FREE Broken iMac Gets Repaired And Upgraded!

Donated by a viewer, this broken iMac needs some work. Its time to fix it up and upgrade its hardware.
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[@Tincanman50]

Hugh, There is no need to remove the power supply or the DVD drive. The logic board can be removed with these left in place

[@ihari3321]

Oh

[@mulahasan8195]

But its convenient and much less dangerous

[@saikatdas126]

Probably he is doing it to clean if theres any dirt or something....even i do so

[@dejavustudio243]

Oh ok mr.perfect 😺😂

[@StormyBoi]

I don't disagree, it does appear that that is the case. But with how many things he does do right that the majority of technicians slip up on, makes me trust his methods. However, I do agree that he probably didn't need to remove the PSU and DD to get at the LB.

[@SilverX95]

It's weird that a lot of older computers run way faster now with solid state drives, it's amazing that it took this long to get solid state drives to where they need to be reliable and usable for long-term use. I sometimes wonder where do you go from that besides faster and longer lifespan. It's like for the longest time storage was the main bottleneck.

[@DuskHorizon]

SSDs were reliable & usable for a long time. They just cost a lot more than what we were willing to pay. Now that the cost of flash memory has come down, and the price of SSDs has come down, mechanical drives will be displaced to data centre use only.

[@doge7831]

On computers 7+ years old i recommend installing Linux Mint on it. It’s more lightweight than Windows and everything should run faster.

[@cdos9186]

It might be just me, but I don't fully trust an SSD as they are not going to last as long as a hard drive will. Don't take new technology for granted, I don't believe a 10 year old SSD is still going to work like a 10 year old HDD will. There are still hard drives from the 90s that work so I don’t expect having a 30 year old SSD from now still working due to how SSDs function and wear.

[@10GTech]

@@DuskHorizon some consumers might still need mechanical drives for long-term storage as well, not just data centers

[@rudder3084]

@@10GTech you know that the lifespan of an SSD is derived from its TBW right?.... if it is a backup SSD lets say for pictures and video files and is not the main drive for the OS it should last almost indefinitely

[@alex47a659]

0:37 'The viewer who wished to remain anonymous' :) Nathan, we support you.

[@911HRW]

Thought the same. 👍👍😂😂

[@Alifkbr]

nathan is his buddy who shipped it for him

[@cadenchurchill4296]

Friend: “Hey, is the iMac upgradable?” Me: “Depends on how much you value your screen.” 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@nanerb25]

lmao

[@synth6754]

linus tech tips is typing...

[@naraydaniels7832]

From my experience, yeah this is it, I almost died on my first try cuz it didn’t come back on, only a black screen.

[@cadenchurchill4296]

@@naraydaniels7832 Holy crap that’s horrifying!

[@PurpleSucks.]

@@naraydaniels7832 mostly graphics failure

[@yardnuk]

Hi Hugh! I am very familiar with the 2011 iMacs, and I wanted to make you aware of an issue that all models are affected with from the factory. The Radeon GPUs (HD 5000M and 6000M series) are prone to failure, and are guaranteed to fail eventually. I am aware you stated you could upgrade the GPU (with another officially supported version), but every compatible Radeon card for this generation has the same issues, and it is rather costly to begin with. So, I would recommend modding the iMac by installing a newer Radeon or Nvidia card, which is possible through some vBIOS flashing and patience, plus it's much cheaper! I did it to my personal 2011 27" model using an Nvidia Quadro K2100M and some research (2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade on MacRumors), and it works great! Also, keep up the great work! Your videos are always entertaining to watch while I do some computer work of my own haha! Edit: By the way, I forgot to mention that upon upgrading the GPU to something more modern, this enables you to install an unsupported OS (like MacOS Catalina) onto the 2011 model. This isn't possible with the Radeon 6000M card, mainly because it does not support GPU acceleration in newer OSes and is basically unusable.

[@jamiechampion299]

The Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs used in the 2011 iMacs are known to fail, but the iMac in this video has the lower end Radeon HD 6750M, and it doesn't fail as often as the higher end cards used in the 27" iMac. Still important to know about, but it isn't as big of a problem with the 21.5" iMac as it is with the 27" iMac.

[@yardnuk]

@@jamiechampion299 Thanks for the input! I am admittedly more familiar with the 27” model, but the computer store I worked at last year did have several 21.5” models come in with dead/failing GPUs. But yeah, I’ve seen many more 27” ones with bad GPUs. Regardless, it’s definitely a fun project to upgrade the GPU!

