First time poster, with a possible project computer:
About 5 years ago, the 27" iMac (late 2009) that we had given to my son for playing games failed hard on startup, with graphics glitches that very much resembled the GPU failures that plagued this iMac model. This was the second graphics card in this machine -- we brought this iMac in for the Apple graphics card replacement program, when the first card failed just under the deadline. The second time around, we didn't want to pay the prices for a replacement graphics card at the time, so I set put it in storage and forgot about it.
Fast forward to now, when I pulled it out of storage, with plans to boot into safe mode, clone the drive and dispose of the thing. I noticed that the graphics glitches were different this time, though they still made the machine unusable. So after cloning the drive, I had the idea of doing a clean installation of Catalina, just to see what would happen. During the re-install, the iMac did an unexpected firmware update and, to my surprise, the computer started up with a clean desktop and no graphics issues at all!
It was still running hot and the fans were constantly running, so I opened the iMac up for cleaning and found the probable culprit: The machine was packed with dust, much of it on the graphics card itself. The fans were more than half-clogged. After much cleaning with compressed air and clouds of dust, it's now running at a more reasonable temp, with all sensors showing temps in the 40-50° C range in normal use (and the PSU is highest at 55-56° C).
So my plans have changed. I'm thinking of making this 2009 iMac into a project machine, for email and media-playing. (I'm typing this message on it now!) Here's the specs:
iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
2.66 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB (2 x 2 GB) 1067 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6
The first thing that need to be improved is the memory, even another 8 GB would improve its performance. The optical drive also isn't working -- it just ejects a disk after trying to read it for a minute. The trick of cleaning the drive lens with a eyeglasses cleaning cloth wrapped around a credit card didn't work. I'm opened these iMacs before, so I could replace the optical drive with an SATA III SSD and move the system files there for a performance boost.
But what should I do after that? I have mid-level technical skill for repairs -- I've successfully done computer tear-downs and rebuilds before, but only on more upgrade-friendly computers, and not in the last decade. Should I consider disassembling the iMac and replacing the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU cards? Is any other maintenance needed?
I'm not too interested in making this into a maxed-out performance spec machine. I'm mostly interested in keeping it working as a media machine for the next few years, on something of a budget. Should I consider CPU and/or GPU upgrades for it too, and how technical/expensive would that be?
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
About 5 years ago, the 27" iMac (late 2009) that we had given to my son for playing games failed hard on startup, with graphics glitches that very much resembled the GPU failures that plagued this iMac model. This was the second graphics card in this machine -- we brought this iMac in for the Apple graphics card replacement program, when the first card failed just under the deadline. The second time around, we didn't want to pay the prices for a replacement graphics card at the time, so I set put it in storage and forgot about it.
Fast forward to now, when I pulled it out of storage, with plans to boot into safe mode, clone the drive and dispose of the thing. I noticed that the graphics glitches were different this time, though they still made the machine unusable. So after cloning the drive, I had the idea of doing a clean installation of Catalina, just to see what would happen. During the re-install, the iMac did an unexpected firmware update and, to my surprise, the computer started up with a clean desktop and no graphics issues at all!
It was still running hot and the fans were constantly running, so I opened the iMac up for cleaning and found the probable culprit: The machine was packed with dust, much of it on the graphics card itself. The fans were more than half-clogged. After much cleaning with compressed air and clouds of dust, it's now running at a more reasonable temp, with all sensors showing temps in the 40-50° C range in normal use (and the PSU is highest at 55-56° C).
So my plans have changed. I'm thinking of making this 2009 iMac into a project machine, for email and media-playing. (I'm typing this message on it now!) Here's the specs:
iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
2.66 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB (2 x 2 GB) 1067 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6
The first thing that need to be improved is the memory, even another 8 GB would improve its performance. The optical drive also isn't working -- it just ejects a disk after trying to read it for a minute. The trick of cleaning the drive lens with a eyeglasses cleaning cloth wrapped around a credit card didn't work. I'm opened these iMacs before, so I could replace the optical drive with an SATA III SSD and move the system files there for a performance boost.
But what should I do after that? I have mid-level technical skill for repairs -- I've successfully done computer tear-downs and rebuilds before, but only on more upgrade-friendly computers, and not in the last decade. Should I consider disassembling the iMac and replacing the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU cards? Is any other maintenance needed?
I'm not too interested in making this into a maxed-out performance spec machine. I'm mostly interested in keeping it working as a media machine for the next few years, on something of a budget. Should I consider CPU and/or GPU upgrades for it too, and how technical/expensive would that be?
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
