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Q: Imac Wont Turn On

iMac
21.5-inch, Mid 2010

 

As a result of a Power surge my iMac failed to turn on again!


List of diagnostics taken by me.

 

  1. Power Outlet Working
  2. Checked Fuse - Working
  3. Checked if the end of Power Cable has a voltage output ( Didn't have spare cable to rule this as being the issue) its Working
  4. Checked Both ends of the power cord; to make sure the plug is both inserted into the Ac outlet and back of the computer firmly.
  5. I disconnected all peripherals
  6. Decided to open up the iMac to check if the power supply unit is providing any power.

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 19.08.37.pngScreen Shot 2015-09-15 at 19.09.16.png

 

It wasn't reading 12v as suggested actually No power reading from any of the sockets which made me believe that my power supply has stopped working.

 

Just for the sake of Re-trying I reconnected the power supply and plugged in the mac to my amazement this time after at least 10 tries it turned on.

Was presented with A 3 successive tones, a 5 second pause (repeating): Because My screen was not reconnected I believed that was the problem however once re-connecting my screen the problem repeated. Finally read online the above diagnostics indicates RAM does not pass a data integrity check.

Popped out the Ram re-inserted them and my mac turned on with the log in screen. Unbelievable!!!

 

Moving My iMac to the other workstation, It wouldn't turn on again literally the same original Problem I had from the start.

With just sheer perseverance and  trial and error i realised that inserting the power cable into the back of the computer in such a way which can only be described as hot wiring a car when edging two cables together. This gets the job done but this works only 1 out of 40 tries however once connected it wont have a problem keeping on. Also performing a shutdown still is fine as i can reboot it back on. The problem occurs when I remove the plug from the A/c Outlet then i have to keep performing this so call hot wiring which is painfully annoying.

 

From all the above diagnostics I believe now the problem is with the female connector at the back of the computer however its a tricky place to get into and probably wont know if there is anything wrong even if i did so decided to get some help from here.
Assume one is a student who's apple care has run out and is looking for the cheapest/quickest solution.

Also apologise for the lack of grammar and punctuation but i had to write this up quickly because i feel like time on this mac is very limited. 

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), Power Supply

Posted on Sep 15, 2015 11:56 AM

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