Mid 2011 27" iMac all of a sudden dead?

[MBM007]

So the computer went to sleep when I left the house one day and got a call from my wife a few hours later that it wouldn't turn on. Figured one of my little kiddos could have turned off the surge protector and didn't think much of it. Once I got home and couldn't boot it I tried to do a SMC reset and played around with a bunch of other things I read online from people with a similar issue.

Furtherest I got was getting all the fans to turn on at all full power when holding the power button and plugging it in at the same time....but nothing from the screen and no boot chime. Weird thing was at the Genius Bar I couldn't re-create this with their power cord, but it worked with mine so the tech had me leave my cord with them. They 1st tried a new power supply and that didn't work so they called me and asked if I'd be willing to pay $570 for a logic board if that fixed it. I was told I wouldn't have to pay if the logic board wasn't the issue, but I didn't want to put that amount of money into an older iMac. I brought up the graphics card recall that matches my serial #, but it having expired they didn't seem to think it was the graphics card for some reason? I did have it powering an older Cinema Display the entire 7 years I've had it, so not sure if that could have led to a graphics card failure?

I'm thinking about calling the Apple tech support line and trying to get them to dig deeper on this with the recall issue...tech who called me saying it was the logic board said he thinks it failed because of "nicotine damage" and I don't even smoke nor does anyone in my house so I'm clueless as to how that would even be brought up and upset he provided such a bullsh$t explanation. I know the machine is getting old, but I bought the most spec'd out model and just needed it to last until there's an iMac update.


Thanks for reading and any suggestions that can be provided.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

It is not 'getting old'. It is old. Can you imagine GM or Ford doing warranty work on that old a car?

Sadly it is a fact of life some computers last for 20 years, some 10 and some a mite less.

 

[Fishrrman]

You asked for suggestions, and these are mine.

It's not worth spending $570 on a 2011 iMac, which is now 7 years old and going on 8.

Probably better to take that money and put it towards a new (or Apple refurbished) Mac.

Towards the end of your post, you wrote:
"I know the machine is getting old, but I bought the most spec'd out model and just needed it to last until there's an iMac update."

This is why I generally DO NOT buy or recommend the "spec'd up" models. Apple doesn't have a good track record, insofar as the longevity of their "high end" models is concerned.
The "midrange" model is often the better buy, over the long term.
Or even the base model.

As the old saying goes, "if you need now, BUY now".
And -- obviously -- you "need something" now.

I'd be looking at a 2017-design iMac (even though they came out last year, they remain dandy computers). I don't believe we'll see new iMacs until 2nd quarter 2019, but I could be wrong.
Or... possibly a new 2018 Mac Mini (I'd suggest one with an i5 CPU inside).

Again, it's NOT worth putting $500-600 into an 8-year-old computer.
It just... isn't.