[brassguy73]

Hi Everyone, I seek advice...

My new dual 2.0 G5 died less than two weeks after I received it, and it's now been in Apple's hands awaiting repair for almost as long. I found out that the Apple store sat on it for a week before doing anything with it (or ordering parts). For the past week it's been awaiting parts, with no estimated repair date.

The problem was a bad processor, so I'm speculating with all the G5 production problems that it could be a while before a new processor is sent for my repair.

At this point, what should I expect from Apple? Should I ask for a new machine, or perhaps an upgrade or freebie? Has anyone else had a processor go out in a rev.b G5?

I am curious to know what other people's experiences have been when experiencing these types of problems.

Thanks!

[SafariX]

Try escalating the problem, and demand a new machine. I wouldn't accept anything less at this point.

[brassguy73]

UPDATE

I talked to Apple Customer Service today, no one is able to give me an ETA on when the new processor would arrive for my G5 to be repaired, not the store, not tech support, not the distrubution network. I was offered to have my machine replaced, but because it is BTO the wait would be 3-5 weeks!!!!!!

I opted to wait a little longer and see if the parts would come in for my current machine, at 3-5 weeks for a new one it seemed like the lesser of two very disappointing choices.

Apple did offer me an Airport Express, which I accepted and do appreciate, but that still doesn't solve the original problem of me being without my G5 two weeks - almost as long as I had it initally.

So I'm still pretty pissed. If Apple is going to sell a product, they damned well better be able to support it. If it's not repaired by the end of next week, Customer Service is getting another call...

Has anyone else had a similar horror story with their G5's and ridiculous repair/replacement times?

[bpd115]

My 2.0 died (reboot, chimes and no video, fans then go full blast afer a few min) last Thursday night and I brought it to the Short Hills Apple Store last Friday night. I was told a week/week and a half for repair. It was a rev. A refurb machine that I had for 6 months.

I am calling today to see what the status is. Hopefully it will be good news. I need my machine!

[La Muis]

That sound very familiar. The same thing (the exact same symptoms) happened with my dual 2.0 three months ago.
Did you tried to reset de bios? That did the trick in my case.

Because it happened on a friday afternoon I had the whole weekend before I could bring it to the Apple Store. So I try to find some info on the internet. Then I read something about a bios reset on the Apple site. I applied it en my beloved G5 came back alive and didn't let me down since.

[bpd115]

I got my G5 back Sat.

They replaced the Logicboard, video card and one of the CPUs...works like a champ now...but the bill was 1750. Thank you Applecare

[LoganCharles]

Well that's one good reason not to buy a refurb in the first place. I just see more problems down the road.

[Detrius]

Originally posted by La Muis:
That sound very familiar. The same thing (the exact same symptoms) happened with my dual 2.0 three months ago.
Did you tried to reset de bios? That did the trick in my case.

Because it happened on a friday afternoon I had the whole weekend before I could bring it to the Apple Store. So I try to find some info on the internet. Then I read something about a bios reset on the Apple site. I applied it en my beloved G5 came back alive and didn't let me down since.

Just to clarify: there is no bios reset on any Mac ever. There is however a PMU reset and that is always the first thing to try on any Mac since the slot-load iMac if you have a "no power" situation.

[Detrius]

Originally posted by brassguy73:
UPDATE

...

Has anyone else had a similar horror story with their G5's and ridiculous repair/replacement times?

As far as repair times... if the techs are sitting around twiddling their thumbs, waiting for machines to come in, there are too many technicians. Companies have a tough decision to make between paying for too many technicians and upsetting customers over wait times. Currently, I am the only Apple Certified Technician at the only Apple Authorized Service Center in Western North Carolina. We don't have enough work for two technicians, but we have slightly too much for one. So, I've been a week behind for a few months. I did finally get caught up last week, but then both school systems brought machines in at the same time... 19 machines in two days for one technician...

As far as parts, every part has been showing up as out of stock for a week or so now; However, I have not had any problems receiving any of those parts.

I have problems with people that can't grasp any possible logical reasoning for why their machine has been at the repair shop for a week and hasn't been looked at.


BTW, since virtually all G5s are under warranty, they take a back burner to out-of-warranty paying customers.

[La Muis]

Originally posted by Detrius:
Just to clarify: there is no bios reset on any Mac ever. There is however a PMU reset and that is always the first thing to try on any Mac since the slot-load iMac if you have a "no power" situation.

