16 October 2008

My Intel iMac is dead, logic board failure, how's yours?

With much dismay, I resigned myself to the fact my 2006 17" Intel iMac is kaput. I've had it since July 2006, so in just 2 years and 3 months it's died. It's the first total failure of any PC I've ever owned and also turns out to be the most expensive. To replace a logic board here in Canada costs around $1000, so it's an economic write off, I might as well buy a new machine.

When I bought the machine in the UK, back in 2006 I didn't bother getting AppleCare as I thought it was just another extended warranty you don't need. Somewhat ironically I think there's a European consumer law (which I'll have to research), that covers you outside the 1 year manufacturers warranty, but now I'm in Canada, I doubt that applies.

Two things disappoint me here:

1) It's shattered my perception of Apple producing reliable machines. I've been using Macs for years with no trouble with the machines at all. The expensive price tag stood for style and reliability - something that was made to last.

2) The sheer expense to myself. What ever I do, it's going to cost me. I cannot afford another Mac for a few months now and I'm back to using my old Sony Vaio, which the Mac replaced and is still going (it just about runs Flex 3). I need a machine to do my work, but can I really justify buying another iMac at $1500+ ? In Canada, Apple doesn't offer any credit schemes and I'm only allowed a $500 credit card limit as I've not lived in the country for long. It pains me to be actually considering buying a PC with Vista on it!

Doing a bit of Goolging and speaking to the guy in the Apple Store, it seems early Intel iMacs are prone to this problem. Potentially thousands of machines could be dropping like flies, out of warranty and at great expense to the consumer. Apple are probably keeping this one quiet, so please post here if you've had a logic board failure (or any other catastrophic problem) with the 2006/2007 Intel iMac models (the white ones).

**** UPDATE - MARCH 2011 ****
Thank you everyone for posting. There is a petition you can sign to recall 2006 iMacs.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/imacrecall

Alas I ripped my iMac apart to get the HDD out and sent it for recycling. But if you still have your dead iMac, it may be worth signing the petition and get on a Class Action Lawsuit.

225 comments:

1 – 200 of 225   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

Just brought my 24" intel imac back from the genius bar. Bad logic board, blah blah blah, $975.00! Guess I have an expensive doorstop.

The thing of it is, the computer still works: just the video went out on it.

Shame on apple!!!

Tom

Unknown said...

I find this topic very interesting. My 20" Imac duo core logic board was delcared dead 2 days ago buy an apple tech after only 2 years of service. The computer was getting slower and slower over the last few months and the screen began showing visual distortions and artifact lines. I read somewhere that it is not the logic board that fails but the ATI Radeon x1600 graphics card that is soldered to the board that fails. Apple will only replace the entire logic board which is why the repair price tag is so high. I am totally ****** off at apple. 2 years is simply too brief a period of service for any computer. The graphics card should be a replacable part and not integrated to the logic board. Does any one know if the graphics card could be some how replaced anyway? I wonder how many of these late 2006 imacs are failing anyway. If there are enough of us maybe we can get together and lobby apple to do something for us?

I will be watching this thread with interest.

Anonymous said...

i have a 24" late 2006 imac with the same logic board / video output dead issue. awesome huh? is 3 enough for a lawsuit? ;)

Dan Lavender said...

I'm not sure 3 is enough, but I'm hoping this thread gets out there and people start posting here.

If this really is an inherent problem, then we can't be the only ones with it.

Timothy Doyle said...

I am in San Francisco, I have an iMac Intel Duo Core just got back from the Genius Bar and the Logic Board is dead. Out of Warranty. $900 to fix. Apple is really bad on this on.

Dan Lavender said...

Hi cazzooo, what year was it?

Anonymous said...

Hello Dan,

It's not just the 17" iMac that has bad logic boards. Apple's quality in general is going down over the years.

Yes, there should be a class action lawsuit against Apple. Why should we pay so much money for such crap? We may as well buy a generic PC and install Mac OS X on it!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the Middle East and more iMac logic board failures. Manufactured in 2006, I was told by the local agent at the start of 2008 that the board had gone, and could I find about $1,150 to repair it. No, I could not, but what really upset me was that he admitted that the Intel machines are prone to this problem. I have used an old eMac at work for three years (at its limit) and its still going strong!
Yes, Apple have really kept this one under the table and I think its about time it got a lot more publicity.

Anonymous said...

I've got a late 2006 17" iMac, which just started showing an approximately 2.5" wide, vertical black band just to the left of center, while the rest of the display seems washed out. After googling around, I found several mentions of a logic board problem which might lead to this, as well as several mentions of colored vertical lines, which seems like a different problem. Regardless. My stomach hurts. We really splurged to get this machine a couple of years ago. This seems way too soon for this kind of catastrophic failure.

Unknown said...

I have a 2006 20" iMac (Intel Core Duo) and within the first 6 months of purchase I had to have the logic board replaced. The screen was freezing up and if not, was flickering like mad during this first 6 months. Luckily it was within warranty so I had the board replaced for free. But lately (2 years and a bit later) the screen's been freezing up for no good reason, requiring a hard reboot everytime.

*sigh*

W

Anonymous said...

I just took my late 2007 24 inch imac in for repairs, apparently from a failed logic board. I have been using macs all my life and I am really, really disappointed with the short life of this product as well as the level of service I am getting here in the Netherlands. I purchased Apple care, so it is covered, but from what I understand after the logic board is repalced it will only die again in a year or so. i have not seen my mac since taking it in for repairs, well over 3 weeks ago. I am very frusterated with Apple.

Anonymous said...

my iMac from november 2006 just died and Apple will not take care of it. I live in Europe so there is a little bit of hope left though.
Mine just went of when I was surfing the web and it would not turn on again nothing helped! DEAD!

Good Topic hope this can help a little.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you all on this one. My late 2006 20" iMac has failed. Frequent freezes and lines on the screen. Freezes most when running anything involving 3D graphics. New logic board needed. Works fine for office applications and internet (with graphics distortions). Not too much more to buy a new one. Clearly a big problem with a number of 2006 iMacs.

Anonymous said...

I have a 24 inch imac from 2007. For a month it began showing signs of slowing down. Programs would freeze up only slowly responding to force quit. Itunes would not open. Finder would freeze up as well. The computer ran slow in general.
A month later I return to my computer the next day (left it on overnight) and the cursor and everything is frozen.
I attempt reboot by holding button down. When the computer goes to restart, it freezes on gray apple logo. Non responsive to keyboard input and will not boot from osx cd. Only apple logo remains on the screen.
Logic board failure just a month or two over warranty.
Please contact me any time at turboeagle20g@yahoo.com if you would like support in legal action. Microsoft extended warranty on xbox 360 when they realized they were selling faulty units. This should be the same here!

Anonymous said...

I have the same problem, same computer...dead logic board. Purchased in Nov 2006. All I a can say is I will neve by Mac again.
Just say no to Mac, they are crap.

Bill

Unknown said...

I got a call from apple yesterday saying my imac which was also purchased in Nov. 2006 is dead due to the logic board, it would cost about $1,000.00 to fix, when i asked the apple rep. if this was a common problem he said no its very rare but after reading this I must say I am livid that they talked me into buying another imac....

Dan Lavender said...

Hi Lisa, I don't think it's as rare a problem as Apple Store reps say it is.

However, the Genius Bar guy I spoke to suggested I drop it and try to claim on house insurance.

Anonymous said...

My (late 2006, no apple care...) 24" iMac died on me last week... Black screen, no startup-sound at power up. Harddrive and superdrive spins up, but doesn't boot. I have tried to reset the boot-roms, following the instructions at apple support by burning a special reset-cd and mount it on startup while holding down the powerbutton for few seconds, waiting for 3 short beeps followed by 3 long etc. But the cpu/superdrive doesn't respond (+ I can't eject discs) there is no sound at all, just a strobe-like blinking from led for a few seconds. Then nothing...Logic-board failure?

Anonymous said...

I have a 3 year old imac G5 with a failed logic board as well. The Apple Store indicated it would be nearly the cost of a new computer to fix it. After being a loyal Apple customer for nearly 15 years, I am completely dismayed by Apple's lack of responsiveness in fixing what it is clearly a design flaw. I wrote to Apple-- no big surprise they never responded.

I hate to go the way of the cheaper PCs, but I can't afford to replace a nearly $2,000 computer every 3 years. Very disappointing.

Dan Lavender said...

@Anon with the Intel iMac

Firstly, test your RAM as dodgy RAM chips give a similar response.

If your RAM is ok, then it probably is the logic board. Start saving.

Anonymous said...

my iMac G5 was purchased december 2005. my 1st mac, after leaving my corp job. bought it for reliability, ease of us and virus-free. i also bought 3yr apple care, not for the machine but to give me a "help-desk" .
i'm in apple store at 14th st ,nyc, to pick up my machine. this is the 3rd time the logic board has needed to be replaced since mid-july.

after reading the posts here and on "apple quality complaints" i'm ready to join with anyone & everyone in a class action complaint.

with all i bought (wireless mouse & keyboard/ software/applecare/internet access) the total was u.s.$ 2,400. i'm appaled that the cost to replace the logic board is close to $1,000 - what a rip-off!!!

my machine failed at about 2.5 yrs of age - that seems to be the common time frame. and yes, the genius bar guys have said it is an isolated problem when i've asked.

i can't believe that someone was offered more memory as compensation!! do they take us for fools????...... more memory on a machine that can't function with the memory it has!!!!!

for me the good news is that the warranty covers the repairs. but the inconvenience is horrible - carrying my machine around is not easy or fun or cheap. this is nyc, so most of my trips have meant hauling this dead-weight around on the subway!

after reading these posts i want to be a squeeky wheel......

Anonymous said...

24 inch aluminum iMac, bought refurbished in spring 2008, made in mid 2007. After a misdiagnosis it now again in at the Apple Store waiting for a logic board.

It's hard to tell based on the anecdotes here, but it does seem like an unusual number of failures. Fortunately I have Applecare, but I would like to get my machine back and get to work...

Anonymous said...

Add me to the list, my Intel iMac is walking wounded. Dunno for how long till it dies altogether, taking it a day at a time's all I can do.

Anonymous said...

Add me to the list of pixel artifacts/strange behavior on my 24" 2.16 intel iMac. Oh and the optical drive on mine ate it as well(no longer writes to dvd-r).

Not happy with my beloved apple on this one...

Anonymous said...

The logic board on my 17" iMac intel died just in one year, the machine was used very infrequenlty.
Repair cost estimate of $800...., just shattered my perception of Apple computers.
I will never buy another Apple again.
I am much better off using Linux on a PC.

Anonymous said...

