How can I tell if the logic board is bad?
My mom has a flat-panel iMac (20") that has been refusing to boot since this past weekend. My sister and I tried every trick we could come up with to get it to boot, but the only thing that resulted in anything other than a blinking question mark was powering up while holding the eject button. This caused the computer to boot up from the external firewire hard drive. We were not able to get the disc tray to open, so we couldn't start up from the Hardware Test CD. I have two questions:
Is there a way to physically force the tray to open? (We've tried all the suggestions offered by Apple Support, to no avail, and the iMac has no hole for the old paper-clip trick.)
Is there a way to tell whether the hard drive is dead or the logic board is bad? We strongly suspect it's one or the other.
Flat-panel G4 iMac (20") Mac OS X (10.3.9)
Hello! You have one or two problems and both are likely related. The fact that the cd/dvd drive isn't responding indicates problems with it however it could be related to the hard drive problem. The fact that it will boot from another source indicates that the logic board is ok. If you like to tinker then you might want to consider buying a new computer and using the one with problems to learn more about working on one. I've never been a fan of all-in-one type computers because when component goes out you either in for a difficult job in repairing it yourself or you forfeit the value on the component (s) that are still good. That's why I personally think towers are better long term values. Sure they're not quite as "cool" as the iMac but I'd rather pay for computing power and long term useability. Tom
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How do I know if the logic board is bad?
So the girlfriend dumped a slew of water on her 20 gig 4th gen photo. I've completely disassembled it and THOROUGHLY dried it out and all seems well from that perspective.
So here is what is happening:
- if I plug it into my PB it does not respond, nor does it start to charge
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- if I do a "restart" while it is plugged into the laptop, I get the lightning bolt with a battery (battery is too low to be recognized by computer)
- if I plug it into the regular AC charger, I get the same results
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I opened it up again and took a volt meter and measured that the battery is still good; I get 3.8V I think or something like that from the red and black wires of the battery. Plus this thing is only like 8 months old, so I know the battery isn't bad.
This leads me to believe that the logic board is bad b/c that is what the battery plugs into. The screen must still be ok b/c it looks fine.
So does anybody have any ideas?OK, so I have answered my own question. I ordered a logic board and put it in. So I know the logic board was bad.
However, now I'm pretty certain the hard drive is bad too as it just spins but won't do anything. I don't even get the folder with the exclamation point- just the big apple like it is booting up.
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The best option is an appointment at an Apple store genius bar. The evaluation will be for FREE!
Ciao. -
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Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number: W0046Q08UBX0A
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0201
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 0157
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Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
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Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
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AC Charger Information:
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http://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/applecare/appmacnaen.html -
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Now, on iOS 7, while it still reaches 100% with that same lightning bolt charge symbol, during the 100% point, it never switches to the plug symbol to indicate the charge period is totally finished.
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how can i tell if the caps are on?
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... an HP employee expressing his own opinion.
Please post rather than send me a Message. It's good for the community and I might not be able to get back quickly. - Thank you. -
My DVD player is supposed to play avi videos, but it often doesn't telling me that the file format is not recognized. I suspect it's because it's the wrong codec. How can I tell what the codec is before I burn a DVD? And how do I get a workable codec? Thanks for uour help!
Ken Selvidge ([email protected])I am not a computer savy person. I just need to plug in and have the machine do what it should do.
Not a problem, but that indicates you have a lot to learn.
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Some programs have lots of the codecs available to them, like VLC, Niceplayer, MPlayerX, etc.
You can also get "plug-ins" for Quicktime that add codecs to Quicktime, like Perian. Although it is no longer being developed, Perian still works well.
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http://www.apple.com/support/products/
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