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Was replacing hard drive on Imac isight when wire came off.

K

kmansinger

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 12, 2008
15
0
Oregon
Hello to all from first timer,
I just took my Imac isight apart to replace the hard drive. Once I got the machine apart and the hard drive out I noticed that as some point I had knocked a wire loose. It is a small single gray wire that comes from the below the lower fan and heads to the right and then above the shinny heat sink and from there is where I loose the path to where it came off. The loose end of the wire has some kind of a fastener. It almost looks like it might snap on to a post.
The machine won't start without this wire hooked up. I'll email picture if it will help.
Thanks
kman
 

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Hmm, I'm trying to think what that wire could be. I just barely took my iMac apart to do the HD swap as well, just barely finished and I did it! (I didn't have the small small torq screw for the two DVSI connector though).

I will find out, gimme about ten minutes. In the meantime, it would be nice if you went to your "USER CP" up at the top bar on MacRumors Forums and go to edit your signature and put what Mac you have. I don't know what one you have (I guess White C2D) but it would help big time! It's like telling me you hurt on your arm, but not telling me specifically where - I really can't help until I know that...

-EDIT - I have located a service manual that may help me locate that wire. I think by now you may have found out where it goes though...
 
I'm assuming the OP is talking about the "iMac G5 (iSight)":

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP40

Meaning the first iMac with the iSight built in. Why the hell can't Apple have meaningful model numbers! I spent some time this weekend trying to determine if my buddy had an Early/Mid/Late 2006 iMac :)
 
It's definetly a Rev.1 Intel Core Duo iMac. All the pictures I have seen and the closest matching ones were Intels (there is also an intel chip on his board if you look closely enough).

I have looked at a ton of pictures of iMac motherboards and I cannot find a single one that has that wire coming out of that location. I have tried tracing where the wire could go but I cannot. You are just going to have to hold the wire and move around the motherboard until you found the connection.

This should be fairly easy as you know how far the wire will reach, so it has to be within that distance. It really shouldn't be too hard.
 
Thanks for looking up all those pictures. I have an Imac 1.83 intel core 2 duo 17 inch 160 hd. I spent about an hour with a magnifying glass and had no luck locating the spot where the wire came off. It may not be on the motherboard. I don't see any solder on the end. It looks like some kind of a snap fastener. I'll spend some more time looking tomorrow. I'm hoping someone will solve this before tomorrow. Since my last post I have been able to get the machine to boot up from the cd drive with the wire disconnected. The reason I have the hard drive out is that the Imac stopped working. I coundn't get it to boot to the cd or anything. When I took it apart and disconnected the hard drive I could get it to boot to the cd but when I hooked the hard drive up again it would fire up for about 20 seconds and then go black. Same as before. That's when I noticed the wire lying there.
Now I can get the Imac to boot to cd but when I plug the Hard drive in it goes black. I have ordered a new hard drive and when it comes I'll know more about what might be the problem. Thanks again
Kman
 
Have you tried looking on the other wires, it may be a interconnection with another wire. Also have you tried looking on the back of the LCD panel, it could be some connection to that. It's funny that it boots up without an HD but doesn't boot up with the HD...
 
Take your right speaker apart. It is just the screw on top, i think two of them. Pull the plastic assembly up, see if that wire connects to that area. I can see a diagram and I'm following the wires, but this is for a different iMac model but its very similar.
 
It looks like an antenna lead, either bluetooth or airport. The airport leads tend to have 2 plugs, though, so I'd guess bluetooth.

I can see what looks like the airport-extreme card to the right of the large aluminium heat-sink just below your hand. There appear to be 2 brass coloured sockets that will take an antenna connector. I can't see the bluetooth card but I believe there should be one present somewhere and it should have one similar connector.

You may have to resort to trial-&-error in order to re-connect it, I'm afraid. The good news is that there should be no damage arising from connecting the cable to the wrong socket, just noticeably poor connectivity for either the airport or bluetooth. It must be said, though, that it's never a good idea to have any loose bits of metal rattling around inside your computer so you should aim to find somewhere to connect it.
 
That looks like one of the mini-coax leads for the Wireless / Bluetooth. If there was a close-up of the connector end, I could tell you for certain.

As for the computer just going to a black screen (before) - check that your ram modules are securely seated - when they're partially seated (or out) the computer won't power up - just a black screen.

If the hard drive was bad - you would still get to the grey screen, but then you'd have an error for no bootable disc found.
 
i was thinking Wifi/Bluetooth...but why would it not boot if that cable was not connected?

