I just finished doing the capacitor replacement on a G5 iMac. There are 30 capacitors on the board; however, uness a capacitor is swollen or popped, it does not need to be replaced. I only needed to do five capacitors. Several years earlier Apple had replaced about 25 capacitors and the five I replaced were ot done as part of the Apple recall.
You need a soldering iron that can work at 800 degrees. Seven hundred did not get the job done. You must get all the old solder out of the whole and be careful putting the new capacitors in and make sure you get the polarity correct. Open the power supply, and confirm that the capacitors inside are good. Mine were fine. Doing this for the first time, I spent far more time on this than a professional would. This is not an easy DIY project. I had six hours into the research and actual work. Once complete, I reassembled the board and the components. Plugged in the iMac, and it immediately launched its OS. I ran it continuously for about 12 hours without a problem. Good luck with your project. On Sep 30, 2011, at 6:03 PM, Wayne Getchel wrote: > I have noticed over the past year many requests for replacement iMac > G5 motherboards on the swap group. I found myself in the same boat > when I inherited 2 2006 G5 iMacs one 17 inch 2.0 ghz and one 20 inch > 2.0 ghz. A further investigation I discovered a site that does > replacement capacitor service on motherboards. His primary is > replacement on non Macintosh motherboards but he will do the > replacement on Mac's as well. The catch for Mac's is that he has no > way to test the motherboard for Mac's when he is finished so you must > be confident that your motherboard failure is due to blown or swollen > Capacitors. The Site for much more information is ( www.badcaps.net ) > The site tells you what caused the problems with the capacitors and > other data. Also if you are interested in having him repair your mobo > there is a form to fill out at the site. The cost at the time I had > the repair done (Aug 2011) was $85.00/mobo plus $20.00 return > shipping. This guy also sells Capacitor kits for the do it your self > person. Bear in mind that Apple mobo's are multilayer boards and the > components are soldered using lead free solder. This solder requires a > hotter iron temperature for soldering than lead based solder and using > lead based solder to replace the caps is not recommended. > > Another site ( www.jimwarholic.com/.2008/07/how-to-repair-apple-imac-g5.php > ) gives you instructions for the do it your self. This site page also > shows you which Capacitors ( @30 ) need to be replaced. > > For disassembly instructions ( www.ifixit.com ) has downloadable pdf > Apple take apart instructions. > > This is a great service, both of my mobo's were repaired in about 3 > weeks (time will vary depending on his backlog). Upon return I > reinstalled the repaired mobo's and both computers booted and are > working as per new. > > Some Indications of failed capacitors will be failure to completely > boot up, Spinning beachball on a booted computer when you attempt do > preform some function, lots of system crashes and kernal panics. So if > you have any or all of these indications check your motherboard > visually for swollen or blown capacitors. BadCaps might be for you to > get the machine on the road > > Disclaimer I have no affiliation with Badcaps other than being a > satisfied customer > > Thanks for reading. > Wayne > > -- > 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 imaclist@googlegroups.com > To leave this group, send email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist -- 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 imaclist@googlegroups.com To leave this group, send email to imaclist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist
