Booted up one day everything was normal, opened Safari and clicked onto MSN to check my emails. Was reading a news article on MSN then all of a sudden my mouse and keyboard froze. I turned the Mac off by holding down the power button. When i tried to turn it back on I got no chime, no graphics (monitor did not display anything) my keyboard and mouse did not have any power. The power button LED flashes and computer fails to boot up.

I've checked many forums and mac help websites, (one mac helper has been using macs since 1985) He told me to check the ram so i did i took out 2 of the ram sticks and then tried to boot, the chime sounded and it booted the Mac I moved my mouse alittle and then everything froze again. I turned it back off and then on and it would not boot up again. Then i was told to zap the PRAM. After resetting the PRAM still no change on how it booted up. I replaced the mother board battery and still it wont boot up.

No repair history

Its very odd how a quality product like this stops working soon as 5 years pass.

Locked up and Fans went full speed. Diagnosed by Apple as failed logic board. Logic board replaced by Apple at no charge. Capacitors were WAY bulged out - I could see.

SECOND FAILURE, on July 20, 2009.

Prior to July 2009 failure - I endured a year or more of partial failure - it would lock up and fans would go full speed ONLY if I let it go to sleep. I never let it sleep since.

July 2009 - Just spent extensive time setting up leopard on the HD, then went to bed letting updates off the web install.. Morning and the machine was off. I managed to start it after some effort and then after the next shut down - that was it.

Apple diagnosed a power supply bad but noticed the SLIGHTLY bulging capacitors (group of 5 or 6).

I got a second opinion at after market tech shop.

We put in a different power supply and the board still failed. #1 LED comes on but that is all. That LED is flickering also.

Board had been replaced by Apple a couple years ago - outside 1 year and no Applecare, but under special warranty/recall...

AS stated above - after new board was put in. it soon went full tilt on fans and locked up if allowed to sleep. Miserable failure of a repair solution. Took it to Apple for that and they blamed software or "I dunno."

loud fans, no boot

apple genius bar: needs new logic board $2000+

3 years apple care -

told "you can buy a new one," "too bad"

have personally owned over 20 apple desk/laptops since early 80's. have integrated apple products in my work for almost 30 years, and having been treated in such a shoddy way, will go out of my way to encourage others to move to another platform to avoid this kind of misplaced brand loyalty.

loose connection on dvd rw, repaired under warranty

worked great til it died. solution: purchased HP desktop - learning linux - will never buy/own another new apple product.

No video, fan revving up until having to force quit. The white led light doesn't stay on unless pressed on.

Techs at Apple store in Danbury, Conn did diagnostics and said the hard drive needs replaced. After replacing the hard drive and PRAM battery, still the machine won't boot and shortly loses power and turns off itself. Will take it to the Apple store again probably, but can't justify having to pay $1000 or more to fix this problem.

Fans running unusually much

It died, I took it to repair center, they diagnosed a bad power supply. Paid for that since it was 2 months out of warranty, and then 1 month after picking it up from the repair center it died again. This time they said logic board, to the tune of $1100 to repair, and a new comparable machine was also $1100.

Never used the Applecare. I paid out of pocket for the power supply, and when the logic board crashed a month after that I decided not to throw good money after bad anymore.

Apple personnel repeatedly claimed they had not heard of any recurring problems with these units, though I found quite a bit of discussion on it on the 'net with users stating they had contacted Apple. There's no way they didn't know.

All usb devices such as keyboard and mouse become inoperative. The monitor continues to display what was on it at the time of the freeze up. Eventually the fans run at full speed. The power button has to be held in to shut it off. Attempts to reboot are sometimes successful, but eventually it freezes up again.

I self-diagnosed a bad power supply, but the same symptoms occurred with the new replacement. After reading several forums, I'm convinced that it's either failing processors or components of the mother board.

I chose to replace the power supply myself, but this did not correct the problem. If I can find a reasonable price on a mother board, I may try that next.

After 5 years of complete and total perfect operation, kernel panics began on August 4 for the first time. Computer would operate after restart for about an hour, then kernel panic again. After that, the computer stopped booting up. Eventually the computer would boot after 5-6 tries only to crash 5-10 seconds afterward. AHT tests pointed to Video card and mass storage failure. Took G5 to Apple for compete diagnosis, and they replaced the video card and said that was the only problem. Got home and powered up the computer only to get kernel panics instantly.

Am going back to Apple to discuss the stealing of $500 from me and the fact their diagnosis was worng and my computer is still a door stop. Computer as of now freezes on the apple logo screen on boot up and won't turn on.

