Our wayward Power Mac G5/2.5GHz returned to us yesterday morning, about six weeks after it failed catastrophically. So far so good; we’ve been synching our digital camera, getting caught up with our checkbook, etc.
About five days after we delivered the Mac to Trilutions, Erich pointed out this XLR8YourMac thread to me. Replacements! Optimistic, I called Apple and worked my way through their phone tree, explaining my case patiently and repeatedly. I asked that they provide a MacPro replacement at a discount. Twice I got transferred to nowhere, but I persisted and finally got to a real CSR in Customer Relations. Thirty more minutes on and off hold, as she reviewed the repair history of our Mac and spoke with other folks, she agreed to issue an exception code for us. No replacement, but Apple agreed to cover the cost of the repair. I think that’s eminently fair, considering the machine was (a) 58 days out of warranty when it failed, and (b) only 26 months past the second time its logic board and CPU modules were replaced.
Getting the repair done wasn’t easy. Not only did it take three weeks to get parts, but the first processor module shipped to our service provider failed calibration tests. Thankfully, the replacement worked. That means our PowerMac is now on its third logic board and fourth set of processors.
I have read various things about this problem. Seems to me the liquid cooled systems had a higher failure rate than they should have. Not surprising that Apple dumped Motorola/PowerPC, if the best CPU they could make required that level of complexity.