2011 Imac resurrection graphics card.

[terramir]

OK I got my hand on a 2011 imac for 10bucks however it's got a green bar problem the mac store told me the hdd fan has some sort of problem , but according to the rpm still spinning. And the video card failed. They won't work on it because it's too dirty inside (history).
This machine is sweet though, 16gb ram 2gb HDD 3.4 ghz processor and a 6970 graphics card.
Now I seen some things online about baking it, then I saw something about it not being reballing it but chip internals that can be fixed by heating it to 120C and not 200C, well I dunno if it's the case with the 6970 gpu 2gb BTW. Anyone here have some insight with this particular gpu??.
Thinking about replacing the HDD with a 850 pro samsung ssd 256 gb since that should make it quite snappy. I got one of those I can replace with a 240gb mushkin eco2 that would use less power in my lappy anyway.
Since there is no guarantee the baking will work does anyone know the cheapest possible route to get this back in working order, I would not mind sacrificing the boot screen, although I would love knowing if there is any "windows" card that is known to be flash able and is significantly cheaper, because I really don't have the money to spare. I would not mind a slight hit in performance I wonder if there are any Nvidia cards that are newer but lower end that would come close but much cheaper.
terramir

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/page-28#post-24436097

 

[terramir]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/page-28#post-24436097

I wonder how your reflowed ATI card is still doing????, is it still working ???
could you other input as well
terramir

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I wonder how your reflowed ATI card is still doing????, is it still working ???
could you other input as well
terramir

It is working perfectly so far. And I've been gaming a lot, so it has definitely been pushed to its limits.

 

[terramir]

Still need more help plz

 

[terramir]

there are gtx 570 and gtx580 cards that can be flashed to work with efi, what about the 570m and 580m cards does anyone know if those are hackable?
terramir

 

[A Hobo]

The iMac has a MXM slot for the graphics card, I've not heard of any third party solutions for replacing the card. You may just need to have the card reflowed (hint: do not bake.) or replace it with the same card from ebay.

 

[b06tmm]

Having just encountered this issue with my mid-2011 27" iMac, I decided to go with the "oven" method for my 6970 video card. I took the average of what people did online and decided to bake it at 200C for 11 minutes. I also cleaned out all three fans and used K5-PRO for thermal paste.

I mangled the LVDS cable to the main-board upon reassembly so had to wait until today to put it back together. I also zeroed out the drives thinking of parting it out if the new cable didn't work, so that's why I'm reinstalling the OS.

I'm happy to say that I'm here now!

This machine has been on 24/7 since I bought it and will update this if the card fails again.

 

[terramir]

Thinking if I get it running to also drill a bunch of holes right by the graphics sink maybe even add a small fan on the outside suckling air out depending on the Temps will use a decent pattern just so it also looks good in case I decide to sell it later after I fix it.
I can 3d print a fan shroud. If needed.
But short of finding a card with a 6870 chip and flow it off and flow it on. Leaving the 6970 chip on there without doing some sort of cooling mod is bound to end back in the fried zone eventually. If I see enough room to add a fan internally to force the heat out of the sink and to the vent the only thing I will need to find is some power to power the fan. As other peeps have stated 70 C all good 90C that 6970 chip is ship p=t if you get my drift.
but really if I could find a stable gpu that can be efi modded that would be better though cause I would love a fully working mac.
terramir

 

[b06tmm]

My fans were really dirty and by cleaning them I'm sure I improved their cooling ability greatly. I also installed smcFanControll and can boost the fans any time I see the temps rise too much.

 

[WaferGuy]

For those who have a mid-2011 iMac with Sierra (10.12), do you see fan speed increase when ODD shoot up above 70C?

My ODD fan stays at 1150 rpm even ODD temperature reaches 80C! I have to use "Macs Fan Control" to adjust fan to 2700 rpm. Then, temperature comes down below 70C.

I wonder if we are seeing a (Sierra) SMC software bug in mid-2011 iMac machines!?

 

[Redlight-Records]

I also have an oven-baked undead zombie 6970m. But I know it won't last.
So lets say that there are more than a few poor 2011 iMac owners that for whatever reason either can't or won't go through with the bold move of installing an NVIDIA replacement. That leaves only one choice, right? get a re-ball off ebay. Which is not a comforting thought made even less comforting by the fact that for every listing, you're not entirely sure if it's:

1. an original card that's failed already and been baked.

2. an original card that hasn't failed. yet.

3. an Apple replacement card that's failed already and been baked.

4. an Apple replacement card that hasn't failed. yet.

5. an unbranded knockoff

Which leads me to these important questions.