This is an ongoing, endemic problem with logic boards used in first gen imac G5's, ibooks, and powerbook. There is a long pervasive history of failure due to flawed design. Apple offers free LB replacement if your computer falls within the 3-year extended warranty [see http://www.apple.com/support/imac/powersupply/repairextension/

and

http://www.apple.com/support/imac/repairextensionprogram/ for more information]. However, the real problem is that the LB will be replaced with yet another faulty LB and the problem will recurr, sometimes within only a couple months and sometimes within another 1-2 years. So once your computer is outside of the 3-year extension, you will be responsible for the cost of each additional replacement. Does that seem just? I don't think so. I think it should be incumbent upon Apple to fix its engineering flaw in this case. After following this situation and thousands of complaints over a year now, I've decided it's time to start a class action lawsuit. If you are interested in joining, please write to: ambodoira@yahoo.com -- list your name, model, LB failures/history, etc.

Anonymous said...

This problem seems to be just as common on the intel logic boards. We have 3 imacs in our office. One of the G5's has been ok the whole time (fingers crossed). The other G5 needed 4 replacements of the logic board and then eventual replacement of the machine. The most recent intel based one was faulty from the beginning. We called Applecare and commenced with troubleshooting the problem. No success and since its now over 14 days since our purchase they will not allow us to return the machine. They did send a repairman to replace the the faulty part, but the new logic board they sent was also bad. He'll be back with another board tomorrow and we'll see.

We have an office with 20 pcs that never break. I would appreciate it if Apple computers actually lived up to the hype. So far they are just expensive and unstable.

Anonymous said...

Hallo,
i'm very pleased to find those posts. I had the same problem with an imac 17" intel (the first white one), the graphic card died after 18months!!!! I don't have apple care, because when i bought it I thought that the machine would worlk for a lot of years..it cost a lot! we are so many people with the same problem, why apple doesn't take care of our disappointment? I sent a lot of mails to apple but there was no answer..can we do something?
G. from italy

Anonymous said...

I have 2 Intel imacs 2.4GHz and have gone through 2 logic boards as well. They are with apple now. 2 week wait!! Can't wait to go back to PC's that never crashed on me for 10 years straight. Apple tries so hard for style that engineering just goes out the window. These imacs have poor air circulation leading to hot temps on the processors.

Timmy said...

I'm running a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo iMac, Build 8s2167, from Late 2006. It ran fine for about a year, then started going downhill. Video games became not an option, which was a major disappointment to me.

Took it in a few weeks ago and they said that I had a broken graphics card / logic board. Price tag = $800.

ATI Radeon x1600.

I made the decision to replace it, this time with a laptop, and chose to go with a Macbook. Reason I went that way is even with this problem, I can hit the On button after I start a 8 month old PC (this is 2 years 2 months old), and have it loaded, logged on, and running before the PC gets to the log-in screen.

Please don't break Macbook?

Anonymous said...

Same problem here: 2006 Intel iMac with dead logic board :-(

Anonymous said...

As I write this, my iMac is at the Apple store for a logic board. I purchased it in June 2006, and bought Apple Care (already had the LCD and optical drive replaced a few months ago). I'm as disappointed as the rest of the posters, but when I researched my iMac purchase, the first advise I got (after "forget everything you know about Windows"), was to buy Apple Care. You only need to look at these things to see that you other than possibly a HD, you are *not* gonna service these things yourself. I absolutely agree that this issue might be more widespread than Apple would like anyone to believe, but at the same time, I knew going in that Apple Care was a must-have.

WL said...

same here for me! Wish there was something we could do! i had to buy a new macbook because my imac has failed after only 2 years. Apple refuses to admit its there fault!

Anonymous said...

Bought my 17" iMac G5 from a friend a couple years ago (orig purchase date Oct 2004). This summer I had to have the power supply replaced twice. A "Known Defect" and it was covered despite being out of warranty. Also learned that the logic board had been replaced within one year of purchase for the same reason. Now it's snapping and popping and it's probably the logic board. Again.

Meanwhile, I sent a 2nd generation iMac that was a workhorse to recycling, over 10 years old and only the slot cd player was not functioning.

My iMac is part of a whole slew of G5s that are acknowledged lemons which is why they fixed it for free when it was out of warranty. Until this month that is, when they pulled the plug on the extension program.

No doubt Apple intends for us to run out and buy a replacement. They obviously don't read the newspapers: there's a recession on. Nobody is running out buying pretty little computers anymore.

Anonymous said...

Mark me down too, early 05 G5, 17 inch. Went to the Apple store and called in hoping for litterly ANYTHING to help, neither cared....same old, "its a fluke, I'm sorry, want to buy a new one?" What BS. I just lost a third of my wealth in stocks and you want me to buy another $2000 computer after my first only lasted 3.5 years? Are you high? I can buy a dell with similar specs for ~$250, at least if that one fails after 3.5 years (which it won't) I wont be so pissed because it was cheap. Or if it needs repair it won't cost 800 bucks. Then with all the money I save by NOT BUYING APPLE, I could go take a little vacation. Hmmm, marketing idea for PCs?

Sincerly,

One pissed off form apple customer

Kelly and Wally said...

Add me to the list... My 3.5 year old iMac G5's logic board is also dead. I started having problems with getting it to turn on this last summer '08. If I turned it off and back on or held down the power button that ususually worked, then one day, nothing. I could hear the fan running when I plugged it in but it wouldn't turn on. I went thru the trouble-shooting steps on apple's website and determined the logic board needed to be replaced. I took it into the Genius bar at the Apple Store but all they did was confirm the death and try to convince me to buy a new logic board for $600 plus labor or buy a new computer. They also told me it was a fluke, a rare occurance, but after reading TONS of posts about the very same thing it is apparent that this is a very widespread problem amongst this generation of G5's and if Apple cares about their reputation they should take responsibility for their faulty products! I will be contacting those of you that are starting a class action lawsuit. I thought that for $2,000 I was buying a quality computer that would last a long time, not a piece of junk that would crap out after only 3.5 years!!! I called Apple Care but since my warranty expired a few months ago they are not willing to do anything about it and refuse to accept that this is NOT a rare occurance. I can't believe Apple is ignoring such a big problem, hopefully if enough of us make a stink about it they will have to address it and do something similar to what XBox did.

Note: I just read in an article from Popular Mechanics http://www.popularmechanics.com/blog/technology/1707941.html that Apple issued a "repair extension for video and power issues" but they just shut down the program on Dec. 15. And my serial number is within the range that was affected (found out from another post.) Wow, I wish the "geniuses" at the Genius bar had told me about that back in Oct. when the program was still valid... Guess I'll get back on the phone with Apple and see if I have more luck with this new info...

Unknown said...

I got an appointment with the Apple Genius Bar tomorrow regarding my iMac late 2006 17" (out of warranty) with a single (for now) colored vertical line across the screen and I'll post & whatever transpires during the appointment...here in this forum.

Christian Skaters said...

Ours is 16 months old and the Logic Board died. It was a gift with no Apple Care program. Cost $800. This computer should of lasted longer since in is not heavily used at all.

Anonymous said...

Here goes another one !! My iMac 17" intel duo G5 has died with a graphics/logicboard failure. No warranty and a whopping $800 fix + labour! Needless to say I am NOT IMRESSED by apple ! I am going to try to source a "fix" and I will post if I have any luck !
Apple should be ashamed of themselves and more importantly their product !!! Tisk Tisk

Anonymous said...

I have three late 2007 iMac's (white, Intel 24"), and each logic board is failing. While they were quick to identify the problem, Apple say it's not a "known issue". I suspect that statement came from their legal dept, not their tech dept.

Anonymous said...

This past summer a had a just over a year old (out of warranty ) intel imac's logic board go out according to the genius bar! OF COURSE, $900 was ridiculous and i had to buy a new one, but it made me mad as i never ever had any need for an extended warranty or applecare before....what a rip off. this computer should have lasted much much longer! any news on apple doing anything about it?
jcingles@excite.com

Anonymous said...

Our 2007 white intel 20" imac duo core logic board died a few weeks ago. It was about 2 months out of the one year warranty. No Apple Care, unfortunately. I took it to the Genius Bar for them to diagnose the problem (they said the hard drive was dying, too.)

I called Apple Customer Care. Surprisingly, they said they would replace the logic board and fix the hard drive at no charge! Though they didn't say it was a known problem with the Intel imacs, just the G5 imacs, I suspect they must be at least starting to acknowledge it's a problem with the Intel ones, too...Sometimes Apple really does come through, so don't give up! The folks at the Genius Bar didn't mention anything about calling in to ask--but it's worth a try, always.

And though I'm not sure how long the new logic board will last, I'm sticking with Apple for now....

Mark Jaffrey said...

I have a late 07 Aluminium iMac 20". It died six weeks after the warranty ran out. No power at all. No signs of life - totally and absolutely dead. I've no idea what the problem is, but having read all the reports here I'm getting very worried that it's going to turn out VERY expensive as I don't have AppleCare.

Anonymous said...

Same story here '06 17" imac. My wife wants to stay with mac, I'm pissed- don't agree with spending all the $$. Does anyone consider a mac mini with the old hard-drive in an external enclosure an option or go PC?

Anonymous said...

I do IT consulting for small businesses and homes. I just encountered this problem with a White Intel iMac 20" for one of my customers. Looks to be completely dead. I had thought that maybe this was similar to the G5 capacitor failure problem, which can be easily fixed if you know what you are doing. But this seems far worse. Basically just a dead motherboard. The customer saw the same behavior as other commenters here. He went to the Apple store and gave them a lot of grief. They replaced the MB, only to have it fail again. He has since purchased the newer AL iMac and is up and running, but this is an ugly episode for Apple.

I use to work for Palm and similar failures occurred and were handled with the same silent treatment. Still though, in general Macs are far better machines, and the OS is leaps and bounds ahead of Windows. Don't dismiss the platform as a whole based on these bad machines.

Apple, you should step up to the plate and right these customers with at least some sort of credit towards the purchase of a new machine.

frank said...

I have a 20" iMac core duo, Serial W863703CU2P which has these same symtoms. For most of 2008 it was running more and more slowly, with occasional video artefacts such as horizontal lines, or patches of windows randomly scattered. Then it began to freeze up; the mouse would not respond, nor the keyboard and I had to power it off to get it going. Lately it just goes black, with the hard drive still running.

Like many of you I didn't buy Applecare because all my old macs have lasted for years. Seems like Apple should help us out in some way. It surely seems to be a design flaw. I believe it is heat-related.

Frank

Anonymous said...

Add me to the list! After just 13 months my 24" intel imac just died while I was working on it. After reading these posts I'm not looking forward to getting a $900 repair bill. The worst thing is I've been a pc guy my whole life and decided to switch to apple because of their inferred reliability; was I wrong!

Anonymous said...

one more for you...

24inch Imac attributed to bad power supply, then HD, now I find out it's a $900 dollar repair for the logic board. It was only two years old.

very frustrating...

Unknown said...

Same here in Toronto, Canada.

Imac first gen intel, just over 2 years old, bad video/logic board.

What's the total count up to now?

Unknown said...

Info continued.

17 inch Imac, first gen intel, purchased in Toronto,Canada - Eaton Centre location.

Correction on purchase date.

