eMac Issues

eMac Issues

by Jimmy Greystone May 26, 2009 3:42AM PDT

Okay, so I do hardware warranty repair work for a private college in California, and I ran into a situation with an eMac I am curious about.

The person who uses the eMac in question would have problems with programs not opening. Mac OS X would boot successfully, and for maybe 1-2 minutes apps would load normally, but then they simply would not load at all. The Dock icon would bounce, and then eventually stop, with no sign of the program having started. Any app that was started in that first minute would continue to operate just fine.

If you Safe Booted the machine, apps would continue to load successfully in perpetuity. This, to me, is like a giant flashing neon sign saying that it's a software issue, but the University's Mac "expert" swears up and down that this is a hardware issue. Either a bad hard drive or logic/motherboard.

The system was running 10.4.2 originally, and then I discovered that there was a known compatibility issue between the AV program used (Sophos) and 10.4.0-10.4.2, so I updated it to 10.4.11 and all the latest updates, however after checking back with the user after a couple of days, they reported that they were still experiencing problems.

I've done a little poking around with Google, and on Apple's website, and all I can find are a few difficult to corroborate reports of bad caps finding their way into some eMacs just like some Dell systems of the same era. This absolutely does not strike me as a bad cap issue, because safe booting works splendidly for as long as you want to use it, and the OS will boot consistently every time. It seems to me, like the AV program gets stuck trying to update itself, and then it ties up the rest of the system, except for the GUI that Apple has running at a very high nice level to give the illusion of responsiveness. I suspect, that if one was supremely patient, the apps would eventually load.

So, like I said earlier, I have been unable to find any kind of official documentation from Apple on this, and all I can find with Google are some forum postings about bad caps, and I really don't think this is a bad caps issue. However, I am willing to admit that there's a possibility I'm wrong on this, and so I'm wondering if anyone here can point me to a specific Apple KB article, or something similarly credible that details this issue and explains how it is a hardware failure. Because right now, it seems to me like it is some program the user installed that is causing problems, and while replacing the hard drive and/or logic board may work, it's an unnecessary repair, working only because it would require that the software all be reinstalled.

Discussion is locked

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How about trying this;

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 26, 2009 4:57AM PDT

You did not mention whether this problem was specific to the one user so I will assume that there is only one user for this machine.
If that is the case, there is a possibility that the profile for this user has become corrupt in some way.

Create another user profile on the eMac and see if the problem follows the profile change.

Like you, I don't see this as being a hardware issue, at least not before the changing accounts check.

If the problem does not follow the profile change, just recreate the users profile and send them on their way

Let us know what the result is

P

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Unfortunately

by Jimmy Greystone May 26, 2009 5:24AM PDT

Unfortunately, at this point it's purely an academic discussion, and one based on my own curiosity.

My job is to deal with the hardware end of things, and they don't like it when I get too involved on the software side of things. Plus our campus Mac "expert" already called Apple, and they sent out a tech with a new hard drive and logic board. It probably solved the problem by forcing a reload of the software for the system, but should the problem crop up again in the future, I'm just wondering if there's any kind of documentation on this being a hardware issue. It seems HIGHLY unlikely to me, but figured I'd see if maybe someone has run into this before and can explain how this is a hardware issue when all signs point to software.

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I tend to agree with you,

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator May 26, 2009 10:35AM PDT

replacing the logic board and hard drive would have necessitated a reload of the OS and the creation of a new user profile. (Hmm, that rings a bell)

Unfortunately, your Mac "expert" is now going to believe that any similar problems that crop up will require a replacement of expensive parts and will see it as vindication of his "diagnosis"

That said, as the machine appeared to be under warranty, please say it was, then maybe your tech did not feel that it was "his job" to mess with it and just called Apple.

If it makes you feel any better, it probably won't, I have a G4 tower that will not shut down or restart for me. Apple said it was a logic board problem. I still have the machine, and the same logic board, it still will not shut down for me (note) or restart for me (note again). However, it will do both for everyone else!!!!!

Sometimes Apple will take the easiest route, replacement, rather than mess with the troubleshooting.

P

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Yep

by Jimmy Greystone May 27, 2009 2:19AM PDT

Yep, that about sums up my thoughts. If they didn't like to give me a good verbal thrashing when I go much beyond hardware failure diagnosis, I would have spent more time trying to pin down the exact nature of the problem, but it's already been indirectly resolved (presumably).

I just wanted to know if maybe someone had heard of this problem, and could explain to me how it is a hardware issue when all signs seem to point squarely at software, but it looks as if it's just a case of the Mac "expert" having used up his 2-3 tricks on a previous system with a similar problem, then gave up and called Apple out. Which solved the problem, but not for the reasons he thought.

I guess in this case I will just have to play the politics game, and send an email to our Mac "expert" asking for documentation from Apple, or a similarly credible source for this issue. When he fails to come up with anything, I'll always have that email to point to if he goes running to our supervisor like he did last time. Not something I enjoy, being someone who's more interested in the intellectual challenge, but I also don't like being ambushed when I follow up with a customer, and find out that they had already called our Mac "expert" who just neglected to tell me before running to our department head to play the savior.

Thanks for more or less confirming what I already suspected.

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