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How open new aluminium IMACS?
- Thread starter Dj-Grobe
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Working on AL iMacs
I am a certified tech at an Apple reseller and I HATE working on the new iMacs. Best advice. Go into a room and seal off the air conditioning vent, put a towel under the door/carpet crack, turn off all fans, other computers, or anything that creates a draft. Then wait about 20-30 minutes for any dust to settle. Make sure you have static bags handy big enough for the glass panel and LCD panel. Then Try and work as fast as you can removing the ridiculous amount of screws holding the bezel and LCD panel together. After you change the hard drive, pray to whatever god or deity you prefer that you haven't procured copious amounts of dust and particle flecks on the LCD panel itself or, God forbid, the underside of the glass panel. make sure not to put any fingerprints anywhere but the front side of the glass. And don't go crazy if you see dust when you put it all together. You will not be able to get it 100% perfect.
If you can't tell, I absolutely despise working on these horribly designed monstrosities. They seem to run well though.
I am a certified tech at an Apple reseller and I HATE working on the new iMacs. Best advice. Go into a room and seal off the air conditioning vent, put a towel under the door/carpet crack, turn off all fans, other computers, or anything that creates a draft. Then wait about 20-30 minutes for any dust to settle. Make sure you have static bags handy big enough for the glass panel and LCD panel. Then Try and work as fast as you can removing the ridiculous amount of screws holding the bezel and LCD panel together. After you change the hard drive, pray to whatever god or deity you prefer that you haven't procured copious amounts of dust and particle flecks on the LCD panel itself or, God forbid, the underside of the glass panel. make sure not to put any fingerprints anywhere but the front side of the glass. And don't go crazy if you see dust when you put it all together. You will not be able to get it 100% perfect.
If you can't tell, I absolutely despise working on these horribly designed monstrosities. They seem to run well though.
Well I've no intentions of ever opening my iMac any further than the door over the RAM slots but the boys in Shanghai who assembled it DID get it 100% perfect.
I've got no smears, fingerprints or dust under the glass and the machine is silent and beautiful.
I never understood anyone who would risk opening up one of the newer iMacs, not even the last generation white Intel machines. I know 100% I wouldn't get it back together the same if I tried swapping the hard disk. I'd have fingerprints, smears and dust as well as extra parts left over. Oh, and the new HD would be loud and run too hot and the machine would no longer be silent.
That's what Firewire 800 external HDDs are for.
The white ones weren't bad at all. And the LCD panels are easily cleaned with some iKlear. Had a glass panel crack on me today during reinstallation that scratched the LCD panel before I caught it. $860 oops.
I felt it only fair to update this thread with the news that I have scheduled my iMac for a trip home to Apple. There is a VERY faint 4 or 5 cm diagonal line just right of center in the upper portion of my display that I had never noticed until recently. It is not a smudge or a scratch on the outer surface of the glass panel which is spotless. There are two or three 1cm lines in parallel with the long one. It is most easily seen on a white background although I can see it with lighter colors as well. Except on a white background you won't see it if you're not looking for it which explains why I only just detected it 5 months after taking delivery of the machine.
I thought it might be LCD image persistence but I ran Jscreenfix overnight and also tried Apple's advice about leaving a solid white background and it didn't change the line one bit.
My best guess at this point is that it is either a smudge on the REAR side of the glass panel or a scratch or a very faint scratch or smudge on the LCD panel itself. At any rate, pain in the butt as it is I am sending it back to Apple because now it will drive me insane if I don't even though I never noticed it before this week.
I will update once Apple diagnoses it officially but it appears you were dead on correct with your assessment about how much of a task these glass panels are to get on the iMacs flawlessly.
Ya know it's funny.
I was going to add a larger Hard Drive to my new Aluminum iMac.
I researched all the sites with information about opening one up.
I even have a 'dust free' room to work in. ( my dark room where film is processed )
In the end I decided, a smart person would use external drives vis Firewire / USB Ports.
Memory is user upgradeable and that we have done.
