[rstk]

I actually live and work a few minutes away from Apple HQ at 1 Infinite Loop...I am going to go drop my G5 in Steve Job's parking spot with a note linking to this thread on it perhaps. Apparently his is the Mercedes with no license plate always in the handicap stall.

[wrbmonster]

im actually on hold wiht apple support right now. The rep helping has been very nice and is trying to see what he can do. I pointed him to this forums and he checked it out trying to find a fix. right now im holding for a product specialist..


well im off the phone now..andi got no where..tried to ask to talk to a supervisor and didnt get any luck there. the IT guy here at work did give me a number for customer relations and the tech form the support line said i might have better luck with them. Ill try calling that later today.

[wrbmonster]

after my second call and over an hour of being on the phone, Ive gotten no where. They said theres nothing apple can do for me because there isnt an official report on this issue.


so with that said..does anyone know a good class action lawsiut lawer to get this ball rolling?



PS - while on hold, i was researching PC's....looks like after 15 years of MAC only useage..i may switch to PC! (cheaper and probably more reliable!)

[yevlar]

All the trouble that people are having with Apple's customer service line, and with Apple's continued refusal to acknowlegde the issue, makes me wonder if a formal letter-writing campaign could work in this day-and-age. I don't mean e-mail, I mean formal letters illustrating each of our issues with the G5 processors and logic boards, sent to Apple's customer support with carbon copies sent to Macworld and other Mac-centric magazines, perhaps even a TV tech newsmagazine show, or even 20/20 or some other investigative journalism source.

[rwalsh17]

I think that's a great idea. Apple is refusing to acknowledge the rampant logic board failures as a legitimate issue because they haven't been forced to. As much as Apple wants to market itself as a 'good company' that values its customers, at the end of the day, Apple is just another corporation worried about the bottom line. Period. Apple could care less about how much work we've lost due to our system failures, money we've spent on repairs, etc. All they care about is making as much money as possible. As long as we keep buying Apple products, that's all the justification they need to continue screwing us on over-priced faulty equipment. They have no loyalty to us, why should we have any for them?

The only way Apple will officially recognize the logic board failure rate as a serious manufacturing flaw rather than just a collection of anecdotal incidents is if we FORCE them to admit it through any and all means available to us. As yevlar suggested, I'm gonna start drafting up some letters to reputable news sources about this problem and hope that someone picks up the story. Surely, there's gotta be some hungry reporter out there just waiting for the opportunity to investigate a potential 'manufacturing defect cover-up' by one of the hottest corporations in the the world, especially a company like Apple, a company who markets itself as superior to PC based SOLELY on its commitment to quality craftmanship and reliability. That sounds like a headline-making scandal in the works to me...



It's gonna take me a while to get all the contact info together and to draft and personalize the letters, so I'm not sure when I'll have anything to report, but I'll keep the board updated on any developments in the process. If anybody else out there has some free time to spare and you're just as irked as I am about having an expensive G5 system take a dump on you after only 3.5 years of service, I suggest you write some letters of your own and send 'em to Dateline NBC, 20/20, CNN, Wired, as well as any other outlet that might be interested in the story. I hope to come back with a progress report soon...



Just a side note, I've read EVERY SINGLE POST on this board regarding this problem. ALL 24 PAGES OF 'EM! (as of today's date 1.08.08). And I'm confident that this problem is much bigger than any of us realize, and is much bigger than Apple will EVER admit to (unless of course, they are met with some persuasion from the mainstream media...)



My best to all of you affected by our current economic crisis. May those of you laid off find work soon, and may those of you still employed keep your job until you choose to work a said establishment no longer!!!



-rwalsh17

[VladimerePain]

Well after acquiring a working power supply from eBay, I have the system back up and running for now. Granted it's not perfect some random freezes, but not as bad as I would have figured. I'll have to stay away from the PMU reset button as well. I might read up on the whole blow dryer fix for the memory slots, but think I'll opt for using a low wattage soldering iron on the board itself. I did try to sign up on Droid's site, but I never received a password. Does seem like I have another dying Maxtor hard drive, which I switched over to using since Apple was putting them in their machines.

[macbabe]

I had mine's power supply replaced, it worked fine for a few weeks of light use, and then the logic board died. If you're having random freezes already, I give your logic board 2 weeks. If I were you, I wouldn't delay making a backup of anything you want to keep. ;)

I mentioned earlier that my IMac G5 is still at the shop. Last week the tech called Apple on my behalf to see what he could get done about it. They told him since they didn't have a case opened for it they would do nothing. But back in November I went to the Apple site, clicked on contact Apple support, and sent them a letter. I never got a reply. So it looks from my point of view that I contacted them and they refused to acknowledge my letter and refused to open a case.

