EMac

From Appledefects

eMac Release Date: April 29, 2002 Base Price: $1099USD

About

Apple Computer introduced the eMac in April 2002 as a low-cost alternative to the new LCD iMac. It was originally intended exclusively for education buyers, but the demand for it was so great that it was made available to the general public one month later.

The eMac featured a 17-inch flat CRT monitor, a Freescale PowerPC G4 processor running at 700 or 800 MHz, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics, and built-in 18-watt stereo speakers. The public models were priced at $1,099 and $1,499, filling the price gap between the $799 old iMac and the $1499 new LCD iMac. Apple discontinued the old iMac line in March 2003 but did not fill the "cheap" price point until May 2003, when the eMac line was updated and its price brought down to old-iMac levels. That revision brought the processor speed to 800 MHz and 1 GHz and replaced the GeForce2 with an ATI Technologies Radeon 7500 graphics system.

Defects

Raster Shift

To Apple's detriment, a number of eMac machines have suffered from what was known as "Raster Shift", a strange phenomenon where the bottom third or half of the screen goes black, with the rest of image shifting upward and out of the top boundary of the display. Serious static also accompanies the problem, rendering the viewable part of the screen virtually useless. In response to the problem, Apple offered a solution which involved the replacement of a video cable inside the eMac's case. In early 2006, users discovered the motherboards of eMac manufactured in early to mid 2004 were alleged to be plagued with bad capacitors. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=431517&tstart=0 After 6 months of eMacs developing this problem, Apple introduced a Repair Program for the model(s) affected.