(ignore this and scroll down if you just want my solution)
Hey. I own a 24" Imac (the white one before the Aluminum)
2.16 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo.
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
Below is my personal little saga, i need to tell someone because i doubt my girlfriend or friends care about this haha xx
Ive had it for about 5 years... up until the last 2 years it was ok, then it started to have little issues... horizontal pixalated lines... 'dead' pixels... full screen stuff was jittery/laggy...
I tried a reinstall to the newer snow leopard... it did nothing to change this issue... i could ignore the lines... but then it started (what most people call) Ghosting... shadowing...this is where for example... you minimize a window and part of the "shrinking" animation gets stuck the the screen... usually moving a window around gets rid of this..
So as my knowledge grew with computers i started to realized that artifacting was to do with the graphics card (duh) and that also it could be a heat issue...
Untill i thought "heat issue" i never really appreciated just how quiet my imac was... anyway, i downloaded the beautifully handy smcFanControll program and maxed out the fans... wonderful... no more artifacting...i also learnt how to open up this beast and i cleaned up as much of the dust buildup as possible... but this was by no means a propper FIX even though a lot of people would have closed the thread by now... but i thought it was a fix... i used it again for another year with the artifacting steadily getting worst and the fans steadily getting louder and faster... Then a few days ago came the hottest day of the year...
I turned all the fans up to max... as usual at that point... and i started getting silly finder errors... couldn't open up word docs.. the computer was slow anyway... regardless of the hottest day i couldn't comfortably watch full screen videos/youtubes without closing every application and even then it didn't 'feel' fast. So anyway, silly little issues... and i thought, screw it ill just restart... ive had wierder issues before...
Goodbye background forever...I couldnt reboot... it would stay constantly on that white background with the gray apple and the turning loading thing...
I tried everything... i mean everything... i tried resetting both types of the Vram and the other one (i forget the name) i did it properly i promise you... i tried everything... i took my install disk out... (using an external harddrive because my internal broke a long time ago) held down 'C' for 5 mins before it would boot...
Keep in mind...smcFanControl only works when the OS has booted... my computer was HOOOOOTTT... i took it to the coldest room of the house and ran it there.... ok... so i booted off the disk... tried a verify and repair of the disk and permissions... nada... still wouldnt boot... i tried other things... still didnt work... ok... so i plugged in an external and i backed up everything using the disk utilities off the DVD. All the meanwhile everything is artifacting and pixalating LIKE CRAZY!!! i can hardly read the screen... i have to guess half the time and have to 'shake' the window around so it refreshes and i can make some sense of this...
Anyway... create the backup on an external...i decide its time to fix this blasted artifacting problem once and for all...I not only just take the screen off how i did before i remove the logic board and the heatsink, from the cpu/graphics card... i noticed that on the graphics card itself there is the part that touches the heat sink and that part is surrounded by pieces of foamy rubber... i had seen these before... they where like a foamy conductor usually for other parts of a system that also get hot... id seen them in laptops where the heatsink also goes past the gpu and that foamy thing connects the gpu to the heatsink...
on the imac these foamy things where practically melted and frankly messed up... also the thermal paste in the middle was just rock hard and old and crap... so... i decided to leave the foamy things since they LOOKED melted but hadnt actually slipped off in all these years....i replaced the thermal paste on both cpu and the gpu with some generic industrial thermal paste i use... (please someone enlighten on us this 'foamy' business)
OK... so this took AGES in total... i also replaced the 250gig harddrive with an another harddrive i had, its good to note that this new one i added in was actually a few years old... just not used too much...
so anyway... put the new harddrive in... boot up onto DVD... its still artifacting but i blame this on the fact that the smcFanControl is not able to run... i go to install snow on the new HD and after waiting 40 mins each time it fails 3 times.... gets to the end and just fails.... all the meanwhile its artifacting like crazy... by this point ive got a fan blowing directly at it to help.
Im so dejected by now that i pretty much give up... i feel a bit unhappy coz this mac was like my baby, i used it for everything and i got this instead of a car when i was 17 because i wanted to video edit on final cut pro so badly....
anyway... i start thinking... hottest day of the year has passed... its actually quite cold today... why is my mac heating up... when i got it it was fine... i concluded that it must have slowly been breaking with the excess heat... i tried to install the OS again... on the new HD and it failed... i was so angry... i opened it up again because i wanted to test this new HD on another system... could it be that just my luck... both HD's where broken? then again i didnt use a brand new one... I opened up my back, took the screen off... (i hadnt screwed it in this time so i had it opened and ready within 2 mins of shutting it down..) i tried to remove the harddrive and almost burnt my fingers... The harddrive was SOOOO hot!!.. jeez... so i thought... no way... i put in the original 250gig mac harddrive... left the screen off and man... it got so hot...
