Filed under: Desktops, Hardware, Bugs/Recalls, PowerMac G5, Bad Apple
Liquid cooled Power Macs are leaking
Imagine waking up one morning to find that a glowing green goo was dripping from the cheese-grater bottom of your shiny Power Mac. Horrible even to imagine, I know. Unfortunately, this has become a reality for some owners of recent liquid cooled Power Macs. According to reports, the leaks stem from malfunctioning Delphi radiators that shipped in early versions of the systems. If you have an early 2.5 GHz liquid cooled machine, it might be worth sliding off the side panel to check for leaks. Naturally, if you do come across a bit of Macintosh incontinence, stop using the machine right away, and schedule an appointment at the nearest genius bar. As is always the case with product failures and Apple, there is discussion about
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
James Donevan said 12:12PM on 6-14-2006
"As is always the case with product failures and Apple, there is discussion about weather..."
Not always. On occasion I have had Apple reps discuss politics and vegetarian diets, but weather does seem a favourite.
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Chris said 12:24PM on 6-14-2006
So... I have been following this a bit... But I can only find one dudes blog that talks about this... Can any one point me to a link that proves other people are having this issue?
-Chris
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Robert Rezabek said 12:26PM on 6-14-2006
Sure, it sucks when your PowerMac spills out its cooling liquid. But at least this liquid looks really beautiful. Especially in combination with the aluminium case, no?
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andy said 12:28PM on 6-14-2006
Apple seem to be having some real quality control issues of late, i have a dual 2.7, everything is fine so far - hope it stays that way at least untill the intel revisions come out
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John Muir said 12:31PM on 6-14-2006
"Naturally, if you do come across a bit of Macintosh incontinence, stop using the machine right away, and schedule an appointment at the nearest genius bar"
Edinburgh's a lonnnng way (in ultra expensive impossible to park UK terms) from any damned genius bar so far, and it's even worse in most of Europe.
My brother has one of the early 2.5GHz dual G5's mentioned, fingers crossed he's on the lucky side!
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Michael said 12:38PM on 6-14-2006
Happened to me. I have applecare and procare...moved to the front of the repair queue...estimated $1600 parts/labor (it shorted my powersupply, video card and more). 5 days later they called..."it can't be fixed"...we'd like to give you a new machine". "Great" i said. Since it was a build to order I have to wait 10 days. 10 days later..."oh, they no loger make the 2.5 watercooled, we're gonna upgrade you"... Well...i wasn't so happy (I use my G5 daily to make my living)... "Okay" I said. One week later, "you new G5 is ready for pickup...we've imaged your old drives". "Great", I exclaimed. Got the the Apple store...and guess what I got? A G5 quad. Nice upgrade for a 2 year old G5. Had to spend another $400 for new RAM...but I thanked the Genius and went home. Now I have at least another year or two before jumping to MacTel...
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jps said 12:42PM on 6-14-2006
There are three kinds of product failures:
1. The "i did something stupid/minor that I now want the manufacturer to fix but I don't want to pay for it."
2. The "something very bad happened with absolutely no possible influence from myself"
3. The "i can't tell who is really at fault here, but it's really dangerous and chances are the manufacturer should fix it for free so as to avoid risking products liability."
Most cosmetic issues fall into 1, especially the brown ibooks thing (which at this point I believe is nicotine stains as frankly this makes the most sense.) Your computer randomly leaking coolant falls into 2. That isn't common wear and tear, it's not foreseeable, and frankly unless you jostle your desktop computer a lot, there's no reason for it to occur.
3 happens a lot in, say, automobiles (the power seatbelts in my old car had a lifetime warranty because, frankly, a car manufacturer doesn't want to be liable in the event you had no way of using a seatbelt and got into an auto accident.) I suppose if your computer could shock you or started venting poisonous gas, this would be the likely approach.
Why am I saying all this? Well, mostly because I'm frustrated with the amount of bitching I have read about cosmetic defects on Apple products and am even more frustrated that people will inevitably link this problem to people insisting they get a new nano because they carelessly scratched their old one.
Your computer leaking a viscous green fluid is one of the few CLEAR defects I've seen discussed in the Apple community, and if apple were to fail to replace these computers or repair them free of charge, THAT would be reason to get up in arms, NOT because you scratched your precious new toy.