Purchased on May 2, 2007
Died on December 27, 2008
Under two years old.

I know a Great Lawyer. Look at the class-action in Florida.

Anonymous said...

Mine's another iMac G5 bought in August 2005 in UK now with a dead LB, and being told it's best to buy brand new machine at the Apple Store. I only noticed one instance of a problem powering down (i.e. power button completely unresponsive). I tried resetting the SMU which worked until a week or so later I came to turn the machine on and it wouldn't. I'd be interested to know if people have been able to save their hard drive by putting in an external enclosure - wondering if data loss is a side effect. Sure hope not.

Anonymous said...

surprise, surprise! i'm in the same boat. my 24" imac was purchased sept/2007 and had shown hints of a meltdown before going into "remission". silly me, i should've brought the thing in but would not have been able to reproduce the problem to the geniuses, an oxyMORON if there ever was one. the machine has got progressively worse, from crashes (video artifacts and glitching) every hour to just-plain-won't-boot-up.
a few months out of warranty with applecare never crossing my mind at purchase. i'm dreading lugging the thing to the applestore for the expected diagnosis.
someone had posted about having to go back to their old vaio which the imac replaced. ditto, but it's an old dell inspiron 8200 for me. 7 years and still running.

Anonymous said...

My imac was bought in Feb 2007, less than 2 years later it appears to have suffered a major graphics card failure which means a new logic board, absolutely disgraceful.

So much for Apples being more stable than Windows machines!

Unknown said...

This issue is beginning to resurface in www.macintouch.com. Apparently, we don't know if somebody has initiated a class action suit. For now, just try to sign this petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/maclines/petition.html

BTW, my visit to the Genius Bar ended up with the same video card/logic board defects as the cause for the dreaded vertical lines. But, at a pricey cost of $800 for repair, it's less painful to just do some blogging about the issue. I'm glad I found this blog site too and I hope Apple will respond to its product users ASAP.

Anonymous said...

Hi guys,
I got the same problem with HORIZONTAL lines, 3D distorsions etc.- iMac 20 late 2006 SN W86351*****
I found solution which MASKING a problem and limiting WindowServer freezing. It's from Apple forum:

Quartz Extreme can be ratehr easily disabled, especially since you have installed the developer tools already.
Go to the following folder :
System -> Library - > FrameWorks -> ApplicationServices.framework -> Versions -> A -> Frameworks - > CoreGraphics.framework -> Versions -> A -> Resources
In this folder, you will see a file called : "Configuration.plist".
Drag it to your Desktop and control-click it. Choose "Open with..." and select "Property list editor".
Click on the arrow in front of "GLCompositorConfiguration" and then select the "GLCompositorMinimumVRAM" line. Change the default value (typically : "16") to something higher than the VRAM size of your graphics card. To be on the safe side, I entered "512" as my video card has 256MB of VRAM.
Close the file... of course saving the changes.
And then replace the file in the System folder with the one you just edited.
Restart your iMac and open the Dashboard. Drag any widget to it... and Voilà. No more Water effect, which means Quartz Extreme is disabled.

Guys in US - try to go a class action to put Apple to start a replacement program.

greets from Poland
Marek

Anonymous said...

Well same here. I have a Late 2006 Intle iMac 2.0Ghz and after 2 years it's dead. $900 for a new board. I bought a MacBook Pro at the same time and it is still going strong, thankfully. On the bright side I did purchase a 17" G5 imac at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago for $15. The owner couldn't get it to work and after i brought it to the apple store, yup same thing dead logic board. I did a little more research and on the G5s if your machine falls into a certain serial number range they will fix it for free, and they did. So.... that made me feel a bit better, but not totally.

Lou

Anonymous said...

Hello All,

I just took my late 2006 17" imac duo to the Apple Store two days ago with identical problems. Initially tried to wipe and reinstall the operating system (wish I had done a little research before I wasted my time in doing so.) I received a call from them yesterday reporting a failed hard drive. It wasn't until this morning that I starting looking around for similar problems and was more than shocked to find how widespread this problem is. I immediately called the contact at Apple and reported my findings. For now I will sign the petition posted above, but as this problem is so widespread I would also greatly appreciate any info involving any actions taken against Apple, Class Action lawsuit, etc.

I too have been a lifetime Apple user and am disheartened that they are ignoring the elephant on the coffee table in this situation. I had more faith in them!

Good luck to everyone!

Joe
Pittsburgh, PA

Unknown said...

To those bloggers who haven't yet heard or read about the class action lawsuit regarding the mysterious iMac vertical lines, here's the link in Apple Insider:


http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/05/apple_sued_over_defective_imac_displays.html

Anonymous said...

I purchased two 17" imac in Dec 06 for my twins. In Dec 08 they boxed the imacs for safe keeping while they went on Winter Break. Flash to Jan 4, 08 and imacs get set back up--one works fine--they other starts up--only no start up sound and has a black screen--bad news today from the Genius Bar--bad logic board and it will cost $800 to fix--GREAT--I'm I looking at the 2nd imac failing here real soon. You guys do not give me hope. Aaagghh!!

Anonymous said...

Same story. Started with visual stuff, artifacts, etc. Then slowed down. Then kept freezing. Took it to the Genius Bar on Chestnut Street in SF & the guy said he'd seen it before and it was just an issue of upgrading to 10.5.6 as it was a known problem with 10.5.5. Guess what? That didn't fix it. Took it to a different Genius Bar & big surprise, it's a dead logic board. They wanted $1200 parts and labor. The second Genius said this was incredibly rare- he'd never seen anything like it.

So what do we do about this?

Anonymous said...

I'll add on here.
Bought a 20" Intel iMac in Sept. '06 w/2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI x1600. Running Tiger 10.4.11
Problems started in Nov. '07 with screen tearing & hard crashes. Resolved temporarily by increasing fan speed w/SMC Fan Control.

Fan speed/temp is irrelevant now as frequent hard crashes have returned with horizontal hairlines, strange graphics artifacts & black-screen crashes.

Hardware test shows no problems; RAM test with Remember shows no problems; tossed cache folders; reset pram & finally did an erase/re-install of the OS. Crashes, etc. persist.

Apple-authorized repair center said it's a graphics card failure -- which, of course, means replacing the logic board.

Apple support via phone told me this is not a "known problem."

eschw95458 said...

Ditto as the rest 17" White Imac Mid 2006 (I think) 1.8g Core duo. Dead. No fans, hd spinup, nothing.

Dan Lavender said...

@Anonymous

"Apple support via phone told me this is not a 'known problem.'"

Haha - lying buggers! The guy a the Genius Bar said it was a common problem. Judging by the posts here it is.

Anonymous said...

Bought in ireland nov 2006, screen freezes, intermittent crashes, followed by complete death. what a piece of sh**. apple store charged me 50 Euro to tell me it was 'just old age' !! almost punched the c&*t.

Anonymous said...

Unauthorised service replaced graphic chip and video memory and.... sympthoms remained. Propably other part on mainboard failed (bridge chip?) Any sugestion?

icg

Anonymous said...

dejavu! Yet another $900 logic board issue on a late 2006 20" iMac.

what's the latest on the class action lawsuit?

*Noah

Anonymous said...

My Macbook Pro 2.4GHZ intel just died. No warning, no trauma, just a silent and unexpected death.
Age 16 months. With an original sticker price of 2800.00 I declined on the 400.00 applecare. Right now I wish I hadn't cause I have a very expensive brick!
Actually, the Genius Bar is replacing the logic board free of charge, but warn of only 90 days on the new one.... the first price quoted me was 1800 CDN parts and labour!

I believe a recall or at the very least a promise to repair at no charge faulty logic boards could save Apple's reputation of well built reliable computers.

Anonymous said...

My parents late 2006 20" Intel Core 2 Duo iMac's logic board died a few months back. Apple wants $799.00 or $899.00, I forget which, to repair it.

Today the back light on their late 2006 Intel Core 2 MacBook went out. Apple wants $700-something for it.

They'll have the MacBook fixed by a third party, but really, no such option exists for the iMac.

It took me nine years, count them, nine years to get them to come to Apple products.

Lately my uncle has been showing them recent builds of Windows 7, and I've had to concede that it is a drastic improvement over Vista.

When they have the funds to replace the dead iMac, I have no idea whether the machine will have Leopard (or Snow Leopard) or Windows 7.

On top of this:

1. I purchased a 32GB 2nd generation iPod Touch in late September (2008) and it failed late December. Apple refuses to replace it, says the liquid submersion indicators are red and looking at them, they are. But here's the rub, I never had it near any source of liquid and I know that.

2. My mid 2006 Intel Core MacBook's airport has been dropping out intermittently, getting low signal strengths or seeing no signal at all when sitting next to the router. Every other computer on Earth can connect to and has no trouble with my router. This problem is new.

So my faith in Apple is definitely shaken.

Actually, I feel betrayed. One, I effectively called a liar to my face and two, I spent a great deal of time trying to get my parents over to the Mac side and had begun on my siblings when everything blew up.

Truth be told, when my MacBook's time ends, I don't know what OS my next machine will be running either.

- S
Mac user since the Performa 630CD

Anonymous said...

Err "I was effectively"

Anonymous said...

20 in iMac bought in Nov 2007. Would not boot past the gray screen. Apple store said it has a bad logic board. A few months out of warranty so I will end up having to buy a new machine. Not very happy to say the least. Thought Apple was better then this.

Anonymous said...

Chalk up another one with a defective logicboard. iMac 20", Intel Core Duo, purchased in May 2006. Mac user for 14 years, NEVER had a problem with my Macs until now.

Screen would freeze watching dvd's or videos. Then it would just freeze with a black screen and would have to hold power button to reboot.

It would power up but no chime, it wouldn't boot up. Took it to a repair shop and diagnosis was bad logic board. $850 to fix it.

Shame on Apple.

Anonymous said...

me too late 06 20 inch dead after 2 years

Anonymous said...

white 24" imac dead, black screen etc... managed to get the harddrive out of it. all data intact, thank goodness. can I at least use it for something? somehow convert it to an external monitor for my macbook for example? any suggestions?

henrik in sweden

Unknown said...

Today, 17 Feb. 2009, a second vertical line appeared on my monitor screen. The first one appeared last 24 Dec. 2008. So, I guess I'll be counting 'em from now on until a decision has been reached in regard to the class action lawsuit. I have a late 2006 17" iMac.

Anonymous said...

I've had the same problem now not once but twice.
Feb 07 24" iMac 2.16ghz 7600gt graphics card. Dead mother board. The first time it happend I was still covered this time however I was not.
After some reading on the Apple support forums I was told to call Apple Customer Relations not Customer Support.
Sure enough when I told them that this was the 2nd time in as many years that this machine has needed a new Logic Board and that I did not think it was fair when I payed over $2600.00 for this that I should have to pay another $860 to replace a part that should not have failed once let alone twice they agreed.
They gave me a reference number to take to my local Apple Store for a free repair.
My best advice is to not give up just because the geek at the store said so. Call Apple Customer Relations.
Remember to be kind and polite not yelling about law suits and you should find they will fix your problem to keep a happy customer.
Never say you wont buy another Apple product because if they see you as a lost cause and no longer a customer then they have no incentive to help you repair/replace your machine while you go from there loyal customer ranks.
They do stand behind there products very well you just have to know who to call.
Remeber the old saying you catch more flys with honey than with viniger.
Hope this helps

Vinay said...

