The Lazarus iMac - back from the dead??

[timeshifter]

Computer is a Late 2012 27-inch iMac. Customer complained that it was randomly shutting down, sometimes returned to desk and found it powered off, etc. I went to check it out. While I was checking it, rebooting it or whatever, at one point it just flat out died. Wouldn't power on at all.

This was about one year ago. So I don't recall all the details. But, I'm pretty sure I did the standard stuff like unplugging everything, leaving it unplugged for 15 seconds or more as Apple recommends to reset SMC. I would have tried holding the power button in while unplugged to try to drain any remaining energy. Probably also tried PRAM reset, etc. Also checked the AC power levels from the wall which looked good. Whatever I tried I couldn't get it to power back on.

Told the customer it looked like it might be an expensive repair. They decided to get a new one. They gave me the machine to clear the data and recycle or re-use as appropriate.

It sat on my shelf for months. Recently I got a power supply for another dead machine. I got this one off the shelf and dusted it off. It fired right up. I ran it on and off for long stretches over several days. I put it back away for a month or two. Just got it out again. Again, it runs flawlessly. Don't see any issues.

Any idea what might be going on with this machine?

 

[Markverhyden]

Out of curiosity does it fall in the category of machines listed in this article? Serial codes a little further down the piece.

https://9to5mac.com/2013/08/16/appl...-replacement-program-for-some-mid-2011-imacs/

It's very rare but I've a handful of machines over the years do something similar. But most seems to die again. Have you left it running for a long time, as in days?

 

[timeshifter]

Doesn't match any of those machines.

Have you left it running for a long time, as in days?

Last time I had it on the bench I ran it for maybe a week. It's been up for about three days now. Presently, the computer was set to never sleep, although the display was set to sleep after about an hour. I set that to never too. See if that makes a difference.

 

[sapphirescales]

Apple computers are unreliable pieces of sh*t and I wouldn't trust one any more than I trust some cheap XP box from the early 2000's. It seems every year there's some horrible recall on Apple's products from bad graphics cards to bad screens and keyboards. Of course, Apple only admits to a small fraction of the computers by specifying a small subset of serial numbers when ALL of the models are affected. For example, I've never seen a 2011 Macbook Pro without some signs of a GPU problem. Sure, it wasn't completely dead or giving kernel panics, but it just didn't work quite *right. I'm sure your iMac has either a GPU problem or a power supply problem, both of which can be intermittent. I wouldn't trust it at all if I were you. Either dump it on Craigslist without a warranty (this is what I usually do) or throw it in the garbage.

 

[lan101]

Apple computers are unreliable pieces of sh*t and I wouldn't trust one any more than I trust some cheap XP box from the early 2000's. It seems every year there's some horrible recall on Apple's products from bad graphics cards to bad screens and keyboards. Of course, Apple only admits to a small fraction of the computers by specifying a small subset of serial numbers when ALL of the models are affected. For example, I've never seen a 2011 Macbook Pro without some signs of a GPU problem. Sure, it wasn't completely dead or giving kernel panics, but it just didn't work quite *right. I'm sure your iMac has either a GPU problem or a power supply problem, both of which can be intermittent. I wouldn't trust it at all if I were you. Either dump it on Craigslist without a warranty (this is what I usually do) or throw it in the garbage.

I think quality went down once they switched to intel chips back in I think 2006. Then after Jobs passed away it took even a bigger hit. I still see some working G3 and G4 machines out there. I have an old G4 tower 450mhz model I believe. Still boots just fine to this day. Slow as a snail for anything web related but it works.

 

[timeshifter]

It's still running strong. Set it to never go to sleep and for the screen to stay on running a picture screensaver. Also did a secure erase of the drive and installed Mojave. Like nothing ever happened.

 

[sapphirescales]

I think quality went down once they switched to intel chips back in I think 2006. Then after Jobs passed away it took even a bigger hit. I still see some working G3 and G4 machines out there. I have an old G4 tower 450mhz model I believe. Still boots just fine to this day. Slow as a snail for anything web related but it works.

You tell the truth. Though Apple still had some real problems with the G5 iMac's back in the day. Mostly with bad capacitors on the motherboard and bad power supplies. The last decent Mac's were the G4's. It all went to h*ell after that.

I have a couple of iBook G3's still working great as well as an eMac. They're built like tanks and work great (though the eMac has a bad capacitor near one of the RAM slots).

 

[lan101]

You tell the truth. Though Apple still had some real problems with the G5 iMac's back in the day. Mostly with bad capacitors on the motherboard and bad power supplies. The last decent Mac's were the G4's. It all went to h*ell after that.

I have a couple of iBook G3's still working great as well as an eMac. They're built like tanks and work great (though the eMac has a bad capacitor near one of the RAM slots).

Yep kinda forgot about the G5's but yeah I remember reading all about the bad board issues they had. But yeah those G4's are awesome!! I still hook mine up every once in a while just for nostalgia sake lol. I had an older imac g3 blue indigo model that I threw out about 5 years ago because the screen went out, but it lasted 12+ years being on almost 24/7.