The iMac G5 Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues applies to first generation iMac G5 computers that have video or power-related issues as a result of a specific component failure. If your iMac G5 is exhibiting any of the symptoms listed below and your computer’s serial number is within the noted ranges, your computer may be eligible for repair, free of charge. If Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) determines that your iMac G5 computer is eligible as part of the program, the repair will be covered by Apple for up to two years from the original date of purchase even if your iMac G5 is out of warranty. This is a worldwide Apple program.
The program is available for certain iMac G5 models that were sold between approximately September 2004 and June 2005 featuring 17- and 20-inch displays with 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz G5 processors.
The affected iMac G5 computers have serial numbers where the first 5 digits fall into the ranges noted below.
Serial Number ranges:
W8435xxxxxx – W8522xxxxxx
QP435xxxxxx – QP522xxxxxx
CK435xxxxxx – CK522xxxxxx
YD435xxxxxx – YD522xxxxxx
More info: http://www.apple.com/support/imac/repairextensionprogram/
It’s about time. I love Apple, but they were slow to respond to this, instead “hiding” the problem for too long.
Par for the course for Apple. It’s the primary reason I’ve shied away from their all-in-one devices in the past. One component failure brings the whole thing down, and even when hundreds or thousands of people have the same problem, they don’t acknowledge a defect.
The iMac G5 was released in the first place almost exactly one year ago. Until now, every unit was under warranty. This “response” is no different from the previous approach: fix the ones that break. This is merely an acknowledgement that some of the defective units might take a little longer to fail.
wannabe –
When there’s a defective part, the proper course is to announce it right away, and allow people to get it replaced BEFORE it fails. Apple’s tactic has always been to treat it as a normal incident as long as possible, then say “okay.. we *know* our product is going to screw you at some point in the future. when that time comes, we’ll fix it.”
This approach doesn’t save me the minimum 2-3 days of downtime I’m inevitably going to suffer when it happens.
*AND*
Extending it to 2 years is not acceptable either. If their known-to-be-faulty part dies after 2 years, I should pay for it? This is only acceptable if they offered me the chance to have the part replaced in the first 2 years regardless of whether it’s failed yet.
MW: “now” Fix it now, not later.
Better late than never.
OOoooh…the warranty period is almost up and Apple admits that there
are some REAL issues with thier iMac G5. They beat the clock and
aren’t neglecting thier customers.
Kudos to Apple!
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CT ======]————– Aaaaack
PC Apologist, there you go, living up to your name again (note: that’s not something to be proud of). My dad had this problem with his G5 iMac a few months ago. He called support on a Wednesday afternoon, they had the part on his doorstep Thursday morning and he has been up and running just fine since then. My sister had a similar experience with the plug for her PowerBook a few years ago. On the rare occasion that there is a problem with Apple hardware, they fix it fast.
That being said, I will say I don’t like their policy of not publicly admitting a problem exists. Like the Security Update the other day. As far as I know, they never actually said that the first update broke 64 bit apps. They just released the second version as if it was just another update. Also, there was an issue with not being able to post photos from iPhoto to your Homepage with .Mac that I still don’t think has been resolved or acknowledged. It affected both my sister and I, and many people posted about it on the Apple Discussion Boards. What ended up fixing it for both of us was going to high speed connections, but dial-up wouldn’t work anymore.
Of course our iMac has been to the big city, 70 miles away, to repair this very issue (still under 1st year warranty, until Oct. and get this –the machine was there so long we were ONE day away from Apple having to buy us a 2nd Gen iMac to replace. Magically the past showed up from Apple on the “last day” –cuhhrap!). The computer was toast. So I felt ransomed into buying Apple Care as I heard some times the expensive repair needs it done twice. So, went to Ebay and bought Apple from a shop in CA, for at least a semi discount….
and then a week later (yesterday) Apple releases the news above
….and of course, it goes for “2 years” not 3 just so us new Apple Care people aren’t quite sure what to do – – but then I would guest most of us will swallow it and hang on to Apple Care because of the phone support (which I hardly ever use because of the 45 minutes of hold time) and we get an extra year of coverage and they come to your house. Pretty darn calculated that Apple issues a repair program like this for two years and not 3 to avoid Apple Care’s “kitchen”.
I still hope a bunch of folks w/ Apple Stores a block from them demand a refund of heir Apple Care. My wife said Nissan had to do that on extended warranty purchases, when they extended it to everybody (after problems), pre paying customers demanded their money back and got it. That’s why Apple was careful w/ the “2 years from purchase thing”. Very careful. Bastards. But, I have heard these bad capacitors from a 3rd party have eff’d up a bunch of PC lines as well.