[@jamiechampion299]

@@yardnuk The 27" 2011 iMac is notoriously terrible for GPU failures (along with hard drive failures), and while the 21.5" can suffer from it too it just doesn't happen as often as with the 27" from everything I've experienced as well as everything I've read online. It's good that they do use socketed GPUs though, because GPU upgrades are a good project, even if they aren't cheap. I use a 2011 27" iMac as one of my primary computers, and right now it's still running on the original Radeon HD 6970M. That card has already failed twice, but after a reflow it's been working perfectly. It's been running nearly 24/7 for about a year and a half now with no signs of failure. I've decided that with this iMac I'm just going to wait and see how long it lasts until it does finally fail for good before upgrading the GPU.

[@yardnuk]

@@jamiechampion299 I mean, as long as you can keep it alive, that’s awesome!

[@jamiechampion299]

@@yardnuk So far so good! I don't treat it too kindly, that's for sure. The iMac runs three 1440p monitors (one internal, two external), and I often use it to stream my desktop PC (triple 1440p streams) through the network with Parsec. That's not a light load on the GPU at all, but it handles it alright.

[@Errcyco]

Another awesome video. Thanks Hugh! It goes under the radar because your talent steals the spotlight, but your editing and video and audio quality and execution is just as good. Great work man!

[@aravarora]

YAY the iMac restoration videos are back!!! Keep up the great work Hugh! :)

[@dott1x154]

the viewer who wanted to be anonymous......shows the name 😂 btw love your vids

[@jingledfriskies5048]

Nathan shipped it from the anonymous guy to Hugh.

[@dott1x154]

@@jingledfriskies5048 ohhh my bad

[@jingledfriskies5048]

@@dott1x154 np bro

[@GAMECLOSET]

This was the first video of yours I’ve watched. Very nicely done. I’m a Mac addict myself as well as being a graphic designer and KZbin creator and I love watching videos like these. I love upgrading, repairing and cleaning old Macs as well. I just recently upgraded my best friend’s 21.5” 2015 iMac hdd to an ssd. I had already done mine a year earlier so doing His was a breeze! Anyway, thanks for your videos and I’ll be watching. Take care.

[@sleepykirbo6392]

That smooth "we're done" at the end of restoration is all I can ask for for a good night's sleep

[@emilyslifewithautism6499]

I agree

[@RolandKoller90]

The love of technology coming out whenever companies release it will never get old. But what’s even more nostalgic feeling, is when you look back at tech from a great era of when it was emerging. Gives you that warm fuzzy feeling inside.

[@utkarshdharmadhikari6816]

It's so good to see that a 10-12 years old computer is totally usable after some small upgrades. Slowly, apple has killed upgradibility altogether. Imagine that the new M1 or M1x macbooks and imacs will end up in landfills in less than 5 years. So sad to see that Apple has 'inspired' the industry to go this route.

[@mecca6801]

i agree, that 5 year thing is total BS, my 2013 macpro tower is still working!

[@utkarshdharmadhikari6816]

@@mecca6801 the major reason for it working is because its repairabile and upgradable. Apple has ensured that nee macbooks and imacs are so expensive to fix that it's better to buy a new one.

[@idkjuststop]

And they also commit that all the apple products are recycled and they just want to make it less fixable, recycle it and sell it wow what a nice strategy to make profit.

[@Bakanelli]

M1’s certainly won’t end up in landfills in 5 years

[@realdennis79]

@@utkarshdharmadhikari6816 Sad reality.

[@simonharam1536]

"The viewer who wished to remain anonymous..." while showing his name on the box 🙂 Edit - ah I see it's your mate Nathan's name on the box. My mistake!

[@inexpensivearms6952]

Came here to post this too

[@CRaDOS]

I thought the same thing and now my comment is the most liked on here lol

[@RiskyMirror6213]

BRO I THOUGHT THE SAME TOO

[@davidwim]

The newer iMacs really aren’t that hard to take apart. You can use the ‘pizza cutter’ type tool to cut the adhesive holding the screen on. I got mine off in less than 10 minutes with no problems at all.

[@TheAntho199]

Just as a friendly remeinder, this imac cost nothing to put back appart and doesn’t need special tools except for the screw driver. It can be opened with suction cups from the dollar store. This is what he meant by easy to open.

[@Fhwgads11]

@@TheAntho199 I had a 2011 27” and I didn’t even need a suction cup to get the glass off. You can do it with your fingernails.

[@ArunKumar-oz3tr]

@@Fhwgads11 lol yes

[@uncrustable9923]

sure but what if the screen is cracked?

