It was a sad day for me, with a lesson to learn: If it's working, don't try to fix it.
Before the mess-up
iMac 27" 2009; Quadro M4000m; Mac OS High Sierra.
My intention:
Replace the Quadro M4000m with Firepro M5100 to install Mac OS Monterey, and reducing the SSD size to give away the iMac.
What did I mess up?
1. Yanked out the LCD panel while the temperature sensor was still connecting with the logicboard. This reckless act broke the socket on the logicboard....
2. Carelessly placed the LCD protection glass on the tiled floor. It touched the floor on its sharp corner with more gravity than it can handle, resulting in a crack at the lower left corner. on the black area. It doesn't impact the visual screen but creates annoying view at the glass itself.
3. After the first installment, the iMac produced a chime. Being over confident with that, I went to bed. On the next day I wiggled the iMac a little bit and lost the booting chime. Getting frantic, I shook the iMac a bit more and this time, thing got loose. Apparently the iMac was fallen or tumbled down in the past, plus after 15 years of services, many plastic parts have become brittle. They broke to many tiny pieces in the iMac. eventually, I had to disassemble the logicboard to clean up, then reassemble it. After reassembling and several times of power-on, power-off circle, I got the booting chime back again...
After the mess-up
Now it became interesting. The iMac now doesn't seem to accept any USB source: I can't do PRAM reset, pressing any keys on my USB keyboards wouldn't have any impact. The GRML Linux USB didn't work, either. (I did try the "Shutdown now" command blindly with no effect).
The glass has a crack.
Black screen with the M5100 (apparently with unflashed card)
Broken LCD temp sensor socket.
Many broken plastic stand (to hold the logicboard)
Plastic pressure wall of the PSU is not there anymore....
When pressing the power, the iMac still chimes, the fans still rotate vigorously, the LED on my USB keyboard and mouse still blinking, I get 2 diagnostic LEDs lit up, but that's all it can do. No IP address appear on the router management page. Black screen.
What to do next?
Here's a couple things I can try in the next weekend:
- Try booting GRML Linux from a SATA SSD or burn a CD (must check whether I still have any blank CD left for this, and how to burn a GRML CD... lol)
- Remove the M5100 to install it on an HP 800G1 USDT and flash from Windows or GRML
- Flash the M5100 with the CH341 clip (never tried it before)
Wish me luck!
I hope that you won't make the same mistake as mine and ruin your beautiful iMacs...
I can't do anything about the cracked glass, the broken plastic. With the cracked glass and wiggling aluminum stand, the idea of making a stand-alone display with the LCD panel doesn't seem prominent at all...
Probably I'll keep it as an experimental machine and toy to do modding on the case.
It's fun anyway.
Before the mess-up
iMac 27" 2009; Quadro M4000m; Mac OS High Sierra.
My intention:
Replace the Quadro M4000m with Firepro M5100 to install Mac OS Monterey, and reducing the SSD size to give away the iMac.
What did I mess up?
1. Yanked out the LCD panel while the temperature sensor was still connecting with the logicboard. This reckless act broke the socket on the logicboard....
2. Carelessly placed the LCD protection glass on the tiled floor. It touched the floor on its sharp corner with more gravity than it can handle, resulting in a crack at the lower left corner. on the black area. It doesn't impact the visual screen but creates annoying view at the glass itself.
3. After the first installment, the iMac produced a chime. Being over confident with that, I went to bed. On the next day I wiggled the iMac a little bit and lost the booting chime. Getting frantic, I shook the iMac a bit more and this time, thing got loose. Apparently the iMac was fallen or tumbled down in the past, plus after 15 years of services, many plastic parts have become brittle. They broke to many tiny pieces in the iMac. eventually, I had to disassemble the logicboard to clean up, then reassemble it. After reassembling and several times of power-on, power-off circle, I got the booting chime back again...
After the mess-up
Now it became interesting. The iMac now doesn't seem to accept any USB source: I can't do PRAM reset, pressing any keys on my USB keyboards wouldn't have any impact. The GRML Linux USB didn't work, either. (I did try the "Shutdown now" command blindly with no effect).
The glass has a crack.
Black screen with the M5100 (apparently with unflashed card)
Broken LCD temp sensor socket.
Many broken plastic stand (to hold the logicboard)
Plastic pressure wall of the PSU is not there anymore....
When pressing the power, the iMac still chimes, the fans still rotate vigorously, the LED on my USB keyboard and mouse still blinking, I get 2 diagnostic LEDs lit up, but that's all it can do. No IP address appear on the router management page. Black screen.
What to do next?
Here's a couple things I can try in the next weekend:
- Try booting GRML Linux from a SATA SSD or burn a CD (must check whether I still have any blank CD left for this, and how to burn a GRML CD... lol)
- Remove the M5100 to install it on an HP 800G1 USDT and flash from Windows or GRML
- Flash the M5100 with the CH341 clip (never tried it before)
Wish me luck!
I hope that you won't make the same mistake as mine and ruin your beautiful iMacs...
I can't do anything about the cracked glass, the broken plastic. With the cracked glass and wiggling aluminum stand, the idea of making a stand-alone display with the LCD panel doesn't seem prominent at all...
Probably I'll keep it as an experimental machine and toy to do modding on the case.
It's fun anyway.
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