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Success Stories If you have successfully repaired or restored a piece of equipment, why not write up what you did and post details here. Particularly if it was interesting, unusual or challenging. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE!

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Old 28th Aug 2016, 6:08 pm   #1
Radio Wrangler
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Default 27 inch iMAC

How to outdo a whole barful of geniuses and save yourself £350

The 27 inch iMac was a top-end machine, likely to be bought by people who are generally inclined to support Apple. However, they have proven to have a common problem which looks like a manufacturing defect, smells like a manufacturing defect and by golly isn't admitted as a manufacturing defect.

Some time ago, I was bothered by a flicker in the radio shack. Something almost subliminal. Where was it coming from? Eventually I spotted the iMac causing it, and oddly it seemed to be the left side of the screen. Anyway it worked normally for quite some time, then it started again and eventually got more frequent. Rats! the machine is out of warranty.

So I had a search on the internet. It wasn't good. The level of discussion suggested that a significant proportion of all the machines made had shown this fault. Some within months and got fixed under warranty, others out of warranty. Apple weren't admitting any manufacturing defect, and people were getting $550 and £350 bills for having the entire display module replaced.

I suspected mine was going to get worse, but I left it, hoping for an admission of guilt from Cupertino and free repairs. No such luck.

It did get worse. Eventually the LED backlights for the left side of the screen go out intermittently, then permanently. You can see things on the left side of the screen, but they ain't half dingy.

Fixes on the internet ranged from "Hit it" yeah right. Then to people flipping the front glass off to put paper packing in to put some force in a certain area.

One guy took the thing apart and found a connector had come loose from its board. The surface mount part had grainy deceased leadfree solder on its pins but fell out when he cut a bit of plastic away.

He soldered six short lengths of PTFE wirewrap wire onto the board and onto the legs of the connector, now re-sited outside its hole.

So I did this and it's now working.

1) you need a suction cup to pull off the front glass.
2) Right behind the display is the underside of the PSU board complete with threatening zap symbols... you did pull the mains cable out?
3) there are 8 T9 screws, 4 up each side.
4) There is a tiddly little heat sensor connector top left flying lead from the display, connector on a board in the machine
5) Bottom left there is a nice larger backlight power connector, you need to press a release latch on it.
6) A bit right of centre, there's another tiddly little temp sensor connector or whatever they may be.
7) Now the nasty one is an ultra high density/bandwidth video ribbon connector. The socket on the graphics card has a wire locking lever with a plastic tab for you to grip it. With the lock released, the connector comes out upwards. It's a right little devil to put back.

THere are videos on youtube showing the extraction of the connector. You need to cut away a couple of plastic retaining lugs then the ribbon comes free with both halves of the connector!

More plastic gets cut away until you get access to the pads on the bit of board.

I used a long-reach bit in a Metcal, and found I had to bend the tip to be able to work down the hole. Clean the board by adding tin/lead solder thenn removing and re-tinning. Tin your wires, so the soldering process becomes a matter of fusing things together. I needed a stereo microscope to see what I was doing. 1.5 dioptre reading glasses don't cut it.

Putting things back together... use a disposable lens wipe to clean the LCD, and another for the inside of the front glass. Then a third for the outside once it's together.

Phew!

The best video I found was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSzm...l=GerrySweeney

I think the scale of this might affect Apple's reputation and future sales. I'm rather disappointed they aren't admitting it, there certainly is enough discussion.

David
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Old 28th Aug 2016, 6:59 pm   #2
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

As it's a manufacturing fault did you try to get it repaired with the consumer protection legislation. 6 (5 years Scotland) years from sale.
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Old 28th Aug 2016, 7:36 pm   #3
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

There are plenty of reports on the internet of people who've tried and failed. Apple seem to be taking the 'problem? what problem?' and reply to each person's contact as if it's never happened before, though they seem suspiciously good at quoting a price

Of course, Apple had a pretty good reputation, but reputations are quicker to lose than to build. And against people deciding that their products are no longer worth a premium, there is no appeal.

For me it was easy enough to get the scope out and I sacrificed a Metcal bit by bending it, but others had already diagnosed the fault and published videos, so it was only a couple of hours. But not that many people are used to SMT microsurgery and championship-level bodging.

