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2011 iMac - vertical stripes on screen, GPU?
- Thread starter afd
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A quick search on ebay shows you might be able to replace the logic board for <$200, it might be worth it.
Depending the length of time youve owned the machine and how you feel about disposing of something which can be fixed when youll probably end up with something else just as bad but newer, youll have to make a judgement call. Search the forums here or post a topic asking people for unused machines they want to recycle and you might get replacement parts for just shipping costs or you can search craigslist or even still, find a local repair shop with good reviews on Yelp! and call them up for a price quote. Personally, ive had my 2011 model repaired multiple times because i refuse to give Apple any more money, but more importantly i dont believe in trashing something which still has life left in it. Its a shame Apple doesnt build products which are worthy of their reputation or price tag. Best of luck on your decision.
Thanks for all the replies. I’ve looked into replacing the GPU and companies that repair them. It looks like it’s too complex a task for me to try myself, too many opportunities to break something. I’ll try and find a local place able to fix it.
I’d rather hold onto it, the iMacs that I could afford have fixed RAM and no optical drive. Also I’ve recently been daft enough to spend £999 on a mobile phone...
I’d rather hold onto it, the iMacs that I could afford have fixed RAM and no optical drive. Also I’ve recently been daft enough to spend £999 on a mobile phone...
Long thread on GPU failures and replacements here on Macrumors
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
I am assuming you have the 6970m graphics card and those seem to have an extremely high failure rate. Apple had a 4 year replacement program for them but that has long expired. To save you some reading in the thread mentioned above...
1) The 6970m is a custom Apple graphics card. You can't buy a 6970m from a PC Laptop and use it.
2) Buying a "new" 6970m is pretty much impossible. Apple ran out of them a long time ago and anyone saying they have "new" cards is almost certainly selling you a reflowed/reballed card. Those will just fail again since the defect is in the GPU silicon package itself and not in the solder balls of the large GPU assembly.
3) There are other cards that can be made to work... sort of... without boot screen, and flashing the UEFI, and heat sink mods, etc... but I suspect that is well above the enthusiasm level of most.
4) The 2011 iMac 27" also came with 6750m and 6770m options which are both much lower power (in both senses of the word "power") devices but from what I can tell have a much much lower failure rate.
What I am choosing to do with mine?.... Ordered a 6770m card off eBay and will replace the 6970m. I will have much lower graphics performance but at least I will have a working iMac that won't likely fail in the next 6 months with a recalled 6970m.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/
I am assuming you have the 6970m graphics card and those seem to have an extremely high failure rate. Apple had a 4 year replacement program for them but that has long expired. To save you some reading in the thread mentioned above...
1) The 6970m is a custom Apple graphics card. You can't buy a 6970m from a PC Laptop and use it.
2) Buying a "new" 6970m is pretty much impossible. Apple ran out of them a long time ago and anyone saying they have "new" cards is almost certainly selling you a reflowed/reballed card. Those will just fail again since the defect is in the GPU silicon package itself and not in the solder balls of the large GPU assembly.
3) There are other cards that can be made to work... sort of... without boot screen, and flashing the UEFI, and heat sink mods, etc... but I suspect that is well above the enthusiasm level of most.
4) The 2011 iMac 27" also came with 6750m and 6770m options which are both much lower power (in both senses of the word "power") devices but from what I can tell have a much much lower failure rate.
What I am choosing to do with mine?.... Ordered a 6770m card off eBay and will replace the 6970m. I will have much lower graphics performance but at least I will have a working iMac that won't likely fail in the next 6 months with a recalled 6970m.
I had the same issue with my 2011 iMac. Fortunately, while I took time to decide my next steps, the problem resolved itself.
At first this would happen multiple times per day. Then gradually started happening once per week and now I’ve gone over a month without this issue.
At first this would happen multiple times per day. Then gradually started happening once per week and now I’ve gone over a month without this issue.
Ouch
[doublepost=1517594249][/doublepost]Have been looking at new iMacs, and wondering if 8GB, 2 cores and a spinning HD is enough. £999 is more than enough though.