Bricked My iMac!

[krawfo]

Holy Crap ! I installed an SSD in my iMac today. Everything seems to go well. I put everything back together. Went to plug it in a heard a quick pop. I knew that couldn't be good. It wouldn't power up. I pulled the LCD out and checked everything but didn't see anything amiss.
I've resigned myself to a $1,000 assessment of the stupid tax but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

 

[Will/\]

Holy Crap ! I installed an SSD in my iMac today. Everything seems to go well. I put everything back together. Went to plug it in a heard a quick pop. I knew that couldn't be good. It wouldn't power up. I pulled the LCD out and checked everything but didn't see anything amiss.
I've resigned myself to a $1,000 assessment of the stupid tax but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

Oh no, what iMac is it? 2012, 2013 or earlier. I have purchased a samsung 840 pro 256GB that I was about to place an SSD into my mac later this week but after reading this....

 

[dextr3k]

I am under the impression you probably blew a capacitor if you heard anything audible. Unfortunately its hard to diagnose because you cant just buy parts randomly to replace.

Easiest of course is to take it into Apple and see if they will fix for you. Otherwise have them tell you what is broken, then go replace it yourself from parts off ebay.

If you are lucky its just the power supply, if you are not, the whole logic board. Sorry

 

[Altemose]

Holy Crap ! I installed an SSD in my iMac today. Everything seems to go well. I put everything back together. Went to plug it in a heard a quick pop. I knew that couldn't be good. It wouldn't power up. I pulled the LCD out and checked everything but didn't see anything amiss.
I've resigned myself to a $1,000 assessment of the stupid tax but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

I am guessing a blown capacitor in the power supply since you did heard the pop instantly. Go to Apple and see.

 

[krawfo]

It's a mid 2011 27" iMac. I took the power supply to a local repair shop and it was dead. I wouldn't mind spending $150 for a new one but if the logic board is toast I'd just be putting good money after bad. As a DIY, I guess the only way to know is to replace the power supply and see what happens.

 

[Fishrrman]

Folks, here's yet one more post by someone who thought they could just open up the iMac, do "an internal job", and....

... well, the rest of the story is posted above.

If the OP had hooked up an EXTERNAL SSD (mounted in a thunderbolt enclosure), he'd have been back up-and-running in a few minutes, with no internal problems.

Instead.......

Moral:
In many cases, why not just add an external boot drive, live with the slight speed differential, and avoid such problems altogether ???

 

[keysofanxiety]

Folks, here's yet one more post by someone who thought they could just open up the iMac, do "an internal job", and....

... well, the rest of the story is posted above.

If the OP had hooked up an EXTERNAL SSD (mounted in a thunderbolt enclosure), he'd have been back up-and-running in a few minutes, with no internal problems.

Instead.......

Moral:
In many cases, why not just add an external boot drive, live with the slight speed differential, and avoid such problems altogether ???

Hooray, Captain Hindsight to the rescue! Thank God you came, we almost didn't know what to say.

Most people wouldn't add an external boot drive and 'live with the speed differential', because there's no point in buying an SSD if you've resigned yourself to accepting poor performance.

Unfortunately something went wrong for the OP, potentially due to something they overlooked, but your response is extremely unhelpful and has an air of schadenfreude.

 

[krawfo]

Hooray, Captain Hindsight to the rescue! Thank God you came, we almost didn't know what to say.

Most people wouldn't add an external boot drive and 'live with the speed differential', because there's no point in buying an SSD if you've resigned yourself to accepting poor performance.

Unfortunately something went wrong for the OP, potentially due to something they overlooked, but your response is extremely unhelpful and has an air of schadenfreude.

Well Said !!

 

[keysofanxiety]

Well Said !!

Incidentally OP, my condolences for your situation have you had an opportunity to take it to Apple for assessment?

 

[Lankyman]

Folks, here's yet one more post by someone who thought they could just open up the iMac, do "an internal job", and....

... well, the rest of the story is posted above.

If the OP had hooked up an EXTERNAL SSD (mounted in a thunderbolt enclosure), he'd have been back up-and-running in a few minutes, with no internal problems.

Instead.......

Moral:
In many cases, why not just add an external boot drive, live with the slight speed differential, and avoid such problems altogether ???

I'm with you on this one. Why folk would spend a couple of thousand pounds on a sealed product then think their DIY skills are second to none in modding said product is beyond me. Even if you open an iMac the chances of contamination by dust or finger marks is huge. Add to this it's resale value is almost nil once Fred Carno has had his mitts on it.

 

[Kashsystems]

Hooray, Captain Hindsight to the rescue! Thank God you came, we almost didn't know what to say.

Most people wouldn't add an external boot drive and 'live with the speed differential', because there's no point in buying an SSD if you've resigned yourself to accepting poor performance.

Unfortunately something went wrong for the OP, potentially due to something they overlooked, but your response is extremely unhelpful and has an air of schadenfreude.

There has been several posters who have gotten 400-600 mb/s read write speeds on external thunderbolt ssds.

If he had a traditional hard drive, it would have been anywhere from a 300-500 percent speed increase.

 

[Fishrrman]

keysofanxiety wrote above:
[[ Most people wouldn't add an external boot drive and 'live with the speed differential', because there's no point in buying an SSD if you've resigned yourself to accepting poor performance. ]]

I boot and run my Mac Mini with a Crucial m500 SSD sitting in a plugable.com USB3/SATA docking station.

Using Blackmagic Speed test, I get write speeds of 276mbps and read speeds of 432mbps.

Should be upset with that "poor performance" ???

Maybe I could have achieved even faster with an internal install, but that's good enough for my usage...

 

[Pipper99]

There has been several posters who have gotten 400-600 mb/s read write speeds on external thunderbolt ssds.

If he had a traditional hard drive, it would have been anywhere from a 300-500 percent speed increase.

Agree. An external ssd is certainly not poor performance. It's far superior to an internal spinning drive.

 

[mdhwoods]

Man you guys are harsh. I have years of electrical experience and still manage to fudge things up at times. A few months ago my 55" lcd tv started acting up. I could have paid someone to come out and fix it but decided to take the chance and do it myself. Every thing went great. I have repaired lots of ipod touches but had to buy my first one 6 months ago because I screwed up a repair. Even the best technician can screw things up just as easily as a DIY.

Cut this guy some slack. I would by the new p/s if it was me. Though you need to figure out why it popped.

 

[BConvery]

Hooray, Captain Hindsight to the rescue! Thank God you came, we almost didn't know what to say.

Most people wouldn't add an external boot drive and 'live with the speed differential', because there's no point in buying an SSD if you've resigned yourself to accepting poor performance.

Unfortunately something went wrong for the OP, potentially due to something they overlooked, but your response is extremely unhelpful and has an air of schadenfreude.

Post of the month!

 

[iMacC2D]

Removed.

 

[Altemose]

Man you guys are harsh. I have years of electrical experience and still manage to fudge things up at times. A few months ago my 55" lcd tv started acting up. I could have paid someone to come out and fix it but decided to take the chance and do it myself. Every thing went great. I have repaired lots of ipod touches but had to buy my first one 6 months ago because I screwed up a repair. Even the best technician can screw things up just as easily as a DIY.



Cut this guy some slack. I would by the new p/s if it was me. Though you need to figure out why it popped.

We all screw up sometimes. And people who are being harsh if you went to even upgrade the RAM on a easily upgradable Mac and you screwed it up would you want people bagging on you for it? This is a difficult repair and I think the PSU just died.