(Temporary) death of an iMac...?

[irw1]

We have two 24" iMacs at work, both now just over a year old. We have one at home too, and they've all been totally faultless during that time.

Today though, one of the work machines just...stopped! :| It "beachballed" on a basic photoshop levels job, and froze. A restart seemed the only option. It didn't restart...

Apple Care people were great on the phone, (apparently,) but after some considerable time, they resorted to an OS re-install, which didn't happen. The machine suggested the re-install would take about 3.5 hours, (as opposed the the 35 mins it should take!) and it never got to the end of the process!

It's booked it into the Apple store tomorrow morning, so they can have a look.

So, without starting a heated debate over reliability, or any comments about Microsoft products PLEASE, can anyone suggest what might be wrong?

The HD had plenty of spare room, but I suspect it may be the problem? I've heard the "Super" drives can fail too - perhaps it's that? :shrug:

Thankfully, Apple Care will sort it out f.o.c, (I hope!) but I just thought I share what's happened, and report on the quality of service from Apple staff after it's been checked tomorrow.

 

[ohood]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was the mother/logic board or the HD. At least you've got the AppleCare (hopefully the best waste of money for any Apple computer.)

 

[neil_g]

could be anything to be honest.. maybe a duff HD or a popped stick of memory

 

[irw1]

Cheers for your thoughts guys! Will let you know what the Apple "Geniuses" think tomorrow!

I must admit, it's was a bit of a surprise really, because there was no warning at all...it just died. :shrug: (At least it didn't suffer...!)

I'm not a mac fanboy, as much as I do enjoy using them, but was quite surprised when this one stopped with no warning. It'll be interesting to see what they say...

 

[joescrivens]

sounds like the mac gremlin inside the iMac just felt neglected and buggered it up. There are little gremlins in all our mac products that keep the machine working so well, every so often we have to show them care by stroking the screen, kissing the glowing apple on our macbooks and generally bigging up the mac. Then the gremlins are happy and keep the machine from breaking.

Sounds like your gremlin got upset, Apple care will give him the attention he needs and he'll get that machine back up and running for you again

 

[cowasaki]

Sounds like its broken to me.

 

[neil_g]

sounds like the mac gremlin inside the iMac just felt neglected and buggered it up. There are little gremlins in all our mac products that keep the machine working so well, every so often we have to show them care by stroking the screen, kissing the glowing apple on our macbooks and generally bigging up the mac. Then the gremlins are happy and keep the machine from breaking.

Sounds like your gremlin got upset, Apple care will give him the attention he needs and he'll get that machine back up and running for you again

get a hammer and beat that emo gremlin into submission.

 

[James Pardon]

I've only ever seen hardware failures on the white imac's on the logic boards. That seems to be their only weakness. It also happened to customers a few weeks outside their standard warranty :/ Apple care is expensive but worth it to get 3 years!! Remind me to buy mine in 11 months

 

[ohood]

I've only ever seen hardware failures on the white imac's on the logic boards. That seems to be their only weakness. It also happened to customers a few weeks outside their standard warranty :/ Apple care is expensive but worth it to get 3 years!! Remind me to buy mine in 11 months

It only applies for three years starting from the original date of purchase though. So if you bought a Mac one year ago and bought AppleCare for it now, you'd only get two years AppleCare.

 

[cowasaki]

Your telephone support only lasts for 3 months from date of purchase and Applecare also extends this to 3 years so you do gain 9 months telephone support if this is of use to you.

One of my top tips is to buy Applecare internationally as I have done. It cost me £60 for the Applecare for my Mac pro and £80 for the Macbook pro both sources from abroad via Ebay as the numbers are worldwide and you do not actually need anything sending through the post. I got the MP one via the US and the MBP one via Southern Ireland.

 

[Peter_Hartland]

Your telephone support only lasts for 3 months from date of purchase and Applecare also extends this to 3 years so you do gain 9 months telephone support if this is of use to you.

One of my top tips is to buy Applecare internationally as I have done. It cost me £60 for the Applecare for my Mac pro and £80 for the Macbook pro both sources from abroad via Ebay as the numbers are worldwide and you do not actually need anything sending through the post. I got the MP one via the US and the MBP one via Southern Ireland.

Great Tip fortunately I managed to get the Student discount but will certainly mention it to friends now converting

 

[JasonRS]

The machine suggested the re-install would take about 3.5 hours, (as opposed the the 35 mins it should take!) and it never got to the end of the process!

Are you sure it wasn't the option to reinstall the OS without wiping the disk?

This does take longer, but means everything's still in place, up to date and you don't have to go getting stuff from backups.

I did my MBP recently when I had a VPN issue.

 

[irw1]

Thanks for all your advice and help people!

Sounds like its broken to me.

You were right!

New replacement HD on order - got to wait about a week, due to a bit of a back log of repair jobs that are in at the moment...

Picked up two MBP's to tide us over though, so not all bad!