[min3000gt]

What i've been reading on this forum has been quite alarming since my Powermac G5 2.0 Dual seems to require a new logic board as well (according to the Genius at the apple store). My basic problem is my computer will not reboot when I restart or shut down/restart AND when my computer wakes up from sleep mode, my screen freezes within a few minutes and I can't reboot again. Playing around with my RAM will allow me to start it up, but it seems after multiple freezing up/troubles restarting issues, the RAM method is losing it's effectiveness, taking multiple attempts to boot the computer up.

I called Apple relations and voiced my complaint, as well as directing them to this forum where 14 other G5 2.0 owners (who all listed their serial numbers whose numbers were very close to my own serial number) as well as the G5 user survey found on macintouch.com. I asked them to specifically note the website on my case number (apparently even apple relations assigns case numbers). I spoke to two different agents to confirm that my case number did indeed exist. Both agents told me that they've never heard these machines having logic board issues, but did mention about the power supply being an issue with later models (like mentioned on this board). I did ask for Apple to repair my G5 free of charge, and they couldn't do so. They told me if it was a machine that had multiple repairs in the past, they might consider it, but since my G5 had never broken down prior during my 3 years of apple care, they couldn't do anything about it. Lesson learned: Even for the slightest problem that you incur while your computer is on warranty, call it in. My new macbook had a kernel attack which i was quite annoyed with since being a new machine, and I didn't call it in.

Anyhow, I've had my G5 running without the energy saver on for 5 days straight now and my computer seems fine. I'm planning on using it until it breaks and hopefully it'll last until the new iMacs debut. I've lost a great deal of respect and enthusiasm for Apple (my friends used to think I secretly worked for apple since i'm like a walking commercial for them and have had about 4 friends switch from PCs because of it). I still prefer Macs over PCs and will probably continue using them due to work/ease but the passion is definitely gone. If anyone does file a class-action suit, count me in. My serial number is G8431... and again, I do have an apple case number assigned to my computer.

[wooberfi]

I just received three G5's from an Ebay purchase today for my business. Powered them all up and ran the updates. After restarting, one of them did not come back on at all. After removing the back cover, and plugging in the power, the LED indicates I must have a logic board that went bad. I am in Scottsdale, AZ. What resources do you know of here for this issue?

[notjaded]

Resources? Depending on where you live someone here may be able to point you to a repair tech. However, it won't come cheap. Your symptoms sound like mine. Hit lower button, fans start up but LED flashes indicate bad logic board or CPU according to apple tech I took mine to.

My personal recommedation would be NOT to put one dime into that machine. If you now own all three then count your blessings that at least one if the three do work. You have lost no data, you could use it as a parts machine for your other G5s until you have picked it clean as a thanksgiving turkey and sell the case and/or parts on eBay. Sometimes the case will fetch about $100 by itself.
If you are set on having it fixed I've seen a new logic board plus installation range anywhere from $400 to $750. Which is why you would be crazy to go that route. You can buy a first gen mac pro used for $750 all day long. Also none of the g5s can be upgraded to snow leopard which is fine if you don't plan to upgrade to that.
Oh and as a final note... If you call apple they will be amazed to hear your mac has this problem and it must be isolated to just your machine.
Good luck

Does anyone know if you can remove the bottom where the power supply lives and the front then slide the case over a U.S. Postal Approved mailbox? Hmmmm recycle... The artsy side of me has thought of tiling an entire wall with just the flat side with the apple logo on it. My office would in essence display the headstones of the fallen g5s that lost the good fight for justice. LOL

Take care

[wrbmonster]

you can still digg this issue up on my DIGG.com post too..being that It seems Digg has a strong hold on the nuts of corporate america (like the kid who sent in his Bungee autographed Xbox cuz of RROD - it came back clean! afer about 2 weeks, MS sent him a special edition autographed by everyone on the xobox and bungee teams!)..just a thought



http://digg.com/apple/HasyourG5diedinthelastcoupleof_months

[wooberfi]

Thank you for your advice. This morning, I had a HOLY MOLY!!! It came back to life!!!! I tried to turn it on and it didn't work. Then someone suggested to hold the power button down for at least 10-15 seconds and BINGO, it came on. However, this victory may be short lived, as when we had it open it was quite apparent that at least 5 of the capacitors had begun leaking and bulging. Is it going to blow soon anyhow? And how concerned should I be?