I was going to add a larger Hard Drive to my new Aluminum iMac.
I researched all the sites with information about opening one up.
I even have a 'dust free' room to work in. ( my dark room where film is processed )
In the end I decided, a smart person would use external drives vis Firewire / USB Ports.
Memory is user upgradeable and that we have done.
So I just took shipment of the "repaired" iMac from AppleCare. I thought sure it was just a smudge on the rear side of the glass panel. Turns out Apple confirmed the lines as a defective LCD and replaced the whole panel. Unfortunately I have to leave for work now so I can't unpack it and power it up yet but I am very much crossing my fingers that when I do it will not have any dead or stuck pixels and of course no gradients. It does feel like getting a new machine all over again and I'm really glad I sent it back to Apple and decided against popping the glass panel myself for a look-see as I was leaning towards doing.
Oh it's even worse. Although my last panel had the very slight defect of a very faint line that you couldn't see unless you really looked for it this replacement panel has a NASTY left to right gradient as well as horrible backlight bleeding. It's a pain in the rear but tomorrow morning I am getting right back on the phone with AppleCare and this one's going back.
The good news is that at least here in Japan the AppleCare techs have to receive, acknowledge the complaint and REPAIR it which in this case means installing a replacement panel without gradient and backlight bleeding. I have a feeling they may have just installed a panel from a machine someone else returned for gradient complaints and hoped I was one of those that didn't notice or care.
My old panel with it's faint line was a hundred times better than this one. It may have had a very slight gradient but nothing like this thing does.
Oh, there might be a dust speck in the upper left hand corner as well. It doesn't appear to be a dead pixel because I'm familiar with those and this changes with the viewing angle.
This hasn't been a good week.
I have always been one of those in here declaring that not ALL 24" iMac panels had gradient issues since my original one didn't. I wasn't denying their existence and now that I see it man oh man I know what you guys were talking about. On a white background it goes from bright white to grey at the right and on a grey background from grey to yellow to dark grey.
Nasty!
I will follow up when I get the next panel.
What will? I think it only voids your warranty if you break something while you're in there.
Apple Store does not perform upgrades.
Well I've no intentions of ever opening my iMac any further than the door over the RAM slots but the boys in Shanghai who assembled it DID get it 100% perfect.
I've got no smears, fingerprints or dust under the glass and the machine is silent and beautiful.
It's probably done in a clean room with robots or people in coveralls. You think they use trained monkeys or something? =p
When I was doing framing, I mount glass using anti-static gloves and use compressed air to blow away any dust. In this case, it might be easier to get external drive.
Ohh thats really sad to hear that not only could they not put in a good panel, but also they left dust in there!! i really dont know if i should make a fuss about my flickering pixles, they can only be seen when i am less than a foot away from the iMac, but still, its a problem!
With most wintels, yes, but at this time, Macs do not have any "warranty void if seal broken" stickers which are standard for many wintels. If the person does not damage anything, then the warranty is intact.
That is what I keep reading on the fourms. Though from reading this thread, the Ai iMac has a higher chance for damage during disassembly than a MBP.
I got dust in mine when I took off the glass. Not only do I have dust, I now have this thing on the LCD that won't come off, i think its damaged.
There are @least 2 warranty is void stickers if seal is broken inside of the MBP....
You can upgrade the hdd/slot drive yourself but it's 25 screws to open the case.. If you break any part while inside of the MBP or cut the those stickers,your warranty = useless
I went through a cleaning process. I blocked all air conditioning vents and all, and took my imac to my bed, took the glass of and cleaned. I off A LOT. I don't see dust unless i look for it, if not any dust. I didn't clean the inside of the glass well, I still see a smudge, but oh well, i don't notice these things when the imac is on, just when its off. But I have these weird "globs" on my lcd!!!! what could this be?? they are small, ive got some one my lcd, now those, i see very well when my imac is on.
what stickers? as far as i know there is one sticker connecting the keyboard to the main board, but its more of a tape than a sticker.