Faulty iMac's - Good repairer needed

[ncoules]

Hi,

 

We have a number of iMac's that have developed issues, does anyone know of a good repair service / person who can fix them in or around the suffolk area.

 

They drive me crazy on the best of days but would welcoming someone who could fix them for us.

 

Many thanks

 

Nick

[mac_shinobi]

@Arthur - may have good suggestions

 

I was thinking of possibly getting in touch with KRCS - https://www.krcs.co.uk/pages/contact-and-support

 

That or apple's education sector - am sure they have contact details on the apple site ref there education department / section ?

[ncoules]

Thank you, I will give them a try.

 

Would like to find someone local who could come and take look/ repair them.

 

Nick

[Arthur]

Do any of the issues include failing hard drives?

 

iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program

Apple has determined that certain Seagate 1TB hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems may fail. These systems were sold between October 2009 and July 2011. (Source)

[ncoules]

Hi,

 

Thanks for that.

 

I have a number of issues...

 

Fans no but no audio or video

RAM issue

Green stripe down screen

Half of a screen darker than the other side

Constant ticking noise

 

Not having much luck with them...

 

Nick

[3s-gtech]

Depending on the age of the iMac, some of those sound highly likely to be caused by the notorious manufacturing issues Nvidia had with the Geforce 9400 series that were fitted. I think that this is a motherboard replacement job. It's caused by heat+poor quality control/solder.

 

The ticking noise - I had that one. Was fixed with a hard reset, it's a known odd issue with them. Either that or the HDD is failing!

[ncoules]

Hi, Many thanks.

 

These were bought in July 2011, the supplier only supplied them with a 1 year warranty and this was only discovered this year!.

 

If it is a know issue then do Apple replace free of charge?, also is there a good supplier or iMAC parts?

 

Many thanks

 

Nick

[3s-gtech]

I've not heard of them replacing the boards outside of warranty on these, but it's worth a go. Apple are not big on acknowledging a mistake, but their CS can be okay.

[AshleyBishop]

Apple only let authorized repair centers sell their parts. You can find a few sites online though if your School has a credit card that you're able to use.

 

Hi, Many thanks.

 

These were bought in July 2011, the supplier only supplied them with a 1 year warranty and this was only discovered this year!.

 

If it is a know issue then do Apple replace free of charge?, also is there a good supplier or iMAC parts?

 

Many thanks

 

Nick

[CESIL]

But...but...I thought Macs never go wrong...surely that is why they cost such ridiculous amounts of money

[seawolf]

Hi, Many thanks.

 

These were bought in July 2011, the supplier only supplied them with a 1 year warranty and this was only discovered this year!.

 

If it is a know issue then do Apple replace free of charge?, also is there a good supplier or iMAC parts?

 

Many thanks

 

Nick

 

If you'd taken them for repair prior to July '13 the repairs would have been free despite the "1 year warranty". However, they are now outside of 24 months and without AppleCare to cover that third year you are likely going to be charged unless its an issue covered by a recall.

[seawolf]

But...but...I thought Macs never go wrong...surely that is why they cost such ridiculous amounts of money

 

That would be naive, but then you're just being sarcastic.

 

I suspect the iMacs in question have been subjected to abuse or they were sold non-Apple refurbished models (the bit about 1 year warranty from supplier mentioned, rather than saying "from Apple"), or they have been the unfortunate recipients of a bad batch off the assembly line with faulty drives or GPUs (neither of which are actually made by Apple). Apple easily beats all of the other computer manufacturers in reliability and customer service in independent surveys - http://www.macworld.com.au/news/survey-apples-mac-line-up-still-tops-consumer-satisfaction-and-reliability-80440/#.UjUnLMsaySM

 

Also, the supposed "ridiculous amounts of money" suggested as a premium for Macs was the case 6+ years ago, but with the move to more "PC" x86 components that difference has shrunk and shrunk where the difference in price is small and only due to higher quality controls and build quality, in some cases technical differentiation (Thunderbolt, Retina displays, superior SSD performance, battery life, better trackpads, Magsafe, etc.), and better service. When PC manufacturers have tried to match Apple with like for like (e.g. top-end Ultrabooks) the price difference amazingly disappears. The one exception is the Mac Pro, but people pay as much for the status symbol of them as for the performance. Kind of like paying 2-3 as much for a Lexus when it's really just a souped up, kitted out Toyota.