You're right (probably my pc-past) I had to reset the PRAM (Parameter Random-Access Memory). But that was al it takes to make my dead G5 come alive again.

[brassguy73]

Originally posted by Detrius:


I have problems with people that can't grasp any possible logical reasoning for why their machine has been at the repair shop for a week and hasn't been looked at.

In my case, two days after a turned my machine in for repair, I called in to get the diagnosis. I was told that my logic board was the problem and parts had been ordered. At the end of that week, I called in again to get an updated repair date estimate. It was at that time that I was informed that no parts had been ordered, and that my machine had actually not yet been looked at.

Logical reasons taken into consideration, customers should still expect to be given accurate information when they call in.

[StrongBad]

Originally posted by brassguy73:
Logical reasons taken into consideration, customers should still expect to be given accurate information when they call in.

You neglected to tell us that part in the beginning. Somehow, I think someone other than the Apple Store needs to work on their communication skills. (hint hint)

[FrankMtl]

i'll add meself to the list. Used my new DP 2.0 G5 for 5 days before it went in for a logic board error and kernel panics. It went in on the 12th. Today, I phoned the service provider to be told that a cpu was ordered on the 17th and it should be in anyday. Thus far, this machine has been in a shop longer than I've had it on my desk...not good.

Frank

[John MacKay]

My new DP 2.0 G-5 had one processor DOA. It was in the shop for the better part of three weeks. The first replacement processor was bad. The second took a while to arrive.

Since the machine has been back, it crashes when it sleeps and the fans go full blast. Photoshop CS does not recognize the full 4 Gb of RAM installed, and crashes under the least little stress.

It looks as though Apple and IBM have a quality problem.

[Bunny Bee]

> BTW, since virtually all G5s are under warranty, they
> take a back burner to out-of-warranty paying customers

That's crazy when people aren't going to have their computers
for weeks or months, while the warranty period goes down
(Applecare or not).

If Apple is going to provide worse turnaround than auto
repair shops, the least they can do is extend the warranty
by the number of days the Mac in in for repairs.

I've had friends who've taken their G5 three times or more for
repairs. One of them has had her machine for 8 months, but
has spent half of that time in the shop. Shame on Apple for not
extending her warranty by 4 months.

[bojangles]

If you�ve got someone nearby that makes �house calls,� AppleCare pays for on-site warranty work. I took advantage of this with my rev.A dual-2GHz and had a third party AASP come out to my office three or four times until we got the problem fixed. (Of course, after replacing the motherboard and both processors, the actual solution took all of about a minute, but I digress�.)

Note: at the time, the G5 was so new the AASP had never even seen one, so I cut him some slack.

[ic1male]

Eeek. Horror stories like these make me think twice about switching. I just don't know whether Apple is worth it. At least with a PC you've got more chance of being able to sort out hardware failures yourself. Oh, what do I do?

[bpd115]

Go with Apple. Remember that forums attract those with problems. There isn't a "Hey my mac works great woohoo" thread and if there was no one would be interested in posting because they'd be enjoying their mac.

The benifits of OSX far outway any hardware issues that you may run into. My Mac was done in a week and works perfectly now.

Just this last week I have 5 PC's I needed to fix. 2 were so riddled down with spyware that IE took 8 mintues to open (this was a 1.8 Ghz Celeron and a 933mhz P3). One had a trojan virus. I cleaned that up, ran Windows update, and it rebooted to a Winsrv blue screen of death. I Had a hell of a time backing up the personal information and reformatting.

The other PC needs a windows xp install because it's running ME while the other is hardware failure.

Needless to say, I hugged my Macs.

[sharkaTak]

Shame on Apple for not
extending her warranty by 4 months. [/B][/QUOTE]

--------------------------------------------

Actually, Apple does offer warranty tolling. If a computer has been in repair for 4 months, they will honor the warranty for those 4 months beyond the expiration of the original warranty. It may not show up as in warranty, but just bring up that it's been in repair for x amount of time and it should be covered for that same amount of time

[Westfoto]

Since the machine has been back, it crashes when it sleeps and the fans go full blast. Photoshop CS does not recognize the full 4 Gb of RAM installed, and crashes under the least little stress.
[/B]

I think that Photoshop only sees 2 Gb of Ram, no matter how much ram is in the computer. The biggest advantage to have more ram is that Photoshop will be able to use 2Gb and then the other programs that are open will use the other ram. (The finder is a program too.) Most of use use more that one program anyway.

