2010 27" CPU Upgrade failed, lost sound

[Twimfy]

My 27" mid 2010 iMac needed to come apart as the Bluetooth wasn't working, the machine was an eBay refurb whereby the seller had replaced the screen.

I thought while I had it open I'd replace the i3 3.2Ghz with a 2.8Ghz Quad Core i5 760.

The i5 just wouldn't boot at all and so I put the i3 back in and "fixed" the bluetooth (the antenna cable hadn't been connected).

I've taken plenty of iMacs apart before so I know to be careful and take my time however this time something has gone wrong, I've lost audio. The machine still makes it's chime through the inbuilt speakers and the digital output is still recognised in system preferences but the headphone/speaker output is dead and my volume controls are grayed out/show the stop symbol.

I've tried the usual, OS X re-install, NVRAM Reset, SMC reset, headphones in and out of the socket, but no dice.

Anyone have any idea why this might have happened? The speakers are working which is evident from the chime so I'm 99% certain everything internally is connected, I know the input ports are connected directly to the logic board so not much to go wrong there either.

Also, anyone know why the i5 760 wouldn't boot when people seem to have so much success with the i7-870?

 

[Sirmausalot]

well, time for bluetooth speakers then Google Soundflower and see if monkeying around with that can get you back up and running.

 

[macthefork]

You could try going to Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup.app, open it, and make sure, under Built-in Output, the digital output is set to 44100 Hz, 2 channel-16bit Integer. This is the most basic setting and is the same settings used with music CDs. This setting will work with just about any external device, such as headphones. Other settings may not.

 

[Twimfy]

well, time for bluetooth speakers then Google Soundflower and see if monkeying around with that can get you back up and running.

I completely forgot about Soundflower, will give it a go, see if it solves any problems. In the meantime I've bought some decent speakers paired with a USB sound adapter, but it'll never be the same knowing Native audio doesn't work

You could try going to Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup.app, open it, and make sure, under Built-in Output, the digital output is set to 44100 Hz, 2 channel-16bit Integer. This is the most basic setting and is the same settings used with music CDs. This setting will work with just about any external device, such as headphones. Other settings may not.

Cool, I'll give that a try, thanks.

 

[Lxixboss]

My 27" mid 2010 iMac needed to come apart as the Bluetooth wasn't working, the machine was an eBay refurb whereby the seller had replaced the screen.

I thought while I had it open I'd replace the i3 3.2Ghz with a 2.8Ghz Quad Core i5 760.

The i5 just wouldn't boot at all and so I put the i3 back in and "fixed" the bluetooth (the antenna cable hadn't been connected).

I've taken plenty of iMacs apart before so I know to be careful and take my time however this time something has gone wrong, I've lost audio. The machine still makes it's chime through the inbuilt speakers and the digital output is still recognised in system preferences but the headphone/speaker output is dead and my volume controls are grayed out/show the stop symbol.

I've tried the usual, OS X re-install, NVRAM Reset, SMC reset, headphones in and out of the socket, but no dice.

Anyone have any idea why this might have happened? The speakers are working which is evident from the chime so I'm 99% certain everything internally is connected, I know the input ports are connected directly to the logic board so not much to go wrong there either.

Also, anyone know why the i5 760 wouldn't boot when people seem to have so much success with the i7-870?

 

[Lxixboss]

It has always been my understanding that best results were to be obtained if the CPU you upgraded to had to be a CPU that Apple had originally installed in that year and model of computer. This seems to be about the software (what I would call BIOS on the Windows side) being set up to support that processor. From what I have uncovered at Everymac.com, the Mid-2010 Imac 27 was available with 4 different CPUs. These were the 3.2GHz i3-550, the 2.8GHz i5-760, the 3.6GHz i5-680 and the 2.93GHz i7-870.
So, you should be able to interchange these CPUs with relatively high confidence of success. While this may sound like a copout, I would tend to think that there was something wrong with either the new i5-760 you installed or how you installed it.