Help! iMac missing OS-X?

[boyse7en]

Hi all,

I've bought a second-hand iMac and it arrived yesterday and I'm having a bit of trouble.
It's a 2011 iMac in case that is important

If i turn it on it makes a "chime" sound, then there is some whirring (DVD drive and HDD getting going) then after about 20 seconds the fan starts up full pelt and stay on. The screen remains black throughout - no grey screen, no error messages, nothing at all on it.

The seller says that it is just missing an install of OS-X and that I can install it on to the machine, but I'm failing to see how a missing OS would keep the screen blank. I've got install DVDs for Leopard and Snow Leopard, is it worth trying these in it or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

[cwanja]

You can try it. The chime means that the installed hardware is functioning (good sign). Have you tried to hold down Option when booting to see if anything shows up?

If you have the DVDs, put one in and boot to that. From there, you can launch some utility applications (specifically Disk Utility) and run test on the hard-drive to see if it is working and OK.

If all the seller did was completely erase the machine, I could see how it would POST (chime) and then sit there an do nothing. Historically you would see a folder with a question mark, indicating the hard-drive has failed and it is missing the OS. Trying to boot from the DVD will give you additional information.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Try Snow Leopard if it is an original boot DVD or purchase OS X.6.3 from Apple Online for $20.00.

The fans roaring is a sign the hard drive has been changed and no Heat Sensor Kit installed. Maybe he/she removed an SSD and installed a platter drive. If the display connections have been left unplugged, or damaged, this would explain the dead display. Always a tad risky buying a seven year old computer.

 

[boyse7en]

Tried it with the Snow Leopard DVD (and a Leopard DVD i had too) and still nothing on the screen.
I think it is booting OK, as if i leave it running i can use the volume keys and hear it getting louder/quieter. So it is "live"

I think that you're right, and that the display adapter hasn't been connected or has failed.

I'm sending it back


I know an old Mac is a bit of a risk (although I use my 2009 Mac Pro at work 40+ hours per week and it has not failed yet) but i just needed a cheap solution for home for the kids to do homework on.

 

[Fishrrman]

Didn't the 2011 iMacs also have some GPU problems?

 

[rpmurray]

You'll need a Snow Leopard 10.6.6 DVD to boot this from DVD. These disks came with the iMac and you can get them relatively inexpensively on eBay. The retail 10.6.3 won't work.

You've likely got a dead video card in the iMac if the fans are going full tilt, but to make sure you might try pressing the F2 key on the keyboard to increase the brightness in case that was turned all the way down.

How much did you pay for it? Repairing or replacing the video card is going to set you back some bucks. Either route is pretty expensive unless you want to try to bake it, but I don't recommend that because even if it works it will fail again a few months down the line.

 

[Guy Clark]

Hi all,

I've bought a second-hand iMac and it arrived yesterday and I'm having a bit of trouble.
It's a 2011 iMac in case that is important

If i turn it on it makes a "chime" sound, then there is some whirring (DVD drive and HDD getting going) then after about 20 seconds the fan starts up full pelt and stay on. The screen remains black throughout - no grey screen, no error messages, nothing at all on it.

The seller says that it is just missing an install of OS-X and that I can install it on to the machine, but I'm failing to see how a missing OS would keep the screen blank. I've got install DVDs for Leopard and Snow Leopard, is it worth trying these in it or am I barking up the wrong tree?

The 2011 iMac does not natively run OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard although it can be made to do so once a cloned Hard Drive from another Mac which will natively run it and all updates must be applied 10.6.8 (OS X 10.5 Leopard even with all updates applied is out of the question).
The earliest OS X release that can natively be installed is OS X 10.7 Lion. I recommend you go with macOS 10.13 High Sierra which will be the last compatible release with the 2011 iMac
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201475

Try and PRAM and SMC reset
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3603

 

[MarshallH]

Hi all,

I've bought a second-hand iMac and it arrived yesterday and I'm having a bit of trouble.
It's a 2011 iMac in case that is important

If i turn it on it makes a "chime" sound, then there is some whirring (DVD drive and HDD getting going) then after about 20 seconds the fan starts up full pelt and stay on. The screen remains black throughout - no grey screen, no error messages, nothing at all on it.

The seller says that it is just missing an install of OS-X and that I can install it on to the machine, but I'm failing to see how a missing OS would keep the screen blank. I've got install DVDs for Leopard and Snow Leopard, is it worth trying these in it or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Didn't the 2011 iMacs also have some GPU problems?

Fishrrman is right, in the 2011 Imac the 6970M had a problem were it would over heat and the chip would un-solder form the card. This sounds very much like your problem, I am currently trying to figure out if I can put a GTX 660M in my 2011 with a bad GPU (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/660m-in-2011-27in-imac.2133861/).

Some people have been able to get a little more life out of the amd gpu by backing it in the oven (I can not say how well this works on this computer, but I was able to get some more life out of a laptop this way).
Other wise you are going to have to buy a new amd gpu or try to get a NVidea one to work.

Personally I think it is very unlikely that the os install is bad, but you could test it with a flash drive with mac os on it.
In the future buy 2012 or newer, we have 3 27" 2011 that have all had the GPU replaced once, and now 2 of them are dead again. we have 2 2012's that have had zero problems.

 

[Guy Clark]

Didn't the 2011 iMacs also have some GPU problems?

Although the poster of the thread doesn't specify, the graphics issue affect the 27" mid 2011 iMac.
[doublepost=1535156767][/doublepost]

Try Snow Leopard if it is an original boot DVD or purchase OS X.6.3 from Apple Online for $20.00.

The fans roaring is a sign the hard drive has been changed and no Heat Sensor Kit installed. Maybe he/she removed an SSD and installed a platter drive. If the display connections have been left unplugged, or damaged, this would explain the dead display. Always a tad risky buying a seven year old computer.

Even though the 2011 iMacs are fully user serviceable, nothing soldered in whatsoever.

Supporting The Right to Repair.

 

[Bertrude]

The 2011 iMac does not natively run OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard...

The mid 2011 version definitely does. I bought mine in May 2011 (UK). It came with Snow Leopard and it's still running it.

Maybe try command+R on start up and see if you can get it to do an internet recovery.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

It did come with Snow Leopard and alas there is no recovery option until the next operating system Lion OS X.7.

 

[Bertrude]

My bad. I'd swear I've had it up on Snow Leopard at some point when either my graphic card first went or when one of my RAM sticks went bad.

The iMac the OP has bought might have a newer OS installed though so internet recovery might work. If he has another thunderbolt 1 equipped Mac, target display mode might possibly work too, unless the GPU is borked.

 

[Guy Clark]

The mid 2011 version definitely does. I bought mine in May 2011 (UK). It came with Snow Leopard and it's still running it.

Maybe try command+R on start up and see if you can get it to do an internet recovery.

Snow Leopard does not have internet recovery. This feature was introduced in Lion. Snow Leopard 10.6.3 does not run natively on the mid 2011 iMac. You need to install Snow Leopard on another compatible Mac and update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 then clone the drive over to the mid 2011 iMac.

Then and only then will Snow Leopard run.