imac late 2011 graphic card issue

[subigor]

Hi all,

some months ago (August last year, very hot inside home) I was playing a Steam game with may late 2011 imac. Suddenly I started to have problems with the video and rebooted by itself. Then I could login but after some minutes it will reboot again. Finally I had the apple logo while booting and then the infamous grey screen and it was impossible to login again, not even in safe mode.

After some research and asking to an Apple store I found out I had a problem with my 2Gb AMD Radeon HD 6970M. They asked me an insane amount of money just for a simple GPU reflow so I decided to do it myself.

I did it, and now it's booting without problems and it's working fine, no weird video blinks or stripes or whatever, but there's something weird:

-The games I used to play they are very very slow now, impossible to play.
-If I boot in safe mode I have problems with the GPU as it makes like some kind of stripes charging images (similar to a 56k modem charging an image) or some parts of the screen are blinking (always as an horizontal stripe)... I don't understand why as it should work better in safe mode, right?

Now I don't know if I should try another reflow as I will reopen it to put an SSD instead of the optical drive, or there's something weird I'm missing as it's only not working well with games and in safe mode.

I did a performance test with Novabench:
-CPU score 0 (I think it was no able check it...don't know why)
-RAM score 219
-Disk score 15 (write speed 35MB/s, read speed 51MB/s)
-GPU score 99 (Metal 3D: 3FPS, OpenCL: 0 GFLOPS)

The specs of my iMac:
- 27" late 2011
-2 Gb AMD Radeon HD 6970M
-3,4 Ghz intel Core i7
-32 Gb 1333 Mhz DDR3
-1Tb HDD 7200 rpm
-High Sierra 10.13.6

Thanks.

 

[Jforte]

why don't you try to upgrade to a 780m with modded vibes made by nick?
I have the same machine, but with 2 ssd 480gb and a 780m.

 

[subigor]

why don't you try to upgrade to a 780m with modded vibes made by nick?
I have the same machine, but with 2 ssd 480gb and a 780m.

This could be a solution, but at the moment I'm low on budget (I'm a freelance and this f*cking coronavirus is not helping at all). That's why I went for the reflow solution.

 

[herrdude]

This could be a solution, but at the moment I'm low on budget (I'm a freelance and this f*cking coronavirus is not helping at all). That's why I went for the reflow solution.

All you are doing is kicking the can down the road. Most likely, you will have to bake the card again. You can get k1100m cards for around $30US.

 

[subigor]

All you are doing is kicking the can down the road. Most likely, you will have to bake the card again. You can get k1100m cards for around $30US.

I found a couple of refurbished k1100 at about the price you said, but the good prices are in the US... I live in Europe and here they are more expensive (the best price I found is about 150 US $ + shipping), and if I find someone from US that can send it to Europe I have the same expensive prices as here because of customs and shipping fees.

I think I will give it a second bake and try again, and if it doesn't work I will check for a refurbished one at a good price.

 

[Jforte]

I found a couple of refurbished k1100 at about the price you said, but the good prices are in the US... I live in Europe and here they are more expensive (the best price I found is about 150 US $ + shipping), and if I find someone from US that can send it to Europe I have the same expensive prices as here because of customs and shipping fees.

I think I will give it a second bake and try again, and if it doesn't work I will check for a refurbished one at a good price.

You have a machine that can work with NVIDIA K1000m, K1100m, K2000m, K2100m, 765m, 770m and 780m...
You can follow some sites like eBay (and others, with domestic sellers). Maybe you'll find a good bargain... My opinion, if it is refurbished, ask seller what he did to the card, and do not buy backed cards...

 

[herrdude]

I found a couple of refurbished k1100 at about the price you said, but the good prices are in the US... I live in Europe and here they are more expensive (the best price I found is about 150 US $ + shipping), and if I find someone from US that can send it to Europe I have the same expensive prices as here because of customs and shipping fees.

I think I will give it a second bake and try again, and if it doesn't work I will check for a refurbished one at a good price.

If you can, I would pull the hard-drive and put an SSD in there. Put your 1TB into an enclosure. It will generate less heat. Also, make sure you use good thermal paste as recommended in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/

At least you will take the strain off of your graphics card. That being said, it will die again.