So basically i concluded that the Harddrive was acting like a little 'heater' inside my mac raising the ambient temp inside and effecting everything...
Ok... so i decided to test my theory... i attached a 2.5 sata harddrive (for laptops) it was brand new, i kept it as a spare... at this point i didnt risk my mac overheating so i had it opened and had a fan attached to it... i had to take a picture because it was ridiculous what i was reduced to:
![]()
haha... i hope that picture works... So the OS installed without a hitch... i can blame the faulty harddrive...
at this point i would like to give a wonderful bow to Apple's amazing 'migrant assistant' oh my god... it was like my imac had never left me...
Ok... so everything was back go normal except i was running off a 2.5 inch harddrive... like i cared at this point... ive ordered a new one and am waiting for it in the post...untill then i have selotaped (electrical) the small harddrive agaisnt the back panel of the inside of the mac...
am now posting this from my imac!!! the temp is 29-32 deg C, which is amazing.. before it was 35-40... smc is on full id like to add... i dont risk the selotape getting hot and the HD falling off.. but i blame those lower readings on the thermal paste but MOSTLY the harddrive not being a hotplate...i really really really believe that was the issue... my mac is now physically cool the screen is no longer warm/hot...
So... it turns out... in reality... imac 24's are overheating duh duh duh... because of the HD!!! (mainly
)....I did some other steps which have helped but that was the main factor...
So this is my actual FIX on fixing your imac heat problem, not just turning up your fans...... i invite ANYONE to edit this... to add in real terminology... to rephrase this... please please please add your thoughts, i wont be offended..
-------------------
Fix:
Basically its my opinion that most macs are heating up because of the Hard Drive getting too hot plus the fact that inside will be very very dirty after all these years...
Start With downloading smcFanControl.. a great tool to increase your fan speed... this will really really HELP but not fix the issue...
... your mac ran fine when you first bought it right?
You will need:
The correct Torx Screw driver
A new HD, preferably get one that is supposed to be cooler
GOOD thermal paste, arctic silver etc
Thermal paste cleaning solution
A usb harddrive Caddy
Learn how to open up your mac... look at online guides... its no walk in the park but after the first time its dead easy...
Take the screen off... and asuming you did this in a decent amount of time you should be able to feel if your HD is hot... you should be able to feel this from the back of the imac also when its turned on... about just a few inches up from dead centre... if THAT area is hotter then that means your HD is acting like a little furnace...
So... replace your HD... you can slowly pull off the temp sensor... clean up all the fans etc from dust... i ran the end of a vacuum cleaner on the fan (some people dont suggest this coz of static but this vacuum i use has never caused any issue)
Now take your logic board out (easier said then done) take the heat sink off... clean the grills on the heatsink as best as possible... now... on the Graphics part of the heatsink you will see these foam pads... i just left them but someone below may have advice on how to replace these with better ones... Clean the thermal paste... and apply some arctic silver or something..
once everything is back in place... except the screen... what i did is add a piece of electrical tape between the bottom left fan 'exhaust' to the metal heatsink... on my imac there was a <1cm gap between these... i connected this gap with tape and think this is a better way to concentrate that fan just on the CPU/GPU heatsink ill try to upload pics once my new HD arrives and the new thermal paste (read above)
So thats what i did... right now im using a laptop harddrive instead... since they are designed to run cooler it works a treat... its temporary though...
So... now connect everything back up and close your imac... install the OS from the DVD and then run the migrant assistant... connect your old HD using the usb caddy and you will never notice you ever did anything...
except fix your mac (remember to still use the smcFanControl
Again... please anyone critizise me or add anything you like... this is what is working for me at the moment... im in the process of replacing the thermal paste AGAIN with some better thermal paste and also in the process of installing a new HD..
keep in mind with a new HD the higher the RPM the hotter it will get.
All the best to all of you! Hope this helps coz it would have helped me if i had read "hot imac = hot harddrive" at any point i could have saved myself a bunch of effort... i did look and i dont assume im the first to write this but i think the information should be more widely available.
Sorry to write so much!! ill stop now!!
all the best!!
