Mac Part Store Glendale California

[musicman691]

Anybody ever deal with Mac Part Store out in Glendale California? http://www.macpartstore.com/

They have what looks like the video card I would need to resurrect my iMac. Ordered the part on Monday and the payment from my card company went through. Their live chat isn't working and I've emailed them but no response. Tried calling but it rang like 10 times and went to some kind of voice mail that never mentioned the company name; just the phone number I called. Googling that number doesn't turn up any company by that name. And it's not even a 1-800 number but a regular long distance call.

Is this maybe just a couple of people working out of a home or what?

[mjslakeridge]

Sounds a bit shady if they don't have a toll free phone number. When you placed the order, did it mention how the card would be shipped? Ability to track the shipping?

I guess you would be protected by your credit card company if it turns out it was fraud. What happens if you do receive the card and it goes bad soon after installing (like your previous replacement if I recall correctly)?

[appledude]

I looked at them when my iMac card went out. Was kind of looking at the I7 board also. There two with close related names. The one I call said to send them an email. I did and got an answer that they need a serial for a late 2009 IMac to know if the part fit. Seemed funny since there was only an I7 and an I 5 made.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

Sounds a bit shady if they don't have a toll free phone number. When you placed the order, did it mention how the card would be shipped? Ability to track the shipping?

I guess you would be protected by your credit card company if it turns out it was fraud. What happens if you do receive the card and it goes bad soon after installing (like your previous replacement if I recall correctly)?

No ability to track the shipping. I also found the no toll free number business a bit shady as even a single person like you or I can get a 1-800 number. And their return policy was a bit shady. 60 day warranty but only a 5 day return policy. Yeah - you got it right with my previous card woes - I don't need or want to have that happen again.

Originally Posted by appledude

I looked at them when my iMac card went out. Was kind of looking at the I7 board also. There two with close related names. The one I call said to send them an email. I did and got an answer that they need a serial for a late 2009 IMac to know if the part fit. Seemed funny since there was only an I7 and an I 5 made.

Since I started this thread I found out through some digging that they operate under at least two other names and different phone numbers none of which are toll free ones (all Glendale Cali). And some of what I found wasn't giving me a warm feeling. People getting overcharged by double on shipping for one.

On my second call to them I finally got a human and cancelled the order; just waiting for the credit to go through to my card company. They never responded to my emails. Also found out the card was a refurb which would bring me back to the same merry-go-round I went through a few months back as detailed here. Their website never said the card was a refurb or new. I really wanted to get the iMac back working as part of my usage of VEPro; guess it ain't going to happen.

[mjslakeridge]

Probably a smart move to cancel the order, seeing that the card was a refurb. Actually, how do you refurb a video card? Get a used one and blow the dust off of it?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

Probably a smart move to cancel the order, seeing that the card was a refurb. Actually, how do you refurb a video card? Get a used one and blow the dust off of it?

The closest I can figure is maybe they check it out for functionality and possibly do the oven-bake reflow (or re-ball as it's sometimes called). Otherwise there's bleeping little that can be done except to maybe replace a broken surface mount part.

Another thought is they have a card or bunch of cards that have come out of donor machines that they pick up from a computer recycler.

[appledude]

So my story is complicated - Last summer I did a OWC 3TB hard drive replacement and added 16 gb memory to a late 2009 iMac. Soon was very happy doing PT 12.5 and Premier Pro with two monitors.

Three months later got screen freezes and soon it would not boot up. Took it to an authorized Mac repair shop. The new hard drive was bad, the video card failed and I broke the LCD connector off the logic board (I opened it up again just to look). I returned the hard drive but did not trust it because of the failure rates for the 3 TB Toshiba that came in the OWC kit. So bought an Samsung 850 EVO 500gb ($150). The shop ordered a refurb video card. When I asked what refurb meant they said that the chip on the card was replaced. There is apparently not much else on the card that can go bad. The first one they got failed the stress test (24 hour video test). The next one was good. The video card cost me $350, they charged me $80 to solder the connector (he told me he has done it more than once).

This post is from that 2009 iMac. It boots in 30 seconds with the SSD and runs great and would make a great VE pro machine. It is very snappy. So the total cost was $650. Probably more than its worth but a lot less than a new machine. I did hand it down to wife as an upgrade to her 24-inch core duo and I got an iMac pro with my bonus from work. The thing could last another 9 years for her and is way more than she needs.

So my advice is let an authorized Mac service center do it. You'll probably get a 90 warranty also.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by appledude

So my story is complicated - Last summer I did a OWC 3TB hard drive replacement and added 16 gb memory to a late 2009 iMac. Soon was very happy doing PT 12.5 and Premier Pro with two monitors.

Three months later got screen freezes and soon it would not boot up. Took it to an authorized Mac repair shop. The new hard drive was bad, the video card failed and I broke the LCD connector off the logic board (I opened it up again just to look). I returned the hard drive but did not trust it because of the failure rates for the 3 TB Toshiba that came in the OWC kit. So bought an Samsung 850 EVO 500gb ($150). The shop ordered a refurb video card. When I asked what refurb meant they said that the chip on the card was replaced. There is apparently not much else on the card that can go bad. The first one they got failed the stress test (24 hour video test). The next one was good. The video card cost me $350, they charged me $80 to solder the connector (he told me he has done it more than once).

This post is from that 2009 iMac. It boots in 30 seconds with the SSD and runs great and would make a great VE pro machine. It is very snappy. So the total cost was $650. Probably more than its worth but a lot less than a new machine. I did hand it down to wife as an upgrade to her 24-inch core duo and I got an iMac pro with my bonus from work. The thing could last another 9 years for her and is way more than she needs.

So my advice is let an authorized Mac service center do it. You'll probably get a 90 warranty also.

To save you the trouble of searching for my saga on this know this: in my conversations with Apple support they couldn't guarantee a new card. Replacing that big chip on the video card isn't easy and it's too easy to get it wrong under even the best of circumstances. I do not want a refurb card - too many things that can go wrong. It's either new or nothing.

Oh yeah - Apple wanted $700+ to do the job. That I took it to a shop that wasn't Apple certified didn't sit well with them.

Right now I'm balancing between letting the old iMac just sit versus maxing out my 2012 cheesegrater or getting another 2012 cheesegrater & monitor from OWC.

[Righty27]

FWIW, I got a new graphics card for my iMac in summer 2016 from Maya, also in CA, whose e-mails include the trading name ‘Premium Source Enterprise’.

Unfortunately, I can’t find the name of her website or ebay but, in searching through e-mails, she was the only one who was selling a new/sealed card and sent me pics of the sealed box that I verified with my local Apple guy before shipping over to Europe.

Also, she was very helpful and responsive to all my questions - I was aware that there’s a bit of an industry in refurbishing/swapping faulty cards having found options ranging from heating up the faulty card in an oven to using specialised equipment ... but considering the hassle of getting this installed, I felt a new card was the way to go :)

Edit: I checked on my ebay and it was Mac Premium Parts. However, I couldn’t find them on ebay anymore but found premiummacparts.com using Google ... and their telephone number matches the one on Maya’s e-mails.

[appledude]

righty what year was your iMac and which card specifically was it. I know the 2011 card was popular because it would go in the 2009 iMacs but last I heard there were no new ones to be had anymore. I don’t think you can just use any card in just any iMac but I may be wrong. I would have preferred new also.