A. Is there a way to tell the difference between the original 6970m's and the ones Apple supplied as part of their much-too-short recall? Or did they just replace a defective card with another identically defective card?

B. Is there a way to spot an unbranded knockoff?

I want to know:

are there certain makes of the 6970m cards that have a lower probability of failure?

Looking through pictures of 6907m listings on ebay you see some with the BLACKCOMB tag on the left or right in big or small text or not at all. Some have an additional HF / e l mark on there as well. As for the chip itself, some have a clear AMD brand silkscreened on them and some don't. Some are made on black, brown or even blue PC board. Some sellers include the tag "Bespoke" as part of the item information. All that I've seen have either 109-C9657-10 or 109-C9647-00 screened on them, but it doesn't differentiate the memory size so I'm not sure what the difference is.

Does anybody out there know what, exactly, a legitimate 6970m should/shouldn't look like? and if those markings and appearance could lead a buyer to get a make that had the best chance of survival.

I've posted some screen shots of some of the variances between card images. These are all listed as: APPLE IMAC 27" A1312 Mid 2011 RADEON HD 6970M 1GB GPU VIDEO CARD

except the last one listed as a 2GB

 

[HawkMcDuck]

FYI, I posted the following note in this MacRumors forum over two years ago on Nov 17, 2017.

Just to update, the 27-inch mid-2011 iMac that I baked in the oven is, believe it or not, still working perfectly (touch wood!). In fact I'm writing this on that computer right now.

FYI, this computer is a 3.4GHz i7 with 24GB, an AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB graphics card, 250GB SSD and 2TB internal WD hard drive and is running macOS 10.13.6.

==========================================
Nov. 17

I bought a 2010 27 inch iMac with an i3 CPU a few months ago at a reasonably good price on Craigslist, intending to add an SSD and upgrade the CPU to an i7. I went to a local computer shop looking for an i7, and while I was standing in line someone brought out from the back a 27 inch iMac, presumably in for repairs, and handed it over the counter to the iMac owner, telling him that they couldn't fix the iMac. I asked the iMac owner what was the problem, and he said, unhappily, that the video card had failed. [Note that the computer store had already removed the internal hard drive, so his data--he was a video developer--was safe and secure in his hands.]

I told the iMac owner I was in the store right now looking for a used i7 for a 2010 iMac, and asked him if his iMac was a 2010, and if it had an i7. He said yes, and I asked him if he wanted to sell it. He said sure, it's no good to me now. Neither of us knew what it was worth, so I said, Look, I only need the CPU, and offered him $20 (Canadian). He said OK, and asked me if I wanted to buy the RAM also, 4x4GB=16GB. I asked him how much, he didn't know, but the computer store employee said $80 for the RAM was reasonable. I didn't have the cash on me, so we walked to my bank and I paid him $100.

I got home, the 2010 iMac was already apart, waiting for me to install the SSD. I disassembled the new iMac I had just bought, intending to take out the i7. After I got it apart, I realized that the new iMac was not a 2010 Mac at all, but rather a 2011. "Damn" I thought, now I have an iMac with a fried video card. But at least I bought the 16GB RAM at a reasonable price for used RAM.

Then I got to thinking, wondering how much it would cost to replace the fried video card. I checked eBay, and WOW!!! it was $900 Canadian for a new video card for a 2010 iMac. Unfortunately that was at least ten times more than I wanted to pay. I started scrolling through eBay, looking at prices for video cards and came upon an ad claiming to fix a video card for a 2010 iMac for $119, 3-5 days turnaround, 90 day guarantee. (You had to remove the video card yourself, and mail it to the vendor). That seemed like a pretty good deal, so I emailed the eBay vendor to see if this also applied to a 2011 iMac. "Sure, no problem with a 2011 iMac", the vendor said.

An hour or so later I started thinking again, how could someone "fix" a fried video card, guaranteed, with a turnaround of less than a week? How can you "fix" a video card, with ten zillion connections?

All of a sudden, some neglected, long forgotten sectors in the back of my brain fired, and then it struck me; I googled "iMac 27 inch video card oven".

The following video turned up:

It's a long video, but essentially a really nice, believable guy named Evan, from Greece I think, explains in some detail how he fixed a failed video card on his 2011 iMac by putting it in the oven for 8 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius (405 degrees F.). It seemed ridiculous, but since I had both iMacs apart, I thought WTF, I've got nothing to lose, why not give it a try?

So I got started. I must admit though, after a lot of painstaking work disassembling the logic board, and then extracting the video card, I felt pretty stupid for a few minutes when I got to the point of actually putting the video card in the oven.

