2013 iMac died, 3 months later, plugged in and works — why?

[Pat R]

My 2013 27" iMac died last Dec. I boxed it to take to recycling, but just now plugged it back in because I forgot exactly what the failure was. It took forever to boot up, but on chime, I could see some faint light in the display. Took a while but it booted up. I removed an icon that kept popping up for edrive (moved icon to trash). Ran an old Tech Tool Pro, which OKd the RAM, hard drive, and video. Could the fix have been shutting it off for 4 months? (like PRAM?)

It's still very very slow. Any ideas? (Do I still have this iMac, or is it now unreliableP?)

 

[glenthompson]

Is this using a spinning drive or SSD? If spinner then it sounds like it is failing. Real pain to change it out. For machines of that age best solution is to create a bootable external SSD and boot from it.

 

[Pat R]

It's a spinner. (Fusion). I'm surprised that the iMac started up again (and I have finally been able to copy the photos that were missing from my backups from this drive). I really like that external SSD idea. Might just save this machine!

Seems like a very easy fix (rather than taking apart the iMac. — I just killed my 2009 iMac's screen after a successful video card bake, did not know I should have removed the RAM before trying to take it apart and too many tries with the 2 screen cables destroyed them. — 2009 runs fine now on another monitor — Am using to open a large number of very very old InDesign files that use some very iffy fonts. My 2019 iMac under Big Sur gave me a 45 second delay in opening any of those old files in InDesign.

 

[joevt]

You can try the upgrade options from OWC (www.macsales.com). Their upgrades come with the tools and adhesive strips needed to open and reseal the iMac and they have videos to show the process. But I guess you already know how to do it from your experience with the 2009 iMac. Those cables are really difficult to get disconnected. OWC needs a tool to help with that part.

 

[Phil77354]

To your question as to why it works now, does it matter? Well, to answer my own question, it does if you want to avoid the same problem again, but I don't know how to determine what caused the problem you had earlier. Maybe it overheated or some protection circuitry caused it to be apparently dead a few months ago. I would worry that the same thing would happen again if you try to use it without setting up to boot from an external SSD and/or incorporate some upgrades as suggested above.

Its going to be a matter of how much you're willing to spend to try to get it into usable shape, and what you'll be able to do with it when you do get it 'fixed'. If it is a project that you can afford to try, then why not?

 

[Hombre53]

If your 27" iMac will run reliably (30+ days) with an external SSD as the boot device, I'd be very tempted to open the iMac and install an SSD in place of the fusion drive. You could do this for less than a $100 bucks, depending on the size of the SSD you would install. That includes $10 bucks for the adhesive tape you would need to replace after removing the screen. Not a difficult procedure, I've done it a few times with no issues on my 27" 2013 iMac. Go for it...

 

[Pat R]

Thank you all! I will start with a bootable external SSD, and then, assuming it's the fusion drive that''s failing, I may open the iMac and replace that fusion drive with an internal SSD. This will allow me to have the 2013 iMac as my backup machine, possibly reliably (as much as a 9-year old machine can be reliable). And the external SSD can then go on my 2019 iMac (my replacement for the 2013) to speed that machine up. Could be a win all around.

So glad I found this forum. I'm no hardware expert, but having opened and successfully baked the video card in the 2009, I'm feeling much more confident. I know exactly what went wrong. The Ram cards wouldn't let the screen seat properly, and too many clumsy on-offs broke the cable connectors. But sticking another monitor on showed me that the bake worked and that the machine guts are still working fine.

Have watched a bunch of YouTube videos that take apart a 2013. Replacing the hard drive with SSD in the 2013 looks like something I will be willing to do. Digging out the video card in the 2013 looks more scary.

Thanks again for your advice!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

— I just killed my 2009 iMac's screen after a successful video card bake, did not know I should have removed the RAM before trying to take it apart and too many tries with the 2 screen cables destroyed them. — 2009 runs fine now on another monitor — .

If the LCD panel is still working,
V-synch cable is 8$ (the flat cable)
LVDS cable is 15$.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

 

[Pat R]

I didn't realize the cables were so eaily replaceable! Have ordered cables and expect to have 2009 iMac with working LCD soon! May even add a SATA to this machine too.

Thanks!

 

[Marty_Macfly]

I didn't realize the cables were so eaily replaceable! Have ordered cables and expect to have 2009 iMac with working LCD soon! May even add a SATA to this machine too.

Thanks!

Careful careful careful with the naked power supply internals!

Apart from that, have fun with the Diy