The unit actually had copper coils refridgerating the water, keeping a reservoir at a certain temperature before it was pumped out. Say it keeps the water at 40°F, incoming (warmer, already ran through) water passes into the reservoir to be cooled, and pumps already reservoired water to the stream. It stays in the reservoir until it reaches its set temperature parameter, and pumps more out (this is all in a matter of a few seconds, since it is reletively little water (2-4 cups), it cools rather quickly.

It requires power via the PSU, which needs to be pretty beefy for any type of high level cooling supplies, whether you have 8 fans or liquid nitrogen. :)

Well, I type this from my work laptop (a windows box, sigh).

Last night I was working away when I heard a very loud POP and the circuit breaker tripped. Thought it was my monitor, cause it sounded like a monstor cap blowing.

Alas after I moved my dual 2.5 G5 (liquid cooled) I found a puddle on my desk.:eek:

Took it in to an apple shop today and the PFYs (pimply faced youth) jumped up and ripped it open when I told them what had happened cause they had never had a leaking unit yet. I suppose that it is very rare is good, but why me? :confused:

Anyway, I will report back when it is fixed (oh, about a week if the parts are in Sydney - I am in Brisbane, 1000K away, but a city of about 2 million..... what, no parts here :mad: )

Are you sure all of your hamsters are accounted for? ;)

Just kidding. Wow, that sucks! I'm really sorry to hear.

So I guess it's not a "non-conductive" liquid.

Well, after telling the store that there had been a leak, I called them up two days ago and they said the power supply was shot and they were ordering one in but that they didn't think the cooling had leaked. They asked what colour it was and when I said clear, they said 'no, it is green, so that couldn't have been it'. I told them to look again.

Today they called up and said the power supply was in and they were going to install it. I said what about the cooling? They then made a not too veiled threat that 'if you keep saying there was water around, it might void your warrenty for the power supply repair'. I then told them in no uncertain terms that the only source of water (fluid) was the Mac.

About 2 hours later, I get a call and they say 'oh, the cooling was buggered, and we have to order you a new CPU unit, and by the way, the fluid is VERY toxic and do you feel any timgling where you may have touched it?' !!!

I would bet that they replaced the power supply and proceeded to run HW tests and burnt out the current CPU(s).

Anyone in Brisbane can PM me if they want to avoid this downtown shop.

Needless to say I am going to compose a letter to the management about the service staff.

Grrrr

Maybe it's too late, but here's a quote from the Apple Service Manual for PowerMac G5's:Also, here is the link to the MSDS.

The PFY should stop listening to urban legends. Glycols are rather toxic if swallowed (Ethylene glycol, in your car antifreeze, often kills pets - it tastes sweet. Somebody should put in an additive.) Getting it on your hands won't be a problem, but wash up well just on general principle :D

Surprised it's not an option. Pumped-water cooling, chilled with the building air conditioning system (or running it out the window in the winter in some climates) would be perfect for a server room. Cooler, less lint, and it wouldn't sound like a jet engine repair shop.

Thanks for the info, sounds like it is not too bad a liquid.

Cheers,

The saga continues....

Late last week I got a call and they now said the logic board was fried. Another part order from Sydney, another few days.

Wouldn't it be logical to take an overall look at the problem, since it was a cooling/powersupply problem, test with a spare power supply, see what is dead and then order all parts??? Are they going to replace all electrical parts one by one?

Today they said they were installing the logic board and would run HW test, so it should be ready tomorrow.

Why do I have this sinking feeling that they are going to say "oh, the disk drive is dead, we have to order one from Sydney.

3 bloody weeks so far....

I hope it's still covered by your warranty!

Yep, it is (with applecare as well). So far the bill is $3729.73 AUD (apple gets the bill of course).

But, the power button/USB/Firewire board at the front of the machine was very loose when I got it home, so it is back into the shop for an hour next week some time... :(

It is also a real pain how so many prefs and things screw up when the motherboard gets changed.

Are you sure that at this point in time, appropriate use of a screwdriver, while unduly shortening the drama, would be the better option for your personal sanity ?

And as a public service, make sure they get their license pulled by Apple or at the very least fire the dork who seemingly can't stop breaking machines over there...

Yeah, I may take a look, but it is pretty tight in there, and it is not immediately obvious where the screws are....

I also don't want to strip a screw and screw it completely, and have it be my fault...

Now, if someone out there with experience were to PM me and tell me it is a no brainer, I might be more inclined to give it a go. :)

Doug

Well, here we are nearly a year later, and guess what? Another CPU coolant leak! :mad:

This time I heard a sizzle sound, smelled an acrid smell, and then shut it down before I lost the power supply (and the logic board).


Needless to say I did not take it to the same shop, but to a guy who runs a one man repair outfit that is Apple certified. The Cooling system is done after 3 days, but the modem had also died (unrelated), so that part won't arrive until Monday. Looks like it should only be a week this time.... sigh.

I have never had a G5 leak on me yet. I have had probably 15 to 20 processors go bad in the last two years but never a leak.

I have read all the warnings and passed the safety questions on the apple cert for liquid leaks, but have never seen one.

In my professional opinion though, the G5 is one the poorest designed desktops from a functional repair standard, I have ever seen. We have several G5s that have hardware failure every three months here at work, and the G5 right next to it has ran for 2 years with no problems at all. I think that the G5s that have problems have them consistantly, and the ones that don't never really do. That is just the pattern I see though, so it is just my epxerience.

An advertistement? Are you guys spamming your own forums?

Hey, he's gotta pay for all this AppleCare somehow ;) :

stetner, good to hear you finally seem to have found a trustworthy service guy, at least, no more ping-pong ahead...

I'm on my second new Mac... and I bought AppleCare with both of them. I've more than gotten my money's worth out of the program: I've gone through 3 keyboards and one motherboard (an electrical storm found its way to my ethernet port... now I unplug the network during storms too).

Well, it went in on the Tuesday afternoon and was back on Monday. The only reason it wasn't back on Friday was I also wanted the modem replaced (unrelated failure, just hadn't got around to getting it fixed as I rarely use it) and it took longer for the part to come in.

That is a bit better service! :)

It now has a slightly different cooling unit, maybe I will have more luck with this one....

Happy with this repairer though.... and if anyone in Brisbane wants to know who he is PM me and I will point you his way...