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Imac Failure Rates by Time Poll Please respond

Has your imac failed within a three year period? Please see post details on "fail".

  • Failed within 1 year

    Votes: 14 11.7%

  • Failed within 2 years

    Votes: 8 6.7%

  • Failed within 3 years

    Votes: 3 2.5%

  • Still running successfully!

    Votes: 95 79.2%
  • Total voters
    120
  • Poll closed .
T

Tudeski

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2008
74
0
Please respond to this poll by designating both failed and non-failed imacs.

Failed is any number of items that have failed over a 3 year period--such as:

hard drives
superdrives
RAM
LCD

FAILED IS NOT DOA.

Categories are 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, and still running. For those still successfully running, please post to this thread how long you have had your imac and what generation you have.
PLEASE NOTE, STILL RUNNING INDICATES YOU HAVE NEVER HAD TO HAVE YOUR IMAC WORKED ON OR REPAIRED.


I would be interested in taking these numbers and relating them to refurb vs. new also.

Does anyone now of raw data sets of failed imacs over the last 3-5 years?
 
Prabz26 said:
sick thread
im getting an iMac so
this is some interesting stuff!
Click to expand...

I'm seriously considering it too. I know I can swap hdd and ram on pcs, but the imac is a different story. Its considerably more difficult to swap HDs...
 
i cant wait i juss hope i make the right decision when i buy this
iMac

im happy i dont have to worry about switchin hardrives

i share a computer with 5 family members so i hardly have
any personal files all can fit on a memory stick and quick transfer
finnaly my first computer (well soon)

best of luck...with ur switching
 
Can't you just buy Applecare? I would even more interested to know what percentage of iMac's make it past 3 years.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11a Safari/525.20)

11 :O

but old is gold



new is just wait till it stops looking pretty and dies in ur arms lol
 
You poll is already biased becuase I voted in it. I have 3 iMacs. One died from the dreaded "freezing screen" within a few days of purchase. The other 2 did not. I voted for under 1 year but I would need to also place 2 votes in the still working category but I can't because I voted.

Furthermore, a poll like this will not really accomplish what you think it will because:

A) the sample size is too small
B) the target audience is skewed to those who have problems.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11a Safari/525.20)

true say but
id still wanna know.....
 
My superdrive kicked the bucket a year and half in but I consider that an eventuality with optical drives and the amount of discs I burn.
 
My old iMac G3 had a faulty screen... it would flicker sometimes and get all shaky, but because I couldn't reproduce it in the store they wouldn't fix it for me. The monitor actually died after about 5 or 6 years.
(Although if the same thing happened to me today, I might be able to find some way to deal with it and reproduce the issue).

The iMac G4 in the basement is still running strong, but the pneumatic arm thingy on it doesn't stay in place very well anymore.

The iMac that I'm typing on right now is a first gen intel, purchased in April 2006. No problems whatsoever.
 
flopticalcube said:
You poll is already biased becuase I voted in it. I have 3 iMacs. One died from the dreaded "freezing screen" within a few days of purchase. The other 2 did not. I voted for under 1 year but I would need to also place 2 votes in the still working category but I can't because I voted.

Furthermore, a poll like this will not really accomplish what you think it will because:

A) the sample size is too small
B) the target audience is skewed to those who have problems.
Click to expand...

If we can get enough people to respond to this before the thread dies we should be able to get some decent data from this. My fear is that too many will only look at not vote. Thanks for voting! I do agree that this might be skewed towards those who do have problems, but at least it gives those looking at purchasing an imac something to consider rather than rants about parts breaking down. Again--thanks for voting!
 
genmic said:
Can't you just buy Applecare? I would even more interested to know what percentage of iMac's make it past 3 years.
Click to expand...

You could buy applecare...but that's my point. If your buying applecare you are waging on the probability that the computer is going to defect within a three year period....It seems "old is gold" could be correct, and I have had the majority of my pc's last over the three year time period....this is what i am looking for in a new intel imac.... just some hard stats to help make a decision. It does seem those on this forum have a lot of problems, but that needs to be taken into consideration as well...

Anyone know if apple has anything about imac reliability on their 10k SEC reports?

I'm not looking at purchasing apple care....if it breaks down after year one, i'll fix it myself, but if the feedback from this poll are overwhemingly negative, i'm going to reconsider purchasing an imac.
 
flopticalcube said:
You poll is already biased becuase I voted in it. I have 3 iMacs. One died from the dreaded "freezing screen" within a few days of purchase. The other 2 did not. I voted for under 1 year but I would need to also place 2 votes in the still working category but I can't because I voted.

Furthermore, a poll like this will not really accomplish what you think it will because:

A) the sample size is too small
B) the target audience is skewed to those who have problems.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I have two trouble-free iMacs....
 
My iMac's mouse stopped working after 6 months. Called Apple Care and they just told me to clean it with a paper.

Two facts:

1. Apple's quality is going down. I have had enough bad experiences with their new MB & MBP!

2. Apple Care here (Asia) knows only one thing ........ trying to void your warranty and stop providing any support to you!
 
LCD had to be replaced just before the 1 year mark (thankfully it was still covered by Apple Care) and as of now, the hard drive seems to be failing.
 
My previous iMac, a 17" 1.83GHz Core Duo, was one of the first Intel Macs and was bought in February 2006.

The SuperDrive, a Matshita, died after 2 years, refusing to read DVD's, burn media, and would occasionally read the odd music CD in iTunes.

I was quoted a ridiculous £440 to have the drive replaced by Apple since I was out of warranty and didn't purchase Applecare. I simply bought an external USB DVD burner with better burning speed than the SuperDrive, although being honest I download more than I load from disc when possible.

In fairness, the Matshita drive was the source of a lot of complaints on the Apple discussion forums and was widely regarded as one of the most unreliable components used by Apple in their iMac. As far as I'm aware, todays iMac's do not use the Matshita SuperDrive's any longer.
 
Hellhammer said:
Failed 2 hours after, dead and stuck pixels.
Click to expand...

With all due respect, that's not a "failure" on the part of the hardware.

Read any display manufacturers instruction manual, many of them have disclaimers regarding Dead/Stuck pixels and how they have a threshold for how many is "acceptable".

You're actually more lucky it was replaced with stuck pixels, which can be fixed, as some manufacturers would simply tell you it's within manufacturing limits and fit for use. Sony in particular are known for this stance, especially with their earlier PSP screens.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
You associate the problematic Mighty Mouse with defective iMac? No wonder why this poll is biased!
Click to expand...


1. If a iMac without a mouse, will it be a fully fucntional iMac any more?

2. Did I say it is the mouse that caused the problem? Could it be the USB port?

Once again, 2 more facts

1. More than enough people crying for defective Apple products in this forum!

2. Too many Apple die hard fans!
 
kennyli said:
1. If a iMac without a mouse, will it be a fully fucntional iMac any more?

2. Did I say it is the mouse that caused the problem? Could it be the USB port?

Once again, 2 more facts

1. More than enough people crying for defective Apple products in this forum!

2. Too many Apple die hard fans!
Click to expand...

In fairness, the guy has a point mate.

A defective Mighty Mouse does not indicate a problem with the iMac itself immediately. You rightly claimed it could be an issue with the USB port on the system, but then again anyone with common sense would immediately test the keyboard or another USB device, such as a USB pen drive, to test the port to rule out such a fault.

If it's just the mouse which is defective, then I'm afraid that's not a failure or defect on the part of the iMac, it's simply a defective peripheral.
 
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