Fixing A $100 27" iMac From Facebook Marketplace!

[Music] hello guys and welcome back to another video not that long ago I bought a tapered Edge 2012 27 inch iMac for 100 off of Facebook Marketplace but it does need a new hard drive and that does require a little bit of work to get inside one of these so let's get started here we've got Apple's mid-range 27-inch iMac from 2012. a far covia Mac then once released one year prior this is the tapered Edge design with incredibly thin edges making it look super slim from some angles and since it's been sitting around for over a year it has accumulated a fair share of dirt and grime I'll be honest I forgot I even bought this until I looked through the shed recently now the next question is does it still function in any way after plugging it in and firing it up it made the boot chime and the display did indeed power up the owner said the hard disk had failed which seems to be the case but just to be sure I put in and install USB to try and format the hard disk a drive was indeed detected and was able to be formatted but it clearly needed replacing it this would have really sucked if it was my drive and I had files I needed rescuing I wonder if their software that could have helped in these situations and today's video wouldn't be possible without wondershare's recovery data recovery software if you've got data that's become corrupt lost or damaged due to virus attacks fall from a crash computer recover it allows you to scan and preview files for free no data no charge something I've done before is accidentally wipe an SD card full of footage I just shot but not yet backed up the first step is to use the link in the description to download recover it select your operating system and once you've installed the program choose your effect to drive this SD card even though it was technically wiped clean all of the video files were detected and able to be recovered even some footage shot years ago multiple Drive wipes ago were surprisingly still present recover it supports over 1 000 file formats across an array of file systems and there are solutions for so many different types of scenarios even a failing hard disk that couldn't even load into Windows anymore had success with recover it files damaged due to corruption or being overwritten could even be somewhat repaired so if you need to recover data from SD cards PC Mac external hard drives or anything else consider wondershare's recover its software click the link in this video's description to download recover it and try it for free before we take things further I think this map could do with a wipe down and I can't recall if it was this dirty when I bought it or not it does seem to have some sticker residue around the edges on the back perhaps from the protective cover it would have come with originally in the Box the display panel itself was also filthy but thankfully undamaged and free from scratches opening up these newer tapered Edge iMacs isn't as easy as it was with earlier models requiring some specialized tools previous obviously the glass was held in place with magnets the glass and display here are held on with fairly strong adhesive tape iFixit makes suitable tools and cell replacement adhesive strips the first step to this disassembly is a laborious one and if you don't take your time there's a real chance you'll crack the glass and damage the display the pizza cutting tool was used to start separating the adhesive but it's intentionally very small to avoid damaging delicate components around the display don't use a knife or a real pizza cutter but also be sure to repeatedly go over the same areas without too much pressure until the cutter is all the way through the glass can Flex a small amount but if you move too quickly it can definitely crack the next step involves separating the frame from the glass with plastic cards the iFixit tutorial says to avoid inserting them past 9.5 millimeters I simply wrap the cards in tape to help avoid just that it's best to lay the Mac down on its back for the rest of the disassembly it would be disastrous to have the panel full forward and snap off the connectors these cards will finish off whatever adhesive is left and don't run them us the webcam though as you may damage the assembly on the top of the screen with the use of the suction cups I slowly lifted the panel and there are two connectors that must also be disconnected from the display they're a little tricky to reach if you're doing this assembly alone I would suggest propping up the display ever so slightly to free up your hands there are still some adhesive at the base of the screen gently lifted up then use the pull tabs at either end to easily remove the tape all this effort just to get inside the computer and I wonder if the magnet design was scrapped to try to make it Slimmer either way we've finally got the Hefty panel free from the K singer and while it was still fresh in my mind I went ahead and removed the old tape from around the edges I thought it was going to be a rather messy time consuming task but nope it was very easy the first internal component that needed removal is the left speaker chamber the power button also runs around this so be sure to disconnect it from the power supply the whole thing slides up and outwards given the size of the speaker I hope they sound good the failed hard disk will be replaced by a 500 gigabyte SATA SSD and it's held in place with some rubber grommets to reduce vibrations for the next step you've got to be very careful as there is a risk of electric shock while removing the power supply avoid touching the exposed solder joints and be sure to disconnect the two connectors underneath the right speaker took a considerable amount of wiggling to get out it extends all the way to the vent at the base of the mac and the reason we're digging in further is to reapply thermal paste and clean out the potentially clogged up fan the 27 inch model uses a single large fan to cool both the CPU and graphics processor I read a good comment on the iFixit tutorial that said you should color code the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antenna connectors which will prevent me from putting them back on in the wrong order it's also worth making note of the logic