Edited September 15, 2013 by seawolf

[Gerk]

But...but...I thought Macs never go wrong...surely that is why they cost such ridiculous amounts of money

 

You get what you pay for Our school here is a testament to that. 4 labs full of brand new workstation grade HP's are currently having some serious issues, which have been acknowledged by HP ... and zero timeline on a "fix" for them (given that it's most likely problematic motherboards I suspect the "fix" will be to return them all to HP for replacement as updated firmware didn't do much of anything to resolve the issues). On the other hand the 350+ brand new mac pros we deployed over the summer are running like tops (even the ones running windows).

[SYNACK]

That would be naive, but then you're just being sarcastic.

 

I suspect the iMacs in question have been subjected to abuse or they were sold non-Apple refurbished models (the bit about 1 year warranty from supplier mentioned, rather than saying "from Apple"), or they have been the unfortunate recipients of a bad batch off the assembly line with faulty drives or GPUs (neither of which are actually made by Apple). Apple easily beats all of the other computer manufacturers in reliability and customer service in independent surveys - Survey: Apple's Mac line-up still tops consumer satisfaction and reliability - Macworld Australia - Macworld Australia

 

Also, the supposed "ridiculous amounts of money" suggested as a premium for Macs was the case 6+ years ago, but with the move to more "PC" x86 components that difference has shrunk and shrunk where the difference in price is small and only due to higher quality controls and build quality, in some cases technical differentiation (Thunderbolt, Retina displays, superior SSD performance, battery life, better trackpads, Magsafe, etc.), and better service. When PC manufacturers have tried to match Apple with like for like (e.g. top-end Ultrabooks) the price difference amazingly disappears. The one exception is the Mac Pro, but people pay as much for the status symbol of them as for the performance. Kind of like paying 2-3 as much for a Lexus when it's really just a souped up, kitted out Toyota.

 

Better service? So if I have an issue with a drive or monitor I can just ring them and get them to send out a replacement the next day right, like hp. Or if some idiot teacher drowns a laptop I can just call up Apple and they will send out a tech the next day to replace the motherboard? Um, not the apple I know, apple care gets you the epic ability to take it to an apple store with an appointment for one of their 'geniuses' to dribble over for a day or two before I get a fix. Apple suck for business, they are after consumers and focuses on them, anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded, look at the atv, consumer grade pos with no business alternative as the protocol was built by a bunch of children from 1990 with no idea what a subnet is. Or the logging of passwords to plain text thanks to a bug, or the not enforcing passwords thanks to a bug. There are good and bad products from every manufacturer but apple tends to be the last to admit it and the worst at fixing it for all the users, the g4 laptop screen cook incident, the gpu flipchip incident that they fixed by ramping up system fans so they failed out of warranty, the 27" IMac blueing screen incident, the timemachine, timebomb incident. All of these were denied for ages by apple and many users got burned by it. Their behaviour is far from good service and when they do something wrong is actually some of the worst from any manufacturer.

[Achandler]

The problem is for most manufactuers and this is why Apple gets the "top" customer service is because they take their shiny item to the shop and see how amazing everything is, everything there is even more shiny. Then a "genius" tells them they have borked up their device and takes it off them to fix. They get a phone call and then they go and collect it, and people feel they are in control of the situation and like talkign to a person. The whole process might take 2 weeks though.

 

However, other manufactuers usually do a pick up and return. People don't like it, they feel they have to wait in for someone to come and collect it and then they are forced to wait in for it to be returned as well. It is definitely less convenient for a lot of people. The process might take only 4 days but people feel more inconvienced having to wait in for a "non-personal" service.

 

For businesses however, the return to base or engineer coming on site is the best option, because we are at work 8-5 or whatever every day fo the week. It isn't inconvenient for them to come anytime between 9-5 etc etc.

 

It is all about who you gear your service for, and Apple target consumers as already stated.

 

Back to the original person's query, you can get contracts with authorised repairers for free repairs, or just free labour etc, even after "Apple Care" has run out. So that is your option.