 

[subigor]

You have a machine that can work with NVIDIA K1000m, K1100m, K2000m, K2100m, 765m, 770m and 780m...
You can follow some sites like eBay (and others, with domestic sellers). Maybe you'll find a good bargain... My opinion, if it is refurbished, ask seller what he did to the card, and do not buy backed cards...

That's my main concern, probably if they're cheap they are baked (risky and I can try to do it myself a second time to see if my card works) and those more expensive are reballed. I will do some research to see if there's something interesting .

 

[herrdude]

That's my main concern, probably if they're cheap they are baked (risky and I can try to do it myself a second time to see if my card works) and those more expensive are reballed. I will do some research to see if there's something interesting .

Why would the Nvidia cards be baked? (K1000m, K1100m, K2000m, K2100m).
It's just the crappy AMD 6X00 cards that needed to be reballed.

 

[subigor]

If you can, I would pull the hard-drive and put an SSD in there. Put your 1TB into an enclosure. It will generate less heat. Also, make sure you use good thermal paste as recommended in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/

At least you will take the strain off of your graphics card. That being said, it will die again.

Good idea. I never thought about putting out the 1Tb Hdd an use it as external drive to generate less heat.
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Why would the Nvidia cards be baked? (K1000m, K1100m, K2000m, K2100m).
It's just the crappy AMD 6X00 cards that needed to be reballed.

What do you mean?... Are you saying Nvidia cards have a better quality?... they overheat less than AMD ones?... are they better welding?...honestly I have no idea

I think that when it comes to overheating the welding melting temperature should be the same for all of them. So they shoud have the same problems when they overheat. I'm just guessing.

 

[herrdude]

Good idea. I never thought about putting out the 1Tb Hdd an use it as external drive to generate less heat.
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What do you mean?... Are you saying Nvidia cards have a better quality?... they overheat less than AMD ones?... are they better welding?...honestly I have no idea

I think that when it comes to overheating the welding melting temperature should be the same for all of them. So they shoud have the same problems when they overheat. I'm just guessing.

It really is the AMD HD 6X00 cards that are pure garbage. There are even stories of people getting them replaced by Apple only to have them die again a few years later.

The Nvidia cards simply do not have this problem for whatever reason. In addition, they will let you upgrade to Catalina.

 

[Azrael9]

It really is the AMD HD 6X00 cards that are pure garbage. There are even stories of people getting them replaced by Apple only to have them die again a few years later.

The Nvidia cards simply do not have this problem for whatever reason. In addition, they will let you upgrade to Catalina.

As someone who has 'static' on the PC side and 'grey screen of death' on the Mac side. I thought this thread was interesting.

I've had two iMacs now. 2008 (24 inch) and 2012 (late 27 inch) and they've both run hot under load. (The 24 inch you could cook a fried egg on...) and the 27 inch iMac blows the fans if you're playing a 10 year old game. (Come on, Apple.)

I have a 680MX (which was in the top 6 and certainly top 10 GPUS when it was released. Decent card for it's time.)

So, from forum help, I've deducted that it's the gpu that's 'gone' on it. (Not confirmed but highly likely.) There's no way I can afford to go to Apple to do a 'fix' or be told it 'doesn't work' for more money that the machine is worth.

ironic. The screen still works great (no burn), the hard drives (fusion) are intact as is the cpu. Bah. Bahhhh.

If this was any PC? I could just throw the 680 MX and install any moderate GPU would give my machine extra life.

As is I either buy a Mac Mini with soldered SSD...'another' iMac (depending on Apple's release schedule for a new model), buy a PC or build a PC/Hackintosh dual boot. The latter of which is very tempting.

My point? Nvidia cards have a history of failing too. Apple and Nvidia's current political spat is over just that. ie. Those gpus that failed in the Mac books? (and probably other reasons re: APIs...)

And if we needed further proof. My 680 MX failed. I could say that the thermal paste probably dried up after 7.3 years and I've had a good run. But the design flaw of the iMac rises here. An enclosed, not too well cooled enclosure that fries the components. No GPU module you can simple replace. Remember when Jobs demonstrated that you could easily take off the back of the iMac off and service your own machine?

