iMac Vertical Green Lines Oven Bake Repair
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- In this video I repair and restore a 2011 iMac Core i5 that I picked up for $60. The unit is cosmetically a little dirty and missing the internal hard drive. It is also displaying vertical green lines on the screen indicating a fault with the GPU (this was very common for this generation iMac). Unlike 2009 and 2010 models, the 2011 iMacs require a complete teardown to reach the graphics card in order to remove it and reflow the solder. I fixed this iMac at home by reflowing the solder in my oven since I do not own a hot air rework station. With new thermal paste on the CPU and GPU, as well as 1.5MM thermal pads on the GPU memory chips, the iMac is running cool and quiet. Finally, the addition of an SSD to replace the missing internal hard drive has given this iMac plenty of new life for years to come.
Affiliated links below to the thermal compounds I used in this repair:
🔧 Toolkit
Screwdriver Set: amzn.to/2X7s0Gj
🔥 Thermal Compounds
Arctic MX-4 Thermal Paste: amzn.to/2Ak2y8w
1.5MM Arctic Thermal Pads: amzn.to/2Vv1RQU
🖥 SSD Upgrade
240 GB SSD: amzn.to/30XnNpW
Hard Drive Caddy: amzn.to/3hFTcUk - Навчання та стиль
Jan 8, 2020 update: Hey folks, this will likely be the last update I share on this project. I have upgraded some of my recording gear and am now uploading new videos to my channel in 4K. This iMac has served me well over the past year and was an awesome way to start creating UA-cam content on the cheap, but it is no longer my daily machine and has been replaced by a new 2020 iMac that I purchased over the holidays. I still haven't decided if I'm going to keep this iMac as a spare computer, sell it, or just give it away to a family member or friend. I'm definitely attached to it but my video editing needs have evolved and this machine can't handle 4K very well at all. MacOS High Sierra also stopped receiving security updates in December 2020 (a week ago as of this post) so there was more than one reason I decided to dish out for a new iMac. Either way, I wish you all the best of luck on your own version of this hacky repair. It does work and while I can't speak to the long term longevity of the repair, I can attest to the fact that I've had this machine turned on almost 24/7 for the past year with no problems at all. I hope you guys enjoy my new content and the higher quality videos, both in terms of higher resolution and better editing. I've come a long way since I published this early video but I'm still having a blast and I'm thrilled that some of my projects have been helpful to some of you attempting similar repairs. All the best, Borderline OCD.
I think you mean Jan 8, 2021 not 2020 ;)
@@adam_orlando Good catch. I meant 2021. The machine has found a new home.
Borderline OCD, It's me again, lol. I also replaced the HDD to SSD and found some important information in another video, you forgot to mention: when you replace the HDD to SSD, there are no more temperature sensors and your HDD fans will go crazy. So you need to install a software called Macs Fan Control in order to bypass the settings. The new settings for the HDD fan control should start at 25 Celsius and max temp of 53 Celsius. Now with the new SSD, my 10 old iMac behaves like a new machine! Thanks again!
Mid 2011 may not be up to video editing, especially 4k. It is still a very capable web browser and video streamer. I have a couple i7's deployed around the house for streaming Spectrum through the Airport Extreme.
@@bogdanluncasu5772 This. I set my fans to manual control 2,000 RPM. Temps stay around 40C for all the sensors which is more than acceptable.
I had a 2011 iMac that had the vertical green lines. It would reboot before it got to the login screen, except when I started in "Safe Boot" (and then it would just show a blank screen).
I followed these directions, baked the video card at 395° for 10 minutes, then let it cool and reinstalled it (cleaning off the old thermal paste and replacing it with fresh paste).
...and it worked! Not only are the green lines gone, but I can login to the Mac! Thank you so much for this tutorial!
Aug 20, 2020 update: It's been 6 months now, still going strong as a daily iMac. No problems and no glitches. Great to see the success you guys have had with your iMac repair, and very happy to know the video has been a useful guide to some of you.
I have links in the video description to the thermal products I used. A few of you have asked and you don't need to get the exact ones I did, just make sure you get some from a quality manufacturer. When you're going to all this trouble to perform a difficult repair like this, it doesn't make sense to buy generic thermal paste/pads to save a few dollars. Get the good stuff and your iMac will thank you for it. Keep me posted on your success stories, love hearing them! Good luck!
Thanks for using the affiliated links, appreciate you supporting the channel. Great to hear another iMac has been saved from the dumps! I do use Macs Fan Control but I haven't really scrutinized the temps closely. Looking at it now, my hottest reading is PSU, followed by LCD, then GPU Diode. If you cleaned all the fans during the reassembly you should be alright but these iMacs don't really have direct GPU cooling so you're using the ODD and HDD fans to do the job. If you're concerned about it you can always dial up the fans a little to keep the temp down to a reading you're comfortable with.
