Guidance needed in late 2009 iMac upgrade

[JessC]

Thank you Hugh, it occured to me just when I was about to start; So I tried but since the imac doesnt start up .. screen starts up white and you hear 'the chime' but nothing happens and screen stays white, no apple logo and startup loading bar.
So I just made the swap again, imac started up and I'm actually responding now from the computer ?

Probably the SSD boot doesn't work properly ..? I'm going to re-examine that how-to process from hdd to ssd first since that's possibly where I messed up.
> If you have a dummy-proof tutorial for me on how to double check that before making the swap again I would feel a lot better ??

Okay, so … after having put back the old hdd and hooked up the ssd externally via usb-adapter, choosing the ssd as starting disc the Mac ? boots up fine from the ssd. So I turned all off again and replaced the hdd by the ssd once more and … same issue: chime, blank screen, without booting process / apple logo and progress bar … ☹️
Checked all connections 3x ?

Anyone had this happen before or know where to remedy pls ?

Many thanks ??
Jesse

 

[EugW]

Can you do a clean install (after making several backups)? That worked for me for my aforementioned MacBook Pro SSD upgrade.

 

[JessC]

For a 2015 MacBook Pro, I just replaced a 128 GB Apple/Samsung OEM SSD with a 256 GB Apple/Samsung OEM SSD.

I had used SuperDuper! to clone the SSD to an external hard drive, and confirmed that external hard drive boots fine. However, when I cloned the hard drive back to the new SSD, it didn't work. I get the flashing ?folder at boot up. So now I'm reinstalling Monterey fresh from scratch. ?

I have a Recovery Partition on the drive which would allow me to reinstall Monterey, but that would take too long, I guess because it has to download the image from Apple. I also have a USB installer, so I'm doing it that way.


Was this a second hand computer? Or had it been repaired at some point?

Take a look at the arrow I added in the picture. IIRC, this is the connector for the HD temperature sensor, and it appears the cable has been cut, with the wires likely connected / soldered together (under the orange plastic). Shorting the circuit like this will disable the temp sensor in such a way that the fans don't ramp up. This is the cheap way to avoid using Macs Fan Control to control the fans. See the post from @bobesch above. I prefer my way with the optical drive temp sensor though, since you actually get a temperature reading.

View attachment 1927934

So currently my fans don’t work, is that what I understand?
What can I modify to remedy this..?

 

[JessC]

Can you do a clean install (after making several backups)? That worked for me for my aforementioned MacBook Pro SSD upgrade.

What’s a clean install pls ? ☺️

 

[JessC]

What’s a clean install pls ? ☺️

Do you mean erasing the ssd and re-do a clone?
And by multiple backups you mean on several drives?

 

[Amethyst1]

Do you mean erasing the ssd and re-do a clone?

Erase the SSD and perform a reinstallation of macOS from e.g. a bootable USB installer. Don’t clone your existing installation.

 

[JessC]

Erase the SSD and perform a reinstallation of macOS from e.g. a bootable USB installer. Don’t clone your existing installation.

I’ll look up how to do that; Can I go for patched Mojave at this stage since that was my goal also ?

 

[EugW]

So currently my fans don’t work, is that what I understand?
What can I modify to remedy this..?

These are the various scenarios:

1) Remove HD temp cable. Fans run at maximum all the time. This is intolerably loud. The way around this is to run Macs Fan control.
2) Short HD temp cable. This is what you appear to have. This is fine. The computer just ignores the SSD and just runs the fans based on everything else, which is OK because the SSD won't get hot enough to matter anyway.
3) Replace HD temp cable with OWC's solution. This maintains all temp monitoring functionaity, but is way too expensive and is unnecessary. It also looks messy, but I'm sure that doesn't bother you, since it's hidden and also since you installed your SSD with a zip tie.
4) Replace HD temp cable with optical drive temp cable, which is what I did. This costs under $10 and maintains the temp monitoring functionality, and has a clean look to it.

I’ll look up how to do that; Can I go for patched Mojave at this stage since that was my goal also ?

dosdude1's Personal Web Server - Software

 

[Amethyst1]

I’ll look up how to do that; Can I go for patched Mojave at this stage since that was my goal also ?

Yep.

 

[firelighter487]

Hopefully you'll have some fun too. It can be tremendously rewarding to develop the technical skills and know how to repair, maintain and upgrade your hardware so that it remains operational and viable. Seeing my 2010 MacBook Air running a fairly current version of macOS which Apple had officially barred from its upgrade path brought me great joy.

my Mac Pro same thing, it's a 3,1 running high sierra at the moment, i'm planning to update it more when i put an AMD gpu in it. currently i'm limited by nvidia support.