Not now. Cellotape and sealed point of sale machines designed for profit and upsell. Highly cynical marketing and sales rather than product orientated strategy.

Meanwhile, I'm definitely going non-Apple only. My patience with Apple has run thin. I don't see why I should pay them twice for less. So, yes, looking forward to the new iMac design (a games orientated one with superior cooling? Sure. Believe it when I see it.) But it can't be beyond me to do a Hackintosh and run some Mac/PC softare on both platforms. Most of my software is dual platform.

*rant over. For now.

Azrael.

 

[nathansz]

I think what he is saying is that if you buy an old 6xxx its been likely been pulled from an old iMac and maybe already been baked several times, or is melted to ****

whereas you can buy a cheaper kxxx card and could be in fine shape.

and even if it's not they're like $30 so not much lost

 

[whooshbong]

Interesting thread.
I have a late 2012 iMac. All options on it when bought it. It’s died for a 3rd time with what I believe are graphics issues. Fans sound like an aircraft taking off even when idling and gpu sensor reading about 70c. Curiously much better in windows via boot camp and better when idling.
Last year Apple and an official reseller wouldn’t touch it as its classed ‘vintage’. Took to a high street repairer who reballed it twice but now gone again.
he advised last time it would be about £600 for a replacement card, which is more then the things worth.
So I now have an inoperable hunk of plastic and metal on my desk.
If it were relatively cheap and easy to fix I might be tempted. I haven’t done any pc repair type things for 10+ years.
Can’t afford a new one right now and might have to go for a base Mac mini for now.
my other concern is how to wipe/secure the hard drive if iMac won’t boot.

 

[Azrael9]

"clam down"

What's that? A pie?

Yeah, 'clam down.'

Azrael.
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Interesting thread.
I have a late 2012 iMac. All options on it when bought it. It’s died for a 3rd time with what I believe are graphics issues. Fans sound like an aircraft taking off even when idling and gpu sensor reading about 70c. Curiously much better in windows via boot camp and better when idling.
Last year Apple and an official reseller wouldn’t touch it as its classed ‘vintage’. Took to a high street repairer who reballed it twice but now gone again.
he advised last time it would be about £600 for a replacement card, which is more then the things worth.
So I now have an inoperable hunk of plastic and metal on my desk.
If it were relatively cheap and easy to fix I might be tempted. I haven’t done any pc repair type things for 10+ years.
Can’t afford a new one right now and might have to go for a base Mac mini for now.
my other concern is how to wipe/secure the hard drive if iMac won’t boot.

*nods. Yep. I recognise those symptoms. Same here. And I'm in the same boat, I'm not going to throw good money after bad. The iMac is just that when it fails. 'An inoperable hunk of plastic and metal.'

In my case, you can't just pull out the gpu and replace it. Which is wasteful and a design flaw. And not very eco friendly. The screen, cpu, hard drive are still fine. The problem is it's 'vintage' (it wasn't classed as 'vintage' when I handed Apple £2200 etc for it.)

Being constructive. Apple have a two year 0% finance deal going right now. That might be tempting for you if you don't have the up front cash. Modest payments a month for two years isn't so bad a deal.

The mini, whilst not great (and it isn't great value) you could opt for the 512 gig SSD/6 core i5 model for around a £1000-ish and pay that over two years. And if you need a GPU go for the Razor eGPU and a 580 gpu (about 300-ish for both) as and when you can afford it. This would be least be a decent enough machine over the next two years. And again. You'll need a monitor with the Mini. But cheap monitors can be found for very little comparied to an LG 5k... A case of shopping around for your Mini, eGPU and Monitor. But between the Apple finance, eBay, Amazon etc it can be done.

So, it's adding up to the cost of a decent iMac. But at least if the eGPU fries you're not left with as much non-working junk.

You could put your other Mac into target mode and attach to the Mac Mini to secure your data. (I've got to get my internal data off my hard drive...) Or take the drive out and attach it externally to your 'new' Mac...if that's possible. I'm less concerned about the fried iMac. More concerned with the data and it sounds like you are also.

Regards,

Azrael.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi!

