Hello. I have a 27" iMac from 2009 (I believe it is a mid-2009 model) with a 2.66 GHz i5 and an ATI HD 4850. I kept it stored in its box for several years, but when I recently took it out and tried to turn it on, I was greeted by a series of beeps at startup that prevent it from booting or displaying anything on screen.
I also remember that, even before I stored it away, it had begun to show some problems. For instance, the FireWire 800 port (which I actually used) had stopped working, and there were also image issues such as a dead pixel and random colored bars and blocks appearing on screen — I never knew whether that was caused by the display itself, the graphics card or the motherboard.
Here you have a quick video:
To be fair to the machine, I had upgraded it at the time by installing a new 1 TB HDD and an SSD in a caddy in place of the SuperDrive. It also had the useful feature of working as an external monitor, since that generation of iMac could accept an HDMI input via an adapter, which I still have.
Even though every repair shop I’ve spoken to says the same thing — that at this point it is not worth fixing and I should just buy a new computer — I still feel that this machine could potentially have some useful applications that I have yet to figure out.
With that in mind, what would you do in my position? A replacement logic board and a graphics card might get expensive, specially in my country.
I appreciate your thoughts.
I also remember that, even before I stored it away, it had begun to show some problems. For instance, the FireWire 800 port (which I actually used) had stopped working, and there were also image issues such as a dead pixel and random colored bars and blocks appearing on screen — I never knew whether that was caused by the display itself, the graphics card or the motherboard.
Here you have a quick video:
To be fair to the machine, I had upgraded it at the time by installing a new 1 TB HDD and an SSD in a caddy in place of the SuperDrive. It also had the useful feature of working as an external monitor, since that generation of iMac could accept an HDMI input via an adapter, which I still have.
Even though every repair shop I’ve spoken to says the same thing — that at this point it is not worth fixing and I should just buy a new computer — I still feel that this machine could potentially have some useful applications that I have yet to figure out.
With that in mind, what would you do in my position? A replacement logic board and a graphics card might get expensive, specially in my country.
I appreciate your thoughts.