After installing an SSD I had lying around and completely re-assembling the 2011 iMac (nearly a full and very gruelling day!), and starting it up, I waited for twenty or thirty seconds...

And then, I couldn't believe it. The friggin' iMac started right up and the video card was, magically, no longer fried!!!

That was like two months ago, and it's still going. I'm writing this on my salvaged 2011 iMac right now. I have since then installed a 250GB SSD with velcro tape under the optical drive, replaced the original internal hard drive with a 2TB drive, attached a 30 inch Cinema Display monitor, upgraded the RAM to 24GB, and installed macOS High Sierra 10.13.1. I have a bunch of Mac Pros, MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, iMacs, etc., of various vintages, plus more than a couple of older PCs, and according to Geekbench 4, this is the fastest computer I currently own, even beating both of my 8 core Mac Pros with dual Xeon processors.

Except that the GPU diode runs quite hot (according to Macs Fan Control nearly 80 degrees Ceisius, yikes!!!), my new $20 2011 27 inch iMac seems to be performing admirably.

Oh yeah, and I eventually found and upgraded the i3 to a compatible i7 ($119 from a local used computer dealer) in my first 2010 iMac, installed an SSD and a 2TB internal drive. The 2010 iMac was also successfully tested with 24GB of RAM.

I'm kind of delighted with all this. As you can probably tell.

=================================================

 

[CaryB]

I also have an oven-baked undead zombie 6970m. But I know it won't last.
So lets say that there are more than a few poor 2011 iMac owners that for whatever reason either can't or won't go through with the bold move of installing an NVIDIA replacement. That leaves only one choice, right? get a re-ball off ebay. Which is not a comforting thought made even less comforting by the fact that for every listing, you're not entirely sure if it's:

1. an original card that's failed already and been baked.

2. an original card that hasn't failed. yet.

3. an Apple replacement card that's failed already and been baked.

4. an Apple replacement card that hasn't failed. yet.

5. an unbranded knockoff

Which leads me to these important questions.

A. Is there a way to tell the difference between the original 6970m's and the ones Apple supplied as part of their much-too-short recall? Or did they just replace a defective card with another identically defective card?

B. Is there a way to spot an unbranded knockoff?

I want to know:

are there certain makes of the 6970m cards that have a lower probability of failure?

Looking through pictures of 6907m listings on ebay you see some with the BLACKCOMB tag on the left or right in big or small text or not at all. Some have an additional HF / e l mark on there as well. As for the chip itself, some have a clear AMD brand silkscreened on them and some don't. Some are made on black, brown or even blue PC board. Some sellers include the tag "Bespoke" as part of the item information. All that I've seen have either 109-C9657-10 or 109-C9647-00 screened on them, but it doesn't differentiate the memory size so I'm not sure what the difference is.

Does anybody out there know what, exactly, a legitimate 6970m should/shouldn't look like? and if those markings and appearance could lead a buyer to get a make that had the best chance of survival.

I've posted some screen shots of some of the variances between card images. These are all listed as: APPLE IMAC 27" A1312 Mid 2011 RADEON HD 6970M 1GB GPU VIDEO CARD

except the last one listed as a 2GB

Hi all, I'm new here.
Sorry to drag up this old post.
I just got a 27 inch mid 2011 iMac for really cheap from Gumtree here in Australia a couple of weeks ago.
Same video card issue. I have posted over on the ifixit forums.

I was wondering about this card dilemma as well.

I was looking on eBay, and was thinking of grabbing a card, then I thought what if that's a dodgy one. One seller I came across had in their description that the 6970m card was used and untested.
I thought, yeah was it Apple replaced, baked or yet to fail.

What are peoples best recommendations? I don't really want to bake or muck around with flashing ROM's to a different card.
Could I put a 2010 or 2009 card in it? Or could I put the lesser mid 2011 27 inch core i5 2.7 Radeon 6770m in it?

So far I'm leaning towards baking. I just didn't want to have to open it up again. Lol.

 

[macguru9999]

I have reflowed about a dozen of them and they are all still working, so thats better than a 'new' one from apple when they were available..... I used a paint strip heat gun initially but now use a hot air station set to 350 F for 4-5min. I only heat the graphics chip, then reassemble.

 

[CaryB]

I have reflowed about a dozen of them and they are all still working, so thats better than a 'new' one from apple when they were available..... I used a paint strip heat gun initially but now use a hot air station set to 350 F for 4-5min. I only heat the graphics chip, then reassemble.

Hey, awesome. Thanks for that.
How long have the reflows lasted for?
Cheers. ?

