Blackscooby

Help !

My (2nd hand) iMac G4 800 has just given up.
Fails to boot at all. Screen shows black.
Managed to get the thing to boot with the Hardware test CD and it reports Video Ram error disp/13/2

I've done some reading around and it would appear that the logic board is duff.

Silly me doesn't have any Apple Support cover as I bought it 2nd hand.

I'm not at a point where I can it to boot, but every so often (couple of times today) it bring up a text box saying that it needs to be restarted. This is getting extreamly annoying now !

Any idea if :-
a) I can retrospectively purchase apple support (approx 180USD)
b) obtain a new logic board and replace that ????

Ta

AllanB

You can buy AppleCare only within the first year of the units initial purchase date and this extendas the warranty to 3 years from that first purchase. However you may need to proove when the item was initally purchased and be able to provide an invoice showing the serial number of the unit you havbe.

Regarding parts , no you cannot purchase this and if anyone does try to supply you the part this is totallly against Apples regulations. Apple have a limited number of parts that are deemed to be customer installable and all others can only be supplied to authorised apple repair centres.

Most dealers will charge an inspection fee to look at the machine especially if it was bought elsewhere and out of warranty. Typical labout rates are 40-80 per hour. Bear in mind its not always easy to track down the fault and on occasion fixing one thing will reveal another problem so it can be hard to fix all faults quickly.

If you need help let me know as I work for MacWarehouse and we can sort out the repair for you , no problems.


AllanB

Blackscooby

Thanks Allan ~ just what I thought to be honest.

I'm currently using it now, it would appear that the fault is definitely related to video usage. If I turn on iTunes Visulizer I can get the fault to occur. I have also changed by background to something less graphically demanding and the fault seems to be much less frequent.

I bought the iMac off e-bay a couple of months ago. Until yesterday it has worked pretty much faulylessly. I remember when I bought it the lady said that it had a new board installed recently.

I wrote an e-mail to her yesterday asking if she had any documentation regarding the new install.

Immediately I got a reply with attached invoices and proof of payment etc. It would seem that a new logic board was fitted at the end of Aug. 04 by a Apple reseller. Would such a board have a 12mth guarentee ?

Thanks

Mark

AllanB

I'd have the check but thinks its 90 days and its only if its exactly the same component that is faulty.


AllanB

Blackscooby

Just spoken to the place where the logic board was fitted and you are correct Allan the component is out of warrenty (90 days)

Very tempted to go back to Jaguar and see if the problem still exists ~ I've only noticed it since installing Panther + patches.

My theory is that Panther uses some extra parts of the video ram that Jaguar doesn't (for what ever reason)... tempted just in the interest of science.

AllanB

Thats worth a try. Let me know the outcome


AllanB

Blackscooby

Interestingly I've reformatted the HD and installed 10.2.8 and I've loaded it all back with my software. Now I've only been running it for 24hours or so, but I've used it with all the apps that I knew caused problems. (iTunes with visulizer for the past 3 hours), playing DVDs etc.

No problems so far. Previously it would run for no more than 15 mins without encountering the message on the screen in 3 languages saying that I had to power off.

Fingers crossed !
I might try Panther again after Christmas and see if the problems occurr.


I'll let you know.

Thanks

Mark

class_A

Sounds like the OpenGL subsystem might have lunched itself on your original install.

Blackscooby

I could understand the OPENGL going wayward if it was just the iTunes visualizer causing the problem. But the problem was also when playing DVDs, and the hardware test CD picked up a fault...

strangely since the 10.2.8 re-install no issues to date !
Wierd...

class_A

Ah well, just skip Panther; Tiger's out soon