On Oct 21, 2012, at 5:52 PM, "D. Fabel" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I know it's not an iMac, but it looks similar, so I thought I'd ask here. > Has anyone ever replaced the bad capacitors on one of these? > > I have access to a nice digital Weller soldering iron and would consider > myself fair with basic soldering. Or I would consider letting someone near > me with experience do this. > > Your thoughts? > Doug > Portland, OR G4 eMacs are a lot easier to work on than G5 iMacs where capacitor replacement is concerned. I've replaced caps on about a dozen eMac logic boards so far, with 100 percent success. Can't say that about G5 iMacs. :^( eMacs require ordinary solder/desolder skills, unlike iMac G5s, which have multilayer boards and use no-lead, high-temp solder. I've discovered that it's smart to replace only those caps that have bulging tops, whether they're leaking or not, or caps that are tilted from failure at the bottom rubber seal. You can go ahead and replace them all, but in my experience it's a waste of time. The most likely source of bad caps in an eMac (ATI and higher) is the down converter, which is plugged into the logic board on the side opposite the ports. There are 12 caps on the down converter board, and I've seen up to 9 bad ones ... and no bad caps on the logic board. Since the down converter powers both drives as well as the logic board, the range of symptoms is awesome. There are kits sold for logic board replacement caps, but none are available for down converters. A good used down converter is getting pretty hard to find, and what new ones are out there are more expensive than a working eMac is worth. I've managed to cannibalize bad down converters for good caps and salvage a few that way. But sooner or later I'm going to be forced to buy individual caps. Good luck! Jim Scott Eureka, CA -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist
