I generally avoid talking about things that happen at work on here, but this is pretty unspecific, so I think that it is safe. At work, I use a late 2006 model iMac, and recently the optical drive went bad on it. I took it to the Apple store to see if it was still under warranty (it wasn’t), and they said that it would be about $350 to repair. Since I have worked on the G5 iMac, I was confident that I could handle this one as well. I ordered the part online for $100, and I got to work on it Thursday. I quickly learned that the iMac that I have is very different from the one that I had worked on previously.
It was a heck of an experience, and one that I don’t think that I will be repeating if I can help it. I did have Mike to give me advice, which I appreciated, and I also had on a life feed of a NASA space walk where the astronauts were installing a new module to the ISS. It was cool to watch/listen to them, as they seemed to be having the sort of difficulty that I was experiencing. It was good motivation and inspiration.
I was able to obtain a repair manual for it, and was very surprised to find that the official tool to open it up is to take a card (it’s basically a credit card), tape a bit of padding to the front and bend it to shove up the vent to hit a latch. The just seemed very hacky, that that was directly from Apple. I used my ProCare card (ironic?) and after a longt struggle, I got it open. It took me a long time because the latch on the right side had come partially unglued, and it didn’t want to release well. I had to take off the other side and bottom, and carefully pull it back, and then disengage the latch from the front. From there, the camera connections weren’t too hard, but the next part was a bit of a beast.
The iMac is pretty well sealed and EMI shielded, but it accomplishes this via EMI shielding tape. I had to carefully unstick this tape from the bottom, sides and top. That took some time. I gotta say, there is no reason for this. There should be nothing taped inside a computer (other than to maybe position a cable). As for EMI shielding, what is wrong with a mesh and brush system?
I untaped the shielding, and I removed the screen without too much trouble, but I had trouble getting the optical drive out. First, the manual was pretty worthless in its illustration, and secondly, it just didn’t want to unlatch. I finally was able to get it with some pliers to provide some extra leverage. I removed the mounting and replaced it to the new one. The only problem that I ran into was the temperature sensor that was one the old drive. Once again, it was glued, and I had to remove it with my knife (very carefully), and luckily it was sticky enough still to stick to the new drive.
Putting everything back in was not too bad. I did need help from someone getting the screen back in, since the tape kept trying to fold back on itself, but it wasn’t until the end that I ran into an issue. At work, I generally can’t work on something like this straight, since I support the whole office, I am constantly getting interrupted to help someone. Well, just before I finished connecting the last cable for the screen, I got called away, and when I came back to close up the computer, I realized that I had missed putting on the final screw on the cable. I had to open it back up (and fight that latch again), and untape the bottom to get to that cable. I completed that and closed up. Now it was up to fate if it would start up.
I reconnected it, and turned it on. The screen came on, but then it sat there. No chime.
“Crap.”
I turned it off, and tried again, desperately hoping that I wouldn’t have to open it back up, and got called away. When I got back, I found that it had progressed, but hadn’t finished booting all of the way. I decided to see what would happen (figuring that I might need to install some driver since this wasn’t the exact model drive as the other). To my surprise, it booted, and once it was up and running it seemed fine, and worked! The operation was a success! After talking to Mike, he thinks that it was just that the computer was rebuilding the kext file, and I think that that makes sense. I didn’t reboot after that, but I expect that everything should be fine.
I was really surprised how long it took to do. I think that I worked on that thing about 6 or so hours total (over two days). I am used to that sort of repair being trivial, and taking no more than 20 minutes. The G5 iMac was great for getting into. All it was was 3 screws and you were in to the guts of the thing. I love Apple products, but this really felt like they were just trying to do everything to make it difficult to service, just so you would take it back to them to do. Instead of the design decisions being engineering decisions, it felt more like business decisions. Maybe if I had more experience with that machine, I would be able to get into it faster (actually, I know that I could), but it was a heck of a job. I know that the new iMacs are tough too, but I really hope that Apple reconsiders this direction, as there is no need for it, and it only makes it more difficult on the power users (usually their biggest advocates).
That being said, I’m glad I did it. It proved to me that I can do more complicated and delicate repairs. True, there are other things that are more difficult (soldering?) but it showed me that my skills are still pretty sharp. So bring it on, Apple.
It was a heck of an experience, and one that I don’t think that I will be repeating if I can help it. I did have Mike to give me advice, which I appreciated, and I also had on a life feed of a NASA space walk where the astronauts were installing a new module to the ISS. It was cool to watch/listen to them, as they seemed to be having the sort of difficulty that I was experiencing. It was good motivation and inspiration.
I was able to obtain a repair manual for it, and was very surprised to find that the official tool to open it up is to take a card (it’s basically a credit card), tape a bit of padding to the front and bend it to shove up the vent to hit a latch. The just seemed very hacky, that that was directly from Apple. I used my ProCare card (ironic?) and after a longt struggle, I got it open. It took me a long time because the latch on the right side had come partially unglued, and it didn’t want to release well. I had to take off the other side and bottom, and carefully pull it back, and then disengage the latch from the front. From there, the camera connections weren’t too hard, but the next part was a bit of a beast.
The iMac is pretty well sealed and EMI shielded, but it accomplishes this via EMI shielding tape. I had to carefully unstick this tape from the bottom, sides and top. That took some time. I gotta say, there is no reason for this. There should be nothing taped inside a computer (other than to maybe position a cable). As for EMI shielding, what is wrong with a mesh and brush system?
I untaped the shielding, and I removed the screen without too much trouble, but I had trouble getting the optical drive out. First, the manual was pretty worthless in its illustration, and secondly, it just didn’t want to unlatch. I finally was able to get it with some pliers to provide some extra leverage. I removed the mounting and replaced it to the new one. The only problem that I ran into was the temperature sensor that was one the old drive. Once again, it was glued, and I had to remove it with my knife (very carefully), and luckily it was sticky enough still to stick to the new drive.
Putting everything back in was not too bad. I did need help from someone getting the screen back in, since the tape kept trying to fold back on itself, but it wasn’t until the end that I ran into an issue. At work, I generally can’t work on something like this straight, since I support the whole office, I am constantly getting interrupted to help someone. Well, just before I finished connecting the last cable for the screen, I got called away, and when I came back to close up the computer, I realized that I had missed putting on the final screw on the cable. I had to open it back up (and fight that latch again), and untape the bottom to get to that cable. I completed that and closed up. Now it was up to fate if it would start up.
I reconnected it, and turned it on. The screen came on, but then it sat there. No chime.
“Crap.”
I turned it off, and tried again, desperately hoping that I wouldn’t have to open it back up, and got called away. When I got back, I found that it had progressed, but hadn’t finished booting all of the way. I decided to see what would happen (figuring that I might need to install some driver since this wasn’t the exact model drive as the other). To my surprise, it booted, and once it was up and running it seemed fine, and worked! The operation was a success! After talking to Mike, he thinks that it was just that the computer was rebuilding the kext file, and I think that that makes sense. I didn’t reboot after that, but I expect that everything should be fine.
I was really surprised how long it took to do. I think that I worked on that thing about 6 or so hours total (over two days). I am used to that sort of repair being trivial, and taking no more than 20 minutes. The G5 iMac was great for getting into. All it was was 3 screws and you were in to the guts of the thing. I love Apple products, but this really felt like they were just trying to do everything to make it difficult to service, just so you would take it back to them to do. Instead of the design decisions being engineering decisions, it felt more like business decisions. Maybe if I had more experience with that machine, I would be able to get into it faster (actually, I know that I could), but it was a heck of a job. I know that the new iMacs are tough too, but I really hope that Apple reconsiders this direction, as there is no need for it, and it only makes it more difficult on the power users (usually their biggest advocates).
That being said, I’m glad I did it. It proved to me that I can do more complicated and delicate repairs. True, there are other things that are more difficult (soldering?) but it showed me that my skills are still pretty sharp. So bring it on, Apple.
There’s a reason why people who can do that can charge $350 cause people like me would have thrown it against the wall :p.
I’m so glad you got it fixed, sorry it was such a pain in the A@@.
You’re just really good with your hands and extremely patient.
*hugs*
Posted on June 10, 2008 at 4:05 pm.