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HELP! 2009 iMac issues.
- Thread starter rwh63
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According to those other threads, that drive is completely dead.
It's stone dead… It wouldn't spin if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!
that is an "inner drive" on the logic board for these reasons.Nice machine.
I have no idea what that drive is. And it’s only being seen as 4 GB. Weird. Is it possible to re-partition it? Or maybe it’s just completely a goner.
my mac mini was displaying a 2 GB one as well.
ok, gotta get ready for surgery! the brand suggested by EugW is apparently a US company (though probably made overseas). 500g for $60, 1TB for $100. probably have set aside about 2-3 hours for a first timer.
I didn't know where you live so I just went with Amazon.com USA. (I actually live in Canada myself.)
Just a few small pointers:
1) Watch a couple of the YouTube videos on how to replace the HD in their entirety before attempting this. It's actually not overly difficult if you know the procedure.
2) Take off the glass with the suction cups (since it's just held on by magnets), but DON'T CARRY THE GLASS WITH THE SUCTION CUPS. If you are carrying the glass with the suction cups and one of them loses suction, your glass hits the floor. So, once you get the glass off, carry it with your hands, being careful not to smudge the back surface. (I personally wore gloves for this.)
3) Go slowly and make sure you know where the cables are and how to unclip them to remove the LCD screen and its attached frame (after unscrewing all the screws holding its frame in place). Otherwise you run the risk of damaging a cable. Don't touch the LCD screen with bare fingers, because the smudges can be very difficult to clean off.
4) What was the most annoying for me was that when it came time to put the LCD back in after the HD replacement, every time I tried to put a screw in its place for the LCD screen frame, the screw would get attracted by the magnet and go in the wrong spot. In the end I just used tweezers to put the screws in the right spots before screwing them in.
good tips. i will wear latex gloves. as for the magnets, maybe cover them with post its or removable tape. gonna have a magnetic tray for hardware. i'll do it on a colored cloth so i can see anything that falls. other tips are welcome. btw, located in new england.
…Yes… I have a bad hunch about those pink frames in screen…
But of course, dead internal HD is the culprit, and it’s quite cheap to replace.
I‘m not an expert, but got to disassemble my lovely 2009 (RIP) and reach the HD. A delicate labour, but easier than today standards (no glue involved!). But my initial intention was trying to mend the GPU: known fault was tiny soldering degradation.
This problem with the mac was very torturing, as glitches appear at non predictable moments, depending on temperature, I suppose. In final chapter, there was a gpu total blackout. But sometimes the machine decided to work, and took weeks to go black forever.
A prior owned iMac (G4) died because sudden HD malfunction; it was not so frustrating as my 2009 iMac death.
Perhaps “Hardware Diagnostic“ at start options is possible? It would be a logical step.
(I don’t remember how low level diagnosis was triggered. Someone to tell OP, please).
ordered the brackets and sensor wire through amazon. the 500 gb hd is backordered 2 weeks, and the 1 tb is only $30 more and available at local best buys for the same price as advertised on amazon, so might just pick it up after the other parts arrive.
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Or step down to 250 GB if you can get by with that, it’s available and not too expensive (bucks per gigabyte) compared to the larger drives…
My concern is that perhaps the OP should've let the machine run for a while before purchasing replacement parts, due to the GPU uncertainty that @EugW had mentioned earlier…
Maybe let it run constantly for a week or two to see if that triggers the GPU issue.
What say you? @Amethyst1?
Temperature is crucial if something's wrong with other components. Put it to work hard! Some benchmarking exercise or similar... Try to see how it behaves after high temp. and fan stress...
And this test takes less "time".
The longer the better I’d say, while watching temperatures. Benchmarks like Unigine Heaven and Valley are a good idea too to see if you can make it admit defeat.
think i can safely test the sd and superdrive? and, i don't believe i have a minidisplay to minidisplay cable. is target mode firewire the only other way to connect A/V my laptop to the iMac?
It’s always a cost vs. benefit decision. You can also just install the SSD, use the machine and, well, see how long it keeps up.
What are you trying to do? A MiniDP-to-MiniDP cable is for connecting the iMac to an external monitor — or using the iMac as a monitor for another system.