Welcome to Macintosh

How the G3 iMac Crumbles

- 2008.01.18

Bong! . . . :-) . . . Welcome to Macintosh!

When anyone thinks about the first iMacs, the words cool and colorful automatically come to mind. For those who were die-hard Mac fans at the time, many think of the fact that it was the iMac that saved Apple from extinction.

As years went by, it became known as the Mac plagued with problems. In the earliest iMacs, the tray-loaders - iMacs with a tray-loading CD-ROM drive - the GLOD (Green Light of Death) is all too common. The slot-loaders - iMacs with a slot-loading CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or CD-RW drive - have similar problems. The PAV (Power/Analog/Video) boards are known to be a common failure in G3 iMacs. Many iMacs see an early death because of this.

But that's not the only thing the iMacs suffer from, as I recently found out.

The indigo iMac.

I recently took apart my indigo iMac to clean out the dust inside. I purchased this indigo iMac new in December of 2000, and after five months it developed video problems, which eventually led to me getting a replacement iMac from Apple in July of 2001. Imagine my surprise when I took off the front faceplate to see that the white plastic underneath (covering the CRT) had major cracks in several different places. I've never abused or dropped my iMac. I've always been very careful with it, so I was very angry at this sight. The cracking is so bad that half of it could fall off.

This is disheartening. Apple was once known for above and beyond quality control on most all its lines, save for a few. This type of plastic is no better than your standard issue $3 trash can that can be found at any Dollar General. Apple should be ashamed of themselves for putting out such a shoddy, sloppily engineered Mac.

Have any of you ever encountered this on your tray or slot-loading iMac? Drop me a line at thomas (at) lowendmac (dot) com if you have and tell me your story.

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This article copyright ©2008 by Tommy Thomas. Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Opinions expressed are those of their authors and may not reflect the opinion of Cobweb Publishing. Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all.
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