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iNTEL 24" iMac logic board failure

A

Adam1972

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 7, 2009
4
0
Hi all,

i need some advice on what to do next, my Intel 24" iMac has failed, diagnosed as a faulty logic board by the Apple Genius. I purchased the iMac in Dec 07, and I deliberately did not purchase the extended warranty as this is a desktop unit, that in 20 months of ownership has never been moved, dropped or transported anywhere.

I have no option than to either pay for the repair - £380 or sell on eBay for spares...!

I informed Apple about the Sale of Goods Act, and they have put the owness on me to prove it was faulty from date of purchase...! They have informed me that I need to visit an Apple authorised service centre where they will run a test and produce a report, which will determine if the fault was there in the first 6 months of ownership.

Anyhow, I’ve contacted Apple Customer Services, supervisors etc several more times, however they are not, at this point willing to cover the cost of repair - £380.

I've explained that this is a premium product, with the equivalent cost far higher than a similar spec PC, and what i would say is a 'sealed' unit design, so is very difficult for me to undertake repair.

I am hugely disappointed in their refusal to cover the repair costs. This is my first iMac, and although i did enjoy using this, the prohibitive cost of repair can't justify me spending my own money, either on repairs or on another Mac when i can now purchase a relatively good spec desktop PC running Windows 7 for the same price of the repair cost!

I will keep on trying to request Apple to cover the costs, however, i can see myself eventually "ripping" the hard disk out, transferring all my data across myself

Can anyone else offer any advice - legal or otherwise on what to do with my iMac....?

TIA

Best regards

Adam
 
So you've had your iMac for going on two years, you 'deliberately' didn't purchase the extended warranty, the logic board fails out of warranty and you are upset at Apple?

By deductive reasoning, you knew the risks by not buying the warranty, and accepted them when there was nothing wrong as you were saving a little money. Something goes wrong, you are now not so fine with it, and blame Apple for your lack of wanting to buy the extended warranty.

I feel your pain, as no one wants a high end piece of hardware to go down, but the truth is, whether you are driving a Ferrari, have a Tag Watch, Sony LCD, or Apple computer, there are going to be occasional hardware issues. To boycott the entire brand is a bit far fetched, but to each his own.

I hope you have some positive resolution to your dilemma.
 
If the warranty expires in 12 months and your system dies 8 months after that, why does Apple need to front the bill? What makes you exempt from the rules?
 
Without the Applecare, and if they're not scared of the Sale of Goods Act I'm not sure what else you can do other than take it to Apple and have them run that diagnostic test. I´m sure they´ll tell you nothing was wrong with it, but it's worth the time I'd say.

If they say that, follow the guide on ifixit.com - it´s easy to open the iMac and replace the logic board. It just takes a long time because there are more torx screws than you can shake a torx screw driver at, but the guide is excellent and very easy to follow.

If that's too much of a hassle, then I say go ahead and buy a new pc and show your dissatisfaction with Apple that way.
 
here we go again....

under EU consumer law, apple are obliged to repair or replace it for 2 years, not 1 year as apple and almost every company will push to you.

this is indisputable, and no company in the EU, including apple are exempt. The EU company house of Apple in Luxembourg would be refused a sellers license had it refused to sign up to the charter.

now...the sticking point is that you have to prove that the unit was not fit for purpose when you bought it....whether the unit was broken when you bought it is irrelevant, and a tactic used by all companies to try and get out of the owness on them. this is where you have some comfort though....
as Apple were willing to sell you a 2 year extended warranty (applecare), suggesting that they considered your iMac as having a reasonable lifespan of 3 years before problems should occur.

Why would they offer you a 3 year warranty for a product otherwise?

Apple are much better than most companies with repairs/replacements, but even they try and force this stupid 1 year warranty on customers, knowing that 95% wont do anything about it.
 
LOL , what a bunch of weasels over in EU.... keep pushing and you will be paying for a warranty regardless as they will embed the cost upfront (as if they probably already do)
 
iMac logic board failure

...Many thanks for all the comments and advice - sure i understand why i'm asked why didn't i purchase the Applecare warranty, that it's my fault etc. etc. and i do understand this.
 
Macs are made from exactly the same components as all the PCs. The only difference is that if a PC logic board dies it costs no more than a 100 pounds to replace (and you can do it yourself if you want to). Apple charges 4 times the price.
 
I sympathise with you mate, I really do.

It's for this reason, that I'm considering moving from my 3 1/2 year old iMac to the Mac Mini despite the higher cost/lower performance. I don't want to give up OS X but I don't have faith in the all in one design. Yes, I could still end up with a duff mini but at least I'll have separated the screen from the PC and they can fail/be upgraded independently.
 
iMac logic board failure

Axegrinder said:
I sympathise with you mate, I really do.

