Mid 2009 iMac on 10.10.? randomly took a dump yesterday. Can it be salvaged?

[heimbachae]

Hey all,

I know I don't frequent these forums as much as I used to but I'm at a crossroads and I need some professional help.
So my late 2009 quad core 2.66GHz 27" iMac last night before I came into work decided it was going to not work. It's extremely hard to describe what actually happened as I've never seen it before. The best description I've found dealt with a graphics issue.
Menu bar and dock missing until i could scroll my mouse over it and then it would appear for a second and disappear. Horrible vertical and horizontal lines, especially when switching between multiple desktops (I keep itunes on one, photos on another, etc)
Rebooting (hard off) and turning back on let's me enter my password to logon but then gets stuck at the grey apple loading screen at about 1/4 of the loading bar full.
Calling apple support he said its most likely due to me leaving the computer sleeping often (I never turn it off, or don't as much as I should?). He stepped me through reinstalling OS X.... unfortunately seems like the same problems. I didn't have much time to troubleshoot before I had to leave for work.
Is this issue a common thing? I used it late last week and for the last 7 years with no issues like this. I'm just kinda stumped. I have voice notifications on, so when it goes to the apple logo loading screen it notifies a me that iTunes needs my attention. Hitting the play button resulted in music starting to play too, just never went past 1/4 loaded for a half hour or so.
Thanks in advance for the help guys. I'll be asleep shortly so I'll answer when I arise later today.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Yeah sounds like graphics failure. I believe the graphics are on a seperate card so that can be replaced. If you'd be going that route, you might as well upgrade the HDD to an SSD while you're there; this will vastly improve system performance and the HDD is likely also failing due to age anyway.

 

[heimbachae]

Yeah sounds like graphics failure. I believe the graphics are on a seperate card so that can be replaced. If you'd be going that route, you might as well upgrade the HDD to an SSD while you're there; this will vastly improve system performance and the HDD is likely also failing due to age anyway.

i was fortunate enough to get lumped into a HD class action. something about seagate HDs failing so they replaced the TB i have in there for free.... i'm not sure maybe 3 years ago now? i just thought it was so weird. the computer worked fine a few days ago. then randomly just... bars and nasty.
i ordered a new macbook pro tonight. i do need to get this guy fixed though as i have some stuff on there i'd like to keep. pictures and music mostly, but also important documents...
i've never cracked an imac open, is it hard? i image if i look on that teardown website (ifixit or something like that) i could find out what exactly id need, tools wise. i don't wanna write it off, i need it fixed.

 

[keysofanxiety]

i was fortunate enough to get lumped into a HD class action. something about seagate HDs failing so they replaced the TB i have in there for free.... i'm not sure maybe 3 years ago now? i just thought it was so weird. the computer worked fine a few days ago. then randomly just... bars and nasty.
i ordered a new macbook pro tonight. i do need to get this guy fixed though as i have some stuff on there i'd like to keep. pictures and music mostly, but also important documents...
i've never cracked an imac open, is it hard? i image if i look on that teardown website (ifixit or something like that) i could find out what exactly id need, tools wise. i don't wanna write it off, i need it fixed.

Err I guess it's not that bad if you've got the tools and plenty of work area. Basically just the screen and a few cables from there. But it's far from being in the top 10 preferable computer repairs. Might be worth asking a local Apple Store if they'd be happy to do it for you; they're frequently accommodating with things like that.

Certainly if you removed the drive you could access the data externally through a 3.5" SATA USB dock. So worst case scenario: if the home repair is a writeoff, you'll still have all your stuff to access through your new MBP.

 

[heimbachae]

Err I guess it's not that bad if you've got the tools and plenty of work area. Basically just the screen and a few cables from there. But it's far from being in the top 10 preferable computer repairs. Might be worth asking a local Apple Store if they'd be happy to do it for you; they're frequently accommodating with things like that.

Certainly if you removed the drive you could access the data externally through a 3.5" SATA USB dock. So worst case scenario: if the home repair is a writeoff, you'll still have all your stuff to access through your new MBP.

yea i just checked. it's too many tools i'd have to buy and might be out of my comfort level. i was considering restoring to a previous backup. not sure that would do much of anything. i will definitely go speak to them, i mean... if it's something as simple as a software update (which there was a security patch recently i remember downloading) then i'd be wasting money getting it unneeded repairs. ugh what crap timing.
thanks for the idea bouncing. worst case: i lose some months of documents and music. not the worst thing ever. still, a pain.

 

[keysofanxiety]

yea i just checked. it's too many tools i'd have to buy and might be out of my comfort level. i was considering restoring to a previous backup. not sure that would do much of anything. i will definitely go speak to them, i mean... if it's something as simple as a software update (which there was a security patch recently i remember downloading) then i'd be wasting money getting it unneeded repairs. ugh what crap timing.
thanks for the idea bouncing. worst case: i lose some months of documents and music. not the worst thing ever. still, a pain.

Yeah you definitely got unlucky. Sod's law, really... stuff tends to fail at the worst possible time.

Hope it works out for you man.

 

[heimbachae]

Yeah you definitely got unlucky. Sod's law, really... stuff tends to fail at the worst possible time.

Hope it works out for you man.

ah it's just documents relating to my divorce. honestly.... if they are gone i'm not sure i'd be that upset. kind of liberating, but still may need them for some bs in the future.... i dunno, i'm torn! ill fix it.... just not right away hah

 

[heimbachae]

still not working. found something out. so while it's at the apple logo grey loading screen at 1/4 loaded... if i hit the ESC button it goes to sleep and if i hit it again it wakes up! i'm gonna say that's progress??? i dunnoooo

 

[heimbachae]

update: so my apple geek buddy had me reset the NVRAM... the computer is still on a loading screen, about a 1/4 full with the apple logo... except the background is now white. he said it's most likely the logic board.
i've ordered a new MBP 15". and i've read i can hook up my old computer via firewire and boot it up in target disk mode. i'm crossing all my fingers and toes hoping that will work so i can access some documents and items on the old computer. if it doesn't i'm gonna just give it to apple to extract the data, hopefully they can do it to an external drive. i doubt i'm going to toss money into fixing it at this point. main priority is getting data off it.