[csborgman]

Update:

My computer was supposed to be fixed by the 8th (paid for by Apple with an "exception code") so on the 9th I called Tekserve and left a message. Didn't get a call back till the next day, the 10th. The tech explained that they did find a problem with the logic board (although they were able to get it to boot up several times) and replaced it. But.... the replacement was DEFECTIVE!!! Huh? A new board from Apple was defective? No, how can that be? So, although Apple doesn't want to admit there's a problem with their boards the evidence proves otherwise. Even a brand new one was defective.

I'm still without a computer till Apple sends another to the repair shop. I should have my G5 back on Wed.



For you all getting the dump by Apple's CS, don't give up! Be relentless!! If you want your computer fixed and it's less than 4 years old, keep calling, and calling and calling. It's a numbers game. Ask to speak with a supervisor in Customer Service because you need an "exception code" to repair your defective logic board. You can get into a war of words (but I don't suggest it) when he tells you that your computer is out of warranty, you can ask "on average, what is the life span of this Apple product?" The bad seeds will know it's a trick question and hang up on you, no problem, call back. If they don't hang up on you but are nice about trying to provide some comforting information then this is the person to ask about talking to a Supervisor. Remember, the first tier can not do anything for your out-of-warranty computer. They just try to frustrate you into giving up.

Hope this helps. Please post your progress.

Chris

[Droid]

VladimerePain said:

>I did try to sign up on Droid's site, but I never received a password. Does seem like I have another dying Maxtor hard drive, which I switched over to using since Apple was putting them in their machines.

I'm sorry to hear that, if you still want to sign up please try again or just email me via the contact form & I'll check the user account on my site.

I also read stories of PSU's making the mac spring back into life. I think it it just what happens when the logic board has its processors reseated. Mine worked for about a week after I stripped it down, but then became un-bootable.

Good luck with it.

[tsnowman]

I too have a G5 Dual 2.5GHz that has stopped working. I took it into an Apple Retail Store and told them I thought the power supply had gone bad. They replaced the power supply but it still didn't work. They suggested it has to be the Logic Board or processors and that would be around $900 to fix plus the cost of the power supply they replaced. I decided not to pay the additional $900 to repair the logic board/processors and so they said no charge and just gave it back. However I thing they left the new power supply in it because now when I plug in the power cable it makes a clicking sound and before they looked at the power supply it didn't make any sounds at all.

I personally don't think I could sell the Mac (if working) for more than $900 so why would I pay so much to have this machine fixed? I cannot believe the number of these G5s that have had faulty logic boards. I was reading that over 26% of the dual 2.5GHz G5s have had faulty logic boards. That is terrible in my opinion!

I have been using Macs since 1993 and owned well over 10 different Macs in that time. The only other Mac I had logic board issues on was a Powerbook G4 that was a lemon from the day I bought it. I have been the "Mac Tech Guy" at my last 5 jobs over the last 13+ years and I've only had 3 machines totally die on me and 2 of those were dual G5 Macs. The first G5 had the power supply replaced and is still running to this day and the other one is the G5 I am writing about.

If anyone has a way that I get this fixed for under $300 please let me know. I don't want to put any more money into this Mac but it is also sad to see such an expensive "door stop".

[csborgman]

Update:

I got my computer home and plugged it in. Although I saw the tech at the store boot it up with no problems, my results were not the same. Dead! I booted up to the DVD (hold down the mouse as you boot up to open the tray) and it ran fine from the DVD. So, it can't be the logic board. I re-installed all system software and it's been running great since then.

I'm very happy that I got mine fixed for free, paid for by Apple. I plead with anyone with the same problem to keep calling Apple day after day till you get a new logic board and working computer. Don't give up!

Chris

[tek_uk]

Hi there,

well i did just that.

My G5 is suffering from the weak soldering problem where it won't boot unless you heat the front of the machine with an hair dryer.

Reported the issue to Apple UK and they said they would not cover it. I asked to speak to a manager who told me he could not do anything. He said he would ask systems engineering. In the meantime i sent an email pointing to all the reports of that issue, together with the list of all the macs i bought in recent years and pointing out the fact that i'm a shareholder.



Still, he called me back today to let me know that they won't do anything... :-(

Any idea how else i could escalate it?

Any examples of people in the UK who got it fixed by Apple?



Many thanks in advance



Laurent

[csborgman]

If your computer is less than 4 yrs old then don't take NO for an answer. How many times have you called them? I was lucky, I called them 3 times in a row. I was hung up on by the first 2 guys in tech support. Yep, they actually hung up on me. Then I got a guy who transfered my call to a supervisor in customer service. So keep calling, be relentless! Chris

[wrbmonster]

ive tired...it dosen't necessarily work for everyone...ive called at least once a week since my G5 died in early December...i still haven't gotten anywhere.