So our 27 inch 2011 iMac developed the dreaded dark-side display fault. I took the machine apart, and sure enough the led power connector had come adrift. Undeterred, I filed the tip of my soldering iron down to a fine tip, and proceeded to make a right hash of the job. Time to buy a new Retina iMac, which we did, and so the family are now happier than before.
But what to do with the old machine? I then had the idea of driving our new 4k television off of it. Turns out that the new TV has its feet at the corners, and so the iMac can sit snuggly behind it. Of course the display of the iMac in this position is completely obscured, so I needed to set up automatic login, and display mirroring. For good measure I also set up screen sharing. Initially I was a little worried that the TV would block the Bluetooth signal, but that does not seem to be too much of a problem, and the keyboard and touchPad work fine. Now the iMac is only putting out a 1080p signal at 60Hz, but the TV upscales this, and it doesn't look too bad at all, especially at the distance we sit at. Our 4k TV has 'smart' functionality built in, but there is absolutely no comparison between the TV interface and capability and that of MacOS, especially with the touchpad. We also use EyeTV, and so the TV now stays permanently switched to the iMac display.
Of course Mac minis have been used to drive TVs right from when they first came out, but one of the advantages of a busted 2011 iMac is that it has better internal storage; in particular it has room for a full size hard-drive. There is an extra SATA port that can drive an SSD (buying a third-party cable), plus the optical drive can either be kept or replaced with a caddy for either an SSD or 2.5 inch hard-drive. Our busted iMac now acts as the fileserver and TimeMachine back-up server for the other devices in our household. Also of note, the machine is set to wake on ethernet access, and so does not need to be always on.
I am curious if anybody has recently got a 2011 iMac to put out 4k at 30Hz. There are reports of hacks with earlier versions of MacOS, but my experimentation with SwitchRezX and High Sierra did not work.
But what to do with the old machine? I then had the idea of driving our new 4k television off of it. Turns out that the new TV has its feet at the corners, and so the iMac can sit snuggly behind it. Of course the display of the iMac in this position is completely obscured, so I needed to set up automatic login, and display mirroring. For good measure I also set up screen sharing. Initially I was a little worried that the TV would block the Bluetooth signal, but that does not seem to be too much of a problem, and the keyboard and touchPad work fine. Now the iMac is only putting out a 1080p signal at 60Hz, but the TV upscales this, and it doesn't look too bad at all, especially at the distance we sit at. Our 4k TV has 'smart' functionality built in, but there is absolutely no comparison between the TV interface and capability and that of MacOS, especially with the touchpad. We also use EyeTV, and so the TV now stays permanently switched to the iMac display.
Of course Mac minis have been used to drive TVs right from when they first came out, but one of the advantages of a busted 2011 iMac is that it has better internal storage; in particular it has room for a full size hard-drive. There is an extra SATA port that can drive an SSD (buying a third-party cable), plus the optical drive can either be kept or replaced with a caddy for either an SSD or 2.5 inch hard-drive. Our busted iMac now acts as the fileserver and TimeMachine back-up server for the other devices in our household. Also of note, the machine is set to wake on ethernet access, and so does not need to be always on.
I am curious if anybody has recently got a 2011 iMac to put out 4k at 30Hz. There are reports of hacks with earlier versions of MacOS, but my experimentation with SwitchRezX and High Sierra did not work.
