Leaking capacitors in my iMac G5

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited June 2010 in Hardware
Well well well.... It looks like I have been forever cursed with these damned f*ing "industrial espionage" capacitors.

Yes, my beloved iMac has been freaking out the last couple of days. Video corruption, hard freezes, you name it.

Finally it gave up the ghost today. It froze and then wouldn't reboot. Every time I turned it on, the video was totally corrupt and it would hard freeze just seconds after reaching the desktop.

So I opened the thing up.

Imagine my shock, chagrin, and surprise when I found bulging, leaking capacitors on my IMAC :shakehead

I thought I had seen the last of these bastards with all my KT7s and Soyo Dragons and other motherboards I've RMAed over the years with these damned capacitors.

Sure enough, I started googling, and it looks like MANY people are having the same problem.

Back to the authorized apple service center for me :grumble:

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Comments

  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    That sucks prime. I knew Apple cut every corner with the iMacs, but I mean there are some lines that shouldn't be crossed.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Yeah, keep in mind this machine is about 4 months old. :(
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited May 2005
    I would have never thought apple would cheep out on caps :(
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited May 2005
    Ewww, just wait until Thraxie sees this thread; he's gonna give you even more **** over your Mac now. :eek:

    You know though, it would seem like Mac would have learned from the PC industry about using those cheap counterfeit crap caps. :shakehead It's not like this problem is just surfacing either (the bad cap problem). :shakehead Even EPoX has upgraded their caps to decent ones now.

    Sorry to hear it happening to you, prime. At least it's still under warrantee though.
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited May 2005
    I'd have never expected that out of a manufacturer... Especially not Apple. :shakehead
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Oh it's not just apple. I've had a slew of bad Abit boards, Soyo, EpoX, you name it. They ALL did it. I've had one bad mac, but 20 dead PC motherboards. :shakehead
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Well... Apple always was a few years behind PCs... :D
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited May 2005
    Probably a bad batch sourced from a company that sold them at regular price. I bet that damn electrolyte will be showing up leaking for another decade ...

    For those of you who missed the story originally:

    http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/feb03/ncap.html
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited May 2005
    primesuspect wrote:
    Oh it's not just apple. I've had a slew of bad Abit boards, Soyo, EpoX, you name it. They ALL did it. I've had one bad mac, but 20 dead PC motherboards. :shakehead

    Maybe so, but those boards were produced years ago and not present production like your imac. :shakehead
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Form over function. :D I'll bite my tongue on Apple using bad caps in 2005.

    Sorry to hear it Prime. :(
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    you have had one bad mac but how many have you owned?
  • NosferatuNosferatu Arizona
    edited May 2005
    GHoosdum wrote:
    Well... Apple always was a few years behind PCs... :D

    You mean ahead of course. :p
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Nosferatu wrote:
    You mean ahead of course. :p

    When you walk backwards, everyone seems to be behind you. If you slow down they fall farther behind...
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    I remember an article a couple weeks ago somebody posted where a guy had all kinds of problems with his iMac like with the screen and I thought this capacitor thing was one of them.

    Sucks prime, hope Apple clears this up for you on a machine thats only 4 months old. I also had some bad cap problems with a Gigabyte board, so no mac-bashing from me, nothing they can do about it.... as long as they rectify this issue for you in a timely manner at no cost to you.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2005
    GnomeWizardd wrote:
    you have had one bad mac but how many have you owned?

    Yeah thats what I was going to mention. I know you have been around a lot of PCs, good chance more PCs than Macs.

    And still having bad caps after what has happened in the PC market is the bad thing.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited May 2005
    You know, after seeing this happen to prime after only 4 months makes me wonder what kind of warrantee they give on the mac mini systems they are selling and if they sourced those mobo's from the same place as the imacs? I just looked on apple's site and see they say 90 days support and 1 year warrantee though.
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited May 2005
    I've got to imagine you could still bring it in to a mac store, point at the caps and be like WTF guys. apple is all up in the customer service, they'd get you sorted out
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    I think if you walked into the mac store and said "WTF guys" they'd realize that you were a PC guy and then the Mac Panthers would be all over you.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Heeeeee..... Mac Panthers. Another Ctrl+Alt+Del plug..

    Ctrl+Alt+Del archive
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited May 2005
    Sorry to hear about your iCrap - (I mean iMac) dying Prime :D
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    I took it to the local service center and the guy was indeed, "wtf?".

    Now, we get to see how long it takes apple to send out a new "midboard" :shakehead
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2005
    They didnt call it a motherboard, not even a fatherboard?
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited May 2005
    I was just wondering, what is that that is leaking out of the capacitors. I've never had the problem before, and I never really wanted to ruin anything just to see.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Electrolyte. The ionized fluid that holds and stores an electrical charge.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Isn't it more like a paste than a fluid?
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    It depends on the design.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited May 2005
    The fluid doesnt hold the charge. The space between the plates creates the charge. Depending on the medium between the plates determines the amount of charge and the area needed for a certain amount of charge.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    The fluid doesnt hold the charge. The space between the plates creates the charge.
    Ah, you beat me to it. Thrax has been corrected. ;D
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    ehh.....technically the plates hold the charge - the seperation, overlapping area and dielectric between the plates determine the amount of charge that can be held, and the charge is created by some external electromotive force.

    And in case anyone cares...

    C = E*A/d

    A = overlapping area
    d = distance between the plates
    E = permittivity of the dielectric

    however - this neglects fringing capacitance...but who really cares about that...or anything I just wrote.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited May 2005
    It was the European Swallow, that's my point. :mullet:
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