Hi

I am an Apple user in South Africa and have the same problem. Graphics card connected to logic board on my 20" iMac. Bought in September 2007. The Graphics card was toasted somehow and I have to fork around R12000.00 (Approx $1200.00) to have it repaired. It's just out of warranty by approximately 5 months.

Have been an Apple fan for over 12 years now and I can't believe the amount of complaint about this specific problem.

I wonder if there will be any recourse for us.

Anonymous said...

Aaaaand surprise, surprise - another one with this problem.

Intel iMac, 2.16 GHz Cord 2 Duo White Plastic model

It started with HORIZONTAL lines in the windows.
Then the machine started to «sort of» freeze. All of a sudden I get a BeachBallOfDeath and no responding to any keyboard input CMD-ALT-ESC didn't work.
Have to force-restart (power button) to get it to work again.
Problem is worse, when I try to run SecondLife (the only 3D-Game I play). Scree goes black, nothing happens anmyore. Today, it did a restart on its own, just to freeze up immediately after restarting SL.

I AM VERY disappointed. Been an Apple user for about 20 years now and never had problems like these... I will try and call apple customer care and then customer relations as suggested on this board... wish me luck, guys. I can't afford a new iMac right now (and heck! why would I? I friggin expect my computer to work for at least 5-6 years and not only two...

If I don't succeed in getting a free repair, I might join the lawsuit...
damn...

Anonymous said...

I had my 20" Core2Duo iMac for but 5 months and its logic board was declared dead two days ago. I bought the AppleCare plan because I have relatively no faith in Apple products or their consumer satisfaction. Thank goodness I did, even though it's still under the 1-year term. I will not be surprised if it fails again in some way, but I cannot use PCs for a number of reasons. I really am not happy that my $2,000 computer failed and I'm back on my 4-year old iBook G4 which has also had its fair share of problems.

I'm sorry to see so many people having problems like mine, but maybe it will prompt Apple to stop installing bad parts in their machines.

Anonymous said...

This problem persists into the aluminum iMacs. I have a mid-2007 24-inch with 2.8 gHz Core Duo that is at my local Apple Store for a power supply and perhaps a logic board. The estimate on this repair is $1200 USD. This is for a 1 year old machine for which Applecare expired on December 15.

Anonymous said...

Same with my fathers iMac model 5,1 with the defective ATI Radeon x1600 - started to show signs of graphic errors and blocks on the screen - now it starts up all torn up. The actual computer still works in target mode -used that to back up - and now after changing the ram and starting it in Safe Mode it works sort of - no sound - no proper video - limited network etc. But it will never boot again in regular OSX. I think a Class Action will be needed to force Apple to pay up for computers that last only one or two years - The newer iMacs are better, by the way - but you always can get a Lemon - Moral - get the extended warranty.

Anonymous said...

sometimes they miss diagnose the thing it ussual turns up to be the psu :P which is $100

Unknown said...

Good News (at least for me)! I set up an appointment (again) with the Genius Bar with my out-of-warranty late 2006 iMac Intel and guess what....they helped me out and & in no time agreed to replace the logic board free of charge. It appears that Apple has seriously began looking at & taking care of this vertical lines iMac problem. I told the Genius Bar techie that I'm not alone in this problem and it also appeared like they're pretty much aware of the web blogs in regards to this issue. So, I would like you all to try to set up an appointment with the Genius Bar in your area. If you already did, please try again. Do a polite approach to this issue and please post your experience here. Thanks for listening.

Anonymous said...

My 20" intel imac just died this weekend. It looks to be a logic board failure. I've only had the computer for 2 years. I didn't get Apple Care because I believed that a $1700 machine wouldn't die this early of a death; I was wrong. I am waiting to get the final verdict from the repair place but if I get word that it is a $900 repair, I will seriously consider launching a Canadian class-action suit. I'm sure some of my law school professors could help me launch the suit.

Alan said...

Yet another victim of a failing Apple product reporting in. I am the disgruntled owner of late '06 iMac 20" Intel Dual Core computer and, like everyone else here it seems, I declined the hefty apple care price tag in the (apparently naive) belief that my $1500 investment, couple with Apple's reputation for long-lasting and reliable products, would at least last me for several years. But judging from the time stamps of the comments posted here, 2 to 2.5 years seems to be the average lifespan of these p.o.s. Macs. Yes, I said it, P.O.S. Don't get me wrong, I used to be an Apple fanatic after falling in love with my first Powerbook (which I wish I hadn't sold after upgrading to the iMac), but now I'll probably have to shell out close to a friggin' grand to get it fixed or buy a "refurbished" iMac. I may as well buy a cheap Acer like my DIY dad and put Ubuntu on that mofo. Thanks a lot, Crapple. If anyone else wants to start a class-action lawsuit here in California or nationally, please count me in and give me the lowdown on logistics for such an action.

Anonymous said...

Off topic

I think we need to have legistration that all computers/electronic products should have at least 5 years full warranty to protect consumer's investment.

Pky28 said...

Me too. 17" Intel Duo Core 1.83GHz, from UK, GBP700. It's dead last week. APPLE dead!!! Shame Apple!!! To fix it...... another GBP400 (in Malaysia). My next machine? Apple? F*** off!

Anonymous said...

Just had a mid 2007 Imac Logic Board go down here in Australia. I am glad to find this blog and pissed that so many people have been affected. Mine however is a good news story as Apple are going to replace free of charge my logic board. I hope it will be the last one

Anonymous said...

Another casualty... My Intel MacBook (purchased in 2006) started getting the Kernal Panic screen (Your computer music shut down) intermittently around January last year. Around May '08, it finally died. I took it in to the Apple Store and they said the Logic Board needed to be replaced. They did so and I had to pay for it. To make a long story short, it happened again just last week. I took it in and they replaced the Logic Board AGAIN (free of charge this time). That board wasn't even a year old! I just got my computer back yesterday, and it seemed to be working fine until this morning when the computer froze, had to be shut down, and won't turn on again...almost the same symptoms.

If it turns into another dead Logic Board, I'm going to be furious. I'm not very happy with Apple right now as it is. What happened product reliability?

Anonymous said...

Ok, guess what? I bought my 24" Intel Duo iMac TWO DAYS AGO, and it already crashed!!!! First off, Apple wouldn't accept the registration number (wtf is with that?), then the thing refuses to go to sleep. When I finally got it to sleep yesterday (Sunday, 3/15/09), hub and I left for brunch. When we came back, the screen saver was running.

Ok, that was a bit odd, but I let it go. I bought some anti-spyware to protect the mac, and after installing, I went to restart, and all I got was a grey screen, with the apple logo disappearing in favor of a circle with a slash through it.

No amount of restarting did the trick, and the thing was HOT. I keep reading of loud fans - I never heard any fans running. I have had a mac of some kind since 1996, and I'm sick to my stomach over everything I've read.

Thankfully, I bought Apple Care, but I know hub will lose his patience soon if the logic board goes as quickly as everyone else's (he's a major online gamer). This sucks. 24 hours and crash! Who's ever heard of anything so ridiculous?

We're within a few blocks of Apple in Chicago, so that's ok, but if we are going to be losing data every year or whatever due to faulty engineering and workmanship, I'll go back to my crappy old eMac, thank you very much!

Anonymous said...

I have an iMac 20" (Late 2006 model - Core 2 Duo). It is out of warranty and about 6 - 8 months ago I started to notice freezing. I have green and red artifacts and sometimes lines running across the screen. I dual boot and Windows is barely operable - Black screen crashes tons of artifacts and warnings to notify Ati of serious system recovery and VPU no longer taking commands. The problem is getting worse. I have checked the system temps and nothing seems too high - GPU diode at around 50 C.

I have read on the Mac forums and there are about 100 others complaining of the exact same problems. I don't have enough money to replace this system and expected this would last me at least 5 years - it has been about 2.5. I realize a computer won't last until the end of time but shouldn't they at least last until they can no longer process the software?

This is complete BS.

Anonymous said...

Not an Intel but one of the 17" iMac Isights, just under 3 years old. Developed a grid pattern over the desktop icons. Ran the hardware test and got an error code which apparently means the video controller chip is giving up, solution new logic board. Originally went with Mac as they seemed so reliable, my husband's office has used them for over 20 years and this machine is the first one he has known to pack up. Seriously thinking of a PC as a replacement as I can't afford £1000 every three years!

Anonymous said...

this thread is like a logic board cemetery... my late 07 24" iMac died last week... amex extended warranty is gonna cover my freshly expired apple warranty. i think i want a refund.

Anonymous said...

Another dead intel duocore imac bought Oct 2006.

Anonymous said...

2.4 15-inch 2007 Macbook Pro... failed logic board (according to the Apple Store). Only 1.5 years old.

Anonymous said...

20" intel imac bought in Dec '06, died last week. Apple store genius diagnosed as failed logic board. Out of warranty, out of applecare, out of luck. Have never been so disappointed in Apple before.

Anonymous said...

A co-worker of mine had this exact problem with his G5 17" iMac. He is a freelance graphics designer on the side so $900 to replace a 13 month old computer or $1200 for a brand new one was a simple, yet painful choice for him.
He bought the newer one and after letting the old one roll around in his car for a while, he gave it to me to scrap it.
Little did I know that the only part in the piece of junk thats worth anything is the logic board, which according to our apple dealer is fried.
I found a great guide to check for yourself the exact problem, here it is http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2094

I have yet to do this for myself, but I will as soon as I get some free time. Ive never owned a mac other than my good old Bondi Blue iMac because of the price. After seeing this nonsense, I may never buy one.

Anonymous said...

I thought it would be interesting to mention that my bondi blue iMac (the original iMac, upgraded to 333mhz) is STILL working, and running OS9.

Cmon apple, wtf happened here? Im so sick of people pushing the extended warranty when that CLEARLY is not the problem.

Edward said...

Black screen, startup chime, power light stays on, will not boot. Froze up in mid-checkers game. No warning. Forty eight hours of feverish fiddling and googling leads me to the conclusion that my 20" mid 2006 intel mac will be holding my 32,000 images hostage for the forseeable future. Including the wedding I shot just last week.What the EFF am I gonna do? Guess I better fire up the ol' darkroom.

Been a proud and happy Mac user and fanboy since 1984, however after reading here about the extent of the problem and Apple's NONresponse to the issue affecting its loyal (and slightly poorer) customers I can no longer feel good about this company. If they jumped on it and made good there's NO QUESTION that I would buy another in a HEARTBEAT when the time came to upgrade. But what the EFF?