[Gerk]

Better service? So if I have an issue with a drive or monitor I can just ring them and get them to send out a replacement the next day right, like hp. Or if some idiot teacher drowns a laptop I can just call up Apple and they will send out a tech the next day to replace the motherboard? Um, not the apple I know, apple care gets you the epic ability to take it to an apple store with an appointment for one of their 'geniuses' to dribble over for a day or two before I get a fix. Apple suck for business, they are after consumers and focuses on them, anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded, look at the atv, consumer grade pos with no business alternative as the protocol was built by a bunch of children from 1990 with no idea what a subnet is. Or the logging of passwords to plain text thanks to a bug, or the not enforcing passwords thanks to a bug. There are good and bad products from every manufacturer but apple tends to be the last to admit it and the worst at fixing it for all the users, the g4 laptop screen cook incident, the gpu flipchip incident that they fixed by ramping up system fans so they failed out of warranty, the 27" IMac blueing screen incident, the timemachine, timebomb incident. All of these were denied for ages by apple and many users got burned by it. Their behaviour is far from good service and when they do something wrong is actually some of the worst from any manufacturer.

 

It sounds like things may be different across the pond ... for the workplace I've had next day replacements from Apple with no hassles at all (well aside from the deposit on a credit card in case the issue is not a hardware problem and is PEBKAC). Yes you _can_ go the genius route and jump through all of those hoops, but for education and business markets I can also make a phone call to support, get an RMA number and have a replacement shipped out next day with as little hassle as it is from other manufacturers -- but you need to be dealing with the right department to get that service. Apple Canada have people that do nothing but this kind of stuff for the education and business markets.

 

And on the software side of things ... the Apple issues are different from Microsoft how? I've certainly had a LOT of issues with MS products over the years and waited 6 months+ for a "hotfix" of some sort to resolve the issues, leaving us either dead in the water for mission critical stuff or having to jump through insanely crazy hoops to downgrade our "open" licenses back to 5 year old versions of the OS in order to get things working again.

 

It all comes down to the same pile of crap, just different flavours Sadly I think the last of the "pro" hardware from Apple is on the way out. We're going to try and nurse as many years as we can from our last shipment of Mac Pros we got this summer ... because I think that the darth vader trash can model is just a disaster waiting to happen for the pro market (not to mention the education market).

[SYNACK]

It sounds like things may be different across the pond ... for the workplace I've had next day replacements from Apple with no hassles at all (well aside from the deposit on a credit card in case the issue is not a hardware problem and is PEBKAC). Yes you _can_ go the genius route and jump through all of those hoops, but for education and business markets I can also make a phone call to support, get an RMA number and have a replacement shipped out next day with as little hassle as it is from other manufacturers -- but you need to be dealing with the right department to get that service. Apple Canada have people that do nothing but this kind of stuff for the education and business markets.

 

And on the software side of things ... the Apple issues are different from Microsoft how? I've certainly had a LOT of issues with MS products over the years and waited 6 months+ for a "hotfix" of some sort to resolve the issues, leaving us either dead in the water for mission critical stuff or having to jump through insanely crazy hoops to downgrade our "open" licenses back to 5 year old versions of the OS in order to get things working again.

 

It all comes down to the same pile of crap, just different flavours Sadly I think the last of the "pro" hardware from Apple is on the way out. We're going to try and nurse as many years as we can from our last shipment of Mac Pros we got this summer ... because I think that the darth vader trash can model is just a disaster waiting to happen for the pro market (not to mention the education market).

 

From what I've hear Apple is a much better choice in the states and Canada being close may get some of that goodness. You may not get the same 80% Markup on hardware that we do from US prices which actually got a full investigation for price fixing and general bad behaviour by the Australian government. The no responsibility games they play seem global though. You are right that there are stupid issues with all software but the main thing I was trying to get across with my examples were the complete lack of concern for security in larger networks that was displayed, sure MS has some bad ones but logging passwords and usernames to an accessible plain text file really is epic disregard. Stuff like airplay that are rather messy and limited from a network point of view are other mindbenders. The trail of apologists and companies building all sorts of stuff into their products to try to hack the protocol into an almost working form for larger networks are just part of the problem, allowing apple to continue it's madness and for the misguided to setup atv's in their schools by either adding a bunch of complexity and cost or flattening out their networks making them less efficient and secure to work around the complete disregard or lack of understanding apple has for any network larger than a few dozen hosts in a coffee shop somewhere.