[Jammy]

My G5 dual 2.0Ghz is also failing with the three LED's of death issue. Started failing by crashing and fans spinning wildly. Would restart occasionally but now fails 99% of the time. Strangely, i left it in a cold room overnight and restarted it next day and it worked for four hours without a problem. I shut it down and went to restart it and it wouldn't (Three LED's flashing again)! I'm gonna try the same again tonight and see if it restarts ok tomorrow. I will report back with the results.

Purchased Feb 05 failed Dec 08, tried absolutely everything mentioned on every site including battery replacement, ram swap and hair dryer amongst other things!!!

Serial number CK3450

The machine hasn't had heavy use and was kept in a clean environment.

I was a Support Technician for around 300 macs in a previous job for over ten years and never ever experienced a problem with them until the G5's. When I purchased this one originally it was DOA with a failed logic board. Apple had to send a replacement straight away.

From what i can see, mine looks like the earliest model logged as yet, that's if their serial numbers are sequential.

I don't know about elsewhere but I'm sure here in the UK, Courts recognise that products have a usable life expectancy. I recently read about a case whereby someone sued Sony because their TV failed a year out of it's warranty. The judge ruled that it's life expectancy was around four years and ordered Sony to pay for all repairs or replace the TV as it didn't meet it's life expectancy in the courts eyes. (The main logic board had failed).

Just an idea....

[mrmiagi33]

Just want to report another G5 failure :( Mine went down two weeks ago after rebooting for security update 2008-08; I think. The system comes up to the blue screen with spinning wheel and stays there. I can not get the system to into single user/verbose/openfirmware nor to boot from install cd. Systems specs are:
Power Mac G5 (Early 2005)
Serial Number: G8529xxxxxx

dual 2.0

2GB RAM

I opend a case with Mac:

Case ID: 114251478

I do hope that Mac will do something to support these issues. This system is only 3.5 years old. The only other problem I have had up to this point was the superdrive failing.

[keysmank]

I have previously posted about my computer getting G5 disease and that one of the largest Apple resellers told me that he has seen a lot of problems with G5's.

In his opinion this has started when Apple outsourced their production from California.
If you could provide us with the tech number and supervisor, perhaps we could create momentum by all calling the same call center.

As i suggested previously it is difficult to get negative press on companies that are major advertisers for revenue declining media, but if you contact any tech or personal computing media editors and send them to this forum, we can inform the general public.

This may put pressure to acknowledge the issue.Spent this weekend with one of the Genius bar disciples (think some of them drink the Kool-Aid) offering to split the cost of repair w/o success.
$1800 for 3 years of usage is a business model even GM would be envious of but look where they are now.

Send a link to any editor and lets get paid in '09...

[sandbag1]

OK, I'm checking in with my G5 logic board failure. I had the logic board and the display replaced using my Apple Care extended warranty on July 22, 2006 which the repair would have cost me just over $1,900 if it were not for the Apple Care. At that time I asked them to replace it which probably would have been as cheap or cheaper for them but was refused.

Now it's almost 2 1/2 years later and my iMac has failed again and Apple refused me any repairs under any repair extension warranty and I had to buy a new Intel iMac.

My serial number on the G5 was QP511OCCGPNZ which fell within the serial repair ranges.

I would be interested in joining a class action suit against Apple if anyone knows a lawyer that would be willing to take this on. If anyone knows of anything like this happening, post it here so myself and others can sign up. I think this is the only way to deal with this.

[yevlar]

Good news on my G5 front - just got it back from DT&T on Tuesday, and so far she's running great. When the DT&T techs checked the machine, it turned out that my logic board was fine - it was just one bad processor.

And now that it's back and fixed, I can see that the proc was probably going bad for the enire time I had the machine. Before, when I would start up a proc-heavy program, like Maya, you'd hear the fans rev up like mad. With the new proc, that doesn't happen.

I also discovered that my G5 is older than I thought - since I purchased it refurbished in March of 2006, I assumed that it was one of the late 2005 models. Turns out mine is actually a June 2004 model, much older than the slate of G5's that have been giving so many people issues (my serial number starts with RM.)

I'll keep this thread posted with any further issues, if any occur. Thank you so much everyone for all the help on this and for the DT&T recommendation!