Hey. I own a 24" Imac (the white one before the Aluminum)
2.16 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo.
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
Below is my personal little saga, i need to tell someone because i doubt my girlfriend or friends care about this haha xx
Ive had it for about 5 years... up until the last 2 years it was ok, then it started to have little issues... horizontal pixalated lines... 'dead' pixels... full screen stuff was jittery/laggy...
I tried a reinstall to the newer snow leopard... it did nothing to change this issue... i could ignore the lines... but then it started (what most people call) Ghosting... shadowing...this is where for example... you minimize a window and part of the "shrinking" animation gets stuck the the screen... usually moving a window around gets rid of this..
So as my knowledge grew with computers i started to realized that artifacting was to do with the graphics card (duh) and that also it could be a heat issue...
Untill i thought "heat issue" i never really appreciated just how quiet my imac was... anyway, i downloaded the beautifully handy smcFanControll program and maxed out the fans... wonderful... no more artifacting...i also learnt how to open up this beast and i cleaned up as much of the dust buildup as possible... but this was by no means a propper FIX even though a lot of people would have closed the thread by now... but i thought it was a fix... i used it again for another year with the artifacting steadily getting worst and the fans steadily getting louder and faster... Then a few days ago came the hottest day of the year...
I turned all the fans up to max... as usual at that point... and i started getting silly finder errors... couldn't open up word docs.. the computer was slow anyway... regardless of the hottest day i couldn't comfortably watch full screen videos/youtubes without closing every application and even then it didn't 'feel' fast. So anyway, silly little issues... and i thought, screw it ill just restart... ive had wierder issues before...
Goodbye background forever...I couldnt reboot... it would stay constantly on that white background with the gray apple and the turning loading thing...
I tried everything... i mean everything... i tried resetting both types of the Vram and the other one (i forget the name) i did it properly i promise you... i tried everything... i took my install disk out... (using an external harddrive because my internal broke a long time ago) held down 'C' for 5 mins before it would boot...
Keep in mind...smcFanControl only works when the OS has booted... my computer was HOOOOOTTT... i took it to the coldest room of the house and ran it there.... ok... so i booted off the disk... tried a verify and repair of the disk and permissions... nada... still wouldnt boot... i tried other things... still didnt work... ok... so i plugged in an external and i backed up everything using the disk utilities off the DVD. All the meanwhile everything is artifacting and pixalating LIKE CRAZY!!! i can hardly read the screen... i have to guess half the time and have to 'shake' the window around so it refreshes and i can make some sense of this...
Anyway... create the backup on an external...i decide its time to fix this blasted artifacting problem once and for all...I not only just take the screen off how i did before i remove the logic board and the heatsink, from the cpu/graphics card... i noticed that on the graphics card itself there is the part that touches the heat sink and that part is surrounded by pieces of foamy rubber... i had seen these before... they where like a foamy conductor usually for other parts of a system that also get hot... id seen them in laptops where the heatsink also goes past the gpu and that foamy thing connects the gpu to the heatsink...
on the imac these foamy things where practically melted and frankly messed up... also the thermal paste in the middle was just rock hard and old and crap... so... i decided to leave the foamy things since they LOOKED melted but hadnt actually slipped off in all these years....i replaced the thermal paste on both cpu and the gpu with some generic industrial thermal paste i use... (please someone enlighten on us this 'foamy' business)
OK... so this took AGES in total... i also replaced the 250gig harddrive with an another harddrive i had, its good to note that this new one i added in was actually a few years old... just not used too much...
so anyway... put the new harddrive in... boot up onto DVD... its still artifacting but i blame this on the fact that the smcFanControl is not able to run... i go to install snow on the new HD and after waiting 40 mins each time it fails 3 times.... gets to the end and just fails.... all the meanwhile its artifacting like crazy... by this point ive got a fan blowing directly at it to help.
Im so dejected by now that i pretty much give up... i feel a bit unhappy coz this mac was like my baby, i used it for everything and i got this instead of a car when i was 17 because i wanted to video edit on final cut pro so badly....
anyway... i start thinking... hottest day of the year has passed... its actually quite cold today... why is my mac heating up... when i got it it was fine... i concluded that it must have slowly been breaking with the excess heat... i tried to install the OS again... on the new HD and it failed... i was so angry... i opened it up again because i wanted to test this new HD on another system... could it be that just my luck... both HD's where broken? then again i didnt use a brand new one... I opened up my back, took the screen off... (i hadnt screwed it in this time so i had it opened and ready within 2 mins of shutting it down..) i tried to remove the harddrive and almost burnt my fingers... The harddrive was SOOOO hot!!.. jeez... so i thought... no way... i put in the original 250gig mac harddrive... left the screen off and man... it got so hot...
