Bong! . . . :-) . . . Welcome to Macintosh!
When anyone thinks about the first iMacs, the words
cool and colorful automatically come to mind. For those
who were die-hard Mac fans at the time, many think of the fact that it
was the iMac that saved Apple from extinction.
As years went by, it became known as the Mac plagued with problems.
In the earliest iMacs, the tray-loaders - iMacs with a tray-loading
CD-ROM drive - the GLOD (Green Light of Death) is all too
common. The slot-loaders - iMacs
with a slot-loading CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or CD-RW drive - have similar
problems. The PAV (Power/Analog/Video) boards are known to be a common
failure in G3 iMacs. Many iMacs see an early death because of this.
But that's not the only thing the iMacs suffer from, as I recently
found out.
The indigo iMac.
I recently took apart my indigo iMac to clean out the
dust inside. I purchased this indigo iMac new in December of 2000, and
after five months it developed video problems, which eventually led to
me getting a replacement iMac from Apple in July of 2001. Imagine my
surprise when I took off the front faceplate to see that the white
plastic underneath (covering the CRT) had major cracks in several
different places. I've never abused or dropped my iMac. I've always
been very careful with it, so I was very angry at this sight. The
cracking is so bad that half of it could fall off.
This is disheartening. Apple was once known for above and beyond
quality control on most all its lines, save for a few. This type of
plastic is no better than your standard issue $3 trash can that can be
found at any Dollar General. Apple should be ashamed of themselves for
putting out such a shoddy, sloppily engineered Mac.
Have any of you ever encountered this on your tray or slot-loading
iMac? Drop me a line at thomas (at) lowendmac (dot) com if you have and
tell me your story. 
