Well, it finally happened. Something happened to the computer, an iMac G5, that warranted a trip to an “authorized technician”. Here’s what happened.
Yesterday, I turned on the computer and started checking the usual haunts in my favorite sites list. I was also listening to a good mix of music, but I digress. Ten minutes of operation later, I got up… and noticed a burning smell emanating from the top vent on the monitor/computer shell. Folks, if you ever smell this from a computer, shut it down immediately! I did just that, laid it down on the monitor face and took the back panel off. I honestly expected smoke coming from the G5 processor, but luckily that wasn’t the case. Instead, the smell was coming from the power supply! Well, I waited for cooldown, set the computer back up, and did some really quick net-surfing to find out if anyone else was having this problem. There was that smell again, five minutes later! Anyways, some users did have problems with their iMac power supplys, even letting it go to the point that they would hear some sizzling (I heard this too, right before shutting it down for servicing) and then a POP… no power whatsoever!
After reading these horror stories, I found the documentation on how to fix/replace the power supply (almost everything in these new iMacs is user-serviceable, right down to the integrated LCD monitor itself, without wrath from Apple) on the Apple support pages, along with a recall notice regarding isolated problems with the iMac G5; my computer serial number fell within the range of the affected numbers! I printed everything I found, shut it down, opened it up again, and called Apple technical support. They told me to get it in to MacMedia, right down the street from me, and they would evaluate it for me (they wanted to make sure I didn’t do the damage myself, as if I’d be that bone stupid!).
I took it over there, the tech looked at it and concluded it definitely was the power supply (duh!!). They also concluded that I was smart to bring it in when I did (double-duh!!), especially when I read that the users who waited too long, and had theirs pop dead, found that not only did their power supply burn up, but it took parts of the motherboard with it! Unfortuately, they didn’t have a spare power supply, so I have to let them hold it for the weekend, and hope they get one on Monday.
Christine and I saved her old blue iMac G3 in the event that this would happen, or if the need arose. I hooked everything up last night, as you all can see from me posting this entry. Fortunately, most of our important files and our good sized music collection are backed up on the external drive and CD-R discs, so we’re not going to be hurting too bad. UNfortunately, this old G3 doesn’t have Firewire or USB 2.0 ports and our iPods need those connections for updating and transferring music. Won’t work with USB 1.1… too bad, so sad!
Some morals to this long story: if you ever get a new computer, save the old one and keep it on ready-to-go status. Also, get a capacious external hard drive to back up your essential files…. heck, if everything in your computer’s hard drive is really important, then get some backup software and have it mirror the two drives! Believe me guys and gals, you’ll be glad you did!!
[...] I’ll say from my personal experience, in getting the iMac G5 that I’m currently typing this out on fixed, that it was a small hassle having to drag the whole computer in last year to a nearby Apple store to be repaired. You can read my blog entry on the burning incident here. They could have just sent me the part that I needed, since I told them I had opened the computer and diagnosed the part in question, but they insisted that their techs look it over to see if anything else needed to be replaced (in other words, they wanted to see if I screwed it up myself, thus nullifying any warranty!). After all was said and done, the diagnosics and repairs cost me nothing aside from a weekend without my trusty iMac. I have no reason to complain about something done for free! [...]