iMac Late 2009 – Boot stuck at Apple logo (audio works, no display) – tried new GPU & SSD

[Sedo1412]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to revive my iMac Late 2009 (27") and I’m running into a strange issue:

The system gets stuck at the Apple logo during boot

I can enter my password and hear system sounds (so it's clearly booting),
but the display never shows the desktop

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

• Replaced the HDD with a fresh SSD
• Installed multiple macOS versions: El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, and even Ventura via OpenCore Legacy Patcher (Installers from VM of my PC and Archive)
• Also tried installing Windows – works during installation, but after reboot → black screen
• Reset NVRAM and SMC many times
• Safe Mode works – the display shows everything but slow
• Recovery and Verbose mode also show output
• Replaced the original GPU with an Nvidia K2100M (Kepler) with a flashed VBIOS
• Installed proper Kepler drivers and tried different OpenCore settings
• Tested with HDMI output to an external screen – same result: works during install, black after reboot

So far nothing has worked. The fact that Safe Mode and Recovery work makes it even more confusing.
I’d appreciate any help, advice, or suggestions on what else I could try.

Thanks!

 

[Stella_Fudge]

Probably worth trying to see if linux will be happy with it, since realistically for these older units, there isn't gonna be anything else worth using on them anymore anyways due to support and performance and security reasons.

Beyond that, it's gonna very rapidly become a situation where if you don't have another one of these machines on hand to swap bits into as an A-B test , it will very rapidly turn into a rabbit hole of spending more money than one of these machines is worth, even to the point of spending so much money that you can actually pick up newer better faster machines from both the windows and Apple space, which will require none of the work and none of the time and none of the headache and last longer. Debatable how much more time and money is worth tossing into this thing just to still end up stuck with the unit that will inevitably end up as a Linux box anyways while costing more than it wouldve otherwise cost to replace it. You've already done more than is really needed for that thing, if this was to end up at my store it would very quickly start turning into quotes of replacing things like logic board and display and such which just put you further into the money sinkhole and reinforce all the above even more.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to revive my iMac Late 2009 (27") and I’m running into a strange issue:

The system gets stuck at the Apple logo during boot

I can enter my password and hear system sounds (so it's clearly booting),
but the display never shows the desktop

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

• Replaced the HDD with a fresh SSD
• Installed multiple macOS versions: El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, and even Ventura via OpenCore Legacy Patcher (Installers from VM of my PC and Archive)
• Also tried installing Windows – works during installation, but after reboot → black screen
• Reset NVRAM and SMC many times
• Safe Mode works – the display shows everything but slow
• Recovery and Verbose mode also show output
• Replaced the original GPU with an Nvidia K2100M (Kepler) with a flashed VBIOS
• Installed proper Kepler drivers and tried different OpenCore settings
• Tested with HDMI output to an external screen – same result: works during install, black after reboot

So far nothing has worked. The fact that Safe Mode and Recovery work makes it even more confusing.
I’d appreciate any help, advice, or suggestions on what else I could try.

Thanks!

Reflash the vBIOS or replace the GPU is the only option I can think of right now.