[G4] Perplexed need help

[Luke Rademacher]

This thread reminds me of what happened to my MDD Dual G4 back in  
2005. My Mac was still within AppleCare and It was having the worst  
Kernel Panics. After several weeks of dealing with AppleCare over the  
phone they told me to goto my local AppleStore. They looked at it and  
said they would test it and keep it. Seven days later I got my MDD  
back and what did they do? Replaced the Logic Board, Dual Processor  
Card, Video Card, & Power Supply. What was the Cost $1400.00. And I  
did not have to pay one penny. Fast Forward 2 more years to 2007.  
This time One day out of the blue My MDD dies and there is nothing I  
could do get it to boot up. My AppleCare ran out the year before and  
I was scared.  I went to the AppleStore again and asked one of their  
Genius' what to do. They took it overnight and next day called me and  
told me it was the Power Supply had died. Being Sarcastic I was Like,  
OH REALLY?!. I could of told them that. Asking how much would it be,  
It would of been $200+ for a Power Supply and Labor. I was floored.  
Not knowing what to do and having very limited money at the time, I  
asked around. Another Mac Friend of mine told me I should get Apple  
ProCare. Essentially its some Overpriced Apple VIP membership thing  
that costs $90 a year. So I bought it. and Took the MDD back to the  
AppleStore, Showed my Apple ProCare card and all I had to pay was  
some $20+ for Labor cost of the Tech swapping out the Power Supply. I  
found out later that the Apple ProCare covers costs of Parts costs or  
something. Paying $90 for the membership and $20 for some Labor cost  
was cheaper than $200+ for me at that time.

I am lucky that My MDD is humming along decent now since 2007. What I  
do now is I do not overtax it internally with new doodads and drives,  
cards etc. I keep the Minimum I need to work. Instead of 4 or 5  
Internal HD's I have the Boot Drive (the Seagate 80GB that came with  
the MDD), an Applications drive (a Serial WD 120GB HD) , and a Data  
drive (another Serial WD 250GB HD). I keep an external 1TB HD for  
backup purposes of my MDD and my other computers. In my expansion  
Cards I have the Video card, a Serial SIIG card, and a 5port USB2.0  
card. All my external devices: the external 1TB HD, my Canon  
CanoScan, my Canon Pixma printer, a USB2.0 hub, and a Flash card  
reader... I turn off or unplug when I don't need them.

I am sorry you are having so many problems and I hope you have  
success in finding a solution.

Peace,

Luke Rademacher
Liquid Zone Graphics
Mac mini 2.0Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM, 80GB HD, Combo DVD/CDRW,  
Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.5, ext NewerTech miniStack w/ 320GB HD.
MDD Dual 1.25Ghz G4, 2GB RAM, 250GB/120GB/80GB HD's, 16x DL DVD±R/RW  
Superdrive, Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.11, Classic Mac OS 9.2.2.
External 1TB HD FireWire 400
Intel Celeron 2GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, Ubuntu Linux 8.04
5.5th gen 80GB Enhanced Video iPod
Canon CanoScan 8400F
Canon Pixma iP4500