 

[JessC]

3) Replace HD temp cable with OWC's solution. This maintains all temp monitoring functionaity, but is way too expensive and is unnecessary. It also looks messy, but I'm sure that doesn't bother you, since it's hidden and also since you installed your SSD with a zip tie.
4) Replace HD temp cable with optical drive temp cable, which is what I did. This costs under $10 and maintains the temp monitoring functionality, and has a clean look to it.

TY @EugW
I think I prefer option 4 ? will look for that.
Resorted to the zip tie after online orders were cancelled (police raided all HQs of delivery companies in Belgium past month) and shopping in 3 stores I could only get a 35€ bracket, a bit too much for an ultralight ssd ?

 

[JessC]

Yep.

I’d like to keep using the built-in iSight webcam … any issue with that ?

 

[JessC]

I have exactly that 27" 2009 iMac, and I've just (yesterday) completed the HDD to SSD swap, by the method detailed above. I had already upgraded it to Mojave using the Dosdude patcher as soon as I got hold of it, and am awaiting an extra 8GB RAM to complete the job.

Remember though, there is nowhere on the SSD to connect the thermal sensor cable, so I first installed the free Macs Fan Control and set the hard drive fan to a constant 2000 rpm, otherwise the fan will run wild and loud all the time

Cheers

Hugh

Does your iSight camera still work after your swap / upgrade ?

 

[Hughmac]

Does your iSight camera still work after your swap / upgrade ?

I already lost it when I upgraded to Mojave, and when then I used the specific dosdude patch to restore iSight my USB played up so much that I lost my EyeTV. For example, although iSight was working after the patch, a USB external drive became dead slow.
My choice was to remove the iSight patch as I have plenty other Macs and an iPhone for video calls, but the 27" iMac is great as a TV in the kitchen while I cook.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[bobesch]

If you have a dummy-proof tutorial for me on how to double check that before making the swap again I would feel a lot better ??

Oh, sorry to hear about that You're stucked with the SSD not booting within the iMac ...
The temperature-cable is not the problem - it has been fixed by the previous owner by shorting the cables, as @EugW already noticed. I'd leave that alone. Drive's temperature doesn't matter within this setting and you've already worked with the iMac/HDD without even noticing the mod.
Since you were able to boot from the SSD through USB-adapter I'm also at my wits' end. Cloning the drive (using CCC or SuperDuper!) and proving the drive is able to boot externally through USB-connection is my regular procedure and it never ever failed AFAIR. You may give SuperDuper! a chance, before you procede to a new install.
But since You are already thinking about to install MojavePatch (or Sierra/HighSierra) just go ahead to try installation from the scratch.
I'd erase the SSD and do repartitioning as HFS+ drive. Then separate a tiny 12GB partition for the Patch-Installer at the very end of the drive to install the PatchInstaller to this partition in order to install patched Mojave to the main/first partition. The swap drives and try to boot the iMac from the tiny 12GB-Patch-Installer-Partition.
If that should fail, I'd try another SSD, since this method so far alway worked on any of my early/late-early intel MBP/iMacs. To be sure, the SSD-drive is the problem, You may prepare a USB-bootstick with the installer too and check, if the internal-SSD shows up in DiskUtility (you may also check that by booting the iMac through the old HDD, while it's connected through USB/FireWire-adapter/case.)
Good luck! (I bet, the SSD is the problem. If you have another one at hands, I'd try that first)

Edit:
You may also try to re-install fresh Sierra from the Recovery-Partition onto the external-USB-connected SSD (given there is a Recovery on that HDD)

 

[JessC]

Very Sad Update:
The iMac died completely and isn’t doing anything anymore ?
As I mentioned at the start, I had no previous experience in this, but got convinced to carefully go for it and do the HDD to SSD upgrade.
I wanna thank all of you who offered help and advice, appreciated the effort to move me along! Why everything never seemed to go as expected … don’t know.
Don’t know what to do next either; I’m stumped … for now at least.

Thanks
Jesse

 

[EugW]

Very Sad Update:
The iMac died completely and isn’t doing anything anymore ?
As I mentioned at the start, I had no previous experience in this, but got convinced to carefully go for it and do the HDD to SSD upgrade.
I wanna thank all of you who offered help and advice, appreciated the effort to move me along! Why everything never seemed to go as expected … don’t know.
Don’t know what to do next either; I’m stumped … for now at least.

Have you checked all the cables? Are they all seated properly? Nothing was torn when you removed the LCD?

 

[JessC]

Have you checked all the cables? Are they all seated properly? Nothing was torn when you removed the LCD?

I smelled something weird like a sort of shortcircuit I think. It doesn’t power on anymore

 

[JessC]

I smelled something weird like a sort of shortcircuit I think. It doesn’t power on anymore

Seemed to come from that lower area ..

 

[bobesch]

Oh, I'm really sorry about that outcome!? - I know that "Space Oddity/Major Tom" feeling very well
and I guess all of us keep fingers crossed for you to be successful in reviving that nice machine!