T
God Apple suck. I already had my first iMac G5 replaced because of this issue after 3 months. Now I’m seeing graphical glitches when I do a user switch and I see the S/N of my replacement machine falls under the list of defective machines. I paid a premium price for what I thought would be a premium quality machine. More fool me.
Paul, every company has a few lemons. Apple is still far better than any other computer company out there. I don’t know if this is still the case, but I read a few years ago that Dell was saving money by not quality testing their computers before shipping them to the customers and they had a 30% return rate. I’ve been using Apple products since I was 12 years old (24 years) and I’ve never had a single problem.
apples, like its liberal idiot leader, sucks.
4 more years 4 more years
Whenever anyone percieves failure (i.e. through coke bottled glasses)
there is a tendancy to dismiss the issue entirely and seek a better
answer. Now, perfection is out there somewhere…of course everbody
would love to find it.
I’m full of flaws…why should Apple be any different? Let’s just say
that what we have here is the admission from a modern public business
model that this is just the kind of shit that happens.
Computers are great tools for this world we live in…Live Long, Grow
Strong, Phone Home!
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ndelc –
Your experience (have the problem, call, have the part in 12 hours) is clearly not typical. Nor does it make sense to me, as the defective components in the iMac G5s are not user-replaceable. Why would he have received the part directly?
You’ve got to take it to an Apple service provider or ship it to Apple themselves. As testified to by others on this thread, it takes days at least, sometimes much much longer.
Once you acknowledge a defective part, you should absolutely recall it, whether it has failed or not. A 2-year window to have it replaced without having failed yet would be fine, and after that, if it *does* fail, they should replace it no matter when it happens.
Again, this is typical Apple support — the third generation of a product is usually good, but the first couple are plagued with problems, and the service is terrible.
“Defective” in this case does not mean a 100% failure rate, just a failure rate that is higher than normal. If Apple said “hey everybody, your computers are all defective, come get them replaced” then lots of iMacs would be replaced for no reason.
Unless someone has real numbers, not anecdotes, showing an extremely high failure rate, then it’s silly to suggest that Apple should have replaced them all.
“Your experience (have the problem, call, have the part in 12 hours) is clearly not typical. Nor does it make sense to me, as the defective components in the iMac G5s are not user-replaceable. Why would he have received the part directly?”
No, actually, you’re wrong. When my dad had this problem they narrowed it down to two parts that might be the culprit, the power supply, or the Z-plane (I could be wrong about the exact name but it was something like that). They thought it was probably the power supply so that’s what they sent first. He replaced it himself in a matter of minutes and he hasn’t had any problems since. That was one of the big features about the G5 iMac is that most of the parts are user replaceable.
“You’ve got to take it to an Apple service provider or ship it to Apple themselves. As testified to by others on this thread, it takes days at least, sometimes much much longer.”
I don’t think this is typical at all. Most people I’ve known who have actually had to have Apple fix their computer have gotten it back very quickly. I think people who have had it take a long time are in the minority. Otherwise, Consumer Reports certainly wouldn’t rate Apple so high on service.
Soooooooo……don´t go buying the first generation Mactels…..
ndelc –
Well if the parts *are* user-replaceable, that would certainly make a difference in the case of these vs. the other lemons they’ve produced (original iMacs, powerbooks, etc.) I’ll have to look that one up!
Consumer Reports said 20% Mac users were infected with a virus this year. I can’t say I trust their methodology.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that the power supply is, as they didn’t have my Dad take his anywhere. I don’t know if it would have been the same for the Z-plane. I realize that with this announcement they’re telling customers they need to have a technician make the determination, but that wasn’t the case with my dad’s computer.
Good point about Consumer Reports, but then they’re not the only ones who report this. ACSI did too.
PC Apologist,
I would sure love to know that issue of CR that you are quoting.
Aside from this, I believe your posts have reached record levels of asininity. Perhaps you should change your name to something closer to your intents, such as “Apple Flamer” or “Because PCs are so inherently inferior to Macs, I’m going to make up for it by generalized, uninformed statements to try to make my platform look better. In this I will fail, but it sure will make me feel superior!”
How can you be so low as to go on sites dedicated to a specific product for the explicit purpose of insulting said product? Seriously… I can’t stand Windows, but I don’t go on Windows fan sites to bash your fellow PC lovers.
Finally, I can only ask the same question asked by a previous individual on a recent article: Do you even know what you’re talking about?
Great. My iMac G5 falls within the range. Hope I remain unaffected.
My iMac G5 ran perfectly for 11 months, then:
new mid-plane
new hard drive
new mouse
all replaced at the apple store, and now:
new inverter, to be replaced by me