I do understand you are frustrated, but this problem occurs in the complete computer industry. People want thin laptops with high resolution display and high performance graphics and a long lasting battery at the same time. Im forgot the top level CPU and no fans, of course.

The users placed his new machine in the summer sun doing a rendering job while drinking an iced coffee in the shadow.

The industry promotes this, the result is evident: You can buy dead PC laptops GPU as many as sand on the beach and parts of these, too. This is not an Apple specific problem, sorry. Of course, even the ATI and Nvidia sales men probably promised features and a stability of their products engineering could never realize.

There is no PC any more, they all use the same parts and share the same problems.

 

[mikehalloran]

Read this thread and learn. It can be the battery. If GPU, the HDD caused the problem—get it out of there. Baking re-flows the cracked solder joints. Do it right, install an SSD—they're cheap now—replace the battery and fix the problem.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...in.2185401/page-2?post=28411486#post-28411486

 

[whooshbong]

Read this thread and learn. It can be the battery. If GPU, the HDD caused the problem—get it out of there. Baking re-flows the cracked solder joints. Do it right, install an SSD—they're cheap now—replace the battery and fix the problem.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...in.2185401/page-2?post=28411486#post-28411486

It’s been baked twice already and am iMac so no battery.

 

[nathansz]

It’s been baked twice already and am iMac so no battery.

i think they are talking about the cmos battery, which it
indeed has

 

[mikehalloran]

i think they are talking about the cmos battery, which it
indeed has

Yes indeed, it has. Except for the 2009–2010, it's under the screen, lower right.

Since the Blue & White G3, it is the most likely cause of a dark screen. Experienced techs know to change it first, then see if there's still a problem — this is why I sent you to the other thread.

It is not the only cause of a dark screen, but quite a few GPUs have been baked because of a bad BR2032 battery.

If the HDD has been replaced with an SSD, a common CR2032 battery is fine. The BR2032 is the high-heat version—otherwise, they're identical.

 

[whooshbong]

Thanks all. I see that you mean about the battery. I see feel it was probably graphics related as the graphics PICU(?) was often running about 70℃

 

[subigor]

FYI:

I did a second bake and...RIP... no boot at all... nothing... 😢

So... I think that I will buy the cheapest gpu, even a 512MB, just to make it boot. And later on I will buy an eGpu. It's a good machine, but... the GPU... nowadays...no way... I mean it's ok for average use but I use it for gaming (yeah yeah mac for gaming bla bla bla 🤪) and graphic design/rendering

 

[NOTNlCE]

FYI:

I did a second bake and...RIP... no boot at all... nothing... 😢

So... I think that I will buy the cheapest gpu, even a 512MB, just to make it boot. And later on I will buy an eGpu. It's a good machine, but... the GPU... nowadays...no way... I mean it's ok for average use but I use it for gaming (yeah yeah mac for gaming bla bla bla 🤪) and graphic design/rendering

Unfortunate, sorry for your loss! In your search for a *very* cheap GPU, I can redirect you back to the aftermarket GPU thread for iMacs - a custom VBIOS for an NVIDIA K610M has just been released for boot screens and backlight support. The card can often be found for $9 US, so maybe within reason for you in Europe! Its performance is certainly not good, but much better than a dead machine! Best of luck!

 

[vidbot24]

Unfortunate, sorry for your loss! In your search for a *very* cheap GPU, I can redirect you back to the aftermarket GPU thread for iMacs - a custom VBIOS for an NVIDIA K610M has just been released for boot screens and backlight support. The card can often be found for $9 US, so maybe within reason for you in Europe! Its performance is certainly not good, but much better than a dead machine! Best of luck!

Hi, can anyone tell me if this screen fault , the pink and green pixelation is caused by the GPU[screenshot attached] and if this upgrade will fix it ? It's on a late 2011 27" iMac 8gb Ram with

ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB graphics

 

[NOTNlCE]

Hi, can anyone tell me if this screen fault , the pink and green pixelation is caused by the GPU[screenshot attached] and if this upgrade will fix it ? It's on a late 2011 27" iMac 8gb Ram with ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB graphics

Please try not to hijack other's threads - but to answer your question, yes this is 100% a GPU failure. Head over to the upgrade thread and give it a good solid read.