David
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Old 28th Aug 2016, 7:36 pm   #4
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

This sort of stuff is why I switched to Lenovo kit from Apple. I had three complete logic board failures on a 2010 MBP. Then the 2011 I got to replace the damned thing caught fire when I was using it and was rapidly tossed in the garden until it had finished incinerating the logic board and keyboard. These events were after two G5's (high end ones!) that completely failed, a G5 iMac that lost the backlight after only three hours and about 20 cable replacements due to splitting at the strain relief (a massive *** on its own) one of which caused a small fire.

I may be cursed but their stuff is style over engineering.

Congratulations on fixing yours however.

The X201 I bought has had a coffee poured in it and had been knocked off tables and is still going strong after 5 years without a single hiccup (as is my daughter's one)
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Old 28th Aug 2016, 8:50 pm   #5
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

Experiences like those mentioned leave a bad taste and a definite resolve to try some other manufacture. I have up to now only had good experience of Apple, but poor performance, or non existent software from other manufacturers or operating systems.

If Apple give me a bad time I suppose it would be back to Linux, couldn't put up with MS Windows for many reasons.

Nearly 9 year old IMac is now with my grandaughters and my 6 year old MacBook Pro is still working. I will have to see how things work out.

Frank
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Old 28th Aug 2016, 10:00 pm   #6
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBungle View Post
This sort of stuff is why I switched to Lenovo kit from Apple.
I recently dist-upgraded my Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 15 to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Which doesn't sound all that impressive -- until you bear in mind that I remember installing 11.10 on it when it was brand new, so I have had it for almost five years and it is still going strong!

I'm no fan of Apple's philosophy which seems to be to constrain users to act in certain ways. But my boss loves Macs, and their kit does seem generally quite well-built. However, the mobiles I've seen the most of with busted glass have been iPhones .....

Anyway, well done on repairing it in the face of apparent opposition to your doing so .....
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Last edited by julie_m; 28th Aug 2016 at 10:06 pm. Reason: Added paragraph
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Old 28th Aug 2016, 10:36 pm   #7
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC



My phone is a thickphone. It's so stupid it doesn't know it's supposed to break if dropped. It even thinks a battery is a pretty good place to keep some electricity.

A few years ago I coined the word 'Frangiphone' and then had to explain the word frangible. Oh well!

The iMac's still going!

David
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Old 29th Aug 2016, 2:25 pm   #8
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

That does somehow sound more edible than breakable.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frangipane

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Old 29th Aug 2016, 5:35 pm   #9
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

One post deleted, this was a success story, not a general discussion.
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Old 29th Aug 2016, 6:10 pm   #10
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

Neat work, David.

I suspect this classifies as a pretty bold repair story. There's little room for a way out or easy reversal once underway. I'm unsurprised that you pulled it off successfully but still impressed.

Good call with the stereo microscopy tip, too.
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Old 29th Aug 2016, 6:14 pm   #11
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

My reason for posting is that these machines seem to have a high probability of this exact failure, plus the manufacturer's official fix is expensive enough to write machines off out of warranty. So if any member comes across someone about to dump one, they can be brought back from the half-life (half-light?) for 6 bits of Tyvek wire-wrap wire and a parch of duct tape. IF you are dainty with a thin soldering iron. The connector is about 1mm contact spacing, 6 contacts.

It could also be an earner for someone.

I wonder if the replacement displays are in any way different to the originals?

David
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Last edited by Radio Wrangler; 29th Aug 2016 at 6:23 pm.
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Old 29th Aug 2016, 7:43 pm   #12
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

"Championship-level bodging"? Strikes me you un-bodged it. Excellent work!

Regards,
Paul
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Old 29th Aug 2016, 8:49 pm   #13
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

Something relevant as my last post was deleted by the moderator (sorry!). Louis Rossmann has a large quantities of fixes for this class of device. It's amazing what you can accomplish with some schematics, some equipment and a parts mule even with modern devices: https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/videos
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Old 3rd Sep 2016, 11:55 am   #14
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

Well done, David. Another one in the "i" for Apple.
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Old 3rd Sep 2016, 2:42 pm   #15
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

May I ask Was this the 'retina' display or the other type?
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Old 3rd Sep 2016, 2:48 pm   #16
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Default Re: 27 inch iMAC

It was the type before the retina one came out.

I don't know about the retina display, but from what I saw inside mine, and the number of reports of failures, I expect the vast majority of the type to fail. I wonder if Apple repairs involve fitting displays from old stock, probably containing the same defect.

Anything could have changed when the retina display went in, but I hope they don't still have the old back-light.

David
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