Awesome video Boderline... I looking for information because I just got some green vertical lines in my imac 27" 2011 and I am not sure if this is the graphic... Can you help with that? :'(
@@BorderlineOCD Hey did the fix for the second time, trying to avoid it happening again. Do you have a recommendation as to what settings you should set for your fans? Right now on auto, my hard disk fan is around 3000 RPM and 108 degrees F, and the optical drive is at 1500 RPM and 108F. Worried about it getting too hot again. (I have a SSD installed). Thanks!
Just tried the oven bake repair method and it is working so far. Followed all of the instructions on this video. Cleaned almost the whole mac completely wih a small brush and air sprayer. Also, found a tip when putting the motherboard back in, once you think it is set, take a keyboad or any usb plugs and plug them into the rear slots to help realign it.
It has been 2 days and so far so good.
I didn't think the oven would get hot enough to reflow solder. Those machines are a beast though. Man look at how tightly packed that machine is.
You're right on this one, it *won't* reflow solder, I have no idea why people still believe it does. It only expands and contracts parts that have fractures on a microscopic level due to thermal expansion and establishes conductivity again. I just think the chips cannot withstand their own heat... but hey, we're talking about apple here after all.
Jun 19, 2020 update: It's been exactly 4 months since the bake and my 2011 iMac is still running perfectly. It's become my daily machine and I use it for many hours every day. I've since installed a 480 GB SDD (upgraded from the 240 GB in the video) as I've been doing more video editing in iMovie and have slowly learned that raw footage adds up quick! I'll continue to provide an update every few months on how the iMac is doing, and be sure to let folks know if the GPU fails or experiences any problems in the future. Good luck with your iMac bake and don't cut corners! Use the right thermal compounds and watch several bake videos to get comfortable with doing the repair yourself. Good luck!
I'm glad you're machine is still working fine. This is just a suggestion, but if I'm going to bake a computer component, I use motherboard standoffs mounted to the screw holes in the PCB to elevate it from the baking sheet. I usually put two standoffs screwed together on each corner to for a good height, and a screw or another standoff on the other side to keep it mounted in the holes.
That is an excellent suggestion, thank you for the tip! Elegant and simple. Wish I had thought of it. I have a whole little component storage bin full of those standoffs. Certainly doing that in future 👍🏻
@@BorderlineOCD I just used 4 large wood screws and screwed them into the holes of the board, just a little to be tight enough to hold. Worked like a charm.
I’ve successfully used this method with my iMac, but I’ve also removed the DVD drive and manually increased the DVD drive fan speed a bit which creates a lot cool air around the GPU, and the DVD hole in the outer casing of the iMac is a great vent.
This method is still working for me, 14 months in!
OMG! You are a lifesaver. This happened to my mid 2011 27" iMac - the very same issue (Jan 2023). I'm not a real whiz when it comes to taking an iMac apart, but could not afford to take it to a "genius". I followed your video procedure and it worked like a charm!!!. I suspect there were some heat issues before as it did run very hot sometimes. I downloaded the free "Mac Fan Control" app so now I can control the cooling much better. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this fantastic video!!
...and it worked for me too! Thank you so much, this was the best video with the most detail. My Graphics card was the bigger, maxed out one, but this trick worked just super. When I purchased my Mid 2011 27' iMac, I maxed out on all the options as I wanted it to last me as long as possible. That., at the time included a 250mb SSD (for programs) and a 2tb spinning drive for everything else. So now, thanks to your sharing these steps, I'll be able to kick the can down the road that much longer until I acquire another Mac, this machine still screams for what I need it to do. Thank again and cheers! PS: Yes, I ended up with an extra screw, ha ha, but everything seems to be working fantastic. So far so good, hopeful it lasts.
Thanks for the description. I bought a cheap 9 yrs old iMac and it worked for 2-3 days perfectly. Then I plugged in a usb device and allowed the OS to install the drivers. 2 minutes later I saw - I remember blue dots on the screen, some seconds later everything turned black on the monitor. Then it restarted. Since then I only saw the white screen, however and whatever I tried. I tried the backing. The backing itself worked. Now I'm waiting for the thermal paste to get delivered and I can get on with the reassembly. So excited!
Best of luck! Let me know how it goes.
I have used your tutorial to fix 2 imacs with this problem. One of them didn’t even show any screen since the graphics card was so dammaged but this fixed it! It has been my daily imac for over a year now without a problem. Thanks!
Glad to hear you revived a couple of machines and spared them going to e-waste. I have also revived a unit with a dead screen. It was a 21.5" model. I don't remember if it chimed on boot or not, it was a while ago. I did test an external Thunderbolt display which also had no image and concluded it must be the graphics card. Indeed, like yours it was far gone but came back to life.
Just successfully baked a friend’s 21.5” iMac GPU earlier this week. I’m surprised you were able to get the MLB out without removing the PSU. It took me about 20 minutes to successfully realign the MLB back in place, and was the most difficult part of the entire process for me. Great Video!
Thank you. It's been a while since I've performed this repair on a 21.5" model, but I think the tolerances there may be even smaller than the 27" so removing the PSU or the side fan can help. Glad you performed the repair successfully.