Has the heartbeat of the most American of companies been pierced and silenced by cheap components made in China? Never cared much for the 3rd party mac builders when they were licensed but man I'm lookin', I'm really lookin' for 'em now. Good thing I have my trusty white Macbook 13 incher to google and write this up on. I'm sure nothing will ha

daylearlington said...

Imac 20" duo core intel, 2007 model...bought feb10th 2008, dead as a do-do on March 20th 2009!

Now there obviously is enough people with this happening to warrant a class action suit, and it should be brought against apple here. When they replace this logic board, and my guess is that they will (no extended warranty here) what happens to this machine when it happens a year or two or three from now?... it'll happen again... and it's not fair.

That's why it's time to get a class action suit happening.

I'm in New Zealand and it's happening all around the world so unless they guarantee that they'll replace these as they go down, then it's hardly fair is it...

Time to get organised people.

Jan-Paul said...

Hey people!

here is maybe a litlle light at the end of the tunnel.

Bought a 17" core 2 duo 2ghz 160/1Gb iSight etc etc.
It was sold to me as defected ( so really cheap).
Because the seller could only boot it in safe mode( keep SHIFT pressed during boot). Video was OK in SAFE mode.

Only in normal mode I would sometimes get a weired frozen screen with all kinds of artifacts, or a blue screen with a mouse in the left upper corner. I could move that mouse, but the screen would leave a copy of this mouse there.....

My guess was this was a software issue, so after a whole weekend surfing, going back and forth to my MacStore ( which is www.icentre.nl) i came across a site about OSX1386....where they have the same things......so maybe their solutions worked.....

TADAAAAA, so in SAFE mode, I deleted anything which resembled ATIxxxxxxx.kext in my /system/librairies/extensions folder. I also got rid off any NVIDIA and GEFORCe stufff. Had nothing to loose....so! Its running smooth a supposed to be.

DISLAIMER: DON'T TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DO! Just tried it myself caused there was no data on the macine.


GOOD LUCK!!!

Anonymous said...

A few months ago one of our lab macs (late 2006 20" core2duo 2.16) got the "logic board" failure. What a bunch of garbage. No way to fix it other than paying almost the equivalent of a new one? I guess planned obsolescence is the Apple way. I know a lot of other people with Apple products that have been found to be "defective, needing replacement"... No thanks. I'll build my own PC next time that actually has replaceable parts. They don't stand behind their products, so why should I bother with them.

Anonymous said...

i have a 20" 2.16ghz intel imac (late 2006 model) that i purchased in june of 2007 (so about 21 months old). it has the ATI X1600 with 128MB vram.

the past couple months it has been randomly shutting down or freezing (system becomes unresponsive to mouse/keyboard input, though you can still move the mouse cursor). extended hardware test reports no problems.

i've read in the apple discussions that this may be caused by one or more of these:
- faulty logic board
- faulty wire between logic board and optical drive
- ATI video card issue related to os x 10.5.6 that may be fixed in 10.5.7

in the meantime i've been running imac fan control to keep things a little cooler. even though the temps were not unusually high to begin with, i figure it wouldn't hurt.
http://www.derman.com/Download/Special/iMacFanControl.html

the reason apple may be denying that it's a logic board failure is because it may actually be a problem with the ATI card and how it works with os 10.5.x.

i'm going to wait until 10.5.7 is released before pursuing any hardware repairs.

Anonymous said...

Don't feel bad, im an owner of a mid 2005 ibook G4, ALREADY ON ITS 3RD LOGIC BOARD, LCD JUST GOT REPLACED BUT is defective for some reason, apple accused me of spilling water in the laptop, after 3 years of bitching, goes to find out this computer was the demo unit at the apple store, had no idea what i was buying. I'm thinking about switching to a pc, seems their latest junk only lasts 1.5 years if that, why spend $1,000 on a macbook when i can purchase a PC for half the cost? They wanted to replace the unit, but some stupid liquid spill was caused not by me, but whatever or who was on this computer when it was the demo floor model, maybe its time for apple to get a law suit from consumers demanding them to replace every defective unit out there or refund us what we have paid for such items. but anyways after a 2 week wait for my ibook from service it goes back to apple for more repairs, since the crystal LCD is defective and the case is bowing out now. anyone can email me @ frogs1977@gmail.com

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Late 2006 20" developed horizontal line, graphics anomalies, 13 months in. No applecare, means rudeness and just denial form applecare support.
They should offer a reduced repair cost and announce it!
I have spent £6000 on apple computers in 10 years and I have been treated like sh**t by applecare.

Anonymous said...

I was pissed when my iMac just stopped working on April 1st (what a great fool's joke!)..it's at the store for repair for almost a week now..been advised that I have a logic board failure and needing replacement. Thank goodness, I did buy the AppleCare warranty...but I am more pissed now to see that a lot of people have been affected by this same issue!!

Mine just won't power on..no lights nor the screen are on...also won't even hear the hard drive spinning.... does anyone know if this kind of issue is harmful to the hard drive?

Thank you.

margil said...

My early 2006 iMac just failed after 3 otherwise problem-free years of use.

All symptoms point to a logic board failure; I have no intentions of repairing this machine.

I could be angrier, I guess, but I had a suspicion that being an early adopter of the first generation of intel Macs had some risks. Likewise, I should have been wary of purchasing a machine that I couldn't easily crack the case on myself and that didn't have discrete components.

Could be worse; it still boots in safe mode and if nothing else, the machine makes a useful oversized external hard drive in target disk mode!

Oh well; guess I'll just go back to my G4 400 Ti PB; that one is running just fine.

Wish I could have gotten more for the money, but them's the breaks.

Anonymous said...

1.83 ghz 17"...bad logic board about a year ago. Sitting in garage after I received news of bad logic board from store. Will not replace a less than 2 year old machine. PATHETIC...and the damn replacement logic boards are too damn pricey. RIDICULOUS

Anonymous said...

Been having graphic glitches for about 9 months on 2.16Ghz 24in iMac, eventually took machine in for repair when got to the point it would no longer even boot without screen freezing, told need new logic board needed, after much googling found a post which has enabled me to keep using machine for web graphic design, Note that disables some of core graphics so some things don't work. is usable though until i can afford new one or total failure. And definiteley preferable to a £1300 doorstop.

Basically held down shift key to boot in safe mode, as wonuldn't boot normally

Then went to /System/Library/Extensions and removed all extensions starting with Geforce (Saved in another folder), since doing this system boots normally and has been running for last week with no problems using Photoshop etc

Anonymous said...

Bought a MacbookPro 2.4 intel core at mid 2007, the logic board's display adapter is dead, so... replacing logic board (warrenty expired) $700-$1000.

The battery died the first year.
I am not too pleased with my apple experiance, got style - but no compatibility or realiability.

Unknown said...

yeppers. My late 2006 20" iMac - logic board just went last Monday.

Unknown said...

just found out yesterday that my logic board / graphics card(built in) is going out. it keeps freezing anytime i try to watch video online of run things that are graphicly heavy. oh yeah late 2006 imac 17".

jacknife said...

Same problems there. imac intel 20" late 2006 with weird graphic issues, obviously caused by logic card.

Anonymous said...

I have an intel Imac that I purchased less than 2 years ago. The mac technician told me after looking at it for a few seconds that it was a fried logic board. He then started pitching a new imac to me for sale. It is clear that Apple has trained their sales reps to disregard complaints and pimp out new units. I will be contacting my friend at the city newspaper here in Vancouver to write an article on this.

Ragade said...

My imac, an early 2006 (intel core duo 1) that was purchased in late 06 had actually dies on a me a few weeks ago. Every time I tried to boot, it made a nasty sounds that made it seem as if the HDD was skipping. Somehow, after hours of trying, it booted back into leopard. I hadn't turned t off for weeks out of fear of it never turning on; however, last night, I was commanded by my parental units to shut it down. Much to my dismay, the HDD won't read anymore. Neither my ubuntu nor leopard partion is recognized; all I hear is the same HDD skipping sound.

Even when it was working, my graphics card had been giving me issues for a while, so lb failure is clearly the culprit.
LOL, I had years of collected music and videos on my HDD. I wonder if getting a new LB would at least let me copy all of my data.

Anonymous said...

oh my!!! i am not alone! i am poor and somehow i manage to live in san francisco. i am still making minimal payments on my 2006 imac, and i have been have the same crashes, freezes, and horizontal line issues. I am contacting my friends at apple tomorrow! this is disgusting! also a mac user, and a power user since the early 90's. and doing intense audio. i have been having these issues for a long time. i have been absent from trying to get help because the whole " could of, should of" with apple care. i make $26,000 at Guitar Center. I could barely afford the computer. Shame Apple. Shame on you. I will fight, and I will help try to make something happen as of tomorrow.

romanstange@auralismrecords.com

Anonymous said...

My 2004 PowerPC imac is dead. It doesn't power up anymore. Took it to genius bar and the geniuses have said it is the logic board. While at it they want to change the power supply too. $600 with labor. Was wondering if I should get a new Intel based imac but after reading these posts I am not sure anymore.

Anonymous said...

I know of three iMacs that had the same problem: my wife's, my best friend's, and his mother's. we each have three expensive paperweights sitting around the house now. Does anyone know of a class action lawsuit in the workings? Apple knew of the problem but by the time I found out it was too late.

Bruce said...

I am the latest victim.
24inch, 2.4G, 320G HDD, I added 4G ram to it, been running for 1.5 yrs (bought it in late 2007), then it just died the day before.

Service guys took it and didn't tell me when I will get it back. Oh BTW I am in Australia.

So this is happening all over the world!!! I wish apple spend less in the ads and actually look after its customers!!!

Anonymous said...

My 24" is in the apple store. They first said it was the hard drive, then they said power supply failure, now they are saying its the logic board. Im sure it is all of the above at this point. But yup same problem started acting a little wonky, force quit didnt want to work on applications that froze up and it just got slower and slower. By the time i got to the apple store it would just chime and and go to gray screen. Now they call me up and say that it wont chime or turn on its fans. Im under apple care but i just want to run the hell out of this machine before the three years is up and get hopefully another year and a half. I dont use it nearly as much as my macbook and it bums me out to spend that much money on a thing that doesnt last longer then a 1 year and 4 months.

mid 2007 24" imac 2.4GHZ

jmj_jnco@yahoo.com if anyone wants to talk to me

Anonymous said...

20" 1.83 logic board died.

now I know why I can't find a used one.

Anonymous said...

my 20" Imac just shit on my chest...bad logic board....it was only 3 months out of warranty....$950 to fix it...felch felch felch..."but after its fixed we can give you $700 in trade value"...go felch your grandma APPLE...hold your tongue and say Apple..

d1audio said...

