iMac 2011 New SSD and reinstalling OS

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iMac 2011 New SSD and reinstalling OS

I have a friend's 27" iMac 2011; it's spinning hard drive died, so I've installed a new SSD. At first the Apple Hardware Test complained about the thermal sensor, so I bought one and have fitted that. Diagnostics is now happy.

Allegedly, this model of iMac is too old for internet recovery to work (although, if you try, you get some way through the process before it just hangs forever!) I have created a bootable installer USB of High Sierra (using the instructions at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372) When I boot to that USB, I get the Apple logo and a progress bar... which makes it to about 80% complete then freezes, then grey screen, forever.

I've tried with an El Capitan USB... same thing.

I've tried a Ubuntu Live CD and it never makes it past the GRUB screen?!

I've got the owner's back external HDD and it never completes the boot sequence either.

Every instruction I have found in the week I have spent looking into this, says that at some point I should get a window to be able to select disk utilities to erase and "format" the SSD, then install the OS... but the system NEVER makes it that far!

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Posted on Oct 15, 2020 1:24 AM

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Answer 1

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Not_Likely Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 26, 2020 5:25 PM in response to Not_Likely

I got hold of another machine and extracted its logic board and installed that into the problem machine. The problem still existed, so put the "cooked" logic board back into the machine.

Even though Apple Hardware Test didn't report any hardware issues, next, I took the graphics card from the loan machine and installed that into the problem machine; the machine booted! I could perform internet recovery, boot from USB, boot from other external media, install Ubuntu etc etc.

The problem was with the graphics card!

Now all I need to do is source a replacement card for this farm-machinery...

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Answer 2

padams35

Level 4

3,313 points

Oct 15, 2020 5:57 AM in response to Not_Likely

The last time I reinstalled MacOS onto a 2011 iMac I used a Sierra MacOS Recovery partition on a Time Machine backup drive. (The process took hours longer than expected).

The linux live CD/DVD failing is alarming. I had considered that the most reliable is-my-system-working test. I can't think of any reason an Apple Hardware Test would run and pass where a CD start would fail, but it sounds like something else is broken.

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Answer 3

Ronasara

Level 6

14,631 points

Oct 15, 2020 10:01 AM in response to Not_Likely

I don't know if this will work for you, but here is what I did. I have an old late 2009 iMac (in addition to two new ones) that I had erased and then decided to reinstall High Sierra onto. Long story short, I found that I WAS able to download the OS using Internet Recovery only when (1) I was directly connected to the internet with an Ethernet cable, and (2) I waited several minutes until the download window actually appeared. Then everything went just fine. Wi-Fi would not work. Not waiting did not work. Why? I can't say.

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Answer 4

den.thed

Level 9

77,602 points

Oct 15, 2020 11:00 AM in response to Not_Likely

Ron is spot-on. Connect it to the network via Ethernet and use a USB keyboard to see if you can get into network recovery. If that doesn’t work, try starting up from the installer by holding the Alt (option) key at startup. Also keep in mind that the drive needs to be formatted GUID Partition Map / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to install macOS High Sierra. Lastly I’ve found that the Apple recommended installer doesn’t always work and I had to resort to using DiskMaker X to make bootable installers.

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Answer 5

Not_Likely Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 15, 2020 9:47 PM in response to den.thed

The ethernet internet recovery starts (spinning globe and progress bar, then grey screen, forever). I've got another Mac and used to DiskMaker to create an installer, El Capitan and High Sierra; both attempts start, then never finish and grey screen. I've also installed El Capitan OS on a USB and try to run the machine from that, but it gets most of the way through the boot up, then stops, a flash of black screen, then grey screen, forever. All the USBs I've made work on a test MacBook Pro I have laying around.

The Apple Genius help said the machine is too old and they don't carry spare parts; a local Apple Service Provider said he thinks it could be the graphics card (I disagree because there's no indication of graphics faults/failing on screen) or the mainboard (at my suggestion - - more likely to be the culprit than the graphics card); in any case he doesn't have spare parts and suggested I "go online".

If the unit is bricked and in need of a new mainboard, I've got nothing to lose from doing a cook? If I botch it, we are still going to need to try and find a replacement board.

I'm not sure how thorough the Apple Hardware Test is, but it doesn't find any fault when (to me) it's apparent there is a hardware problem... somewhere?

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Answer 6

Not_Likely Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 19, 2020 8:34 AM in response to padams35

Command+V doesn't do anything. There is just a white screen until the OS cannot be found and the folder-with-question-mark appears in the center of the screen.

Other key combinations, such as Command+Option+P+R, or Option, or D work, so it's not the keyboard or not having the keys pressed at the required time.

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Answer 7

Not_Likely Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 15, 2020 7:51 PM in response to Not_Likely

Has anyone ever had to reflow a iMac main board? I'm thinking this might be the last roll of the dice for this machine?

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Answer 8

den.thed

Level 9

77,602 points

Oct 15, 2020 8:08 PM in response to Not_Likely

Are you changing the original question or are you saying that none of the above worked out.

Cause cooking the logic board seem drastic, considering that the hardware test was happy.

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Answer 9

Not_Likely Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 19, 2020 4:43 AM in response to Not_Likely

Ok. The cook at 200C for five minutes had no effect. Anyone got another idea?

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Answer 10

padams35

Level 4

3,313 points

Oct 19, 2020 7:26 AM in response to Not_Likely

Try a Verbose mode boot? https://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/08/17/how-to-boot-your-mac-in-verbose-mode/

That won't fix anything, but it might show why/where the progress bar freezes.

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Answer 11

Not_Likely Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 26, 2020 11:36 PM in response to Not_Likely

For those playing along at home: I cooked the faulty graphics card, 200C for 6 minutes. Works like a charm (for now) -- it probably will die again, but for now, it's working.

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iMac 2011 New SSD and reinstalling OS

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