iMac Mid-2011 Devoloped Flickering Early 2019

Question

iMac Mid-2011 Devoloped Flickering Early 2019

Heya,

This'll be the first time I've had to turn to support, and up til now, I've been rather pleased with my iMac, but for the last month or two, when I wake the computer up, the entire screen begins flickering and changing brightness, for absolutely no reason. It seems it started right after clearing PRAM, and each time, it lasts between 10 seconds and 2 minutes. I feel like it is more consistently happeneing, and for longer, too. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

TheLittleDoctor

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 25, 2019 6:02 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

215,472 points

Apr 28, 2019 11:55 AM in response to The Little Doctor

That year iMac had problems with the graphics card. It was recalled in the 27" mid 2011 model. I have mine replace a couple of years ago and it went out again last year. Not worth repairing. I took the hard drives out of it and recycled thru Apple.

Reply

Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Apr 28, 2019 10:37 AM in response to The Little Doctor

Your 2011 is considered vintage by Apple which means they will not work on it. Your best bet is to guess (bad idea and potentially expensive) or take it to an independent Apple Authorized Service Provider to be professionally diagnosed. Then you can decide what to do with it.

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 28, 2019 8:45 AM in response to Rudegar

Yeah, thanks for letting me know! Actually, when I powered up on Saturday, I began to get some Stage lighting, so that's what I'm thinking now too. Rats.

I guess next step would be either take it to the genius bar, or should I risk repairing it myself?

Or even, is it time for a new mac? It is getting on in years.

Thanks for the help,

TheLittleDoc

Reply

Answer 4

Rudegar

Level 10

180,264 points

Apr 26, 2019 1:37 AM in response to The Little Doctor

if clearing pram and SMC then I would suspect hardware failure

Reply

Answer 5

Rudegar

Level 10

180,264 points

Apr 28, 2019 9:57 AM in response to The Little Doctor

I have the same mac, upgraded it from 4gb to 16gb which speed it up a bit and suppose I could upgrade it to SSD disk and make it a bit faster but the gpu only has 512MB and it does not support Mojave so I doubt I will bother, but suppose you could get somebody to take a look and give you a price of what it will cost, but it could both be the gpu and the lcd or cables to the lcd. if it happened to me I would get a mac mini latests model

Reply

iMac Mid-2011 Devoloped Flickering Early 2019

Similar questions