TO ALL THAT HAVE AN ISSUE WITH THE LOGIC BOARD. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SEND A CERTIFIED LETTER TO APPLE. APPLE STATES THERE IS NOT ANY COMPLAINT ABOUT THIS. WE CAN HAVE AN EFFECTIVE CLASS ACTION LAW SUITE IF WITH HAVE PROOF THAT APPLE HAVE BEEN INFORMED. THIS IS OUR ONLY HOPE! TAKE THE TIME TO SEND THE LETTER WITH YOUR SERIAL NUMBER. WE CAN ALSO DEMAND COMPENSATION FOR PAIN AND SUFFERING. LET ME KNOW IF I NEED TO SUPPLY THE BLOG WITH A GENERIC LETTER SO THE YOU MAY INPUT YOUR SERIAL NUMBER, BUT WHATEVER LETTER MUST BE CERTIFIED.

Ram said...

Can you post the generic letter it would be of great help.

Unknown said...

Late 2006 Intel iMac, dead LB, and they wanted to replace it and the screen (which was fine) for $1500. So far, targeted disk mode is still functional, which i used so I could image the hard drive with my MacBook. I did some looking, and If you have the know-how, you can order the part from authorized retailers and install it yourself for $500. Just a thought

Anonymous said...

My July 2007 24" bit it, here in Bangkok. Took it in two weeks ago, UNDER APPLECARE, and the tech said the video card had blown. Ten days later, I had it back and everything worked great!

Three days later, got the restart "grey out" and back to the screwy screen, no start up.

Since Macs are "too expensive" for most Thais, the Applecare center looks like a ghost town. Hopefully, this blog can point the tech in a better direction.

I am planning a visit back to the States soon. I will definitely post a certified letter, reciept requested, when I arrive.

Sorry to all those out of warranty. Appears that Applecare was a good idea on this dog!

graz said...

My 2006 MacBook just had the logic board replaced in January and now it needs to be replaced again. I also asked if this is a common problem and was told no. Luckily I am still under warranty...for another 2 days. If this logic board also dies I will be screwed. Maybe I should push for them to replace the machine altogether? Has anyone had success at doing that?

Ram said...

I spoke to Apple customer care about my late 2006 imac 20, it was complete disappointment. The product specialist from Australia said, it is ok for a two and half year computer to fail and he would help me out in anything.

Finally he suggested me to buy a new one and offered me a discount of $90.

$2000 Imac fails in two years and all apple can do for me was mere $90 discount. I am totally disappointed by this

Jim S. said...

Same problem...20" Intel iMac...I have vertical lines in the video (every other line is either black or white). Apple "Genius Bar" says logic board failure, $700 or so. I am very disappointed. Will probably get a Dell. I've had macs every since they came out in the 80's, and this is the first time I've had a problem.

Unknown said...

I'm in the same boat as of yesterday. 24" iMac....loaded...$2100 original price......video issues and freezing.....door stop.

Ben said...

Add me too the list. Dead motherboard after 2 years.

~Ben A.

Matthew H said...

I too have a 2006 Intel iMac 20" that is dead. Mine will power up for around 10 seconds to an hour before switching off and not turning on again till the next morning. I'm thinking if I can find the problem I am going to try and crack open the case and replace the broken part.

Anonymous said...

another 17" imac intel 2.0ghz is dead with the logic board, bought in oct 2006, hong kong. i still love mac, but please add me on the list if it helps

vovin said...

I have exactly the same issue here. Mine is just over 1.5 years old. I put it in sleep mode went to the pool and the screen never came back. Funny thing is I can still use it blindly. I use the remote to get it to play music from my itunes app. The machine works perfectly fine except I cant get the screen to work and a external monitor wont work either. Considering I paid top dollar for this machine and PC have outlasted it by years I am totally done with macs after this fiasco.

Anonymous said...

Add another one! Late 2006 Intel 20" Horizontal lines and constant freezing getting worse by the day. What did I pay so much money for again??? Not reliability. I can't believe apple is being so ignorant to the people who payed so much for this garbage.

Unknown said...

add two more to that, Bought my wife an intel iMac 20" in 2006, it died about 14 months after. Then bought another one thinking I had a lemon and it died 13 months out of the gate. Not impressed by apple and will not be buying another product of theres for some time. I have been dealing with PC's for years and never have I had two failures in such a short time. Are they putting timebombs in these things to make you regret not getting the warrenty?

Shame Apple!!!

Anonymous said...

8 month old macbook pro. Logic board failure. Board replaced under warranty. New board failed within 24 hours. Machine now out under warranty for second logic board replacement. Oxymoron "genius" with bad attitude stated lb failure may be due to "environmental" problems in my home, and implied a 2 year computer life is all that can be expected.

Was considering replacing all of my aging office pc computers with macs, but not now! I will stick to Dell until Apple can make a quality machine!

Anonymous said...

Same thing with my Intel iMac 17" 2.0 Ghz. Sucks, however I found Apples-R-Us in Chico California, (800-951-9868) will repair the logic board for $249.00. It's there right now.

Anonymous said...

24" white imac purchased November 2007 died last night. It started running slow and freezing up about 6-8 months ago and I would get horizontal lines on the screen. Unbelievable!

YuYo said...

Mid 2006 20" iMac is about to die because of defective ATI X1600 ...

Black lines and graphic glitches all over the screen. I could deal with it thanks to smcFanControl to increase the fan speed, but not anymore.

Now, It wouldn't even let me power on to make a last Time Machine backup ...

Anonymous said...

Another dead intel duocore imac bought Sept 2006, logic board failed less than 11 months later. Hard drive failed last week, 3 months left on my AppleCare, wonky machine is most certainly going to fail again.

john said...

I got 2 dead imac G5 17 inch. One dead recently, one just dead. Both were bad logic board. Brought it to Apple store today, they quoted me $800 for part + Labor. Now I have two useless door stops. I really wanted to smash them right in front of the apple store.

Anonymous said...

My early 2006 17" iMac's video card seems to be dying - I've been getting odd triangles, lines and rectangles on the screen for a couple of weeks. The hard drive went about a year after I bought it (second-hand from a school). Apple have a Repair Extension Program for the G5, but why not for the Intel since it seems to suffer from the same problems?

John said...

The repair program ended 12/2008. I am out of luck.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to say that my 24" aluminum, late 2007 iMac is dead.
Same symptoms: Fans and hard drive spin up, dvd spins and trys to read but keyboard is unresponsive, no sounds, no display at all. about 7 months out of the 1 year warranty. I've used Dell laptops at work for the past nine years and never had one crash. The one I'm typing this on is almost 4 years old and as fast as the day I got it. Hard Drive reads from an external HD case and I have my Time Machine backups... but it does little good when I can't afford to drop another $1800 dollars on another Apple iMac and it sounds like a Logic Board replacement by the comments here. Looks like I'm going back to a PC for good.

Anonymous said...

I considered myself a switcher until persistent logic board problems on a 17" G5 drove me away. I had one board replaced under the program for the early G5s with the bad capacitors. No complaint at that point. Only problem was, the replacement started to go bad as soon as it was installed. The failure was first manifest as fans that would inevitably reach a deafening crescendo no matter how light the use, then as instant freezes or shutdowns using any video, not just high bandwidth. After going through Apple's recommended procedures under the assumption that it was a software/firmware problem, it was eventually traced to failing hardware in the power management system (Apple authorized shop) and the logic board would have to be replaced. Apple never owned up to the defective logic board, asked $975 to replace it, and said "next time get AppleCare." Then they started in with a sales pitch for a more expensive iMac. Their crass response lost me at that point. I had less than a year of full functionality on that machine.

It's been a happy 2+ years back on the Dark Side since then, with the Vista boogieman and my inexpensive PC hardware running flawlessly.

Apple uses the same raw components as other PCs, with the exception of their own custom logic boards. So which component has the conspicuously high failure rate through the years? Great engineering, Apple!

Unknown said...

add me to your list of dissatisfied mac users. i bought my first imac 20" on feb 2008. it was freezing just the other day, after 18 months, not to mention the breakdown of the wireless keyboard and the uneven lighting of my screen (the top half darkened). brought it to the service center and was quoted USD 1,500 to replace the defective logic board. what crap! i refused to do this,so the repair guy said that he gives it less than a year, and my mac will just die. i called up customer service here in asia, and ofcourse they said they cannot repair it for free because i did not have the apple care. what BS! never again will i buy an iMac. i hope this issue with their machines brings them down. not worth the premium in price. is there a class action suit i can join??

Anonymous said...

My girlfriend and I have had problems with our year and a half old iMac 20". The video went out and just turned to a bright white screen. The mini dv out still works with an external monitor. We took it to 3 apple stores here in Orlando Florida and none of them could figure it out and they all said it was the LCD panel. I switched that out myself and it didn't fix the problem. I talked to a guy on the phone last night and he said he could be a logic board problem but specifically where the monitor connects to the logic board. Of course the computer shows that there are no problems in any of the diagnostics. It works fine though with an external monitor. I wish I would have bought apple care but really I paid more for apple because I have always thought of them as being more reliable. I had an old imac for 8 years and never had problems and then when I upgraded to this one I was so excited and I spent a while saving up and now it's going dead on me. I think I'm just going to get a mac mini and upgrade the hard drive on it. If something goes wrong with that it's not $1199 for another brand new computer it will only be $599. I'm severely disappointed with Apple and all the customer service people on the phone could do is apologize. Well that doesn't fix my broken computer and doesn't fix my broken trust in their company. Lucky for them I hate Windows so much that I will probably get the mini.

Anonymous said...

Some good news (sort of) for iMac logic board sufferers. There are repair specialists that do Mac logic boards. These shops are used by G5 MacPro tower users who are also having a problem with logic boards going down. The cost is about $250 for most cases. The bad news is that there are precious few such facilities, using them can be time consuming, and their warranty periods tend to be short. Google or Bing mac logic board repair to learn more.

Hinkle said...

There are tons of people with this problem ( including me ) complaining on the apple discussion forums. Somebody there started a petition to recall all late 2006 imacs with this problem and fix them out of warranty. You can sign it at :

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/imacrecall/

palig said...

Mark me down. I have a 24" intel imac bought in 2006 that is slowly dieing. I have been so disappointed in this machine. You pay big money for these for not only style, but quality.

palig said...

Sorry, mine is 2007 24" intel aluminum imac. I started by just getting freezes. Then it got more frequent. Then I started to get screen distortion. Then I received the 10.4.11 firmware up grade and that did me in. I couldn't do anything for about a week. I finally broke down and called apple support. They had me reinstall everything. Okay that is fine for awhile, and I have not done any upgrades. I mean any. Now it is starting all over. I had searched the web for this issue, and I am finding that people are saying logic board and video card. I looked at Apples website and really started to read the upgrades. I came across the same firmware upgrade that destroyed me, and it listed 2 serial numbers for the video card, and it said it was olny issued to those that needed it. Funny, because my video card matched neither one listed, but I still seem to have these issues. My problem is I dont have the money to just drop on a new mac. My last mac was in 2001, and that is a kick ass machine. Never any problems with that and still is 100% more reliable than this imac. I also have a G4 12" laptop. That thing is still going no problems what so ever. And 6 years later I pay $2,300, plus re-purchasing the Apple Care that hasn't done shit. So I am around $2,400 into this imac that is slowly dying. I signed the petition, so hopefully Apple will address this issue and take care of loyal customers.