[@willm5032]

Totally. But the latest generation have soldered RAM, SSDs and Processors. Apple claim its for optimisation across hardware but it also means if something dies its a new motherboard or a new computer...

[@R_T_Ralph]

Hi Hugh, ive just been given one of these with the same fault. Great video and i will be following it as a guide as you are very thorough. cheers

[@mark_and_stuff]

Hi guys, welcome back to another Hugh Jeffreys video😁

[@G.reviewz]

Hugh guys welcome back to another hi jefferys video

[@schwuppdiewupp7]

Hi video another back welcome to Hugh Jeffreys guys

[@brobrofog]

The real Hugh Jeffery

[@gordonfreeman320]

I really enjoy your restoration videos!

[@realjoshplaysss]

I love your videos! 👍👍👍👍 There so fun to watch and I advise you to make more future ones!

[@tombuck]

Great to see this brought back to life! When I was a teacher, I had a few labs of these and it was always satisfying to remove all the dirt and grime from the year over the summer break since the case was so easy to clean 🤤 Putting on a podcast and cleaning 50 iMacs = a very nice day.

[@GigawattGarage]

11:45. For the 2019 iMac upgrade, I say go for it, it's actually not that bad, an apple watch is way more of a nightmare than an iMac. I did my Church's 2020 iMac with SSD, RAM and CPU Upgrade and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've only taken apart like 3 other iMac's so, while not extremely fun, not that painful the the upgrades are so worth it.

[@alisonsmith4436]

Happy New Year to you Hugh

[@elaineandlindsaymchock6718]

Good to see this update. When (if) our 2009 21.5 inch iMac with original keyboard and optical mouse fails, I may look into updating it using this video as a guide. I wish current generation Apple stuff was so easy to dismantle.

[@JoeMenjivar]

My dad gave me his old iMac, I swapped out the dying hard drive for a new ssd. It was a fun little day project. I love how repairable and upgradable they were. Though I did get a small shock because I wasn't as careful as I should be around the power supply.

[@owenchuarbx]

This is one of my favourite iMacs of all time. Good work Hugh!

[@benheckendorn2696]

It's just amazing. Well done!

[@barimankwan4408]

Well done with the restoration 🔥🔥

[@danielueblacker9118]

Hugh Happy New Year love watching one of your videos.

[@BrendonGreenNZL]

Thanks for the video; it was indispensable when disassembling our 2010 iMac that needed an SSD upgrade; and the tip about re-applying thermal paste and replacing the NVRAM battery was well received (I likely would have overlooked it).

[@jtb52]

Very handy I've still got the same update. I took it apart for fun after your video.

[@top-gun-xvii]

It's always a pleasure watching your videos

[@harissaif1969]

Love your videos keep it up bro 👍👍

[@dang6369]

Good on ya mate! Loved the video thanks for uploading

[@xray111xxx]

Nicely done. Great to see the Imac live again. There is so much e-waste and doing this keeps this going for years to come. While not top spec, your expenses are relatively low.

[@CRaDOS]

“The viewer who wishes to remain anonymous” The box: “From Nathan Silveright”

[@JAL_EDM]

He shipped it he didn't donate it

[@jbritain]

That's his friend who shipped it, not the original viewer.

[@yuvvrajkperson]

That is Psiweveri. He is another KZbinr who fixes stuff in australia

[@JAL_EDM]

@@yuvvrajkperson psivewri you mean?

[@itsmesb4399]

Someone didn’t listen to the video lol

[@WaiPhyoeAung]

Still have my iMac Mid 2011 (i5, 8G, 6770M), watching this video on it. Lovely.

[@JonJon-vg2nv]

such an entertaining and fantastic restoration video. hugh jeffrey is the goat when it comes to this

[@KusumaWijaya]

love this fix, and still flawless design

[@stevenb1465]

It feels like it was yesterday when I've had to do the same exact upgrades on one of these macs (except for the screen)... Wait! it WAS yesterday! :D LOL. Thanks for the great video ;)

[@ChrisSmith-mh6vk]

Hugh, I find your videos utterly fascinating. Well done - and for crying out aloud, fix up your Dad's computer. The poor man probably paid for your education....

[@geoffreyguez]

Nice to watch your video among the firsts viewers ! Nice video and nice job from France !

[@joepisciottajr]

Dude is consistent. Get a notification that a new video has been uploaded every Saturday at 7PM. Well done 👍

[@leeksoup3199]

I'd love to see a video about the 2019 Mac you mentioned!