Edited September 16, 2013 by SYNACK

[mac_shinobi]

@ncoules

 

Thebookyard.com is one place im aware of or ebay if you can find a reputable seller and know exact part you need but you may need to buy extra tools and follow guides on youtube and ones like

 

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac

 

Intel iMac section

 

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/iMac_Intel

 

As stated above this is assuming they are out of warranty and if you wanted to do repairs yourself and if you fudge it up then thats your own doing and wont be covered and im not liable as only giving you the info ref guides and ordering parts etc which is what you requested above I believe

Edited September 16, 2013 by mac_shinobi

[Gerk]

From what I've hear Apple is a much better choice in the states and Canada being close may get some of that goodness. You may not get the same 80% Markup on hardware that we do from US prices which actually got a full investigation for price fixing and general bad behaviour by the Australian government. The no responsibility games they play seem global though. You are right that there are stupid issues with all software but the main thing I was trying to get across with my examples were the complete lack of concern for security in larger networks that was displayed, sure MS has some bad ones but logging passwords and usernames to an accessible plain text file really is epic disregard. Stuff like airplay that are rather messy and limited from a network point of view are other mindbenders. The trail of apologists and companies building all sorts of stuff into their products to try to hack the protocol into an almost working form for larger networks are just part of the problem, allowing apple to continue it's madness and for the misguided to setup atv's in their schools by either adding a bunch of complexity and cost or flattening out their networks making them less efficient and secure to work around the complete disregard or lack of understanding apple has for any network larger than a few dozen hosts in a coffee shop somewhere.

 

Hard to argue with the lack of Apple's knowledge/respect for larger networks. While things have gotten better (very slowly) over the years, there are still as you point out some serious shortcomings in their network *cough* design *cough* ... in the old days Appletalk was one of the worst for spamming networks.

 

And yes indeed it does sound like things are very much different outside of North America in terms of pricing especially

[seawolf]

Better service? Their behaviour is far from good service and when they do something wrong is actually some of the worst from any manufacturer.

 

Except multiple independent surveys tell a different story.

 

But, hey your profile and tagline says it all "Professional Apple Hater extraordinaire." Hardly an objective opinion. I'm doubtful you've ever even touched a Mac. Oops, back to reality...

 

Some of us have used a wide range of equipment and Operating Systems including Macs and have some years of actual field experience with the them. Apple isn't perfect when it comes to servicing Businesses, but if a business is going to an Apple Store for service they don't have a clue what they are doing. That is why Apple has authorised Repair Centres, many of which cater to business and education markets and can provide faster, onsite service under Apple Care warranty. And if a machine is under warranty it will almost always get repaired and repaired properly. Unlike some of the on-site Dell repairs I've seen where they have to keep coming back.

Edited September 16, 2013 by seawolf

[seawolf]

You may not get the same 80% Markup on hardware that we do from US prices which actually got a full investigation for price fixing and general bad behaviour by the Australian government.

 

80% markup on hardware? LOL. The investigation that was done by the Australian Government questioned Apple, Microsoft, and Google mostly over the cost of software. Now, if only the government would question Woolworth, Coles and all of the other retailers to find out why we pay 3 times as much for everything else (such as food, clothing, furniture, etc.) in Australia than in the US we might be on to something. Asking MS why they charge 30% more for their software in Australia - please...

[SYNACK]

80% markup on hardware? LOL. The investigation that was done by the Australian Government questioned Apple, Microsoft, and Google mostly over the cost of software. Now, if only the government would question Woolworth, Coles and all of the other retailers to find out why we pay 3 times as much for everything else (such as food, clothing, furniture, etc.) in Australia than in the US we might be on to something. Asking MS why they charge 30% more for their software in Australia - please...

