I got a response from the seller of the Apple G5 that got damaged during shipping. Because of the extent of the damage to the case and my pictures showing how poorly it was packed they refunded me the full cost and told me not to worry about shipping it back, it’s not worth it and I agreed with them, it’s too beat up and probably doesn’t work.
Now that’s customer service! So, what to do with a 55lb hunk of battered aluminum Apple computer? Why, try to fix it of course! What’s the worse thing that can happen? So, I put it on my work bench and start taking it apart, of course Apple uses a rivet to hold the CPU cover on which has to be drilled off. 
I was able to reattach the rear fan housing, fix the CPU cage and clean everything out.
I installed a known working video card and memory and the hard drive from the other G5. I hit the power button and BAM! It fired right up into OS X Leopard. The LCS must not have leaked fluid out because it hasn’t been running hot, how lucky can I get? All LCS connections looked good so the stains must be from something else.
The case being bent in front doesn’t allow the cd-rom drive to open so now I have to decide on if it’s worth it to buy a case and move everything over or not. I could just bend this thing so everything works but it wouldn’t sell for much, if anything. I’ll run the machine for a week doing burn in and if it holds up I think I found a case for $39.00 that will work. So all I’ll be out is the cost for the case, memory and video card. The rest will be profit unless it doesn’t work after I transfer everything. 
It should work, but you never know with older hardware.
I just ran XBench on the machine and it passed so we’ll see how it goes after a week!
5 comments:
That's an ambitious undertaking. Good thing you know your way around computers!
Have fun and good luck with that Erik! I've got an old, old laptop that I want to get rid of. I suppose my husband would have fun destroying it! It's not usable at all.
Love Di ♥
As happy as I am for you .... I have no idea what you just said. If I have a computer issue, I call my son and he enters my computer and fixes it. Motherhood has it's priviledges .......
Still, happy for your good fortune.
Glad to see they made good on the damage without having to be badgered to get them to do the right thing :).
Out here in the west where fire arms ownership is still allowed, we'd take that junk case up to the hills and use it for target practice and other mischievously destructive purposes, especially if we couldn't fetch much for it in aluminum scrap value.
Donna K - I've been working on them for going on 25 years so they're second nature to me now. This is both good and bad as everybody wants free help.
Diana - You could give the laptop to a charity and write it off on your taxes. ;)
Kathy - You're right, being Mom does have its perks!
Matt - I like both ideas but in Illinois they frown on guns, heck they frown on most everything. Lacking a gun I may try the scrap idea, 25'lbs of aluminum should bring something.
Post a Comment