[@smooth-taggster4045]

this is some real upgrade ability as much as possible for something like this i wish companies still did this

[@tookallyourmoney]

Nate is such a G always coming through

[@andrupka8749]

I have a 2019 4K iMac and I'm planning to upgrade it. I would love to see your vid doing the same thing!

[@Cinco-da-mayo]

Lovely restoration

[@radio-ged4626]

Great job. It may be worth looking to replace those surface mount electrolytic capacitors before they start leaking and damaging the system board. Maybe use ceramic replacements. Recapping the power supply may also increase longevity.

[@danielcrompton7818]

I love your mac videos!

[@rodrigo4379]

I love imac and macbook restauration videos :D

[@prodbydanai]

Another Hugh Jeffrey video 🔥

[@martinmalloy8119]

living 12000 miles away from you and still feel like next door, like very much watching you work greetings from Germany ...

[@GJR30]

Awesome video if a iMac comes to my shop i will try to fix it. I had a mentor of sorts who fix computers so i got my aspirations from him. And fix laptops ever since.

[@matthewl5434]

i think my school has a few of these imacs in addition to the newer ones, the design has held up shockingly well for how old it is

[@gammaboost]

I have a 2011 21.5" base model iMac like this one. I've upgraded the RAM to 12GB but I've been meaning to open it up to clean the inside, replace the thermal paste and upgrade the HDD to an SSD. This video certainly gave me some tips on opening it up, but it all seems quite complicated. Just have to wait and see. I'm glad iFixit exists though

[@alejandrocadena1627]

the best tech videos are from Hugh

[@MakingMovesMajor]

Definitely buying one of these and maxing it out, thanks for the idea.

[@stephensnell5707]

You prune,that isn't possible as Desktops no longer exist In the modern days ONLY Laptops are used

[@djhogg901]

Good job removing the cmos battery, your the only one to point that out!

[@dovix]

I am in love with this channel.

[@peterdenes6353]

Hi Hugh, can you please do a Kindle Oasis 3rd gen battery replacement? I would like to see how it can be done, and I think you are the best person to ask advice from in this topic. Love your videos!

[@matthewday7565]

Brave... fully reassembling without another quick test

[@MicrobyteAlan]

I have a 2011 27” iMac. I’ve updated it to an SSD and 32 G of RAM, running High Sierra. It still is a fine computer.

[@riotix1196]

Upgrading a 2011 iMac running High Sierra to 32 G of RAM is not optimal, the OS is so outdated so hardware to improve performance won't last you long as you start losing support for things such as security, and the lack of access to everyday programs, considering the fact of not updating. :]

[@MicrobyteAlan]

@@riotix1196 - it’s just fine. My MacBook Air M1 is my daily driver.

[@arkvsi8142]

@@riotix1196 no one cares about "security" ........ use Linux if you do

[@SpaceWithSam]

These videos never disappoints!😃❤️

[@stephensnell5707]

You mean dissapoint

[@alex_foskett_]

I would love to see someone completely spec out the 2019 I Mac! Please do it dude

[@bratsos]

Nice retro all in one computer bring me good memories

[@Tech-gv6qk]

I can watch your repair videos all day.

[@libertarian1637]

I like these older fixable and upgrade-able Macs. I personally run a mid-2012 MacBook Pro for my daily driver; mine runs a Core i7 and 16 GB of ram that keeps it relevant even today. I’ve upgraded my HD to a SSD and upgraded that a few more times to a now Samsung 970; I also like still having a disk drive as in the business space a lot of older software is still only legacy CDs or DVDs and some just don’t like to be converted to ISOs for storage on a flash drive. I also like the blue ray upgrade which is a drop in for about $100 and works flawlessly to allow not only watching blue rays on the road, something less relevant with the prevalence of streaming but also allows blue ray burning and re-writing which can come in handy and is actually not too bad a way to long-term back-up data. I run a modern toughbook for most work stuff but this is a great go to as there are just some things that are easier or only done on a Mac; I just wish Apple didn’t keep killing “Pro” benefits to Mac, I miss the ability of doing things on the GUI, like the old disk utility, instead of having to go back to terminal to accomplish most anything advanced anymore. The whole point in GUIs was to get away from typing, though at least resources are better and I don’t have to keep getting “syntax error” prompts like on th old Apple IIs, which is where I started with Apples. To me they’ve really been going down hill as far as professional products since maybe 2016 around T2 and IOS 11, when they crippled iPhones and iPads by removing ARP Table access and the biking to utilize network diagnostic tools.

