Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Does this iMac advice sound reasonable..

E

easytiger

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 24, 2014
5
0
I have (had) an early 2011 top spec imac (27", i7, 8gb), that ran very hot and then konked out. The tech could not even get it to run the diagnostics. I was told that there is no point getting it fixed even if they can find the cause. The heat will have hugely reduced the remaining run life of the other components and I should bin it...
he said it was full of dead flies and likely this caused the overheat!
does this sound like sound advice?

Secondly - is there any chance I can use it as a dummy monitor for a mini mac replacement?
 
Full of dead files that likely caused it to overheat? That's an odd statement. It's probably out of warranty right? Did they quote you a cost to repair it?

Did you take it to an Apple Store?

It could be cost-effective to have it repaired than buy a new one, as long as (when it was working) worked well for you.

I doubt it's positively clear that excessive heat was the actual cause of what went wrong. Did they say what was wrong, like a bad logic board or power supply?
 
easytiger said:
he said it was full of dead flies and likely this caused the overheat!
Click to expand...
That makes no sense, data is just a bunch of 1 and 0s on the hard drive and have no impact on the temperature of a computer. What does is working the CPU/GPU like intensive games or the fans not working as they should or the thermal compound on the CPU/GPU not applied properly.
 
I took it to a non apple tech guy - he said it was running at 80 plus degrees when he stopped trying to look at it. Prob the logic board and the transformer were generating excess heat. deff a new logic board, and poss other stuff, but he didn't look into that yet. £600 as a minimum, and then expect other components to fail soon once it was up and running.
 
easytiger said:
I took it to a non apple tech guy - he said it was running at 80 plus degrees when he stopped trying to look at it. Prob the logic board and the transformer were generating excess heat. deff a new logic board, and poss other stuff, but he didn't look into that yet. £600 as a minimum, and then expect other components to fail soon once it was up and running.
Click to expand...

I'd get a second opinion on it. 80C or 80F (whichever you're reporting) is well within operational limits of the iMac and shouldn't have been a concern at all.
 
maflynn said:
That makes no sense, data is just a bunch of 1 and 0s on the hard drive and have no impact on the temperature of a computer. What does is working the CPU/GPU like intensive games or the fans not working as they should or the thermal compound on the CPU/GPU not applied properly.
Click to expand...

Flies not files!
 
yes, definitely flies - the files are safe on timemachine - the flies are fried!
 
i think, but this is pure speculation, they flew in the massive vent at the top and bunked down on the warm bits of the innards
 
Take it to a tech that actually knows what they're doing. I would recommend an apple store, as even out of warranty it may still get covered.
 
I would open it up and vacuum/blow out the dead flies (and any dead files you find in there :D ) and give it another try. Look for any "deposits" on the circuit boards which might present a short and try to remove the "gunk" as best as possible.
 
maflynn said:
That makes no sense, data is just a bunch of 1 and 0s on the hard drive and have no impact on the temperature of a computer. What does is working the CPU/GPU like intensive games or the fans not working as they should or the thermal compound on the CPU/GPU not applied properly.
Click to expand...

Dead insects can indeed cause overall head buildup, especially if they interfere with vents. Just piled up around a component they can cause heat buildup too, and the iMac is not as easy to cool as a standard tower configuration.
 
many thanks

I have hoovered out the carcass and started it up.... now it smells of burning insulation. I think a trip to the nearest apple shop (a few hours away) is in order.
 
easytiger said:
many thanks

I have hoovered out the carcass and started it up.... now it smells of burning insulation. I think a trip to the nearest apple shop (a few hours away) is in order.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a good idea. Let us know how it turns out.
 
There is some truth to the idea that running at high temperature would reduce the life of the other components, but it's a paranoid delusion to think that this would completely destroy reliability. Unless there were signs of discoloration from the heat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back