Apple iMac G5 Motherboards DIY Repairs How-to Guide PDF Manual

I had to get the lead out when it comes to repairing the Apple iMac G5 PPC motherboard problems. Beware, don’t try this replacing capacitors on an iMac repair yourself, unless you have help or experience with all types of handy tools at your disposal, or willing to take a challenge. Also, beware of the time commitment involved with this Apple computer repair. “Be prepared,” is the old Boy Scout motto, and that is no lie when it comes to tackling this Apple product repair yourself. See below if your Apple serial number is covered.

This is a close up view of the Apple iMac G5 Motherboard (20 inch model) with the bulging, leaking, and exploding capacitors problem. This is a first generation model pictured above. Go to the bottom for second generation iMac G5 comparison picture. This Apple G5 PPC motherboard is three years and two months old. The symptoms of the problem were: video shaking, video disappearing, video lockup, system lockup, intermittently could not power down, intermittently powering up problems, and strange program lockups. Here is a YouTube Video from someone else that shows a very similar Apple iMac G5 startup problem with the video display. Note the vertical lines in the video display.

While removing the 20 capacitors on the MOB, I experienced broken leads from capacitors that were falling apart, and leads that pulled out of the capacitors themselves, because of the extra heat that is required to melt the lead free solder in the first place. Note the following section is included for information purposes only. Some folks have recommended I remove this reference to drilling the circuit board holes out. While this is
not a recommendation of circuit board drilling, I have included it here only as to what I had to do to fix the problem. Others may have a much better “hole” cleaning solution.

To begin with, I had to use a Dremel power tool in various ways. Prior to ECG J-060 60 Watt Soldering Iron removal of the G5 caps, it was first necessary to grind off the polymer resin and some of the ECG excessive lead lengths from the old capacitors with a small grinder tool attached to the Dremel, Best Price $17.34 and then drilling out some circuit board holes with a number 72 solid carbide drill was what I did or Buy New $17.34 when the old cap leads broke off in the holes of the printed circuit board. Beware of, drilling the holes out could damage the circuit board and break carbide bits inside the holes.

That would not Privacy Information be good and making it most difficult to fix. Also note that drilling the holes can damage the through platting which is designed for connecting the top and bottom hole surfaces of the PCB, and might also be used for connecting to other traces and layers of the multilayer PC board. This would also make for a really bad through solder hole connection on the new capacitors being installed.

Download Apple iMac G5 Motherboards DIY Repairs How-to Guide PDF Manual


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February 14, 2009 | Posted in Notebook

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