ACTUALLY WORKS! I was skeptical at first, but after doing some research, it seemed legit. My iMac 2011 had this problem yesterday and I tried this today. IT BOOTED! This is awesome thank you.
Thanks for sharing.
I must say, I followed this tutorial to re-flow the GPU on a A1312, and most of these component doesn't need to be removed.
Motherboard, Optical drive, PSU, HDD, Wifi Card, IR sensor, CPU cooler, fans, ram all can stay in.
The GPU can be independently unscrewed and detached from the motherboard without taking anything else off.
Not correct for a 2011 model, which is what is shown in the video. The video card can only be independently removed for a 2009-2010 model.
Borderline OCD, thank you very much for posting this video! It really helped! I just fixed my Mid 2011 iMac 27" following your instructions. To my surprise, my video card was different (AMD Radeon HD6970M-1024MB) and I didn't have the silicone pads, so I used Arctic Silver 5 for all the components. In your video it shows a total of 9, but I had over 20 components to apply the paste on, it took an entire 3.5g tube! I have to say that it took me several hours, one hour or so to remove and about 2h to put it back, but IT WORKS! Bravo! Next step: change the HDD to SSD, which I already have (1TB) it's been a few months now. I was procrastinating , but now I gave the courage to attack it. Thanks Again!
Hey bud, I'm glad you revived your iMac. The 1GB and 2GB cards are indeed physically larger than the 512MB in the video, so you will have to take care of those remaining chips as you did. I'm not sure if you missed it in the video, but I caution against using thermal paste on the RAM chips. You need to use a thermal pad or a thick "goo" paste with higher viscosity on the RAM chips as there is a gap between the RAM chips and the heat sink. This is not a concern for the GPU as it is in direct contact with the heat sink. You may experience random shutdowns under load due to the RAM chips overheating. If you do, this will be the reason and I recommend using a filler for the RAM chips like thermal pads or thermal goo instead of paste. In any case, good job on the repair and all the best.
@@BorderlineOCD I understand, but I could not find the silicone pads in a short period of time. I need my computer for work and I had to repair it ASAP. The paste I got (Arctic Silver 5) is a premium US product made with actual silver. The specs said the break-in period is 200 hours. Anyhow, if I will have shut-downs, I know how to fix it now! I will comment here on the status of the repair, as we go. Thanks again.
Well done! Maybe the best video on this subject I've seen! When I bake my brother in law's iMac, I will refer to this video.
Thank you. Good luck with your repair!
I followed the steps and successfully repaired my 2011 iMac yesterday. LOL Thank you!!
Very pleased to hear that. Great job!
Thanks for making this video. I never would have imagined that baking my graphics card would be the fix I needed, but it saved my 2012 imac from death!
Are you sure you have a 2012? This doesn’t apply to 2012+. Those are redesigned tapered edge iMacs with a Nvidia cards that don’t suffer from this issue.
@@BorderlineOCD whoops, mid 2011. My card looked slightly different (more memory), but the rest was the same.
Got it. Glad you got your system working again!
Followed your instructions and ....Voila! Back running the good old iMac again. Did also a good cleaning, and know now why the internal speakers are broken. Total crap material, those speakers. It runs very quiet again due to the clean fans.
Thank you for posting it. Now I am going to bake a cake! (I bought an oven specially for the occasion).
Hooray! Glad you found the video helpful and great to hear about another resuscitated iMac 👍🏻 Enjoy your well-deserved cake!
My iMac is exact model with exact issue, put a side for years now, maybe will give a try later. Thanks.
I am really appreciated your video. It's very helpful. Video lighting setup was very professional. Full of patient and very detail which makes easy to follow.
Van Han
That's weird, but my card now working. Thanks a lot!
Fantastic video, glad I've found your channel.
Thank you!
So much engineering in the build of a computer. geeeez. thanks for sharing. I have the same issue but I'm not about to do all this. Its dead to me then. 2011 I7 32gb 250SSD so a shame that its finally died.
Useful video. My 2011 imac has just developed these bars.
Successfully made this repair about 6 months ago. My graphics card died again, but I was able to do the same repair again and it works. We’ll see how long it lasts this time. A new GPU is about $200! Love to save me some money. :)
hey, I'm a complete novice with this sort of stuff so forgive me if this is a stupid question. Is it possible to just buy a replacement graphics card and sub it in? i've chosen your message as it's one of the most recent ones!
@@oliverrogan1532 yes but they’re pricey, esp for a model this old. But that’s probably the easiest way to do the fix. Just be sure everything is clean and thermal paste is properly applied
@@mottelbigote okay! Had a look for iMacs on eBay and this model is around £130 although they’ll just fail again. Is it not possible to get a second hand GPU that is compatible for less than £100?
Making foil legs is an excellent idea.
