Move display of a 2013 iMac to a 2015 iMac (21.5-inch)

[AppleTO]

I have two 21.5-inch iMacs, a 2013 iMac, which is just about out of security update support, and a 2015 iMac, which has a broken screen.

I've already thrown out the broken screen, so I'd like to take the good screen off the 2013 and use it on the 2015.

Has anyone here attempted this before? I not sure about the connectors and such.

Both iMacs are model A1418.

Edit: I did the screen transfer and the 2015 Mac works as expected with the 2013 screen.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I have two 21.5-inch iMacs, a 2013 iMac, which is just about out of security update support, and a 2015 iMac, which has a broken screen.

I've already thrown out the broken screen, so I'd like to take the good screen off the 2013 and use it on the 2015.

Has anyone here attempted this before? I not sure about the connectors and such.

Do you keep the cable and T-con board of the thrown-away LCD panel?

Says, if the cables of the 2 LCD panels are different, how can you solve it?

 

[AppleTO]

Do you keep the cable and T-con board of the thrown-away LCD panel?

Says, if the cables of the 2 LCD panels are different, how can you solve it?

Unfortunately, I don't think anything remains of the old screen. It shattered and was removed years ago. I didn't think anything was actually removable from the back of the the screen.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Unfortunately, I don't think anything remains of the old screen. It shattered and was removed years ago. I didn't think anything was actually removable from the back of the the screen.

In that case, we can only pray that both LCD panel are similar and use the same cable to connect to the logic board of the iMacs.

In a practical situation, I would advice you against the idea of swapping the LCD panels.
The gain is small, or even less, especially if your 2013 iMac has a dedicated GPU like GT750m or something, while the iMac 2015 only has iGPU.
The risk that you might break the signal cable of the LCD panel is high.

 

[AppleTO]

In that case, we can only pray that both LCD panel are similar and use the same cable to connect to the logic board of the iMacs.

In a practical situation, I would advice you against the idea of swapping the LCD panels.
The gain is small, or even less, especially if your 2013 iMac has a dedicated GPU like GT750m or something, while the iMac 2015 only has iGPU.
The risk that you might break the signal cable of the LCD panel is high.

That's fair, but the 2013 will have to be taken out of service soon anyways, as it's out of support. These are in use in at my small business. At some point there will be nothing to lose either way.

I'm hoping someone here has tried this before because even if it can physically connect, there is no guarantee macOS will work correctly.

 

[AppleTO]

After a little more research, it appears iFixit lists the part as "iMac Intel 21.5" Late 2012-Late 2015 (non-4K) Display Assembly", which would lead me to believe they are identical, or at least all compatible.

 

[rpmurray]

Not sure about the 21.5 inch but the 27 inch have differebt revision numbers for each model:

LM270QQ1 SDA1 2014
LM270QQ1 SDA2 2015
LM270QQ1 SDB1 2016
LM270QQ1 SDC1 2017
LM270QQ1 SDD1 2017 (iMac Pro)
LM270QQ1 SDE1 2019
LM270QQ1 SDF1 2020

I guess the only way you'll know for sure is to see if the cables on the LCD and the connectors on the logic board match.

 

[DeltaMac]

According to iFixit.com - the screen would be completely interchangeable, same display used on 2012 to 2015 21.5-inch iMacs.
BUT, is your 2015 a retina model (which had a 4K internal screen)? Apple sold both 1080p(HD) and 4K (Retina) as 2015 models. I don't think the retina (4K) screen is interchangeable with the 2k.

You will want to find out if your 2015 was a retina model. Both are A1418, so that doesn't help you.
The serial number will decide, and the EMC (non retina is EMC 2889, and Retina model is EMC 2833.)

 

[macguru9999]

if its a non retina 2015 then things should work out. do a serial number lookup if not sure.

 

[AppleTO]

According to iFixit.com - the screen would be completely interchangeable, same display used on 2012 to 2015 21.5-inch iMacs.
BUT, is your 2015 a retina model (which had a 4K internal screen)? Apple sold both 1080p(HD) and 4K (Retina) as 2015 models. I don't think the retina (4K) screen is interchangeable with the 2k.

You will want to find out if your 2015 was a retina model. Both are A1418, so that doesn't help you.
The serial number will decide, and the EMC (non retina is EMC 2889, and Retina model is EMC 2833.)

if its a non retina 2015 then things should work out. do a serial number lookup if not sure.

Yes, the 2015 is a non retina. We also have some non retina 2017s and some retina 2019s. All base models. Hopefully those still have a few years left of OS updates. I figure the 2015 models should at least have two years of security updates left.

All have been upgraded to SSDs; they were brutally slow with spinning drives.

Thanks for your input!

 

[macguru9999]

Yes, the 2015 is a non retina. We also have some non retina 2017s and some retina 2019s. All base models. Hopefully those still have a few years left of OS updates. I figure the 2015 models should at least have two years of security updates left.

All have been upgraded to SSDs; they were brutally slow with spinning drives.

Thanks for your input!

Right now upgrading these imacs with ssds is probably my main job, that and recovering data from dead macbooks with discrete ssds .....

 

[tcm216]

I changed the screens over between my 2015 iMac and 2103 imac (both 21.5 and non-retina) today. The screen on my 2015 model was cracked so i wanted the good screen on that machine. The swap worked perfectly and both machines are working fine - the only thing I had to do was to swap over the LCD data cables between the screens as they were different in width where they join onto the Logic Board.

 

[Pnemesis86]

Yes, I also managed to successfully swap display panels between the 2015 and 2013 iMac:

Swap 2013 iMac screen with 2015 iMac screen - and internal SSD speed difference.

Hi there, I’ve got a lot out of support from the Mac Rumor forums in the past but this topic was one I wasn’t able to get a clear answer on. So I thought I might share in case it helps anyone else. I picked up a late 2015 iMac (1080p non-retina i5-5575R @ 2.80GHz) cheap as the display glass...

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