 

Can't find the article now but the Mac Pro was indeed nearly twice as expensive as in the states, you could actually buy a house for the same price as a decent specced Mac pro here the last time I checked. Their pricing is still sus but slowly getting better Apple cuts Australian Mac prices - Macworld Australia - Macworld Australia and yes others do it too but that does not excuse any of them. As to not having touched a Mac I have the displeasure of supporting half a dozen of them regularly and have dealt with fixing them ( Macs in general , not the same 6 ) for about two decades so I'd wager I've probably had longer dealing with them than many. As to their reviews you may be forgetting how fiercely loyal Apple fans can be, I had a visiting consultant from the states blindly defending his Mac laptop with the keyboard pattern burnt into the screen and cooked wireless card with about 10 metres of range winging about my terrible network that was happily servicing every other laptop in the room flawlessly. They were still full of praise for the thing even though the screen was wrecked, wireless was almost useless and apple would not fix it under warranty. When dealing with users like this they could be flogging their users with sticks and still get good reviews. Most other markets will tell it how it is, you get a dell or hp that sucks you will complain. I'm guessing Apple may have finally upped their game a little for business but their software stack still tells a different story as above.

Edited September 16, 2013 by SYNACK

[seawolf]

Can't find the article now but the Mac Pro was indeed nearly twice as expensive as in the states, you could actually buy a house for the same price as a decent specced Mac pro here the last time I checked. Their pricing is still sus Apple cuts Australian Mac prices - Macworld Australia - Macworld Australia and yes other do it too but that does not excuse any of them. As to not having touched a Mac I have the displeasure of supporting half a dozen of them regularly and have dealt with fixing them ( Macs in general , not the same 6 ) for about two decades so I'd wager I've probably had longer dealing with them than many. As to their reviews you may be forgetting how fiercely loyal Apple fans can be, I had a visiting consultant from the states blindly defending his Mac laptop with the keyboard pattern burn into the screen and cooked wireless card with about 10 metres of range winging about my terrible network that was happily servicing every other laptop in the room flawlessly. They were still full of praise for the thing even though the screen was wrecked, wireless was almost useless and apple would not fix it under warranty. When dealing with numbers like this they could be flogging their users with sticks and still get good reviews. Most other markets will tell it how it is, you get a dell or hp that sucks you will complain. I'm guessing Apple may have finally upped their game a little for business but their software stack still tells a different story as above.

 

Oh, why do I bother? But here we go anyway.

 

The Mac Pro? Status symbol for most, and some of the price difference in Oz was I'm sure due to needing to support a very small number of them in the country comparatively (Economies of Scale and all you know). Annoying, yes. But, it's a luxury item so, not nearly as annoying and certainly not as unethical as everyday essential goods such as food, rent, and clothing being 2-3 as expensive in Australia as comparable economies. I SO wish the government would investigate THAT, but they won't because governments love higher prices as it means higher tax revenue.

 

The price cuts you referenced in 2010 were due to the swing from the Aussie dollar being worth about $0.60 USD to getting near parity (and then above). Let's see, a company changes it's pricing due to dramatic swing in currency exchange rates - it's a conspiracy!!!!

 

So, you had a loon with a personality and hardware that was a distinct outlier on the bell curve of the average Apple customer. I have an IT teacher here that we have had to replace just about every part on his Dell laptop including the keyboard (twice), speakers, speaker covers, screen, screen bezel, battery, power pack, and logic board. I honestly think he must use it as a hockey puck based on appearance and failure rate. However, he still won't own anything other than a Dell even though out of the dozens of staff using MacBook Pros and Airs here only two of them has stopped working in 4 years time, one due to a hard drive failure and the other because of smashed trackpad (only one I've ever seen I might add). Now, I've had good experiences and low failure rates out of many Dell products and IBM (before Lenovo bought them), and some bad experiences with some lines as well, particularly those made in the mid 2000s when Dell shipped all of their manufacturing to Foxconn and others before those companies had very good quality control. I know because I worked for Sanmina-SCI for a couple of years and we used to build most of the Dell desktops in our factories before they cut a contract with the cheap Chinese factories back in 2001-2002 and the quality quickly went downhill.