So basically i concluded that the Harddrive was acting like a little 'heater' inside my mac raising the ambient temp inside and effecting everything...
Ok... so i decided to test my theory... i attached a 2.5 sata harddrive (for laptops) it was brand new, i kept it as a spare... at this point i didnt risk my mac overheating so i had it opened and had a fan attached to it... i had to take a picture because it was ridiculous what i was reduced to:
haha... i hope that picture works... So the OS installed without a hitch... i can blame the faulty harddrive...
at this point i would like to give a wonderful bow to Apple's amazing 'migrant assistant' oh my god... it was like my imac had never left me...
Ok... so everything was back go normal except i was running off a 2.5 inch harddrive... like i cared at this point... ive ordered a new one and am waiting for it in the post...untill then i have selotaped (electrical) the small harddrive agaisnt the back panel of the inside of the mac...
am now posting this from my imac!!! the temp is 29-32 deg C, which is amazing.. before it was 35-40... smc is on full id like to add... i dont risk the selotape getting hot and the HD falling off.. but i blame those lower readings on the thermal paste but MOSTLY the harddrive not being a hotplate...i really really really believe that was the issue... my mac is now physically cool the screen is no longer warm/hot...
So... it turns out... in reality... imac 24's are overheating duh duh duh... because of the HD!!! (mainly
)....I did some other steps which have helped but that was the main factor...So this is my actual FIX on fixing your imac heat problem, not just turning up your fans...... i invite ANYONE to edit this... to add in real terminology... to rephrase this... please please please add your thoughts, i wont be offended..
-------------------
Fix:
Basically its my opinion that most macs are heating up because of the Hard Drive getting too hot plus the fact that inside will be very very dirty after all these years...
Start With downloading smcFanControl.. a great tool to increase your fan speed... this will really really HELP but not fix the issue...
... your mac ran fine when you first bought it right?
You will need:
The correct Torx Screw driver
A new HD, preferably get one that is supposed to be cooler
GOOD thermal paste, arctic silver etc
Thermal paste cleaning solution
A usb harddrive Caddy
Learn how to open up your mac... look at online guides... its no walk in the park but after the first time its dead easy...
Take the screen off... and asuming you did this in a decent amount of time you should be able to feel if your HD is hot... you should be able to feel this from the back of the imac also when its turned on... about just a few inches up from dead centre... if THAT area is hotter then that means your HD is acting like a little furnace...
So... replace your HD... you can slowly pull off the temp sensor... clean up all the fans etc from dust... i ran the end of a vacuum cleaner on the fan (some people dont suggest this coz of static but this vacuum i use has never caused any issue)
Now take your logic board out (easier said then done) take the heat sink off... clean the grills on the heatsink as best as possible... now... on the Graphics part of the heatsink you will see these foam pads... i just left them but someone below may have advice on how to replace these with better ones... Clean the thermal paste... and apply some arctic silver or something..
once everything is back in place... except the screen... what i did is add a piece of electrical tape between the bottom left fan 'exhaust' to the metal heatsink... on my imac there was a <1cm gap between these... i connected this gap with tape and think this is a better way to concentrate that fan just on the CPU/GPU heatsink ill try to upload pics once my new HD arrives and the new thermal paste (read above)
So thats what i did... right now im using a laptop harddrive instead... since they are designed to run cooler it works a treat... its temporary though...
So... now connect everything back up and close your imac... install the OS from the DVD and then run the migrant assistant... connect your old HD using the usb caddy and you will never notice you ever did anything...
except fix your mac
(remember to still use the smcFanControlAgain... please anyone critizise me or add anything you like... this is what is working for me at the moment... im in the process of replacing the thermal paste AGAIN with some better thermal paste and also in the process of installing a new HD..
keep in mind with a new HD the higher the RPM the hotter it will get.
All the best to all of you! Hope this helps coz it would have helped me if i had read "hot imac = hot harddrive" at any point i could have saved myself a bunch of effort... i did look and i dont assume im the first to write this but i think the information should be more widely available.
Sorry to write so much!! ill stop now!!
all the best!!
Last edited: