[G4] Flicker on an older i-mac

[Doug McNutt]

At 19:30 -0700 4/26/04, Ron Steinke wrote:
>Whoever suggested that you might have a loose solder joint has a loose solder joint in his head. Solder doesn't come loose except when it is subjected to repeated stress such as removing and replacing cables in sockets or other such activity.

A major cause of solder joint failure is thermal cycling. The variation in thermal expansion coefficient between the fiberglass board and the solder, or other large component, produces forces which can be much greater than stretched cables. It is a reason, sometimes given, for leaving computers on but I don't mean to imply that that is always a good idea. Just being hot is bad too.

At 04:00 -0400 4/27/04, Snow White wrote:
>Really, HIGHLY Not Recommended unless of course you know what you are doing in there.  These old CRT screens have enough juice in them to light you up badly - even unplugged.  They store enough power to kill or seriously hurt you.  If you do dig inside - Get the Service Manual first.

Rich explicitly said he was competent. Don't you trust him?

As for the manual, if anyone knows how to get service data out of Apple we'd all like to know about it. If the computers weren't the only decent choice I would refuse to buy anything from Apple because of that attitude. Compare to an outfit like Tektronix.

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