Fans started running haywire at beginning of the demise. Problem seems to be heat related, but that is just a guess.

After supposedly running extensive tests, Apple diagnosed the problem initially to be video card. It was replaced for $500 (including diagnosis fee), and upon returning home and powering up the computer, kernel panic instantly.

Going back to Apple today for discussion about what they did to diagnose the computer initially, and what they are going to do to find out what is wrong.

New NVIDIA 6800 Ultra video card installed by apple last week. Did not solve problem.

No other problems with computer in 5 years of using as a audio mastering tool in my studio.

Tried loading 10.3 and 10.4 on fresh installs on both hard drives and still had kernel panics upon boot up. Tried swapping monitors, and that did not work. Won't boot at all now. Fans seem to run sporadically.

Sudden death. Froze up that day and never ran for more than an hour after that. I can run in target disc mode all day and it has become a real expensive external drive.
I bought a MacBook Pro and use a G4 and 2 G3 iMacs (the iMacs were used in a school for many years before I salvaged them) I still have my IIe purchased in 1982 and it still works. I know that Apple will do the right thing for the loyal customers that have supported them all these years. Everyone ready? Bend over!

Faulty logic board. The problem is caused by thermal expansion and contraction and can be fixed at the board level by a skilled technician with solder. Providing the broken trace can be found. I can make it work by pressing on the logic board in a certain spot. If I ease up on the pressure it freezes and needs a restart and the finger to run again. Well I need my finger for other more important things such as saluting those at Apple that continue to ignore the G5 owners and this growing issue.

At first refused sometimes to awake from sleep or even boot from scratch, just fans on, front LED sometimes on, black screen, no disk activity. Sometimes after sitting it would start booting again. Then random freezes where video was still present but frozen, no response to mouse, keyboard, ping, etc.. Occasional smells of ozone or hot radiator fluid, but no visible leaks even on opening the case.

Apple store says dead logic board and possibly one or more CPUs.

Nothing until now -- always ran like a champ.

Won't boot. Sometimes goes to gray apple screen and stalls, sometimes screen stays black and I hear intense fan noise.

Apple tech told me the logic board is bad and he suspects it is the onboard RAM.
Estimates $800.00 for new logic board and repair labor. Says he doesn't suggest putting the $$ into a new board - rather - he can sell me a reconditioned iMac for $999.00 plus the $150 to transfer my data from the bad machine onto the new one......

No previous repairs were necessary.

I did add 2GB Micron RAM - the tech tested it and said that RAM is good.

Fails to boot at start up, power button indicator flashing 3 times.

Suspected faulty RAM / logic board.

Taken to registered Apple service centre who cleaned points and reseated RAM and got it to boot up. Failed to boot up first time when brought back to my office, but did the second time and ran smoothly for a day. Second day failed to boot again, checked and reseated RAM without joy, took back to repair tech who got it back to life and tested it powering up and down all day. Failed to boot when back at office, repair tech suggests a faulty logic board with loose connections.
Previous repairs include replacing hard disc; disc drive (due to dust during renovations) and addition of more RAM (over 12 months ago)

Last week My mac froze. It froze the way the OS9 would (everything stops). I rebooted many times with a variety of results. The grey multiligual screen of death, blank screen, hanging at the apple logo, code all over the desktop, etc. Sometimes with a chime sometimes with no chime. I tried reseating ram, videocard, swapping drives, restting the pmu, all to no avail. I left it alone for a day or so and came back to find it booted and stayed that way for 30 minutes. Then the whole parade started over. I managed to get it back for a day, did as much work as I could but noticed that I had lost about 1.5 gigs of ram. So I rebooted yet again. No joy. the ram was gone and once it went to sleep it never woke up. It sits there like that now. Anytime I try to reboot, I get 3 flashes on the power button teling me I have bad ram slots.

TBD. Going to genius bar but suspect the worst.

My power mac G5 dual just turns on and only shows the grey apple with no turning candy ball and it wont boot up.

Northbridge(U3) is soldered to the board through a ball grid array BGA. Those ball grid arrays don't like thermal expansion fatigue which is exactly the reason for the failures. I have three choices now:

1. replacing the logic board (very expensive)
2. reflowing of the Northbridge (may work)
3. buying a new computer

After trying the reflow I give up with my G5 and go to choice 3. Very frustrating.

I have the S/N not available in the moment but my computer is an early 2005 model (Single Core, 2 CPUs).

