Computer repair and the Grateful Dead

[musicman691]

What a long strange trip it's been (so far).......

Over these last few weeks I've posted about my iMac frying it's video card, getting a 5,1 cheesegrater as a replacement, getting my iMac fixed (at the urging of my wife), getting into VEPro 6 so I can use the two machines together, etc. I have to say it's gotten downright bizarre.

So I find a shop that'll fix my iMac; figure it'll be cheaper and less of an attitude to deal with than what I'd have to go through at an Apple Store. Take the iMac in, tell them the symptoms, they do an evaluation and agree its' the video card. Takes a couple of days and they get a card from a place in NY State. Card goes in, they check out the computer and all the diagnostics say everything else in the machine is okay. $400 US all told so far. That's fair considering Apple wanted like $600 to $700.

Take the computer back home and set things up - boots just fine and all my programs are intact. First thing I do is to redo the system drive from the three boot partitions to just one with OSX 10.10.5. Get that all sorted no problem. Get the repaired machine integrated into my studio setup. Take a couple of days getting that sorted out vis-a-vis VEPro. Getting happy with it especially when I try screen sharing the iMac with my cheesegrater so I can do it all from the one machine.

I figure that I'll use a copy of an old session I'm familiar with and see how things work with using two machines and VEPro. Got about half way through changing the session over to VEPro usage and take a break. Get up, walk around, get a cup of tea. Come back to the machine. Let me say at this point I set the iMac's screen to sleep after a minute of activity (not the computer or drives but just the screen). Cheesegrater screen up with the PT session; go to the iMac's screen and it's dark because of the sleep (or so I thought). Do everything I can to wake the screen up and no dice. Save the PT session and quit PT.

Thinking the iMac locked up for some unknown reason (maybe something due to working in VEPro, screen sharing, who knows) I hold the power button in so it shuts down. Hit the power button again to start the machine up and after a little bit I get the pastel colored screen with the vertical bars (the computer is still booting at this point according to the progress bar on screen) that's indicative of having a fried video card. Again.

At this point I'd had the machine on for maybe a total of 24 hours all told over the couple of days I've had it home from the shop. Call the shop up and they say to bring it in. Thankfully there's a 30 day warranty so I'm covered there. Diagnosis - fried video card. They have to get an RMA from where they got the replacement card before they can repair my machine. At this point I asked/mentioned to them to check if there's something that could be frying the video card. Because if there is what's the use of replacing the card and it fries again? What if something else got damaged as a result? Supposedly if the extra repairs cost more than I'm comfortable with then all I'll be out money-wise is the original examination fee of $67. We'll see about that.

Odd coincidence is I'm typing this on the five year anniversary of getting the computer. I live in NJ and it was delivered the day Superstorm Sandy hit and we're looking at a Nor'Easter rain storm happening today into tomorrow.

[mjslakeridge]

Either you are extremely unlucky, or something is causing the video cards to fail. I know nothing about Macs, but can the repair shop test the power supply?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

Either you are extremely unlucky, or something is causing the video cards to fail. I know nothing about Macs, but can the repair shop test the power supply?

Supposedly they're going to check it as part of putting the new card in. When I took it back and I mentioned about the power supply one fellow said when they get the new card in they're going to have the system running for a couple of days (hopefully 24/7) and wait and see if it craps out. Part of the problem is they don't seem to have spare parts on hand they can swap in to bench test things (at least not with Macs).

Thing I'm thinking is (and this is just conjecture on my part) is the card they got from their vendor might have not been a completely new card. Maybe a restock one; something someone had in a system and returned it? I doubt there's a big need for these particular cards considering how old the machines are. Kind of what I'm saying is maybe there's no current or even recent computers that would use this video card and all that's being dealt with is NOS stuff. Great for tubes but NOT computer cards. Who knows how safely the cards were handled as regards static protection, etc. These cards were a known failure point and acknowledged by Apple so much they had a deal set up that if the card failed within four years of initial purchase a replacement updated card without the failure issue lying dormant was replaced/installed for free. Normal AppleCare was only a year I think at that point in time. Mine's a refurb from the Apple Store so any way one looks at it I'm not eligible for that swap.

