We sent my wife’s iMac in last week for repairs after a string of problems with the computer shutting down prematurely and making excessive fan noise.

This was the first time I had sent a computer in for warranty service, and I must admit I am not keen on the idea of losing a computer for a week or two, especially when in the PC world you can usually just find the part you need and keep on going.

After diagnosis, the local shop revealed that our iMac G5 had a defective top fan assembly. The fans were working inadequately - and making tons of noise. Internal components, including the hard drive, were not being cooled as much as they should have been.

When the iMac went to sleep automatically, it was doing so as to prevent the internal components from heating up past the point where they would have been damaged.

The fan assembly we needed was covered under warranty, but unfortunately the part was backordered with no expected ship date. Apple customer service was very helpful; I phoned in to customer relations to ask for them to prioritize the repair and get the necessary parts to our local dealer. They did, and the dealer got the parts last Friday.

Though the computer crashed one last time and would not start up prior to my shipping it in, the shop was able to replace the fan assembly and the system worked fine and did not seem to experience any damage to components, hard drive, or data.

The repairs were completed Monday morning and they shipped the computer back to us. We have received it and all seems to be in good working order.

A small victory!