Power-on LED illuminates, fans and processor pump run harder, there is no boot and the system shuts down within a few minutes.
Red internal LED lights #2 and #7 come on during start up.

It just happened, kind of like sh**.

Logic board failure, possible processor failure. Diagnosed by Apple tech at a local Apple store after running hardware diagnostics.
Cost estimate of repair of logic board is $1900 and to replace processor is $900+.

It would cost almost as much as this machine cost new to repair. No way should I have to pay that for a machine not even 4 years old.

Too expensive to repair.

One of the worst technology purchases I have ever made. I have been an Apple fan for years. I will start to look elsewhere for computers after this. I may start taking up Apple on their switch commercial.

The monitor went black while typing an e-mail. I had to force quit, holding the power button down, and when restarting, the fans would start up, but it wouldn't boot up. The power light on both the computer and monitor lit up, but would flash brightly 3 times, over and over. Eventually the fans would begin revving up to the point where I would have to do a forced power down.

I took it to an Apple authorized repair shop. Diagnosis: failed logic board.

When brand new, the computer had problems with video in iMovie and Final Cut Express--interference lines kept flashing in the video. Apple repair tried everything to no avail, until both processors were replaced, under warranty. Since then, the computer performed flawlessly, until now.

Ran flawlessly for 4 years then woke up one morning turned it on - nothing! Same symptoms as others - managed to start it up a few times then freeze. Tried everything suggested by techies to no avail. Swapped out RAM, hard drives, Video Card etc. with known working ones. I'm definitely up for a class action. I have Mac IIci, 7500, G3, G4 - all still working.

The Hardware Profile of AHT reports processor as @1702037.8GHz instead of 2 x PowerPC G5 2.7GHz. Boot into firmware and device tree only sees one CPU instead of two, so I suspect one CPU dead or logic board.

Never had a problem until now.

Have had for almost five years but with a year's non-use while we were overseas.

A few months back started freezing, kernel panics. Tried different RAM sticks, seemed to help. Then stable for a few months until the other day (Jan 2010).

Now nothing works - all RAM sticks rejected, three flashing lights (bad RAM) even the original sticks.

Have replaced with Mac Pro but expected G5 to last longer.

Some repairs done to DVD drive and disk adapters within AppleCare but nothing required since it expired, until now.

Grey screen freeze and fans ramp up till it gets shut down manually.

Apple store says new logic board/processors or power supply, $1,500 - $2,000 to fix.

Tried everything I could find in the forums. PRAM, SMU, disk boot, cntrl T(which will boot it as firewire). Problem persists.

Talked to apple today 3-7-2010

Said that this is a well documented problem that would have been covered if it happened within new-3 or 4 yrs old, but my 5 year old unit is "beyond the life we consider it will last, and therefore is considered common wear and tear," even though it is a recognized issue/flaw with this model. I said 5 years is an acceptable life span for a +2,500 computer? He said that's longer than we guarantee it will perform, and because of that there's no way Apple can help. That sucks.

first symptome mac didn't wake up from hibernate, then fans went into turbo speed, in the following time mac wouldn't boot, LED was on but no start-up chime, no booting, after a while fans went again super-loud. After 3-10 attempts, sometimes 20 times mac booted normally. Once the system started up, there was no problem at all, but no reboot was possible, wouldn't start up again, black monitor. In the shop they told me Apple doesn't support replacement parts for this model anymore.

They said it might me the logic board or the power supply unit. beyond repair.
CDX, Nuernberg, Germany

-

The unit worked fine the previous day, then the following day only the fan worked.

Local Apple Dealer-Repair Depot indicated the "logic" board was done, much to my surprise and dismay since this unit is just two years old.

None

Contacted Apple Canada and despite my best efforts to indicate that I was a loyal Apple Consumer (I currently have five Mac products including an 11 year old G4 that has not failed me), a Senior Advisor I spoke with would not entertain the fact that there must be a quality issue with the logic board. Basically one of his responses was that I should have purchased the Extended Warranty. Another response of his was that it would be unfair to Apple shareholders to repair my unit; funny he did not think of the situation as being unfair to its customers like me to have a unit failure like mine? Re the Extended Warranty issue, I had previously purchased this Add-On for my MacBook laptop, figuring that this unit would likely fail at some point, I had not considered that the professional grade Mac Pro would, especially after two years.

My final thoughts expressed to the Apple rep was that upon my next computer purchase I will indeed consider looking at other computer manufactures since it appears to me that Apple Canada does not stand behind any of their products, especially in premature failure situations.