It's for this reason, that I'm considering moving from my 3 1/2 year old iMac to the Mac Mini despite the higher cost/lower performance. I don't want to give up OS X but I don't have faith in the all in one design. Yes, I could still end up with a duff mini but at least I'll have separated the screen from the PC and they can fail/be upgraded independently.
Click to expand...

- I do like using OS X, it does have it's annoyances over Windows, and i initially choose this because of the iMac's all-in-one design, and is the very reason i didn't go with any other manufacturer, for Apple quality, and as this is effectively a 'sealed' unit that would be difficult & costly to repair - and i thought i could trust the quality of Apple components and their manufacturing process.

I wish i could replace the logic board myself, i have build several of my own PC's in the past, however from what i have seen on the net the cost of independently purchasing the iMac replacement logic board is still around £350....so a very poor design in respect of cost.
 
How did you pay for your iMac at the time of purchase? Many credit cards offer cost free extended warranties if you buy the product with their cards. Usually that's for double the time of the original warranty or for one additional year if the original warranty is 5 years or less.

For this reason, I will be buying a 27" iMac in January using my American Express. That said, I will buy Apple Care - it's a very expensive computer to fix (due to the all-in-one nature), and you can buy Apple Care for around $160 if you hunt around - it's worth it... if you spread that over 2 years, it's $80 a year... worth it for peace of mind, IMHO. Anyhow, I called AmEx and they confirmed that if I buy the iMac and Apple Care on my AmEx, they will extend the warranty an additional year - so I'll have 4 yeas total of coverage. The AmEx thing also covers accidental damage. This on any product purchased, for less than $10K. I intend to keep this computer around for 5 years or so (should it last that long!), then I figure it'll be very obsolete and time to buy a new one.

Bottom line - check to see how you bought it, you may get lucky and have coverage you didn't even know you had... as long as you kept the original paperwork (bill of sales etc.) as well.

For the future, keep in mind this option - pay with a card that has extended benefits coverage at no cost to you (plus for me, I also get reward points for cashback on my AmEx).
 
My 24" white iMac (2006) had its display replaced twice. My logic board (or graphics, or both) has been failing.

Apple is giving me a 27" C2D new iMac as a replacement and allowed me to pay the difference to upgrade to an i7 Quad.

I BOUGHT APPLECARE. The 'only' extended warranty type I'd ever buy. You should have. It's affordable and even on Ebay. :apple:
 
Why should a company offer free lifetime service on a computer? What other company does this? The 1 year they offer is generous as it is.
 
I really cannot understand all the support for "Apple Care." Computers, that are well built and engineered, should not fail in one, two or five years. I have an HP, being used as a print and document server that is TEN years old.

I have other computers that are three years old - 2 are five years old. ALL work beautifully and are used constantly.

Old rule of thumb was - a computer if it is going to fail, would fail within the first year.

The only conclusion I can draw - Apple computers are not well engineered or built. Having "invested" in two, I seriously doubt I will purchase another.

Good luck in your situation and future buying decision.
 
sharkync said:
I really cannot understand all the support for "Apple Care." Computers, that are well built and engineered, should not fail in one, two or five years. I have an HP, being used as a print and document server that is TEN years old.

I have other computers that are three years old - 2 are five years old. ALL work beautifully and are used constantly.

Old rule of thumb was - a computer if it is going to fail, would fail within the first year.

The only conclusion I can draw - Apple computers are not well engineered or built. Having "invested" in two, I seriously doubt I will purchase another.

Good luck in your situation and future buying decision.
Click to expand...

Everyone will have their own anecdote. To make a sweeping statement like "Apple computers are not well built" (or "are well built"), and for it to be valid, one should refer to more objective data on failure rates. I believe Apple doesn't do worse than the HP computers you praise, I think actually slightly better if memory serves.

Anyhow, I do agree that the all-in-one design is a flawed concept if it doesn't have easily accessible and replaceable parts. That's a concept that only works if all the elements have high reliability, and all elements are likely to fail within more or less the same time frame - which is impossible. Computers have gotten slightly more reliable, but not enough. And that means that Apple should have worked a lot harder to make stuff accessible - for example, it's a scandal that the HDD is not easily replaceable - they did it it for RAM, they should've done it for the HDD as well, since those fail pretty often.
 
Add me to the list of non buyers again.

Shoddy company, making shoddy products backed up by shoddy service.

OP, file with small claims court..

1/ No judge in the UK would rule that a £1k computer, unmoved, should be ok to fail within 2 years.

2/ Apple won't turn up...
 
iMac logic board failure

archipellago said:
Add me to the list of non buyers again.

Shoddy company, making shoddy products backed up by shoddy service.

OP, file with small claims court..

1/ No judge in the UK would rule that a £1k computer, unmoved, should be ok to fail within 2 years.

2/ Apple won't turn up...
Click to expand...


I have read snippits about other's fixing the logic board by replacing very small components
 
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