2.66 iMac GPU hassle

[Simon Parker]

My 2009 iMacs both seem to have problems with the lead free solder and GPU's, from now and then the display will lock up.

Has any one else had these issues fixed with re-balling or even popping the GPU card in the oven ?

I took one apart and put some new heat sink goo on it ( despite many left over screws) it seems better.

 

[metachi]

Reball or oven isnt a permanent fix. Also no new GPU chip available. Throw this vintage in the trash.

 

[Simon Parker]

wow man, don't hold back just give it to me like it is !

To be honest I've not had much use out of them, there are people on eBay who offer to fix them ( new GPU chip) but can't afford it at the the moment.

There are certainly still usable, 16GB and four core CPU and great 27" IPS monitor

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Get the cards cleaned and put in the oven, I've had about 2 years out of an old MBP's 8600GT by doing this (once).

What cards do you have?

 

[Simon Parker]

ATI Radeon HD 4850, there does seem to be a few people offering to replace them so perhaps the GPU's are still available .

It was a bit of a waste of money ever buying them really since I'd rather sit on the sofa with my laptop/ iPad for most of what I get up to.

 

[mistersprinkles]

ATI Radeon HD 4850, there does seem to be a few people offering to replace them so perhaps the GPU's are still available .

It was a bit of a waste of money ever buying them really since I'd rather sit on the sofa with my laptop/ iPad for most of what I get up to.

Blasphemy! Desktops FTW.
Oven trick will gain you some life. You can rinse and repeat if necessary but eventually it's a massive PITA and GPUs from the era of 2006 to 2008 often had BGA problems. Especially Nvidia cards. It's better now than it was.
Too bad there's no integrated video on that machine... or is there? Any way to enable it?

 

[Simon Parker]

Blasphemy! Desktops FTW.
Oven trick will gain you some life. You can rinse and repeat if necessary but eventually it's a massive PITA and GPUs from the era of 2006 to 2008 often had BGA problems. Especially Nvidia cards. It's better now than it was.
Too bad there's no integrated video on that machine... or is there? Any way to enable it?

No there is only one GPU, fairly sure of that. The people who fix them on eBay say they fit a new GPU using leaded solder.

I took one of them apart and put new heatsink compound on the heatsink which did seem to help it a bit.

I use fan control software and which helps, although only the one that increases min. speed, not the type that controls the fan with software ( have had 2 instances of overheating due to this)

On the plus side Apple did replace the main board on my 2011 MacBook Free of charge a couple of years back, so that makes up for iMac disappointment a bit I guess. I've put a SSD with a fusion drive in it and it's working well ( touch wood!)

 

[Solus]

I can replace these, but even a replacement won't be a "brand new chip". They're all taken from used boards.

It's a risk no matter what route you take, the risk just reduces as the price increases.

 

[Simon Parker]

I can replace these, but even a replacement won't be a "brand new chip". They're all taken from used boards.

It's a risk no matter what route you take, the risk just reduces as the price increases.

It's a shame you can't use the monitor still or even log in via ssh to reboot in most cases. When it freezes up it totally hangs the GUI and a power cycle is about the only thing that cures it.
I guess it won't be long before working 2.66 iMacs will be cheap enough to buy on eBay that it won't be worth repairing, I don't know if all were effected by GPU problems?

 

[Solus]

Pretty much so, unless spec'd without an Nvidia or amd chip