blown capacitor
I had been trying to diagnose strange crashes for a week. None of the typical diagnostic routines helped. Then I took the cover of the RAM bay off and saw the leaking capacitor.
In recent months, there has been an unusually large number of bad capacitors found in machines from Apple, Dell, HP, and other computer companies. The problem usually appears 1-2 years after the machine was purchased. Dell has spent millions of dollars replacing logic boards at their expense, despite the fact that most of the machines are out of warranty. Apple has done the same for iMac G5s with this problem. Apple has not yet, however, agreed to replace the logic boards of out-of-warranty eMacs with blown capacitors.
The photo is of my eMac's RAM bay -- two of the capacitors are visible. Fortunately, I have AppleCare (extended warranty), but many eMac owners do not. This machine fits the typical profile of the units with bad capacitors: eMac 1.25GHz purchased in mid-2004. There has been a flood of postings at Apple's Discussion Forum and elsewhere; obviously, this is affecting lots of eMac owners. A technician at a newspaper near where I live said that 53 of his 100 eMacs have had blown capacitors.
The machine can be run without crashes in Safe Boot mode or with some of the video software removed, though both "solutions" compromise performance in various ways. I'll be taking mine to be repaired soon.
I am not posting this out of anger with Apple, although I do hope the company institutes a program to help customers who don't have extended warranties. To those customers who need to see what a leaking capacitor looks like, here it is.
Update: On June 23, 2006, Apple began a free repair program for this problem.