Can't take credit for that one, saw it on another video although I made mine considerably longer so that there's good all-round circulation. Someone here recommended using motherboard stand-offs if you have them. I think that can work quite well too if you happen to have spares lying around.
Thanks for the tip about the masking tape. Some of the connectors are easier with two hands and photographs are much easier when you can hold the camera without worrying about ripping wires from the connectors.
Always a little skeptical about miracles posted on the internet but I decided to try this because the computer would be trash anyway. I am happy to say that this trick really works and my iMac is up and running again. Thanks. Now I have time to start saving for a newer model.
Glad you got it working bud. Indeed make sure you are backed up and ready to replace the machine when it craps out again. Until then enjoy it while it's got some life left to give.
He seguido los pasos e improvisado un poco, y he metido mi tarjeta en el horno con un éxito absoluto!! gracias por la ayuda! 🤗
Hi, My Apple Imac 27 Inch Crashing Randomly, Going in boot loop,Getting Vertical Lines, Some times Green Screen, Some times blue.
I try all solution. Safe mode, Recovery, Reinstall OS,Re install Old OS, Install Windows... Went through million solutions and forms to make it work
Only reflow GPU card solution work.Open Imac take out graphic card,Clean & wash properly all thermal paste, Heat Oven 200 C. Keep GPU card on small Aluminium balls, Keep in oven for 10 minute. Let it cool for 30 minute, Get new thermal paste not conducting electric type apply small amount on GPU & all other black component jut like doing painting . Do not apply thick layer.
Just enough to cover. Like paint on wall. Tight all screws properly firm & reinstall card. It works 1000%. I have wasted many week & spend lot of money.
All the best.......Thanks
Thank you for this! It was really helpful!
I just got the pink lines on mine and it won't boot. Happy I found your video. I have ordered some Thermal Paste and pads and am going to give this a go. My only worry is busting one of those ribbon cables or cracking an old connector. Mine is a mid-2011 iMac which is surprisingly nearly as fast as a brand new top spec iMac.I sure hope the rebake works.
Yeah those ribbon cables are sensitive. It’s a little tricky to reattach the screen, an extra set of hands helps if there’s someone to help you. Just take your time and go slow and careful. It should all work out in the end. Good luck!
Your work was excellent. You are a great Steve Jobs for yourself
Thank you kindly.
Hello BorderLine OCD..
Thank you very much for this tuto... I'v done the repair all the day and the result is 100% perfect.
Thank you again !
Merci beaucoup!
Super tuto que je conseil a tous qui ont se problème avec leurs Mac.
IMac mid 2011
Glad it helped
It works for me, thank you so much.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this, and all the love you gave to us. It WORKED for me as well, God bless you!!
Glad it worked for you as well!
Very thank you for your vidéo and advice for GPU ram.
You just saved $900! Awesome fix!
Thanks. It's more like I got a working iMac for around $100 if you count the SSD upgrade. Not sure they're still worth that much though I see them on Craigslist for around the $500 price range pretty often these days.
@@BorderlineOCD I did the oven bake 10min 400 degrees , should I do it one more time before I put it back together?
Worked for me. You can also remove the gpu on its own and its much faster just dont miss that temp sensor
You probably have a 2009 or 2010. GPU can’t be removed on 2011 without full tear down.
Thank you so much! I have the same issue your helpful video brought it back to life.👍
Glad it helped!
Brilliant! Thanks for the tutorial. Worked a treat.
i have reparied loads of the old Imacs, not hard just time consuming, many models of the Imac had 4 LED lights hidden somewhere at the bottom of the mother board hidden with black tape, the diagnostic LEDs flashed to let you know what was faulty.
still, nice work.
This video saved my IMac 2011 from the scrap heap. As an 11-year-old machine that is unsupported, it now lives again. Thank you.
BTW these iMacs will run up to 32GB Ram without any issues - guess that's why mine was still in use!
Thanks again
Excellent video /repair I’ve done a couple Samsung tv board reflows at home in oven with great results ...I have 2 ..27 inch iMacs 2011,2012 model sure they are old but these were quality Machines that I’d love to bring back ...mine are in perfect shape but they wi only run high Sierra ...thanks for the excellent video
Yes they are capable machines for regular tasks and I’m having no issues using this iMac for video editing either. The 2012 supports Catalina BTW but the 2011 won’t due to lack of GPU support for Metal.
Borderline OCD I’m dong video editing as well as sound music production with older Final Cut Pro and garage band versions still working well .. stay safe let’s get past this covid mess ...peace to you
Hey man! I'm glad to have found your channel. I am afraid I have the lines on my Mac, but in my case, every time I switch on my computer they have different colour. Do you think the problem is the same? If that's the case, I'll definitely try to fix it.
It worked for me 100%. Thank you
Excelente!
Muito obrigado e parabéns!
Thanks for this video, The detail is awesome. I have an iMac (2011) the endlessly boots to a white screen then restarts. I’ve tried replacing the hard drive, to know avail. Given that this is a known issue on Mid 2011 iMacs, I’m going to give it a go. My only question is, would a graphics card issue present as boot into a white screen?
I would like to try this method on an iMac 2008
Great video! Really helped me thank you
Keep baking, and keep breaking. is there any final solution? can we put an extral fan close there?
Quick question if you compare the shot at 28:41 and at 02:27 you will notice that a rectangular looking pad, what I suspect is an EMI absorber, was present at the start of the process, during take apart, but gone missing when the reassembling stage was in progress. Why was the EMI absorber sheet? I suspect that this pad that is on the GPU bracket, immediately to the right of the WiFi card is an EMI absorber. Regardless, have you noticed any interference issues as a result of the removed EMI absorber, with WiFi or perhaps some display issues when WiFi is on? I call it an EMI absorber but I have been unable to confirm it's role, hence what it really is called.
It was a foam-like material that disintegrated while removing the card. You can try to keep yours intact. I have no idea what its for. I didn't have any issues with the machine during the period I owned it but I never did any testing on the issues you raised so I do not know if there was any impact.
man fantastic video excellent content !!!! keep making more videos👍🏼 ... greetings from colombia!
Thank you!
great tutorial.
i have the same model and i will like to upgrade the ram.
can you please tell me the brand of your ram upgrade.
im afraid that not every one will work.
you can buy a 1060 MXM from alibaba or aliexpress to upgrade it, throw in a Xeon E3-1245 with and you have the ultimate machine. also great video, keep it up, i want to see you install the HDMI mod for the xbox.
Fantastic!!!!!
A very important question please, does the odin not smell after chemicals after you baked the card?
I used an oven bake on the iMac 2011 27-inch product.
Would it be better to leave the iMac on in your opinion?
Is sleep mode better?
Would it be better to turn it on only when using it?
Do i put the salt before or after the baking?
Thanks for your fantastic video. Can I use a 2mm thermal pad instead?
I don't think half a millimeter will make a difference. Just make sure that you screw down the heatsink enough to compress the pads on the memory chips i.e. you want to make sure that the GPU in the center is firmly touching the heat sink otherwise the thermal paste won't properly do its job. Unlike the memory chips, the GPU needs to be in direct contact with the heatsink. As long as your pads don't create a gap over the GPU you should be fine.
me who has a 2011, 27 inch that's never been taken apart ever or cleaned out at all and yet it works fine, but I have to use the fans manually because it really heats up badly even on idle it's around the 160°F {71°C} for literally doing nothing when the fans are on automatic [I'm using Mac fan control] but what exactly do the green lines mean? Does it mean heat damage to the GPU or?
Its a documented hardware issue with the GPU. They have high failure rates and most will eventually begin to display these artifacts and eventually no image.
@@BorderlineOCD well my iMac is 10 years old and I haven't had any issues yet besides the awful temperature
Fantastic video. Thank you for posting, you’re a life saver.
I’d love your opinion/recommendation on something. I have a 2011 iMac with the AMD 6970. The card is slightly bigger than the one in this video. In addition to the memory chips, it has other parts on the circuit board that were also coated with thermal paste or pads that make contact with the heat sink (not sure what the parts are exactly; they don’t appear to be memory chips). I noticed in your video that you cleaned off the heat sink completely before reattaching, and I’m curious how you would approach these other parts. Would you use pads as you did for the mem chips? Would you leave old paste on and reinforce? Redo with new paste?
Thank you again!
Glad you may have found the video helpful. Sounds like you have one of the bigger 1GB or 2GB cards. I wouldn't recommend re-using the existing thermal compounds. They are old and were probably barely doing their job before you took everything apart. The conductivity is going to be worse if re-used due to the introduction of air pockets etc. The theory behind pads vs. paste is the gap between the component and the heatsink. Paste is designed for direct metal to metal contact. It fills in the microscopic imperfections in the metal surfaces and improves heat transfer between them. Pads are designed as a filler to bridge an air gap. The two metal surfaces aren't touching and the pads bridge the small gap to allow the heat to transfer. You should avoid using paste when there is an air gap, no matter how much paste you use. One way you can tell is by cleaning the components and doing a dry fit of the board and the heatsink. You should visually see a gap. Another is by examining the residual paste you remove. The CPU paste should be one color (usually grey-ish) and the memory chip paste should be another (usually white-ish). A third option would be to use a caliper to measure the distance, if you happen to have one or can borrow one. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Indeed the residual is white (same as the memory chips) and your explanation of paste vs pads is very helpful. The heat sink is offset around some of the components due to their size, so I will definitely do a dry fit and attempt to procure a caliper. Thank you for replying so quickly!
You should be good to use thermal pads on those components as well by the look of it. I should clarify, pads aren't your only option. It's what I prefer as I find them easy to cut to size but you can also use a thicker viscous thermal paste in lieu of pads. This is not the same stuff as regular thermal paste. These thicker pastes are always non-conductive (regular paste sometimes isn't) and listings will always clarify that its a gummy substance that is used to replace pads up to a particular thickness. Good luck with your repair.