[Wallysb01]

Hi all, I'm one more with a logic board failure, or at least my wife is one more. The machine was bought in early 05, brand new, and this problem manifested just about 3 months after the warranty expired. For a time it was starting by holding the power for a few seconds, then it would only do it once in a while, now its completely dead. At the time of purchase my wife bought into the Apple PR hook, line and sinker. It was easier to use, low risk of viruses, had some cool programs already installed, plus it was trendy. This computer cost just about $2K when all was said and done. Now its dead after ~3.5 years.

Of course we take it into the Apple store just to see if they can do ANYTHING, and no, they won't even touch it unless we buy another ~$2K computer, or replace the logic board for 1K+? It was my wife talking to the guy since it was her computer, but I wanted to laugh in the guys face. They had to be kidding themselves if they think we'd invested 2K into another computer if they won't do anything for a customer that only had the first one last 3.5 years. I went in there willing to pay a hundred bucks or so just to get some files I had failed to back up onto a DVD. But you won't even do that unless I buy another computer from you? What a joke. You couldn't give me some sort of exchange for a new computer? Or give me a reduced price to fix the old one since I was nice enough to over pay for your product?

Or, of course, we could fix it through the Apple store for ~1K. Yeah that is a smart investment when I could buy a new, better PC, and get the data transfered for about 1/2 that. We just bought a little Dell insperon mini for $270! Why in the world would I repair this computer for $450 (from other places apparently) to 1K, if I can buy a new, better PC for less? Even full laptops with similar specks to the G5 are under $450 now, if you wait for a good deal.

Anyway, I second the class action lawsuit. Just from this site alone there appears to be a pretty good following to at least get the process started. For a $2K machine, 3.5 years is just ridiculous. Every PC I've owned has lasted at least 2 times that, at what, 1/4 of the price?

My serial number is W85042D8PNY.

In the end this is Apple's choice. They can recognize this problem and do something to appease those effected, or they can do nothing and fail to sell any more computers to a large fraction of this group. Beyond that I wouldn't even buy a new iPod, much less an iPhone. Apple is purposely holding back capabilities on the iPhone just so they can get those that want to be trendy to buy each new version as it gets better.

So apple, if you're reading this, I'm one who's exercising my consumer choice to not buy anything from you again if you can't give me a reasonable solution to this problem. I'm not looking for you to replace the logic board for free, I realize its past its warranty, but to not have an option for me under 1K is pretty rediculous when I already over payed under the assumption of increased reliability and to be part of this "group" of Apple owners, among other things. Apparently I misunderstood how much you cared about your customers who are willing to pay ~4x the cost of a PC.

Your choice Apple, lose a costumer for life (who knows how much that is worth, maybe 5K in the next 10 years?), or come up with a reasonable solution.

Sorry to clog up so much space to all those reading, just hoping my voice will be herd.

[keysmank]

Agree.$2k for 3.5 years of service is a GM business model.With a similar future.
I was an Apple virgin as well and I'm planning to buy a MSI Wind netbook and 22" screen.
Anybody want to buy a 2nd gen G5 for parts?

[Wallysb01]

I just got off the phone with apple teck support, and the guy wouldn't help me out at all. I gave him my whole case, told him I expected more for $2000 computer, that they would be losing our future business if a reasonable solution couldn't be reached, but no dice. He wouldn't let me speak to anyone else either. So much for buying a more reliable computer. Oh well, I'm through buying mac.
Looks like my machine will join the several others on ebay...

[Wallysb01]

....Or maybe not. My wife went and called them one more time. This time around we were armed with a little more information thanks to a popular mechanics article: www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/1707941.html

Basically, she was able to get the tier 1 tech guy to pass her off to the tier 2 guy, something I couldn't get them to do, and by stating how this problem is though faulty design and bad capacitors she was able to get Apple to pay for the part, and we pay for the labor. This is exactly the kind of "reasonable solution" I wanted. I understand part of this is just the risk of buying electronics and it pasted the warranty, but this particular model had a design flaw which severely limits the life span of the LB, beyond what I think we all can agree is a reasonable expectation.

So, after much b!tching, this appears to be resolved, now we just have to hope this actually fixes the problem. Thanks to apple for finally admitting a problem and doing something for your customers. It would have been nice if this was a little easier, and it appears many people remain stuck with the problem unable to get a sympathetic customer service agent and unwilling to do a little digging into the problem who then just give up on the computer.

The next time I buy a computer, Apple will be on my list of choices again. I have to say, this whole situation did still hurt their credibility, but we shall see what the market looks like next time I'm ready to buy.