08-01-2005, 10:50 AM

from the washingtonpost.com:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...referrer=email


"G5 iMac Reliability and ActiveX


Sunday, July 24, 2005; Page F09

Q: I'm contemplating getting the new G5 iMac, but I have heard whispers about a "midplane" problem affecting the electrical wiring. Is this a real problem?

A: When I reviewed the iMac G5 last September, I didn't experience any reliability issues. Since then, however, I have seen enough secondhand reports about wiring defects to suspect something is amiss, at least in the first version of this model. (Apple updated the iMac G5 in early May.)


Apple did not answer questions about this issue. But one of the oldest and best Mac-news sites, MacInTouch, recently conducted its own survey: Of 4,508 readers who reported buying an original iMac G5, almost 23 percent had experienced failures ( http://www.macintouch.com/reliability ). Owners of first-version iMac G5s with 20-inch screens had the worst results, with a 31 percent failure rate.

Owners of the newest model, however, did far better: Of 1,401 buyers, 11.5 percent reported failures, a figure in line with the repair-history figures in Consumer Reports' June 2005 survey of computer buyers.

I do not plan to run Internet Explorer, but I understand that some programs will use this browser anyway. Would I be safer if I disable ActiveX?

Yes, but it's not terribly practical to do so. Of the sites that require you to run IE, many -- including Microsoft's Windows Update page -- employ ActiveX, an easily abused Microsoft technology that lets Web sites run programs right on your computer. And switching ActiveX on, then off, is a convoluted process. If you minimize your use of IE and ensure that other people who use your computer don't run it (it helps to get rid of any desktop shortcuts to Microsoft's browser), you should be safe enough.

--Rob Pegoraro
"


EDIT can someone move this to the iMac section? thanks! :yinyang:

08-01-2005, 11:13 AM

My iMac has just started to give me some problems (kind of odd after 7 months with no issues).

Friday afternoon I was doing some work at my desk, iMac was just sitting there on when all of a sudden it shut off, almost as if the power plug was yanked out, and rebooted, only it didn't. The computer went into a continual reboot cycle without ever getting back into OS X. I had to turn it off by holding the power button down. Now the computer will go on for about a minute without a problem and then it just goes back into the reboot cycle. Reset the PMU, SMU, ran a fsck to no avail. Ran the apple hardware test without any errors showing up (and oddly enough it ran the test for 55 minutes without it rebooting). Talked to an apple support agent who said I would probably need my midplane replaced so I am going to go to the apple store when I get home from work

08-01-2005, 11:26 AM

No problems here..............knock on wood!

08-06-2005, 04:26 PM

11.5 percent is still kinda high if you ask me.
my sister imac g5 is crapping out... video shearing problem (i think she has a first gen machine).

I've had powerbooks and 3 desktop machines and never worried about buying applecare, but if I ever got an imac I would invest in it...

08-07-2005, 12:23 AM

i have a rev b and so far have not had any problems *knocks on wood*

I really don`t now how the computer is at the moment because i have not been home for about three weeks, but i assume most everything is OK because i am still getting e-mails from my parents.

I have only had a 2 or three Kernel Panics, but that was all because of bad ram and something stupid i did. lol

Everything else seemd to be fine

08-09-2005, 04:55 AM

Originally Posted by iNAP

No problems here..............knock on wood!

no problems here either... :-)

cheers - pistooli