board screw locations as there are a few different types of lengths and sizes with the last of the screws hidden behind the solder cable which also needed to be dislodged following a tutorial is honestly vital for this repair as I would have never seen the ones here and after double checking no other connectors were attached the board could be lifted up and out getting the cooler off requires the removal of two different brackets one underneath the graphics processor and the other underneath the CPU which has little warranty void stickers and considering this is a 10 year old Mac they probably don't matter all that much the CPU will also come out with the heatsink since it isn't really socketed it just sits in the slot the tension of the bracket keeps the chip in contact with the board and the old thermal paste was definitely holding it onto the heatsink the processor in here is a quad core third gen I5 if I'd planned ahead a bit better I could have put a better one in but this system will be somewhat limited by the graphics card anyway the graphics memory chips have small pads which I decided to leave intact since they're still soft and malleable unlike earlier iMacs the GPU is a part of the logic board so it isn't possible to swap out due to failure or simply to upgrade so keeping the chip nice and cool is crucial this paste is about 10 years old and was definitely due for replacing I then went through and dusted off the board being sure to dislodge all the dust trapped inside the USB ports and SD card reader there was also a surprising amount of dust at the ends of the speaker Chambers as well somewhere the dust was seemingly absent from was the fan there was only really fine debris on the blades themselves which I took my time to remove even though this Mac seems a lot Slimmer than previous models there is still a surprising amount of empty space inside this may have helped accommodate larger internals for models in later years but I'm not sure as I've never taken a newer one apart and quite frankly I hope I don't have to take another one of these apart mainly due to the taped on display I thankfully realized there was also old tape left on the display panel side you really wouldn't want to Stack that on top of the new adhesive strips and now with the new thermal paste applied the reassembly could begin proper alignment of the logic board is very important According to some comments left on the iFixit tutorial you'd want to put devices in the ports to make sure they actually fit the last thing you'd want to do is piece the whole thing back together to find out you can't even use the ports you definitely had to go to a bit of extra effort to redo the thermal paste but now I can guarantee this machine will run as cool as it can in place of the failed hard disk I'm using a 500 gigabyte SSD that I previously used inside my 2011 27 inch iMac before it became a standalone display but it's that cheap Mac still functional well before I go to the effort of seating the display panel I thought I'd see if it placed the boot chime it relievingly does I purchased some new adhesive from ifix's online store I have laid them out to get a good understanding of their positionings I decided it was easier for me to adhere them to the frame first leaving the other side alone for now as you've only got one shot to get it aligned as it's nearly impossible to separate it again without damaging the tape I'll start by taping down only the base of the display as I connect the delicate display connectors this allows me to line the panel up to the frame as well before I completely tape the screen down I took this opportunity to power up the Mac which seems to run without any problems and finally I could slightly open the top of the iMac and take off the second side of the adhesive strips and there we have it the Mac back together working and most importantly with the display undamaged upgrading the ram can be done conveniently by removing this small door I added two more four gigabyte sticks bringing the system total to a very usable 16 gigabytes and last of all I cleaned off the remaining tape residue with the help of some eucalyptus oil success it still seems to be working and accepts the RAM and yes I do realize I could update to a newer version of Mac OS however I have some apps that I can't even use past 10.4 this drive has a lot of older files on it and it's set up right where I left it a few years ago this map can still play basic games going onto my Minecraft server is very much possible the display is also very bright and the colors are vibrant older games such as Team Fortress 2 running at 900p are also quite playable thankfully there are a number of games on Steam that support this old Hardware another one is CS go at a resolution of 900p and the graphics set to low it plays and still looks pretty good for Content creation including photo editing this Mac has an excellent display panel and I'll probably keep it and use it myself for future YouTube thumbnails and picture edits back in 2012 it would have been absolutely worth it to pay a little more for the 2 gigabyte 680m graphics upgrade and paying for the quad core 8 thread i7 CPU would have also future proofed this Mac for many extra years this slim tapered Edge design remained in Apple's lineup for nearly 10 years and I think it still looks really nice even to this day it's just a shame that it's quite hard to get to the internals so there we have it a decent iMac for a decent price it is however a real shame that the graphics cards are part of the logic board because it would be great to do a graphics card upgrade and make this an even more usable machine however that isn't possible without replacing the entire logic board so maybe just forget about that anyway thank you very much for watching and I hope you've enjoyed the video and I'll see you in the next one foreign [Music]

Channel: Psivewri

Views: 142,516

Keywords: psivewri, 4k, eucalyptus, oil, australia, tech, apple, cheap, imac, desktop, mac, repair, fixing, cleaning, cleaned, thermal, paste, disassembly, how, to, how to, tutorial, bargain, 27, tapered, edge, gaming, test, 2012, A1419, nvidia, geforce, 660m, minecraft, CS:GO, TF2

Id: 1h2HERp8BqI

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 22 2022