A warning about eMacs

M

Macel

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I have to laugh now every time I see those Mac commercials claiming they never freeze (as opposed to PCs)..

Anyways, if you've been crashing a lot lately and own an eMac that utilizes DDR memory (2004+), its because the logic boards on these eMacs have faulty capacitors.. It's a known problem, but Apple hasn't published it for some reason. A surefire way to determine if you have this issue is to open up the RAM bay on the bottom and take a look at the capacitors surrounding the DIMMs - you will notice an orange substance oozing out of the tops of one or more of the capacitors. Just figured I'd give a heads up..
 
and what'd be the course of action should one of the macosx.com users have such an eMac? back to Apple with it or is there anything one can do?
 
fryke said:
and what'd be the course of action should one of the macosx.com users have such an eMac? back to Apple with it or is there anything one can do?
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Well, if its still under warranty you can ship it to apple, or have them come out and replace the logic boards for you (depending on the terms of your warranty).. Otherwise you're SOL unless you're willing to pay for the new logic board and any repair service costs....
 
Macel said:
I have to laugh now every time I see those Mac commercials claiming they never freeze (as opposed to PCs)..
Click to expand...
I don't remember any Mac commercials claiming that Macs never freeze... sure, there may be one or two that poke fun at Windows for crashing so much, but there isn't a Mac commercial that claims that Macs never freeze. I'm also sure that the implied message is that if your Macintosh is in working physical order (bad capacitors would obviously be NON-working physical order) and that your software is up-to-date and free of defects that the Macs freeze significantly less often than a Windows computer.

Anyways, if you've been crashing a lot lately and own an eMac that utilizes DDR memory (2004+), its because the logic boards on these eMacs have faulty capacitors.. It's a known problem, but Apple hasn't published it for some reason.
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Because it's not originally Apple's problem -- it's the manufacturer of the capacitor's problem. I know of no reports of bad capacitors in eMacs -- do you have a link or some photos to back that up? Not that I doubt that it's happening, but these bad capacitors have been around for quite some time now (6 or more years), and are a well-known problem not specific to Apple in the slightest:

http://www.badcaps.net/

Edit: Just found links to prove that Apple is replacing/repairing computers with bad capacitors free of charge, with an isolated incident here or there of Apple trying to charge for replacement/repair:

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/emac/topic4116.html
 
*IF* Apple uses bad capacitors and sells you Macs with them, it's _perfectly_ Apple's problem. You as end user don't go to the manufacturer of those capacitors, you go to Apple, since _Apple_ sold you the Mac.
 
'you will notice an orange substance oozing out of the tops of one or more of the capacitors.' - eh, 'electrolyte'.

'and what'd be the course of action should one of the macosx.com users have such an eMac? back to Apple with it or is there anything one can do?' - that would depend on whether or not the Mac was under some service plan (for example - AppleCare). if not, and the user is skilled with a soldering iron - I would suggest carefully measuring the existing voltage across the capacitory (with a high impedance voltmeter) and noting the voltage value printed on the capacitor (as well as its capacitance value). If the measured voltage is within 10 percent (above or below) the printed value - purchase a replacement capacitor of the same capacitance and physical size; but, with the next (higher) voltage capacity. Otherwise, replace the capacitor of the same capacitance, size, and printed voltage value.

When removing the exisiting capacitor(s) - keep in mind that the printed circuit board, pcb, is a sandwich of many many layers; and therefore, apply the proper amount of heat and pulling force. Make sure the pcb's hole (cup) is completely clear and clean before inserting the leads of the replacement component(s), then heat the pad and leads, while applying an appropriate amount of solder to the heated pad and lead - not to the soldering iron's tip.

As noted, by moving the mouse over this picture at flicker, - a damaged (axial or radial [as in the photo]) eletrolytic capacitor is evident by a bulge apperance, or worse case an exploded casing.

The typical cause of a capacitor's failure - voltage stress, due to incorrect engineering design and / or pre-production design evaluation.

Also, not all materials observed on a component are indications of a components condition. Nor are all eletrolytes 'orange'.

-----

Also, during a product's total production period - components can be and are purchased from a variety of vendors; thus, there is the possiblity where a well designed product, can still see small quantities produced with defects.
 
i've seen/heard of this on the web before. some guy was trying to start a rucus about it on another site that i'm a mac tech for. there's even a long thread on apple's forums about it. but like el-d said, apple is doing something about it. and it really only effects a small number of the total emacs. those caps made it into one run of the emacs, and don't always blow in all the ones they're in either.
 
What's hilarious is that lots of other PC manufacturers are suffering from this even to this day. All because of a stolen formula for the caps that was defective to begin with and was sold to many other manufacturers. Dell, IBM, ABIT, and a bunch of other manufacturers that probably have nothing to do with Apple have been affected terribly by this.

I have seen this first hand on IBM NetVistas and Dell Optiplex GX270 and GX280 PCs. The school system I work for has worked with these computer manufacturers to have all of the defective motherboards replaced free of charge.

So it's not even an Apple or Windows PC issue. It's a capacitor issue and yes the manufacturers are liable for it since it was a well-covered issue by the media.
 
Be Advised--There is a World-Wide Apple Recall on eMac & iMac-s made in 2004 for faulty capacitors on Logic Board. Apple ignored it at first, & doesn't rountinely point it out now--but the fix is now free, if your eMac or iMac falls into the right S/N numbers. This ailment starts out as seldom occuring hard-Crashing--but will eventually cause frequent Crashing on most software--especially anything using alot of Graphics. The link to Apple's own Forum on this eMac / iMac problem it's-self, is figity for a long time after you arrive till it fills in completely, and I'm on DSL. Link is ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=301339&tstart=15 ) Also, People with eMacs & iMacs outside the Recall S/n-s are reporting same condition & positive ID on defective Capacitors. None of the standard Tests will show any problem--everyone on that Forum reports that result, that has made positive ID of defective capacitors that can be viewed -via- Memory Door. jellison. Oregon
 
dude, why did you drag this old thread up? plz look at the date before posting. ifs it hasn'r been posted in for the last couple months, leave it alone. unless it relates to a problem you are having.
 
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