 

[macguru9999]

Hey, awesome. Thanks for that.
How long have the reflows lasted for?
Cheers. ?

at least 3 years, ... a 'new' one wont give you any longer .....

 

[CaryB]

at least 3 years, ... a 'new' one wont give you any longer .....

Excellent. Thanks for that.
I'll have to bake mine in my home oven. I haven't even got a heat gun.
But, I'll take the opportunity to take the iMac completely apart and get K4 and K5 thermal paste for the GPU and memory chips.
Take my time with it.

Thanks for your help. ?

 

[macguru9999]

Excellent. Thanks for that.
I'll have to bake mine in my home oven. I haven't even got a heat gun.
But, I'll take the opportunity to take the iMac completely apart and get K4 and K5 thermal paste for the GPU and memory chips.
Take my time with it.

Thanks for your help. ?

just dont overcook. you do NOT have to melt the solder, 350F is OK. My theory is that the high Tin (Sn) content in the enviro-solder promotes the growth of crystalline 'whiskers' that bridge some of the solder balls under the chip leading to various failure modes (black screen, white screen, funny lines) . The heat shrivels up the whiskers separating the solder balls. If you go over 400F you can short it out and unless you remove and reseat the chip with a special machine you may get smoke rising from your card when you power on

 

[CaryB]

just dont overcook.

No probs. Just thinking out loud. You couldn't put a 6770m from the problem free Core i5 2.7ghz version in the higher iMac versions?
Cheers.

 

[macguru9999]

No probs. Just thinking out loud. You couldn't put a 6770m from the problem free Core i5 2.7ghz version in the higher iMac versions?
Cheers.

no idea, but i doubt any card that fits the socket in those macs will be problem free

 

[Jamoses1]

just dont overcook. you do NOT have to melt the solder, 350F is OK. My theory is that the high Tin (Sn) content in the enviro-solder promotes the growth of crystalline 'whiskers' that bridge some of the solder balls under the chip leading to various failure modes (black screen, white screen, funny lines) . The heat shrivels up the whiskers separating the solder balls. If you go over 400F you can short it out and unless you remove and reseat the chip with a special machine you may get smoke rising from your card when you power on

Macguru9999,

Just wanted to reaffirm your recommendation since I have a hot air temp controlled station. Would you recommend 350F for 4 to 5 min just above the graphics chip with a wide tip? I have never done a chip this big. Mostly just small smd repairs.

Thanks in advance of any recommendations

I’m going to replace the hdd with an ssd. That should keep the heat down permanently

 

[A Hobo]

Macguru9999,

Just wanted to reaffirm your recommendation since I have a hot air temp controlled station. Would you recommend 350F for 4 to 5 min just above the graphics chip with a wide tip? I have never done a chip this big. Mostly just small smd repairs.

Thanks in advance of any recommendations

I’m going to replace the hdd with an ssd. That should keep the heat down permanently

I would remove the card completely, use kapton tape to isolate just the die, and heat that up and only that., you don’t need 5 mins either. Get some liquid flux under the chip and keep it at that heat for 60 seconds or so, 5 mins is overkill.

Heating it up with the heat sink still attached is a fool’s endeavour besides having to account for the the clamping pressure of the heat sink

 

[Jamoses1]

I would remove the card completely, use kapton tape to isolate just the die, and heat that up and only that., you don’t need 5 mins either. Get some liquid flux under the chip and keep it at that heat for 60 seconds or so, 5 mins is overkill.

Heating it up with the heat sink still attached is a fool’s endeavour besides having to account for the the clamping pressure of the heat sink

Thanks. I planned on removing the card completely and also figured that 5min above the chip might be too long. I have both the kapton and the flux. Is the thought to apply the kapton around the perimeter as a heat shield? Thought about making an aluminum heat shield as well. About 1cm larger than the graphics CPU then tape it to the board with kapton. Should I cut out an aluminum foil shield as well?

Oh. One more thing, after a little syringe of flux around the chip border, do I need to remove it with an electro wash or can it be left on the board? I do not have an ultrasonic cleaner.

 

[macguru9999]

Macguru9999,

Just wanted to reaffirm your recommendation since I have a hot air temp controlled station. Would you recommend 350F for 4 to 5 min just above the graphics chip with a wide tip? I have never done a chip this big. Mostly just small smd repairs.

Thanks in advance of any recommendations

I’m going to replace the hdd with an ssd. That should keep the heat down permanently

that sounds about right, ones i have done get from a few weeks to a few months extra life before the problem comes back, so i dont do them anymore...