Talk:iMac G5

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impetus[edit]

Is there any impetus to the Walt Mossberg quote in the article? He's not really a universally accepted unbiased computer design critic. It really detracts from the rest of this article's professionalism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.246.236.40 (talk) 14:15, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, i removed this one from the category:Industrial design examples

Dis computer was not successful enough.

Aye, aye captain[edit]

Still, what a beautiful looking machine! ♥♥ ΜÏΠЄSΓRΘΠ€ ♥♥ ^{slurp me!} 01:35, 31 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder[edit]

Will there be a G6? --BlooWilt 20:20, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No. G5 refers to the PowerPC chip. Now that Apple is using Intel the Generation numbers have been dropped. 206.73.5.30 19:55, 5 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Early problems with the iMac G5[edit]

Some iMac G5 computers have been shipped earlier on with poorly seated RAM, so, when the iMac G5 with poorly seated RAM was turned on, the user would hear three beeps, and then the fan inside it would turn on and go full blast. You would not be able to boot it from any disk or external hard drive, because the RAM needs to be seated right.

Also, some iMac G5s had been locking up their system after at leat 40 minutes out of the box. Not many of these incidents have been reported.

The most rare problem ever recorded with the G5 iMac is when the screen seemed to "melt" everytime it was powered on. No boot disk or hard drive would solve this.

Where I work we have nine first run iMac G5s, most of which have exhibited one or more of the following:

Some units run hotter than others.

Lockups that apparently cause CPU, power supply, and fans to run at full load to the extent where the power supply and motherboard are destroyed.

Capacitors exploded on the motherboard that died in the above scenario, and at least two other still functional machines have swollen capacitors.

Five of the units have new power supplies and two died with a glorious burning smell. "Soot" was visible inside one of the machines.

Lockups like those described by the parent where Macs would never revive from sleep mode--this may be an indicator of a faulty/dying power supply. The workaround is to disable sleep mode.

Every once in a while, a random iMac will refuse to boot. Usually unplugging the machine, pressing power (to discharge the capacitors I guess), then plugging back in does the trick. This is possibly another indicator of a defective power supply. Other times an iMac won't turn on because it has overheated; only time (and perhaps a fan) fixes this one.

The office is climate controlled and most power down their units at night. Upon every service (which is frequent), I ensure the iMac's innards are clean. An associate of mine claims to have gotten AppleCare to admit there was a "silent recall" on first generation G5 power supplies and motherboards and specifically mentioned a faulty batch of capacitors, but Apple has never spoken any such language to me. Their site admits a recall for power supplies for 20" G5s, but the issue affects models of all screen sizes:

http://www.apple.com/support/imac/powersupply/repairextension/

While originally researching these issues I recall finding confirmation for each, though I don't have detailed notes. However, here is a reference for the most egregious accusation: "iMac G5 catches on fire":

http://db.tidbits.com/article/8080

The article also makes references to swollen capacitors and the mysterious "bad batch" mentioned by my associate.

Whelkman 17:51, 10 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

PowerPC[edit]

The lede describes this computer as: "...using the PowerPC chip architecture." AFAIK, PowerPC refers to the PowerPC instruction set architecture or PowerPC-branded microprocessors. "Chip architecture" implies microarchitecture, which PowerPC is not. It needs to be clarified. Rilak (talk) 14:38, 18 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Article reads like an advertisement[edit]

The G5 Imac did not have "advanced cooling". They had "inadequate" cooling. The GPU and CPU were 130 nanometer components that were intended for desktops, not a design like this. The capacitors would literally cook inside of the computer. Another issue is that the combined power used by the CPU, GPU, chipset, LCD monitor, multiple case fans, DVD-ROM, network card, and USB devices was nearly what the power supply was capable of providing at peak capacity only. The CPU alone was about a 50 watt part. This means that the power supplies would quickly deteriorate. The G5 iMacs were the worst iMacs ever made. This is well known and as a result they are the cheapest on the used market. As of 2019, a used 233 MHz iMac goes for twice as much as a G5 iMac. There is a reason for that. 184.88.69.182 (talk) 06:48, 19 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]