[centercoremccabe]

Hi everybody! I hope a thread for this type of problem doesn't exist, but I thought I'd describe it in as much detail as I could so that nothing is unclear about what's going on for me and my . . . *sniffle* . . . computer.

Prepare for a long read. Or, if you'd just like the basics of what's going on, skip down to the LONG STORY SHORT part.

Okay, so it was 2005; I got my first iMac G5. A 10.3 model. It's been my only Mac since then, only because they're pretty expensive. So it became that myself and my computer were pretty close pals; it was good to me just as I was good to it. It got moved around a lot, but I was always careful.

Then the end of 2007 hit. It began to experience difficulties.

The problem hit like a bolt of lightning, suddenly and without mercy. My computer decided it was going to start refusing to turn on when I pushed the button. Hey, I'll just unplug the power cord, plug it back in, and let's see . . . it works! So this continued for a while; soon, however, that was no longer enough.

My computer was dead.

So I took it in to a Mac shop, where they diagnosed my problem and showed me some sort of metal cylinder which resembled a AA battery, deep within the workings of my computer, only it was leaking this dark, black oily substance. The tech informed me that this is what was causing the problem. My bill would've come to $800.00, but in the spirit of the holidays (and probably because my computer wasn't that old), miraculously they charged me $0.00 and my computer was fixed a few days later.

So I was happy and content with my computer for the next couple of years. Then in the Summer of 2009, trouble arose once more and my computer began to display this same, erratic behavior it had previously. And luckily, removing the power cord, blowing any dust out, and replacing the power cord (as in just plugging it back in) resolved my issue.

Until today.

Now I sit here, alone and disappointed, with no more Mac. I have but my less-than-faithful Windows Vista notebook to sit and spread this desperate plea to the world with, which is an equally faulty machine, in its own quirky way that only a Windows Vista knows how.

I guess the bottom line is, I'd like to save myself some money and maybe get into my Mac to retrieve everything on it that I'd like to keep. With a brand new PC desktop on its way, which cost me less than half what it would've cost to repair my troublesome old Mac, I'm left with only one small problem: what I need from my Mac, I can't get to. If push comes to shove I can always take it in to have a specialist transfer all of my files to discs or flash drives, but I'd prefer to try and get at them myself if possible.

========================LONG STORY SHORT===========================

For those of you who'd like the shorter description, here's basically what happens. I plug my Mac in, and I hear this strange, very very very subtle jarring noise inside, coming from somewhere on the bottom of the computer's inner workings. Nothing happens when I push the power button. I continue to hear this subtle rattling inside, the source of which I cannot determine.

Also, ever since about July of 2009, the computer refuses to go into sleep mode. Instead, the screen saver comes on as is supposed to, the screen dims a little later as is supposed to, and then a little while later . . . the computer simply reboots itself.

Now, I'm sure someone will tell me this was a horrible idea, and I'm prepared for that, but I'll say it anyway; I have not bothered to turn my computer off in about six months, for fear of it not turning back on (what happened today). Instead, I just leave it sitting there to reboot itself over and over. I think this machine is on its last leg, but I hope there's some possibility I can get into it one last time just to retrieve my stuff.

Can anyone give me a suggestion on what I could do to possibly get this bad boy running again, if only one last time so I can snag my stuff from it and rescue my imprisoned data? Thanks in advance, and sorry for the horrendously long read.

[reader50]

Your iMac is one of those affected by the Capacitor plague. At the time it first happened, Apple extended warranties to cover it, hence the free repair. This program has since ended.

A majority of the time, the problem is in just the power supply, which costs about $100 for a replacement. Someone should open your iMac and look over the motherboard capacitors. If the motherboard caps look good, it may be worth swapping your power supply.

On the other hand, that is an older machine today. Newer Macs are far faster.

[Spheric Harlot]

That battery like thing leaking fluid was a bad capacitor.

Apple, and many other manufacturers, got a bad batch of caps from a supplier that caused nearly every machine that contained them to blow its power supply eventually.

Apple instituted an extended repair program for those machines (which is why your bill was 0$ - if they sold that to you as "holiday spirit", switch authorized repair centers ASAP to one that will actually tell you what's going on), but that was, IIRC, limited to 3 years.

A 2005 model will be either barely obsolete, or *juuuust* still supported for replacement parts (Apple stops supplying parts after five years), but in either case, it's gonna be long out of the extended program.

I would still try calling Apple Support and see if they can perform some sort of service miracle, but brace yourself for calling a 2005 computer what it is:

Old.

Beyond that, you could try to get another machine and Frankenstein it, but since the power supply is almost always what's dead on these boxes, there's not much you can do.

[centercoremccabe]

Thanks guys! Yowzers, that Capacitor problem must've cost them a pretty penny; they didn't tell me much about it at the Apple store, just that it was a leaking power supply they'd need to fix. I surmised from the tech's response that this problem had to be somewhat common lately, but not a technological epidemic!

At any rate, I'll give Apple a call. In the meantime, once my new PC arrives, is there any possibility I can actually put the Mac's harddrive into the PC to retrieve my stuff that way? I don't know enough about these things to be able to judge whether that'd be a good idea or not, so if anyone has any idea, I'd love to hear it!

p.s. I'm kind of thinking my Mac is on its last leg anyway; I think this new PC sorta needs to replace it, because I've had too many problems with the Mac. It's sure lasted me a long time though!

[P]

Oh, I'm sure Apple recharged the cost to their supplier, who probably went under as a result. IIRC, the supplier had stolen a semi-finished forumla from a competitor, and it was those caps that went bad.

This capacitor plague was big news a few years ago, but I haven't heard about it in recent years. You probably have a straggler.

[reader50]

If you're reasonably handy inside a computer case, you can swap the power supply yourself. It's not hard on your model of iMac.

As to putting the Mac hard drive into a generic PC, that's trickier. It depends on what OS you end up running. Last I heard, most Linux distros do not recognize HFS+ disks, so you'd likely need a custom kernel compile for the drive to mount. If you're planning to join the hordes of depraved Windows users, you'll need a 3rd-party driver to mount an HFS+ disk.

[Spheric Harlot]

MacDrive will allow Windows to access the Mac disk.