[@lardna]

The viewer who wished to stay anonymous has his name stamped on the box

[@YourTypicalAverageAsianGuy]

That's another youtuber psivewri who collected and shipped it to him lmfao

[@zerocks88]

life hack with those old imacs, if you just bridge the pins for the temperature sensors it'll make the fans not run at full speed :)

[@mihirmisra9778]

FINALLY A NEW MAC VIDEO

[@emilrylander5289]

so kind of the guy who donated all the things

[@RetroJack]

After being a keen watcher of Louis Rossmann, it's kinda weird to see an iMac that's so easy to service!

[@uncrustable9923]

towards the end I was waiting for the "so there we have it" but he said "so this is it" 😆

[@hegedusuk]

Really good video, seems a cut above the rest. One thing though - I've found that on those older iMacs, the HDD had a special temperature sensor that was missing when replacing it with an SSD. This causes the fans to go to Max speed all the time. I've fixed this in the past with software - a fan control utility of some sort that adjusts the speed according to the other temperatures. Or was there a temperature sensor on the HDD that you could just mount on the SSD?

[@paulxu1622]

It looks beautiful

[@itsbean3666]

Nice vid bro

[@etherjules]

I love when he repairs an Imac

[@injbl3807]

Another Hugh Jeffreys video 🔥

[@GaetanoEsse]

I repaired one of these once and I also upgraded with an ssd, but then the fan ramp up at max speed because of the lack of the temp-sensor included inside the older hdd (and not sticked outside like the odd). Thankfully a couple of tools help me out, otherwise I should have modify a pin on the sata cable responsible for the sensoring

[@g.c.9904]

Posso chiederti come hai risolto? Ho lo stesso problema e non sono propriamente del mestiere...

[@GaetanoEsse]

@@g.c.9904 Ciao, c'erano delle guide su come disabilitare fisicamente il settimo pin del cavo sata (credo d'alimentazione) che era quello che si connetteva al sensore sull'hard disk. Altrimenti in modo più pratico esistono dei cavi appositi con il sensore collegato proprio per chi ha questo problema, in alternativa installa macs fan controller e abbassa le velocità delle ventole così che vadano al massimo soltanto durante il login

[@g.c.9904]

@@GaetanoEsse Spettacolo! Grazie mille, sei stato gentilissimo

[@GaetanoEsse]

@@g.c.9904 Ma figurati, è il minimo aiutarsi in ste situazioni 💪

[@piledriver7238]

10:49 "...the fans even SPUN".

[@ArifKamaruzaman]

I recommend replacing those thermal pad in one go. It's cheap and improve performance under load.

[@davidmurakami164]

Great job! Something to keep in mind for next time though: it's a good idea to also replace the dry and crusty thermal pads on the graphics card's memory chips. Memory failure due to overheating is a common problem on older machines, as dry thermal pads lose the ability to conduct heat.

[@MaiElizabeth]

So satisfying

[@soulmourne2698]

The last decent imac without glue in the screen and modular

[@rodolfoquispe7433]

I'd love to upgrade the CPU like you did!

[@Technocrat.]

Great video.

[@allanbarena7897]

Beautiful

[@handmade_videos]

Hey, I made exactly the same video some months ago. Though mine isn‘t as professional as this one. Good work! By the way: did you find out, if you gain a better performance when you change the ports on the logic board attaching the ssd? In the manual it says that there are two ports, one for the hdd and one for the ssd. I connected the replaced hdd with a ssd but found out later that I should have changed the ports on the motherboard too. I recommend installing Linux on it. I used Ubuntu and it was a very good experience. Greetings

[@arpitkumarrai5558]

good job bro

[@mk.service-phone]

Very nice 👍👍👍

[@allrandom2406]

I need that Nexus tablet My old one is boot looping and I just love them

[@dimitrischristou]

Iconic design!

[@reesespuffs217]

please do the 2019 imac video it would be so entertaining because i love when my favorite tech youtubers to computer things every once in a while

[@Bludgeoned2DEATH2]

Yes please spec out a 2019 iMac!! That'd be so cool!

[@JohnPamplin]

I have a 2011 27" and it needed a temp sensor on the primary hard disk since the stock HD had one built in.

[@jairoaldana1430]

Great video! I have one of these that has a problem starting up,how could I fix and upgrade?

[@katchilepooldevice3407]

Genius Jeffrey

[@lcaise]

good job! I'm curious what about performance this iMac as a daily computer ?

[@gothickah0]

Not everyday you get to see hugh repair an iMac

[@SlightlyMellow]

So much for keeping your friend Nathan anonymous you showed his full name on the box! lmaoo

[@paulthompson8613]

The best part of this upload for me is free subscriber donation and friends helping friends making this possible and it does still look Cool