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Josh Calvetti
3.8k
Asked
A couple of capacitor questions...
So I recently got a G5 iMac that suffers from the bad caps. Apple says they'll fix it for a cool $700... which I'm not interested in doing. If you refer to the pictures below, you'll see that only 1 cap on the board has gone bad thus far.
Currently, my symptoms are constantly running fans, and the inability to sleep. If I hit the sleep button, the machine instead switches off without any kind of warning- not a good thing. So I'm willing to bet that the cap on the board is related to the fans, and I guess that there's probably a bad capacitor in the power supply as well.
So, here's my questions:
1) Once one cap goes, how long is it before the other capacitors start dying? And is there any way to prolong their life?
2) Has anyone repaired the caps before? I've got a friend who's really good with a solder iron, so I might be able to twist his arm into helping me out. How difficult did you find it to replace them?
Thanks!
Edited by: Josh Calvetti ( )
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remacberli
7.6k
Answered
Accepted Answer
If one cap is gone replace them all. These parts have a limited lifespan and if one went, the others will follow. You can purchase them at digikey, recommended.
The soldering is not really easy, it's all lead free which requires quite high temperatures but incidently i'm just sitting here in front of an iMac G5 which i succesfully repaired this way. Go for it :-)
Do you have a link to the the caps I should order there? I know some sites offer prepackaged kits, but I imagine they are more expensive than ordering the individual parts.
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mayer
150.7k
Answered
Please refer to this question: http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/7011/...
Josh, as to how long, I've seen these babies with half of the capacitors showing signs of corrosion before the machine fails. Replacing just the bad one may work for years. Do voltage tests on the rest and see if you can spot any really weak ones and replace them also. You could very easily get off with only doing two or three. As to prolonging life the only thing I know that works is to never turn it off, just let her nap.
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These days there are several sources on Ebay which furnish complete kits for specifically repairing this model of iMac. They are presorted, and you don't have to worry about the ratings, voltages and physical size being correct. At around $20+shipping, this is by far the easiest method to acquire these caps. I have resurrected 3 iMac G5s with Ebay cap kits. Note that capacitors can fail without showing visible signs such as leakage and bulging.
Edited by: Stewart Odell ( )
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Anwar Shiekh
25
Answered
Best to open up the power supply and take a look at the capacitors there, I'd say the power supply is more likely to fail than the motherboard and a bad supply will put out ripple the mother board will try and smooth, so yes, conversely, the mother board probably helps the power supply out.
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Bernie
687
Answered
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Answered
http://jimwarholic.com this site sell the best high quality capacitor kit for any model of the g5. I just replace the 16 caps on my imac g5 isight, and it's working like new.!!
