As Apple has become more popular, it seems that the reports of bad service have been on the rise. This makes sense--if you increase market share, more people will be upset. However I have friends who have experienced extremely bad service.

My G5 iMac has had its mainboard replaced once and until today its power supply once, both covered under Apple Care. A few days ago, my iMac started spontaneously shutting off in an un-ceremonious way. I'd be in the middle of something, and the screen would just go dark. Then two days ago, it just STOPPED powering up entirely. This is just the same behaviour as I had seen when the first power supply went bad. I sighed and set up a Genius Bar appointment for today over lunch. Because Apple Care on this computer had expired and because the power supply was over 90 days old and I really wanted my computer back up and running with the least fuss I was resigned to the following:

1. I am going to have to buy the part
2. I am going to have to pay for labour
3. I am going to have to wait 10 days + to get my computer back

I went into Apple Store and sat down to wait for my turn braced for a miserable experience. I was called up a full 10 minutes earlier than my appointment time. Then the events kind of blew me away.

On Friday I got my iMac back. Indeed, it was the power supply that had gone bad. In fact, there were capacitors inside it that were bulging. It is, apparently, a known problem and Apple is addressing it as folks show up with iMacs in tow.

If you have a G5 iMac and it starts shutting down on its own or it won't start up at all, chances are that your power supply has gone bad. Even if you aren't covered under Apple Care any longer, the Apple Genius indicated it would be covered as a free fix.

The repair took a day and I am happy to say that the machine is running smoothly once again. What was the first thing I did? A backup.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my iMac. I bought it in January of 2005. It has a gorgeous big screen and runs all the software I really need.

In December of 2005 it started acting fritzy until it stopped working entirely. Bringing it into the Apple Store, they determined it was a motherboard failure. In went a new motherboard and it has been working like a champ ever since. I wrote about buying a new backup drive and extra storage last week. I started a backup and it was working like a champ--until the computer shut down on its own. I restarted the computer and tried again--boom, it shut down. This cycle went on until I finally just gave up.