Sucks because I really started to like the two machine setup and even made room for it in my studio.

[Darryl Ramm]

What exact model is this iMac?


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[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

What exact model is this iMac?


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It's the mid 2011 12,2 27 inch one that's been in my profile page for ages. The last of the 'fat iMacs' that still had the optical drive.

[Darryl Ramm]

The reason for asking is your profile did not give the actual iMac model/year name.

Now we know that..... https://9to5mac.com/2013/08/16/apple...id-2011-imacs/

Your service provider should have pointed this past history to you.

I would be asking where/how they sourced the replacement GPU.

Sometimes Apple will do repairs well past warranty/recall periods. especially if they see a long-term customer etc. It usually is best to talk to their support on the phone, not an Apple store and try to escalate with phone support. They will often send you to third party repair centers for that work and supply the parts to them. You might have shot yourself in the foot here by not going through Apple Support, but good to know for next time. If you did not buy the Mac new then it’s likely not an issue.




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[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

The reason for asking is your profile did not give the actual iMac model/year name.

Now we know that..... https://9to5mac.com/2013/08/16/apple...id-2011-imacs/

Your service provider should have pointed this past history to you.

I would be asking where/how they sourced the replacement GPU.

Sometimes Apple will do repairs well past warranty/recall periods. especially if they see a long-term customer etc. It usually is best to talk to their support on the phone, not an Apple store and try to escalate with phone support. They will often send you to third party repair centers for that work and supply the parts to them. You might have shot yourself in the foot here by not going through Apple Support, but good to know for next time. If you did not buy the Mac new then it’s likely not an issue.

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I already knew about that replacement when I did my research when the video card first fried and I made sure the repair place knew about that problem so you're not telling em anything I don't already know.

I also know from my research that Apple (and I don't mean of those 'Genius's at an Apple brick & mortar store either) isn't doing the replacement deal anymore. They're playing a hard game with this and trust me - I've asked them as well as finding other people online who are screwed the same as I. Besides Apple quoted anywheres from $600 to $700 for the repair and couldn't guarantee that it was just the video card that was shot. Wth Apple I'd be out the money but with my place if it turns out to be more than is worth it I can just say no and all I'm out is the $67 evaluation fee.

As I've said many times in different threads this machine is a refurb purchased from the online Apple Store although I did get 1 year of AppleCare. Being I purchased it like I did I'm not eligible for the free swap.

[musicman691]

Update:
Just talked to the repair shop and they now tell me the video card alone is no longer available but they have to order the whole assembly of video card & heat sink. Two weeks they're telling me for availability. Absolutely no contact from the repair shop - I have to call them which sucks. They repeatedly told me they'd contact me with updates. If no hear anything by Monday I'm taking the computer back and tell them I'm done and expect my credit card to get refunded for the repairs minus the eval fee.

I may end up taking this up with Chase if no satisfaction with the shop. Sucks big time. A two machine server/client via VEPro 6 would have been killer.

[mjslakeridge]

Why don't you try to contact Apple to see if what the shop is telling you is correct. Or you could try looking online for the video card (maybe you already tried this).

It is possible the first time they slapped in a used card they had or found somewhere, and it failed due to heat/age, and they don't want you to be back in a month if they repeat that.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

Why don't you try to contact Apple to see if what the shop is telling you is correct. Or you could try looking online for the video card (maybe you already tried this).

It is possible the first time they slapped in a used card they had or found somewhere, and it failed due to heat/age, and they don't want you to be back in a month if they repeat that.

Already been through the Apple route and no joy. As far as looking online I saw a lot of sites that listed it but did not have it in stock. As far as what you're thinking in your last paragraph- that thought has crossed my mind (and then some). At this point I've given up on it ever getting fixed and am resigned to having it taking up space in my basement doing nothing. To quote Metaliica - Sad But True.