sold to schools, who left fixing them to professionals who are trained to take all-in-one units apart. That's why most users who buy them aren't even aware of the little access panel in the back. Good luck on making it work again.

I've repaired pretty much everything under the sun. From Old PCs and Macs to the Newest of the new. I have a best and worst for you guys. Easiest to work on were the G4 powermacs. You lift a lever on the top right side of the case, and the entire side opens right up for you. No cables need to be unplugged, nothing. And by far, the worst of the worst. My 12" powerbook. My hard drive died about 6 months ago, and me being the know-all fix-all computer guy I didn't get applecare. I replaced the drive through toshiba on an advance exchange, and 30 (no it's not a typo) screws later, I was able to remove the hard drive bracket. talk about a nightmare. The powerbook made the CRT iMacs look like a piece of cake in comparison.

Easy repair is something that some companies get right and some get very, very wrong. As a repair tech, nothing is worse than taking the lid/case off of something and finding out it wasn't made to be worked on by anyone who isn't charging by the hour. :-) The IBMs I repair at work a mixed bag. Some are a dream to pop open and swap things out on while others should have gone through a few more design revs before hitting the market.

I guess that's to be expecting with such a cheaply priced computer. It is no powermac and I don't know if you have seen the insides of the new powermacs, but they are very easy to service.