Im thinking it might have some sort of connection to the Memory area.

similar to the top image, there is a connected wire to the memory modules;

0114120.gif
 
I think richthomas is right in thinking it came from the wifi. I just looked at the wifi block but I can't see any place where it might connect. I think it must be a very small post that the wire snaps on to and it looks like the wire is the right length for a wifi connection. Do you know where on the wifi module it should attach. Again it looks like the loose end (wifi end) of the wire has some kind of solderless connection. Here is a picture of the wire connection and the wifi module it should connect to somewhere.
Thanks All
Kman
 

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On the wifi modules connector are the two middle ones. I'm at work so I cant send an image but they’re two that kind of look like this (0).

There should be two wifi antenna cables usually a black one and a white one. Is there another loose cable that's white?

The wires themselves just clip on.

I found an image of a wifi module with antenna connected. It's not from a Mac but it'll illustrate the point.


http://pixca.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/p1050775.jpg
 
We got it.
That was it.Thanks for the picture. I looked at the wifi over and over and never considered that spot. I only have one gray wire to hook up to the wifi.Could that be right? I sure don't see any other loose wires.But then I have missed things in the past.
 
kmansinger said:
We got it.
That was it.Thanks for the picture. I looked at the wifi over and over and never considered that spot. I only have one gray wire to hook up to the wifi.Could that be right? I sure don't see any other loose wires.But then I have missed things in the past.
Click to expand...

And that actually kept the system from booting? Thats surprising.
 
I was wrong. It had no effect on booting. I guess I may have a hard drive problem or logic board.
When I hook up my hard drive the imac starts up with with a blank blue screen for about 20 seconds and then it just shuts off completely. I have order a new 360 gig hard drive and will install it and see what happens.
If I have any problems I'll let you know.
Thanks for the help and interest. This is a cool site.
Wish I had found it years ago.
Kman
 
kmansinger said:
I was wrong. It had no effect on booting. I guess I may have a hard drive problem or logic board.
When I hook up my hard drive the imac starts up with with a blank blue screen for about 20 seconds and then it just shuts off completely. I have order a new 360 gig hard drive and will install it and see what happens.
If I have any problems I'll let you know.
Thanks for the help and interest. This is a cool site.
Wish I had found it years ago.
Kman
Click to expand...

best bet is might try an external drive...load that with the OS and try to boot from it (or try booting the old harddrive in an enclosure if possible)

having a good back up and as well as a means to try out the drive prior to such a hardware change would be beneficial.

Id say its hardware related. i dont think it would be a logic board but could be ...if it was just working before without issue?

:confused:

hmm goodluck in any case
 
I've just had a look at the service source for various iMacs.

There appear to be 2 types of airport extreme antennae that have been used for the Intel models. One has two connectors and is black. The other has one connector and is grey. Sound familiar?

The single connector type should be attached to the lower of the two sockets on the card.
 
Glad to find out it is the lower one. I had it on the wrong one.
Thanks for the info. I'll have this baby up and running again in no time.
Thanks
Kman
 
Kman - keep us informed - and please advise as to what the solution is - so others with the same issue may be helped.

Good luck.
 
I have been having problems with this machine for a while. After installing one gig of ram it ran great for 6 months and then started crashing. Finally it froze up and I yanked the ram and install new ram and it worked but would freeze up often. Then disk aid said the hard drive was bad and could not repair it. I bought a new 360 gig hard drive today and hooked it up to my Imac and started it up. It came up with a folder with a flashing no sign and a flashing question mark. So I put in the system disk cd and it came up and said that I could not install this software on this computer. It then gave me the choice as to which drive to install it on and the new hard drive didn't come up as an option. This is a used 17 inch Imac intel core duo with Isight. It came with not software disks and the install system disks are from a new 20 imac intel that I have. Any thoughts?
 
Yes - first I'd contact Apple, and ask them if you can get a copy of Tiger or Leopard at a reduced price. (explain your situation obviously) I don't believe you can use the original OSX install / restore DVDs between different computers. I know when i tried this - I ran into the same problem. (fortunately I had the original discs stashed away)

I do know a purchased (retail) copy of OSX will work just fine. I'd suggest calling Apple and inquiring with them.
 
you cannot use a backup disk from one computer on another. and if you got install disks that came with a computer they are for that computer only and will not work o another of different specs
 
I decide to buy a retail OSX and I found one on craigslist for $40.00
The purchased disk is a single system disk that says "Apple Presents -Corp Edition -Leopard OSX 10.5". I have tried to install it and it goes through about 30 minutes of installation and then says:
Installation Failed
The installer could not validate the contents of the base system package. Contact the software manufacture for assistance.

Can anyone tell me why this is happening?
 
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