Both Terrifying and Thrilling
posted by DL Byron on November 02, 2004
DIY iMac G5 Repairs
My experience with Do-it-Yourself iMac repairs was terrifying and thrilling. The new iMac G5 produced a whirling, whining sound that I described to AppleCare as, "a sound that bores into the base of your skull." In response, AppleCare sent me a mid-plane assembly, an instruction manual, and a few tools. The whole process took about 45 minutes and corrected the problem. It was terrifying to open that case. I was afraid of messing with perfection. Like, once I'd opened it, it'd make more sound, some weird creak, or a pixel would go bad but now the iMac is as quiet as as a whisper and I have even more respect for the engineering team at Apple. The internals are well designed and organized, with tabs to pull up parts, and guides to place cords. Wired reported on DIY repairs last week and found that consumers do prefer to fix it themselves. I wasn't sure how it'd go, but glad I replaced the part myself.
You can follow the iMac G5 sound problems in the Apple discussion groups. I'll note that AppleCare was very helpful, courteous, and I encourage other iMac owners to fix the problem if they have it.
Jonathan Ive, VP Industrial Design, recently said that Apple is in business to make great products, that they, "make money to support our desire to make nice things," and the iMac is an example of that. Inside of the case, you can see the attention to detail. The iMac designers love what they do. You can tell.
I uploaded a few more photos of the iMac disassembled. The pink towel had a calming effect on my nerves.
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