Anonymous said...

Purchased a 20" iMac through my work in mid 2006. It was of nine computers our company ordered. After ongoing problems of just randomly shutting off or going to sleep while I was working on things, it finally shut off and wouldn't restart.

I took it to the Apple store and was told it was a fried logic board and would be close to $1000 to replace. It was my home computer, but since I bought it through work, I asked our IT guy if it was normal for a computer to last just over 3 years. To my absolute shock, my computer wasn't the only one in that order that had this problem. Four of the nine computers from that order had the same problem around the same time (one has already had the logic board replaced twice!). Nearly 50% of our order was defective. After spending countless hours on the phone with Apple, and getting the run around about "checking with engineering" to see if there was a manufacturing problem with our series of serial numbers, and of course "no problems reported". Wouldn't matter anyway, thanks to their policy of "after two years, it's not our problem" even if it is, as I'm reading here and elsewhere, an Apple design flaw that causes severe overheating and failure of inferior/faulty/cheap capacitors on the logic board, and/or faulty/cheap graphics cards.

so disappointed in Apple. been a loyal fan and customer for 14 years, and this is how I'm treated when I encounter a major problem. sad.

kharrell5@cfl.rr.com

Anonymous said...

Well. Good to know that I'm not the only one.

Early 2006 20" iMac, bought August 2006, right before the line refresh. Was working flawlessly until a few months ago when the horizontal lines started showing up, crashing when the screensaver was on, freezing when doing anything GPU intensive, etc.

I figured it was the video card -- but until I started googling today, I had no idea it was this widespread a problem! I was fortunate enough to have bought Applecare for the sucker and it's now in getting repaired, but I'm, of course, now worried it's going to start dying again in another year.

Sigh. Will be keeping an eye on this blog to see if anything goes on with the class action rumblings.

ultraviolet[dot]eternity@gmail.com

Unknown said...

My iMac 20" 2ghz aluminum died last week after 18 month, and Apple store quoted $750 for replacing a logic board due to the ATI video chip failure. I can get another used iMac for the same price, but not sure if I can trust Apple that the machine is reliable after 1 year.

Anonymous said...

Our 17 in, 2.24 GHz white iMac bought in July 2006-seems to have died, late August 2009. The machine was used very heavily, so we have no real complaints -- but Apple should make AppleCare much less expensive, or deal with known problems like this. We don't yet know whether it is the power supply or the logic/video board, or something else -- but since it is a known problem, perhaps Apple could provide a way to get folks data off. or the HD converted into an external drive (ours was recently backed up/transferred, so no problem.) P.S. wish there was a way to see the most helpful comments in this thread.

Anonymous said...

Late 2006 24" iMac: lastest me two and a half years.
I've been a loyal Apple customer for 20 years.

They seem to be making junk nowadays. I paid a premium price for what I thought was a top-drawer product. I thought it would last me part of my lifetime. Just before the (paid-for!) warranty coverage expires it dies. In twice for repairs (down time: more than a month without a computer). Still unresolved. Apple promises to replace it with the cheapest current version.

I'm mad as hell. Our landfill sites should not be full of computer junk that doesn't even last the lifetime of the warranty.

From today, I'll be Apple's loudest detractor.

No satisfaction from Apple = ?

johnferraro said...

Add me to the list.. My 2006 intel iMAC is shot. The GENIUS told me the logic board is going. I have 2gigs of RAM but it will only allow me to use 1. The store tested both chips seperately in both slots and it started up fine. As soon as he put both chips back in I got the white screen and 3 loud beeps.. it wold not boot up. 700 to fix.. Kidding me?// My 3 year warranty ran out 7 months ago so no help there..
Now it has only 1 gig while the other sits on my desk staring at me... Final Cut runs like crap on 1 gig.. might as well give up editing... even iphoto is sluggish.. What is the point.. I bought this machine specifically for editing and now after spending 2300 I can not! This is obviously a defect.. why are they ignoring it??? Time for APPLE to step up and fix there defective boards. We are loyal customers..

Unknown said...

Same problem here.

Horizontal lines on the screen, then within 5-10 minutes later the display just shuts off.

I'm not happy.

My specs:

Bought 10/06
iMac 20" 2.16 Core 2 Duo
S/N starts with QP6

Chris said...

How depressing, add me to the list of dead iMac owning, newly-Apple-hating dissatisfied customers. I never had a PC that died so irretrievably, and so expensively.

Chris said...

Hi, just thought I would create and post a short URL for this blog discussion, so you can complain to Apple and tell them to visit

http://bit.ly/deadimac

...to find out about the growing international group of seriously p*ssed off owners of white bricks that used to be iMacs! Call them and tell them to read and respond!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is quite a list of woe and with recent posts as well! We just got the doa from the Apple store re our Late 2006 iMac as well. The computer was showing some artifacts on screen for a week or two and now completely fails to start. At $680 for a new Logic Board, I might as well buy a Mini and rig up an old CRT. I've used Apple for years and will continue to, but I much prefer my Powermac Dual G5 for the ability to pull it apart and replace parts, upgarde, etc without having to be dependent on Apple. Having spent $1700 only a few years ago and now having nothing but a fancy white shell is pretty depressing...

Unknown said...

Add me to this list. Love apple, became a cult member, bought ALL KINDS of stuff, and this imac 24" just blacked out while using it. seems the symptoms are similar and i'm not gonna list them. SO SAD that this could happen to what i thought was high quality machinery.

Seth

Unknown said...

Just adding to the list. Imac 20 inch mid 2007 with a bad logic board after 23 months in service

Anonymous said...

24" late 2006 imac owner....sadly adding myself to this list of woe.
I'd like to think it's just my hard drive going bad. But after reading this post, who knows?

Marci said...

And another... `cept this time it's a 2008 20" iMac... and out of 15 I purchased at once, so far 2 have had duff logic boards inside of warranty. This is the first to go outside of warranty.

Anonymous said...

Same problem. I bought it and 3 years later, it fails. what a discrace! Apple tried to charge me $600 bucks to fix it. Apple, im disappointed.

Chris said...

Hi again,

I commented above - here's a follow-up...

I went complaining to Apple care and - having had it confirmed that it was definitely the graphics card on the logic board, and also having shown how much I had spent on Apple products over the years (a lot) - they agreed to cover the repair costs!

I recommend calmly, clearly (and not to expectantly) pursuing any valid complaint with Apple - especially if you believe you have a faulty logic board on a not-that-old iMac and are a loyal Apple customer.

Chris said...

...as a follow-up to the above, I recommend saying to Apple "I want to go through the official complaints process" or similar, rather than launching into the complaint straight-off.

Anonymous said...

set me on the list aswell,

after they changed my harddrive two times, now my logicboard is dead.
It is the graphic card, so they told me and I should by a new one, 'cause to repair it is to expensive.

In the last three years, I bought 4 iMacs, 2 Macbook Pros, 1 iPhone, 1 Timecapsule and a lot of other stuff from apple. Only the iPhone is working fine, all other stuff I had to bring at least once to the apple dealer with garantie defects.


I'm using apple products at least for over ten years now,but with such quality problems of them in the last years, they have me thinking about to get a windows machine and I'm not realy happy with it.

Well done!

Robert

apexskier said...

same here.... :(

Unknown said...

iMac White 24" Same issues in the first 6 months the logicboard was replaced. 8 monthe ago the optical drive failed. Then this week it shut down randomly 3 times ( ibacked off all files thank goodness!) that night the drive emitted a sound like the heads parking hard during a file write and then the next morning would not power on!!!!! I have been a Apple customer since the pre Mac days and have pent the last 15 years as a tech. I still have a great love of Apple but The move to the Intel Chips disturbed me and now I am finding forum after forum with people with the same issue. Apple has extended repair on other items in the past and this needs to be addressed.

Anonymous said...

My 24" Imac has a dead logic board also. I live in Kuwait and did not buy the apple care and now they want $1000 to fix it and 4 weeks. Not sure if brand new 27"Imac has same issue.

Unknown said...

Bought mine Mac Intel in early 2006, it worked fine for 6 months or so, started getting random shutt down, and after power suply replace they found out that the problem was the logic board. Paid over $2000 for the Mac to work for a year. Now I'm back to HP products.

Steve said...

Below is the text of a post I made on Apple's iMac support message boards. It was removed with 10 minutes:

I have a late 2006 iMac purchased new direct from an Apple Store. My iMac has become thoroughly unreliable. It crashes, freezes, reboots, displays screen graphics artifacts, and is generally now incapable of being used for any length of time without some major problem. I have not yet brought my iMac to the Genius Bar. My machine is not under warranty, and I do not have Apple Care (at the premium price you pay for Macs, having to buy extended warranty coverage seems ridiculous to me). I doubt making a trip down to the Apple Store will reveal anything more than that my logic board (and more specifically, the ATI card soldered to it) have failed to the tune of at least $900 or more US.

Having read numerous threads on several Mac boards reporting (anecdotally, I know) identical problems with identical machines, it is clear that there is a bad batch of iMacs out there. Now, before anyone begins in on the "but it's all anecdotal" counter-argument, a failure as widespread and consistent as this one is not likely anomalous. It could all by a massive coincidence, or a conspiracy of inexplicably disgruntled iMac owners, or some collective mass psychosis -- or, far more likely, there are some bad apples (pun very much intended) in this bunch.

I've tried all of the suggested work-arounds (fan control programs, clean reinstalls, resetting the hardware, various hardware diagnostics). I do think using the fan control software helped extend the life of my iMac, but in the last few weeks my iMac's performance started deteriorating with sufficient speed and severity as to convince me that my machine will be a very stylish and expensive paperweight in short order.

What I want is some kind of public explanation for what is going on here. There is simply too much collective evidence of a systemic problem here to be dismissed as anomalous. This is a "known issue" to many of us, even if Apple wishes (apparently) to remain willfully ignorant of it. I loved my iMac when it was working, but before I make the sad trip down to my local Apple Store to be handed a $900 (or more) repair bill, I'd like some sense that Apple takes this issue seriously.

On Jan 7, 2010, at 2:52 PM, communityhosts@apple.com wrote:

Steven,


Your post was removed from Apple Discussions as it contained feedback or feature requests. These areas are intended to address technical issues about Apple products. Although your feedback is appreciated, unfortunately these forums are not designed for it and your thoughts/concerns will not get the attention they deserve.

If you would like to send feedback to Apple about a product, please use the appropriate selection at http://www.apple.com/feedback/
As part of submitting feedback, please read the Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy linked to the feedback page.

Sometimes you have comments or concerns for which there is no technical response. If you need the kind of help that a troubleshooting expert can't provide, you can call Apple's Customer Relations group.

Apple Discussions Staff

Anonymous said...

Brilliantly put Steve. Someone needs to create a dedicated site - deadimac.com or similar...anyone got some spare time? (ie not me!)

