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What I’ve got sitting in front of me is an iMac G5; maybe you own one, or maybe you
have another model of iMac. I can tell you that the 17 and 20” versions of this iMac
are notorious for failing power supplies.
Hi, I’m mj with iFixit and today I’m going to show you how easy it is to replace the
power supply in an iMac G5; you can perform this repair on any iMac, but they might require
a different part. So before you order your replacement power supply make sure to find
our your machines EMC number which is found on the base of the iMac. If you can’t find
your EMC number head over to our ID Your Mac Page. Also, the instructions will be different,
so be sure and follow the step-by-step instructions for your iMac in its repair guide on our site.
Today I'm working on a iMac G5. So for that I'm going to need a phillips number one screwdriver,
which i got from our 54 piece bit driver kit. A heavy duty spudger, and of course our replacement
power supply.
Before we get started, I'm going to lay the iMac face down onto something soft. So we
can use a piece of foam. You can use a towel or a t-shirt or something. Just so you can
protect the display from scratching. Once you have the iMac in position. You can get
started by loosening the three screws on the bottom. They are not going to come out all
the way. They are just going to loosen. So once they are loosened as much as they will
go. You can lift the rear panel right off.
The power supply is immediately visible, and honestly, the hardest part of this repair
is disconnecting the cable from its socket on the logic board. You are going to start
by pushing on this little latch to kind of release it. Then use your heavy duty spudger
to get in between the gaps and disconnect it. A good tip is if you push one side back
far enough and you see a open gap, stick the pointy end of your spudger in there and kind
of hold that gap. Then use your fingers on the other side to loosen it.
After the cable is disconnected, there are three more screws to loosen,two of them are
the kind that won't come all the way out. So your just going to loosen as far as they
can. So with these screws loosened as far as they can I am going to go ahead a pull
out the power supply. It might take a little bit of effort and it helps if you pull it
towards you as your lifting up. But be careful because there are some capacitors near by
and you don't want to go ripping those off the board as you pull the power supply out
so be gentle.
Alright, with the old power supply removed all I have to do is put the new one in, reconnect
the connector, which is much easier than disconnecting the connector, and reassemble my iMac. It
is a really quick and easy repair.
Of course you can find all the parts and tools for this and many other repairs at ifixit.com.
If yo have any problems during your repairs, there are lots of solutions in the iMac repair
guide on our site.
Thanks for watching and happy repairing.