 

And, you're forgetting that the "Apple faithful" are not the ones who have been buying masses of Macs, iPhones, and iPads over the past few years. Most of them are people who'd never bought or used an Apple product before other than an iPod. So, you've got two options here (1) everyone instantly becomes a mad, drunken Apple lover upon the first time they purchase an Apple product, or (2) you are a "Professional Apple Hater extraordinaire" and therefore think everything with an Apple label on it is as lametastic as a product could get, and everyone who willingly buys an Apple product is a Steve Jobs, kool-aid drinking moron.

 

I'm placing my bets on option 2.

[SYNACK]

Oh, why do I bother? But here we go anyway.

 

 

And, you're forgetting that the "Apple faithful" are not the ones who have been buying masses of Macs, iPhones, and iPads over the past few years. Most of them are people who'd never bought or used an Apple product before other than an iPod. So, you've got two options here (1) everyone instantly becomes a mad, drunken Apple lover upon the first time they purchase an Apple product, or (2) you are a "Professional Apple Hater extraordinaire" and therefore think everything with an Apple label on it is as lametastic as a product could get, and everyone who willingly buys an Apple product is a Steve Jobs, kool-aid drinking moron.

 

I'm placing my bets on option 2.

 

You bother because you seem to want to defend Apple even when their policies are sus, I'll resist making any conclusions as to your levels of koolaid intoxication. The price of food is a separate and local issue not linked to a tech company but to your government, it also helps that your wages are quite high so that balances out but is outside the scope. The cuts only came offer a decent amount of time and pressure and previously the discrepancy has been much higher. As I have said there is good and bad hardware from all providers, the fact you have a teacher who is decidedly clumsy and not into Apple does not change that at all. Those people buying into apple are mostly buying in to the iPhone/iPad ecosystem and while some of them are buying them as pcs these are generally those that are looking for a simpler experience, by extension these users are generally less skilled and less likely to be able to place blame where it should lie, if something breaks and the nice apple genius says it was someone elses fault they are more likely to believe it.

[seawolf]

You bother because you seem to want to defend Apple even when their policies are sus, I'll resist making any conclusions as to your levels of koolaid intoxication. The price of food is a separate and local issue not linked to a tech company but to your government, it also helps that your wages are quite high so that balances out but is outside the scope. The cuts only came offer a decent amount of time and pressure and previously the discrepancy has been much higher. As I have said there is good and bad hardware from all providers, the fact you have a teacher who is decidedly clumsy and not into Apple does not change that at all. Those people buying into apple are mostly buying in to the iPhone/iPad ecosystem and while some of them are buying them as pcs these are generally those that are looking for a simpler experience, by extension these users are generally less skilled and less likely to be able to place blame where it should lie, if something breaks and the nice apple genius says it was someone elses fault they are more likely to believe it.

 

Now, I remember. I bother because some people need to be reminded of reality.

 

1. Average wages are not high enough to be even close to making up for the difference in costs here. But, I digress.

 

2. There was a time not too long ago when just about every computer in Australia was at least twice as expensive as in the US. Apple was no exception. Every company was doing the same thing. Prices changed pretty much in line with exchange rates and price drops in the states. Many products are within 10% of the cost here as in the US now. Account for the GST and the higher operating costs (rent, labour, red tape) for doing business in Australia and you're at par in pricing. Price drops don't come immediately with changes in exchange rates because only time can determine if the changes are going to be persistent and not transitory. Also, prices themselves are like wages and are "sticky". Once you've dropped them it's hard to go back the other way. Kind of the opposite to wages.

 

3. People are looking for something simpler because (1) they are less skilled, or (2) they're tired of fighting their computers to get them to work properly. The best system is one that doesn't require any or little training for the average person to use. Apple got that, and they've been rewarded by mostly happy consumers. Which, of course is why every PC company on earth is now copying Apple.

 

[sARCASM] I know, I know - stupid PC companies - Apple is lametastic and makes horrible products that only morons buy. Why would they want to copy that? After all, I just don't know why Apple keeps planning for the future when their products are so obviously wretched and the company is totally doomed. [/sARCASM]

 

4. Although the interface is simpler, the Mac is running on top of Unix. So, power users are completely catered for as well. Unless you think Unix is for morons and simpletons who don't have any skills?

Edited September 17, 2013 by seawolf