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Jon H said 12:48PM on 6-14-2006
"According to reports, the leaks stem from malfunctioning Delphi radiators that shipped in early versions of the systems"
Should've known not to buy American.
(Delphi was spun off from GM.)
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Jacob Wilson said 12:55PM on 6-14-2006
The word is whether....not weather. Weather is the clouds in the sky.
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Wheels said 1:08PM on 6-14-2006
"Should've known not to buy American."
No no no. Should've known not to buy Delphi (GM). This was predictable.
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Sy said 1:36PM on 6-14-2006
This is perfect ...bleeding cooler machines for some bleeding heart liberal mac users.
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JKrahn said 1:39PM on 6-14-2006
Wow. I got a custom 2.5 the day they came out. Part of me is hoping for no problems at all. Another part of me wants the Quad-upgrade. Not much I can do.
That green looks...now I don't want to say fake, because that's not the right word. It's just so Green.
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chris said 1:39PM on 6-14-2006
jps, great points. I would take issue with one thing:
"...get a new nano because they carelessly scratched their old one"
I think if people were complaining because they scratched their nanos then this would be a valid statement but please remember (or read) about the circumstances that caused the nanos to become scratched...namely sitting them on a desk or putting them in the pocket of your pants. I think that a product that is advertised as being able to be carried around in your pants shouldn't scratch to the point of having an unusable display (this happened to a friend of mine) because you put it in the pocket of your pants. In my opinion, this is akin to complaining because the paint on your car flaked off within the first year because you left it parked out of doors. I think that is considered normal use by almost all users of cars and I think that the auto manufacturer is responsible for a faulty paint job, even though it is 'cosemtic'.
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Jon H said 1:54PM on 6-14-2006
JKrahn writes: "That green looks...now I don't want to say fake, because that's not the right word. It's just so Green."
Have you ever filled a car's radiator?
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Wojtek Kowalewski said 1:56PM on 6-14-2006
My Quad failed me a few weeks ago. I bought it in February (first Mac ever) and love it.
My failure occured with the pump that allows the green stuff to flow through. The computer was perfectly quiet until one day there was like a heart beat sound coming from the CPU and the fans went hyperspeed. I took it to Apple store and was told the pump failed and the CPU needs to be replaced. It took over a week for the part to arrive.
I have my computer back, but now the fans are more noisy than they were at first (backside fan hits a max of 3000 rpm, even when I'm not running anything)
I don't know what to do, a drive to Apple store again is quite a drive (we don't have many stores in Canada) I guess I should just live with it and accept the fact that the quad at least works.
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icerabbit said 2:00PM on 6-14-2006
DP 2.5 owner without coolant issue, crossing fingers + knocks on wood. Did opt for the 3yr APP just in case there would be some catastrophe with the cooling system. As that wouldn't be something I could fix off the shelf.
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macxprt said 3:23PM on 6-14-2006
Does this mean that if I poke the radiator with a pin/stick/knife/etc... I get a new machine??
Cool... Instant upgrade!
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DKM said 3:32PM on 6-14-2006
I had three dual 2.5 GHz G5's suffer from this issue which were all purchased at the same time. The first I brought to a local authorized service provider and they determined that they needed to replace the case, logic board, power supply. After ten weeks of waiting for the local service provider trying to get all the replacement parts from Apple I finally talked Apple into replacing the system with a new quad G5. The second two systems died about a month later within one week of each other. These two systems I brought directly to the Genius Bar at an Apple store and were repaired within three days. If your dual G5 system suffers from this unfortunate demise and you need the repairs done quickly take them directly to an Apple store.
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Billy K said 3:46PM on 6-14-2006
This is not good for Apple. Their year-old eMacs are popping capacitors and spilling brown goo.
Green goo, brown goo...goo everywhere.
Hey TUAW, how about some investigative reporting on the eMac problem? I have one, as do a couple of my friends.
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Matt R. said 5:27PM on 6-14-2006
I also have a 1.5 year old eMac G4 that has become totally unstable, with Apple telling me that there is nothing wrong with it, aside from crashing (so hard sometimes the power button won't even turn it off) 15 times a day.
Oh well, we just bought a used iMac G5 and are hoping Apple will come around and fix our eMac, so we can sell it. Otherwise, it's about $400 for a new mainboard.
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