2010 iMac Won't Turn On

[illusiumd]

Apple iMac 27-Inch "Core i3" 3.2 (Mid-2010)

The monitor works. When I turn it on it shows a progress bar on a white screen for about a minute and then the whole thing shuts down.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[rpmurray]

Have you ever opened it to clean it? The fans tend to get clogged with dust over time, as well as the CPU and GPU heatsinks, and it could be shutting down because it's overheating. The glass is pretty easy to get off the front, but removing the LCD display will be a bit difficult, depending on how experienced you are with working on electronics.

The 2010 and 2011 iMacs are also prone to GPU failures so that's another likely cause.

 

[TwoH]

Tried safe boot? What you’ve described could possibly be a fault with the GPU, or more likely for a 2010 - an issue with the operating system/storage device

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Apple iMac 27-Inch "Core i3" 3.2 (Mid-2010)

The monitor works. When I turn it on it shows a progress bar on a white screen for about a minute and then the whole thing shuts down.

Any help greatly appreciated.

It's ten years already. The iMac GPU is dead.

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

iMac Late 2009 to Mid 2011 graphics card upgrade (Lastest update 02/21/2022) This is not a plug and play solution! You need some macOS / Unix system administration knowledge, the ability to run programs from the Terminal app and some manual skills to assemble your iMac again. If you have not...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[illusiumd]

It's ten years already. The iMac GPU is dead.

2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

iMac Late 2009 to Mid 2011 graphics card upgrade (Lastest update 02/21/2022) This is not a plug and play solution! You need some macOS / Unix system administration knowledge, the ability to run programs from the Terminal app and some manual skills to assemble your iMac again. If you have not...

forums.macrumors.com

Thanks - is there anyway to connect an external monitor too it if the GPU is dead? Is there anyway to remote desktop into it from another mac? I need to backup some files and get into imovie/iphoto.

 

[illusiumd]

Tried safe boot? What you’ve described could possibly be a fault with the GPU, or more likely for a 2010 - an issue with the operating system/storage device

Will try that thanks.

Tried safe boot? What you’ve described could possibly be a fault with the GPU, or more likely for a 2010 - an issue with the operating system/storage device

Shift doesn’t seem to help but when I hold Command R it at least gets me to a screen with options for reinstalling the OS or working in Disk Utilities. Unfortunately I can’t get far in either. Hit dead ends in both. But the computer does turn on that way. If I can get into Disk Utilities can I salvage any files on the HD?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Will try that thanks.

Shift doesn’t seem to help but when I hold Command R it at least gets me to a screen with options for reinstalling the OS or working in Disk Utilities. Unfortunately I can’t get far in either. Hit dead ends in both. But the computer does turn on that way. If I can get into Disk Utilities can I salvage any files on the HD?

Options to get you files
1. Boot the machine in Target Disk Mode to retrieve your files. Google for how-to. Firewire cable is difficult to source nowadays, and you will need an adapter to fit it with another Mac which does not have firewire port. Too complicated for me.

2. Open the machine (it's very easy to do, video guidance is available on Youtube) and take out the HDD, put it into an USB enclosure and attach to another PC/Mac to retrieve files. USB enclosure is cheap and easy to find.

3. You can also back-up the whole disk-image to an external USB disk (Disk Utility). You will need to restore the image to another disk (on another working Mac), then retrieve your files.

I strongly advice you to go for option 2. above.

 

[illusiumd]

Options to get you files
1. Boot the machine in Target Disk Mode to retrieve your files. Google for how-to. Firewire cable is difficult to source nowadays, and you will need an adapter to fit it with another Mac which does not have firewire port. Too complicated for me.

2. Open the machine (it's very easy to do, video guidance is available on Youtube) and take out the HDD, put it into an USB enclosure and attach to another PC/Mac to retrieve files. USB enclosure is cheap and easy to find.

3. You can also back-up the whole disk-image to an external USB disk (Disk Utility). You will need to restore the image to another disk (on another working Mac), then retrieve your files.

I strongly advice you to go for option 2. above.

Thanks so much! Yeah I'm wondering if I can pull the HDD and clone it to a new HDD and put the new HDD back in.

 

[rpmurray]

It would be better to clone to an SSD and then put the SSD back in place of the HD. It would run faster and cooler than the spinner.

 

[K two]

Apple iMac 27-Inch "Core i3" 3.2 (Mid-2010)

The monitor works. When I turn it on it shows a progress bar on a white screen for about a minute and then the whole thing shuts down.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Before deploying nuclear options and assuming you are running High Sierra - while in Recovery Boot, try running Repair from Disk Utility then reboot into NVRAM-reset, three bongs. The iMac sounds as tho the hardware is good. A re-install on top of the existing install will likely clear up that nasty start-up kp if repair and NVRAM reset doesn't fix it. Heat is not a factor in a cold boot situ. 😎

 

[K two]

We have both 27 and 21.5" i3 2010 iMacs. The 27" is 16GB and 1GB SSD on the last High Sierra and is used for a Zoom conference terminal for 6 hrs./day. The 21.5" is 16GB, a partitioned HDD running both High Sierra on HFS+ and the latest Catalina Beta on APFS. Both machines have crashed on cold boot and were recovered by simple repairs. The advice from the school district IT guy who had about 300 iMacs to ride herd is - never shut them off and they run forever. FWIW

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Thanks so much! Yeah I'm wondering if I can pull the HDD and clone it to a new HDD and put the new HDD back in.

I would advice against this. You have to open the iMac anyway.
It's better to replace the HDD with and SSD and do a clean install of Mac OS, then copy your files back to the machine.
Your HDD may has bad sectors where the system files are stored, and cloning disk may replicate those errors, which in turn, obstruct the new SSD to work normally.