Thank you for that clarification. Very helpful.One more question I thought of:
What is the difference between Arctic MX-2 and MX-4?
I don’t have any personal experience with MX-2. MX-4 is a newer product, supposedly has slightly better thermal properties. Honestly I think as long as you’re not going with the bargain bin stuff, any thermal paste from a reputable manufacturer will be perfectly suited for the job.
Excellent video 👍🏻
Thank you! It was a fun project.
It really worked for me! Still can't believe it but it's true!
LOL
Glad you brought your machine back to life. Cheers.
klasse! Schade, dass du overseas bist. Meine Grafikkarte k610m ist defekt.
I did everything shown and there's black screen, bootup chime and extremely loudly running fan after about 15 seconds. Any ideas?
Did you start with a black screen or vertical bars? That doesn’t sound very good. It’s possible the bake didn’t work for you or made things worse if it damaged something on the card. One thing I’d double check is the temperature sensors. Particularly the one for the display, as well as the remaining LCD connectors. If you have access to a Thunderbolt Display you can see if the computer boots with the external display to isolate the issue to the video card or the display.
i got one small capacitor came out up on baking . what should i do
It worked for me, thnx 👍
Glad to hear that
Thank you so much for making this video. I used your method with the pads plus Arctic MF4, but as I have an iMac 2011, I put extra square pads (1x1cm) on 3 grey parts that were a bit higher than the chips. I have never opened a computer before so was pretty nervous and it was difficult (especially putting back the motherboard) but it was worth it plus I learned so much. My baby is back to life!
That’s awesome to hear, glad you got your machine working. The iMac in this video is a 2011 as well but sounds like perhaps you have one of the bigger 1GB video cards. It’s very rewarding to fix your own stuff, nice job 👍🏻
@@BorderlineOCD Yes, it is indeed. I felt like I just crossed the finish line after running a marathon. So happy!
Tengo la misma y no me aparece el sistema de arranque
@1:17 what do that ribbon do at the top ? I had a ? About my iMac as I was screwing in the screen it lightly fell and I caught it but in the process it yanked out the socket causing the pins to get bent .. so my question to you I went on and soldered it back ( so what do each ribbon do attached to the screen ? I turned it on and see a picture I’m guessing I soldered it correctly what is your opinion .. when you first try to detach the screen there is a ribbon at top and 2 at bottom .. what do the top ribbon do that’s the one I had to solder
That's the V-Sync cable. If it's working now don't mess with it unless you plan to replace it and/or the connector. The display will not function correctly without it.
@@BorderlineOCD ok so basically my soldering skills fixed it cause it had completely ripped out pins
Awesome video!!!
My 2011 machine, iMac 12.2 just did this today. Are there any upgrade options on the graphics card if we choose not to do the bake option? Otherwise its a new imac 27.
Some folks have had success with PC cards removed from Dell and Alienware laptops that are flashed with a Mac-version bios. Some heatsink modification is required. There are some videos on UA-cam that describe this. I haven't tried it and the cards are hard to find and expensive. You also lose some native functionality like the boot logo and brightness control. You could always try and find the exact card you have, but given these cards all have manufacturing defects the chances are it would be a card that has been reflowed and revived to get it to work again. Even if you somehow found a new-old-stock card, it will still break down in future its just a matter of time. If you're willing to do through all the trouble to replace the card with another one, there's no reason you shouldn't try the bake. The same level of disassembly is required and you have nothing to lose if you're already contemplating buying a new iMac. I would suggest you back up your data while your iMac is somewhat functioning and give it a shot. You'll need a comprehensive screwdriver set and I have links to the thermal pads and the paste in the description.
@@BorderlineOCD Well good news is I carefully followed your video instructions and have my imac 27 back up and running! Saved me $3k at the Apple Shop. Upon pulling everything apart, I found I am using an upgraded GPU" AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB. So it appears it should be ok for now.
I do have a recommendation to the video when putting the motherboard back in. It is MUCH easier to drop in place and align it with all the RAM modules removed. Then reinstall them later. Apart from that, very glad you helped me resolve my issue.
Great Video- my mac works again. I followed all instructions step by step and all parts are installed again. The only Problem I have is that one side of the RAM does not work anymore. After fixing all 4 RAM the mac Made 3x piep. After some variations of position I found out That ohne side does Not funktion. I hope I have not overseen something?!?!?
Perhaps somebody has an idea
That's an unfortunate outcome considering it was working before you started. Do you have some contact cleaner? There could be debris wedged in there breaking or shorting one of the slots. These machines have a tendency to contain large amounts of dust so make sure the contacts are clean in the hard to see areas.
You're very specific about the thermal paste which I ordered from amazon and you do list the screw driver set you recommend but it would be helpful if you were more exact about the screw drivers you used as I bought a set that had a T9 only to remove the motherboard and have to stop when trying to remove the airport extreme because the set I purchased doesn't have what I need.
