Is It Time to Give My I-Mac the Boot!

December 29, 2008 5:56 PM

Where can I go to rehab my I-Mac?

It's pretty old and just recently began to freeze a lot. I am debating whether to take off files and programs donate it or get it repaired. Repair costs at Staples are $369.00 with data transfer and backup an extra $69.00. I'd like to keep it for at least another year but I am not sure whether it is worth repairing.

FWIW, I live in Los Angeles

posted by goalyeehah to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Have you tried creating another user account on it? It's a good first thing to try.

Also, in my Mac experience, RAM issues have caused lock-ups. Are you seeing a gray "kernel panic" screen (kind of has a bunch of different writing in foreign languages on the screen) or is the computer just freezing?

If it's RAM, you could try to remove one stick or the other and see if the computer runs without locking up. Should be an easy thing to access on your iMac. If you find a bad stick of RAM is the problem, replacing it will run you FAR less than $369.
posted by plasticbugs at 6:10 PM on December 29, 2008

Do you have any more specifics about what its specs are, and what the repairs they want to do on it?
FWIW, freezing suggests overheating to me.
posted by dunkadunc at 6:11 PM on December 29, 2008

Does your computer freeze randomly or when performing a specific task? (Opening a particular application, for example.)

If it freezes randomly, that could mean bad memory, which can be repaired quite inexpensively (certainly much less than $369!).

Instead of Staples, try bringing your iMac to an Apple Store. You'll get repair work done by people who are experienced with Apple hardware and know what they are doing, and the repair work will cost you less.

I'd recommend you get an external hard drive and do backups on your own, if you're not already doing so. It will make transferring data to a new computer much easier, and you'll have some insurance against losing all your files.

The Maxtor One-Touch drives are an excellent option for non-experts, and as a bonus, you'll have an external hard drive you can re-use for backups when you one day replace your iMac.

Having your own backup setup is an investment well worth the money. Losing all your files can be bad news.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:13 PM on December 29, 2008

The Apple Store is the obvious place.

But which model is it? You might get some good input if you give more details.

One of these?

Or one of these?

Or one of these?

Memory, hard drive space, etc. would be really helpful as well.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 6:14 PM on December 29, 2008

You don't have to suffer through an Apple Store. YOu can also bring it to an Apple Authorized Service Center. As per Apple, taking it there is the same as taking it to an Apple Store. You'll likely get better, more personalized service, and without the ego of the Apple Store geniuses (and certainly without the hideous waiting in line). It will, also, likely be cheaper than going to the Apple Store.

You can Search here for an appropriate location.
posted by micawber at 6:23 PM on December 29, 2008

Whatever you do, don't go to Staples for this. What did they tell you they would "repair" for $450 with data backup? That makes it sound like they want to sell you an over-priced hard drive, when there's no reason to assume that's the problem at all, and in any case you could do it yourself for the price of a $40 drive (depending on the iMac model -- specs are needed both to diagnose and also to make a cost/benefit assessment of whether it's worth repairing -- ie, is it a G5 or earlier, or is it an intel iMac? If it's a PowerPC -- G4 or G5 -- it is definitely not worth sinking more than a couple of hundred bucks into it in repairs!)

"Freezeing" can indeed be caused by a bad drive. But also by a failing logic board or a corrupted operating system or any number of other things, some cheap and easy, some terminal.

Have you run disk utility to diagnose drive problems? Have you repaired permissions?

And most importantly, *are you backed up*? If the answer to that is less than "yes, completely, and currently," deal with that immediately. Computers come and go. Your data must live.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:21 PM on December 29, 2008

It's also possible that if your hard drive is full (I mean REALLY full) there isn't enough room to use for virtual memory, which could make the computer freeze. Have you gotten any alerts saying "Your startup disk is almost full"? (The solution would be to empty the trash--obvious, but people forget, and delete any files that you can.)

Here's my standard Mac troubleshooting routine:
- Back up!! I cannot stress this one enough. If you don't have an external hard drive, go out and buy one before you do anything else. If you have Leopard (10.5), Time Machine is fine to use for backups. If you have Tiger (10.4) or Jaguar (10.3), I like SuperDuper (not free, but worth every penny).
- Use Onyx (free download) to run standard maintenance scripts that might not be executing if you turn your computer off at night, repair permissions, check the startup volume, etc.
- Start up from your system installation disc (restart with the disc in the drive and hold down 'c') and repair the disk using the Disc Utility

If none of that does anything to fix your problem, PLEASE go to an apple store (or other authorized repair center) to deal with people who actually know what they are doing and will not rip you off nearly as badly as staples/best buy/et al will.
posted by cosmic osmo at 8:58 PM on December 29, 2008

Carbon Copy Cloner is free and will make a perfect copy of your boot disk. But BACK UP by any means necessary.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:30 AM on December 30, 2008