The more ram you have the better. I look forward to the day when I have a G5 with gobs of ram in it.

[brassguy73]

UPDATE:

This is the end of week three. The parts finally came in to the Apple store this week (two weeks after they were ordered), but the technicians quickly determined that the new logic board was DOA (dead on arrival). So I have to wait yet again for parts to be ordered and delievered.

My new G5 has now been in for repair for three weeks, before that it was in my possession for two weeks (and in working order for less than that). My guess is that it will be at least another week before the Apple store receives the parts. Had I taken Apple's offer for a new replacement BTO system, I would have at least another 2-4 weeks to wait from this point, so I am hoping that my decision to wait for parts in lieu of a new machine was the right one to make.

(On a side note, I sure hope all you Apple tech's out there don't have to deal with cases like mine on a regular basis.)

Now here's the irony: the first MBNA (Apple Loan) bill for the machine arrived today. Could someone please remind me what it is that I am paying for???

[Detrius]

Originally posted by Bunny Bee:
> BTW, since virtually all G5s are under warranty, they
> take a back burner to out-of-warranty paying customers

That's crazy when people aren't going to have their computers
for weeks or months, while the warranty period goes down
(Applecare or not).

If Apple is going to provide worse turnaround than auto
repair shops, the least they can do is extend the warranty
by the number of days the Mac in in for repairs.

I've had friends who've taken their G5 three times or more for
repairs. One of them has had her machine for 8 months, but
has spent half of that time in the shop. Shame on Apple for not
extending her warranty by 4 months.

It's not crazy; it's business. I don't work for Apple. My company is not better off when someone buys a Mac three states away. Warranty reimbursements are atrocious for some of the work we have to do. A G5 logic board replacement takes several hours, including thermal recalibrations. Why am I going to give priority to the machine that was mail ordered that if the company will barely make enough money to pay me my salary? My job security is better if I give priority to the customer(s) that will instead make the company several hundred dollars in that amount of time.

I'm not saying that I'm going to push this machine back a week because of this. However, it may make a few hours or even a day or two difference.

Also, I cringe at the the possibility of having to do an onsite G5 logic board diagnosis/replacement. For all the time it will take to run tests, diagnose the issue, do the replacement, and run the thermal calibrations, my company will pay me more than Apple pays them. We abhor onsite warranty calls.

I don't mind giving my time away for free (I'm here, aren't I?), but I can't do it on the company's payroll.

I'm sure things would be VERY different if I were an actual employee of Apple. My company stays in business by doing high end Windows Server systems. The Apple stuff is a pet project. I'm the only Mac user in a company of about 30 people. We're the only Apple Authorized Service Center in Western North Carolina. They have wisely not based the company around a single manufacturer. If Apple decides to drop all third party resellers, I would be out of a job, but at least 27 of the other 29 people would not be (the other two might possibly be the front sales people).


BTW, time estimates of a week or two are likely because techs are backed up. Estimates of up to several months... well, that is messed up.

[Detrius]

Originally posted by brassguy73:
UPDATE:

(On a side note, I sure hope all you Apple tech's out there don't have to deal with cases like mine on a regular basis.)

Fortunately for everyone involved, we don't. I did have one a few months back that had a bad processor *AND* logic board. I've only had one of those. DOA parts come in waves. Last summer, virtually every Power/Analog/Video board that we got for slot-load iMacs was DOA. Despite the stories people are telling, I have not had any problems receiving any G5 parts--ever. DOAs are extremely rare now. Apple has clearly stepped up their QA program on the replacement parts.

The only thing I have seen enough to advise people to watch out for is cheap RAM. The free RAM that mail order companies give out has caused way too many headaches for everyone. Also, your tech may not note this (or even know this), but anything that goes onto your hard drive during a memory related issue is suspect. Removing bad RAM may not make the crashes stop, especially if you reinstalled the OS to attempt to make the crashes stop. I have had to cram this down some people's throats. I have one customer I had to tell three times that they had two sticks of bad RAM. They insisted it wasn't bad... probably because the problems didn't go away when they removed the RAM. Finally, I had to format their drive and reinstall the OS for them. I haven't heard from them since.