But I don't know what I need. The screws looked stripped but I assume there is an appropriate option? Do you mind saying what I should now go out and get?
The airport card is secured with a T6 Torx. I don’t know what your screwdriver set contains so I’m not sure if you’re going to run into other issues upon further disassembly. I do recommend a comprehensive screwdriver set like the one I used because it contains everything you need, plus a bunch of unique drivers for other systems and consoles (like tri-wing and game bit for example). Good luck with the rest of the repair.
Thank you for your Video. It was very helpful. However, after I baked graphic card, resembled my computer, my screen did not come back and fan is running too loud. So, I am with black screen now. Any suggestion ?
Sorry if this is a silly question, did you remember to reinstall the RAM? You might want to check the 4 diagnostic LEDs on the motherboard. There is a reference chart online for what they mean. It’s also possible that one of the LCD ribbon cables is not properly seated.
@@BorderlineOCD RAM is installed. 4th light(right most) is not turning on.
I've baked two times with no success :(
Can you use a heater gun as well?
I assume you can, but heat guns usually have temps that start out at 400C/750F unless yours is adjustable. I would just be careful with the high temps. I haven't tried it.
Entonces el problema era que la tarjeta gráfica estaba desoldada?
Mi imac tiene el mismo problema de las líneas verdes verticales, inicia pero no del todo, vuelve a iniciarse una y otra vez.
That's the theory, that these were flawed cards and the cold solder joints fatigue and crack over time, particularly due to excessive heat. This is exacerbated by the poor GPU cooling in these models (no fan on GPU). You can bake it in the oven for 10 minutes or revive it with a heat gun or hot air rework station depending how sophisticated the tools you have access to are. The oven bake is the basic DIY approach that anyone can do.
Excellent
Thank you!
I need help about old "Early 2009 24 A1225 Imac" Display! Can i replace a LM240WU2(SL)(B4) with another LM240WU2(SL)(B2) Display? Could someone help me please?
It freakin worked!!!
Glad to hear it.
Hi great video, I got two thin vertical lines, one red and one blue on the left third of the screen. I have got a mid 2007 20 inch iMac. The lines are there all the time, even when booting, what could be my issue?
I don’t believe your unit has any known graphics card issues, but one thing you could do to check is to connect an external display to the mini-DVI port on your iMac. If you see those lines on the external display, the problem is your graphics card. Chances are your LCD is faulty, in which case the image on the external display will look good.
Thanks for the video. Very helpful. Can I ask what thermal paste/pads you used for this?
Check out the video description for the product info and link (affiliated)
Borderline OCD Just wanted to thank you for this video and information. Took me a while to get everything I needed but did it a few weeks ago and it's working perfectly! Couldn't believe it! All other videos skipped a lot of steps so thank you for breaking it down piece by piece. iMac had been broken for four years!!
Thats awesome, glad you got your iMac working again.
That was awesome! Anyway I have one question about the reflowing that have always bothered me. how come none of the SMD components on the bottom of the board fell out during reflow in the oven. That is the thing that scares me.
Good question! Honestly that's why I'm paranoid and I prefer not to touch it at all until the component cools slowly for 30 mins with the oven door open. I've done a few bakes and no problems so far. My guess is surface tension from the solder. The component would have to be pretty large or heavy to fall off.
@@BorderlineOCDYes, Surface tension was my guess too. For now, I will stick to the copper shims and the 60 watt light bulb, because it seems to work well for me, if I do come across a card I dont mind losing, like an ati agp with little or no smd on bottom, I give that a go at baking. Thanks for your reply. Your videos are awesome!
Surface tension, or glue dots under the components. Don’t forget, in the manufacturing process, these boards were reflowed twice.... once bottomside, once topside. Bottomside components don’t tend to be so massive.
The thermal pad that you used in the video has an adhesive side but the one in your link doesn't state whether it does or not. Any alternative adhesive suggestions here? Thanks.
No actually it's non-adhesive, but it has the consistency of a putty so when you gently press it down with mild pressure it "sticks" long enough for you to flip it over and attach the heat sink. Once the heat sink is attached the pressure is enough to press the pad between the memory chips and heat sink. The film you saw me remove from both sides is just a dust film so that the pad goes on clean.
@@BorderlineOCD Thanks very much!
I’ve done this as well, basically the same method as you, and it worked for 6 months. Now I’m back to square one. Do you think it’s possible to disassemble the computer again but leaving the heat sink attached to the graphics card and bake it in the oven? It’s would be much easier not having to do the cleaning and that stuff..