Unknown said...

Mine died this weekend and I have an appointment with the Genius Bar tomorrow. Fan runns full speed as soon as you plug it in but it won't start up at all, not even a light on the front.
G

Unknown said...

Died this weekend. As soon as it is plugged in th fan runs full speed but no light on front, no boot no nothing. MacMini Intel Duo 2 years old.
G

SeanChandler067 said...

I think my 2006 iMac Core Duo is dead as well

I think it saw the new Mac Pro and decided to not work again

How do you diagnose a bad logic board in an Intel iMac?

Dan Lavender said...

Thanks everyone for posting!

To be honest I hadn't looked at this blog for a while (as you can tell from my last post date). I forwarded this post onto lots of tech blogs, newspapers and PC magazines, not one of them followed up on this story!

In the end I forked out another $1700 for a new iMac in March 2009, it took me 4 months to save up for it. It's still working... for now!

Please keep posting.

Dan Lavender said...

@seanchandler

If the light is on and you hear the fans start up, but no matter what you do (safe mode etc) the screen is still black, then the chances are you have a duff integrated graphics chip on your logic board.

I'd take it to a genius bar to be sure.

BTW: I took the HDD out of my dead one. It was quite easy and interesting to look around the machine, there's not really much to it: a screen, a fan, a logic board.

I guess it must be remembered an iMac is essentially built like a laptop. There's not much you can do with it.

Anonymous said...

Interesting topic, my experience with Apple is pretty shocking. Purchased two computers in 2008 which both failed.

Bought an iMac and Mac Book in 2008 but did not opt for Applecare (another NZD495 for each computer extra) noting that Apple portraits itself as a quality product which is different from everything else on the market, and I typically upgrade after two to three years anyway.

The HD failed on the MacBook within 12 months, the power adapter failed a week ago and now my iMac has failed as well, logic Board is dead. Apple will not provide me with any further support because the iMac is 8 months out of warranty, repair costs more than the iMac cost new and noting the experiences on this blog, and on the net, there is a good chance that the logic board will fail again after repair anyway.

I find it pretty hard to swallow that Apple simply distances itself from the quality of their products, and choses to make its customers responsible/pay for the poor quality of their products which is what Applecare seems to be.

Having spent over NZD5500 on their products, I am left with one white elephant, and another which will highly likely fail again all within 18 months from the date of purchase. I could have bought two very nice PC's for that kind of money,

Da Snowman said...

Got A dead Late 2007 2.4ghz.Imac.Was told bad Logic Board.I can hold down the d key and get into thie Diagnostics for about 20 seconds then shuts down again.Reset SMU by pulling out memory but to no effect.Sux all my recordings in Logic pro or in there and cant accves anything.This is a pain in the butt they want 550 to replace board but think that Ill get a Hackintosh or something instead.Thought Apple was the Fazzizle but apparently not .Im 4 months out of warranty.

Bridget said...

Same problem here. iMac 2 GHz 20" Core Duo, purchased July 2006. I also opted for the VRAM upgrade at time of purchase (from 128 - 256).

It first start playing up around April May of last year and is getting progressively worse ... lines across the screen, smudges, random freezes, the screen goes all black, or all white - or both! The only way I can back up any data is via FTP/HTTP since having a FW/ethernet device plugged in causes freezing. Same happens when having a iPod Touch plugged in.

I'm from New Zealand and the Mac was purchased here, so I'm using the power of our Consumer protection laws to get the problem addressed. I didn't spend over $3k to have a Mac fail within this time period and fortunately our consumer laws recognise this.

I suggest anyone from New Zealand or other countries with similar protections laws USE them! By law it is the retailer who is responsible - if they lose out then they too will put pressure on Apple to do something.

Good luck everyone!

Dan Lavender said...

@Da Snowman

You can take the HDD out of the machine and use a USB dock.

I bought a Blacx SATA HDD docking station for about $30. Just plug it into the dock the USB of another computer.

I'd also use Amazon S3 to backup your important files online.

Unknown said...

I am a pc tech and work in a school k-8 in Connecticut I have a teacher whose imac g5 s/n w84450tbpp6 with the logic board problem that has been from what I am reading on the internet a real problem with these macs.
The local apple store was of no help to her and said she would have to send it back for repair.
My dispute is I now have another teacher in the same school and hers is having the power supply problem.
And not long ago I repaired an imac g4 with the power problem than 6 mths later the logic board failed.
What do I tell this teacher buy another imac and take a chance or buy a pc with windows 7.

Fernando HNS said...

Another iMac funeral, one more graveyard to the Logic Board collection...

Mine is a iMac Intel alu 20", bought it in Jan/2008 and it died Feb/2010, 2 years and 1 month old, almost a baby compared with all the other PCs I've used in the last 15/20 years. It died from Logic Board complications, cost about 550 euros to repair, almost half of what I paid to buy, 1200 euros.
The cause of the death: I DON'T KNOW!! I put it to sleep during the night. When I woke up it was in the first screen (gray with the Apple logo and the spinning going non-stop) for more then 15 minutes, then I forced a shutdown and..., never woke up again...

This was my first mac, nice experience for a very well paid computer, but I guess it will be my last mac-test.
This time we spent together feels more like a 2 years test-drive: it was a nice and expensive experience that turns to be painful and frustrating at the end... at least it was good to prove that the old and good PC, even with crashes and blue screens, even not so fancy or so fast, never let me down for years and was always by my side, no mater what... and charging me a lot less for that!

Anonymous said...

Depressing!
My 2006 Intel-iMac just died on me a few days ago. Only white power led and black screen, no startup, no logo, NOTHING! i've tried everything but it just won't start (plus the OSX boot-disk got stuck inside and i can's get it out!), and the worst part is that it's for no apparent reason whatsoever!!! it just decided to "not wake up" one day and that is it!!!! What has gotten wrong with apple? weren't they supposed to be the "everlasting" computer guys? Quality over quantity? Unbelievable!!!!

Frans van der Rijk said...

And another one bites the dust. Same song.
Took out the hd which was luckily quite intact.

Considering I've been a Mac adherent since '86, this is very painful to state: "OMG, I LOST FAITH IN STEVE !"

I really did.
He only seems to go for the big money nowadays.
C'mon man, you are so proud to be the #1 brand in sales, even defeating Nokia?
You should be ashamed of yourself not to properly address this problem of faulty hardware.

Frans,
The Netherlands

Anonymous said...

yep...another one...20'' imac mid 2007 with logic board K.O. (600$ repair). Apple...NEVER AGAIN!!

Anonymous said...

My iMac Intel 20" 2GHz Core 2 Duo 128 Logic Board died a little under a week ago.

Again, lines appeared and it stopped working. Apple initially denied me any help but after quoting advice from http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=558769 , particularly the Apple support thread ID 1146388, they relented and the logic board was replaced free of charge via a Genius Bar.

Worth a go.

Anonymous said...

Went through this as well. It's all been said before & is quite clear what the problem is here w/the IMac LBs.

Think the particular design problem with my 2006 iMac, with non-removable GPU (on L of image below), is that the CPU (on R of image below) two-piped-heatsink is pre-heating the small, single-pipe GPU one (note airflow is UP through that combo heatsink):

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y33/pbcubed/?action=view&current=imac2006LB.jpg

It's apparent that between the GPU's single, long heat pipe & associated heatsink that is pre-heated by CPU cooling, that the GPU is run too hot. At temps appalling to anyone coming from the PC realm, where we like to keep 'em < 55C or so. So fan control/speed up helps some if done early enough, but is no real fix.

Think also R C-R said it best here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2389074&tstart=0

in his post:Re: Late-2006 iMac has horizontal lines on screen, freezes and shuts down
Posted: May 27, 2010 9:16 AM in response to: Jameka

Unknown said...

My 'Late 2006' white 17" Intel iMac just now began showing a thin vertical line (purple) on the right side.
Just had the DVD drive replaced and now this!
There's NO WAY I'm going to pay $800 for the repair.
I've been a Mac user since 1994 but
or that much I can buy a reliable Windows 7 PC and get a free printer!

Anonymous said...

Add me to the list of 24" intel iMac with the video problems

Karl said...

My 24" -07 iMac shows of the same problems :(

//Sweden

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 2nd March summed it up for me. My 17" Macbook Pro purchased Jul 2007 has had new hard drive Apr 09, original died. The new battery June 09 - Apple denied mine was valid under recall although it did exactly the same thing and warped so laptop didn't sit flat. Now althought there is an accepted problem with graphics card apparently mine isn't the card but the logic board. It's completely dead and authorised apple repairer says £900 to replace. It cost nearly £2000 new, I loved the style the design and the way it worked but is ludicrous consumer abuse and I will never buy or recommend Apple. Of course they don't care they are just another large coorporation making billions of dollars. I am furious where is justice in the conusmer world.

Umang said...

Wow this is a long list .. my problem with the 17" intel mac is that it repeatedly hangs and when i run windows via bootcamp i keep getting a physical memory dump error and a BSOD.

Running a hardware test came up with a 4SNS/1/4000001 : VDOR ERROR. Found some reports that it could be the logic board over-heating or a fan issue or even something to do with the power supply !!

Can anyone help .. like in most cases replacing the mother board is far too expensive and my 3 year prgramme just expired last year :(

Rossana said...

I too have a faulty logic board with my 2007 imac and called 1800 my apple just to see if they would stand behind their product and offer me something but no luck. I can't believe with so many complaints they must have based on the comments here on this site they have to realize they should some how repair for a fraction of the ridiculous price of $950 just to have consumers that will be loyal to Apple would so make it worth it for them, right? I was so annoyed with this Apple supervisor as he's arguing with me as to how old my computer is a little over 3 years and saying that's a good life of a computer....WHAT? I'm so upset just like everyone else here thinking I'm going to spend $1700 on apple's basic desktop when I could have purchases a amazing PC for that and have this happen...I hate being disappointed because I really liked my imac it was a great machine when it worked!!!! What to do???? I will tell all of you that there is a company in Santa Clara, CA(myservice.com) that will repair the logic board for about $600 which I may do but have to take it to their location or ship it and it may be too expensive to ship...Anyhow, Good luck everyone!

Anonymous said...

Yes - my 17" G5 has been a out of action for years after several logic board & power supply failures.

Unfortunately I have been with mac since the Mac 512K - I am up to about my 20th ... I am surprised if the machines don't fail in the first year and now extend warranty - so by the time 3 years are up the machines are (as apple hopes) outdated ... nevertheless I am writing this from a 20" Imac 2GHZ - it's still working after 4 years but I recall quite a few trips to the apple store with this machine as well. Main Mac is a I Mac 24.

No I haven't bought an I phone ...

Anonymous said...

A 2 year old iMac 21" had to get logic board, graphics and power supply replaced...

Also a 6 Month old IMac has just had a logic board replaced and have another to be done...
The last 2 were brought in a batch of 30, so far 2 have died out of 30.. A Batch of 30 PCs brought at the same time no failures!

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