eMac logic board failures (#2): AppleCare reminder; Blown capacitors

We continue to report on failure of the logic boards in some eMacs. eMac models introduced in 2004 appear to be the most commonly afflicted.

The problem generally starts with series of system-wide freezes -- not kernel panics or unexpected applications quits, but rather incidents where the cursor freezes and any operations grind to a halt; and/or visual distortion on the display.

AppleCare reminder A reader working for an Apple repair specialist who wishes to remain anonymous reports seeing several eMacs with similar issues in recent weeks, and reiterates the virtues of AppleCare:

"I work for a major Apple reseller/repair specialist. There have been a good amount of eMacs coming in with some serious hardware failings within the past month or so. Everything from inverters to logic boards. Most of these are cascading failures, wherein the logic board will fry the power supply, the power supply will fry the display, and then the inverter goes due to all of this.

"Can't stress enough to your readers: AppleCare is worth it. $800 in repair for an $800 Mac is not fun."

May be a capacitor problem Recent reader reports indicate that this issue may be very similar to a problem we reported in mid-2005 where iMac G5s were apparently overheating, and generating excessive fan noise in an apparent effort to cope with the heat.

In the case of the iMac issue, several bad capacitors were cited as the reason for failure. Apple later announced the iMac G5 Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues, which applies to first generation iMac G5 computers that have video or power-related issues as a result of a specific component (capacitor) failure.

It appears that the eMacs suffering from the current issue may be using the same faulty capacitors, or at least capacitors from the same manufacturer.

A poster to Apple's discussion boards, etherion, states:

"Upon examination we saw 8 swollen caps, with 5 of the 8 leaking. They are 1800 mfd caps. Brown with gold lettering. These caps may be from the same manufacturer that caused a huge issue with several PC motherboard vendors. The end result was a class action law suit where nearly all the motherboard manufacturers paid to fix or replaced the boards. The capacitors were supposedly made using a electrolyte (insulating oil) from a formula that was stolen from a Japanese company and brought by a defecting engineer to China. The problem was that the formula did not include or mention the need for a critical stabilizer. Without the stabilizer, the electrolyte quickly becomes corrosive under the influence of electricity and causes the capacitor to break down and short out."?

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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