I wouldn’t recommend baking with the heat sink and thermal compound on the card. I personally wouldn’t risk doing anything that degrades the thermal compound and I have no way of knowing what the impact of baking the paste for 10 minutes would be. In my view the primary trigger is overheating in the first place so I would want to apply fresh thermal paste any time I handle the card. Obviously this whole process is a hack and I don’t know that any of my unique additions to the process will make any difference in the long term compared to other videos, but there’s a few things I do that I haven’t seen in other videos. I use appropriately sized thermal pads for the RAM chips instead of thick paste with lower thermal properties. The goal is to transfer heat to the heat sink, not spread it all around the RAM chips and hope most of it transfers away. Use high quality thermal paste on the GPU of course. I don’t handle the card for 30 minutes after baking. Might be overkill but I want to give things a chance to set undisturbed as the temperature gradually cools rather than a sudden cooling by removing from oven once the 10 minutes are up. I thoroughly clean all the vents and fans for the best cooling possible. Heat is the enemy here. Anything you can do to help keep things cool will result in a longer lasting repair. You could probably get another bake done and revive it. I would also take the time to clean the fans, all the dust, use high-quality thermals, and take the extra step of letting the card cool slowly in the oven with door open (oven off) so it gradually cools rather than suddenly sets. Best of luck.
Thank you! I will try to do the whole thing again, but twice a year doing that is perhaps a little to often for me. But I will try all your tips! I heard another tip as well: Removing the unused hard drive next to the heat sink was perhaps giving the GPU more air for cooling. What do you think about that?
Do you mean replacing the traditional HDD with an SSD? Yes, that may help as traditional spinning disks will generate more heat. Unless your model is equipped with an SSD from Apple (if so it will be located under the optical drive) you can’t remove the 3.5” hard disk altogether without replacing it with something else.
I do have a SSD disc already installed, so I was thinking of removing the old one!
You could remove it if you have no use for it or you could use software like Macs Fan Control to run your HDD fan at a higher baseline speed.
Hi, will this method work on a 2013 imac?
No. These problematic Radeon cards are found in the 2009-2011 iMacs. In 2012 Apple switched to Nvidia GPUs which don't have this problem. Are you seeing this on your 2013 iMac? That would be strange. I haven't heard of this impacting the 2012+ model years.
1:51 why do the RAM have greek words on top "Elpida" on greek "Ελπίδα" means Chance.
12:10 - That you, Tronics Fix?
I plagiarized his phrase, he practically owns it now. No one can ever say they applied the perfect amount of thermal paste ever again.
Hello, I have a 27" 2011 Imac. My video problem is my screen shows fine black and white vertical lines across the entire screen from left to right, not large green bars as is seen in the UA-cam videos. Would I be correct to assume that I have the same video card issue as the Imacs with heavy green lines and should bake my video card?
Those aren't symptoms I have personally experienced but I think there might be a good chance its your GPU given its a known quality issue with this model year. A couple of ideas for things you can check to eliminate other potential causes: reinstalling the OS has no impact i.e. not a software issue and hooking up an external display via thunderbolt doesn't fix the problem i.e. not an LCD issue. My particular unit had the problem when I purchased it but others have reported that the issue is intermittent at first before becoming permanent so that might give you a clue. In other words the computer is working fine then begins to show lines on screen and crash. Later it crashes more often and wont boot into MacOS at all. These symptoms are indicative of a failing GPU that needs to be reflowed. Hope this helps.
@@BorderlineOCD I believe it is the GPU as well. You've given me quite a few ways to troubleshoot and confirm what we suspect, thank you.
Let me know what you find, Good luck!
@@BorderlineOCD Will do. Thanks again.
How to oven bake? what degree?
200C/400F. Details are in the video.
Any help would be appreciated, my 2011 Imac 27'" I5 wont start. I open the device and remove the screen when I press the power I see the first led light green but nothing else happens. What could be the issue? Power Supply or video?
LED 1 should always be on when connected to AC power (even when computer is off). LED 2 comes on when you press power button. Can you confirm that's the case? Any movement from fans (even temporary) or completely dead?
@@BorderlineOCDonly one light I see after even after pressing the power
I'm assuming you've already looked up the meaning of the diagnostic LEDs, so if the 2nd light isn't coming on when you press power, it means the motherboard isn't receiving power from the PSU. It could be a power supply problem (any bulged capacitors or signs of damage?) or could even be caused by the connector, or the power button itself. You could try shorting the power button pins directly on the motherboard to eliminate the power button being problematic, and you can check some voltages on the PSU connector with a multimeter to see if there is voltage.
@@BorderlineOCD Thanks borderline I will check this out.
There's plenty of reasons to buy a traditional hard disk these days, but none of them involve your main drive that runs your operating system. If you put your OS on a mechanical drive, you definitely did it wrong.
😢
How tasty it was? :v
On the more reliable permutations of the "fat" Xbox 360 mobo, the reliability was multiplied JUST by adding a bead of black epoxy around all four sides of the GPU and CPU.
I wonder if in addition to the baking, some more epoxy can be used to keep the GPU working properly.
The only thing that really pisses me off about Apple is how fast they wash their hands of older OS's once the fresh meat is released. Windows XP came out in late 2001 and was officially supported until 2014 and unofficial supported until 2019 in the retreaded Windows Embeded POS Ready 2009. That's 18 years and a small niche group of people still cherish and update XP today in 2023.