Mid 2011 27" iMac Not Booting, Worth Repairing?

Question

Mid 2011 27" iMac Not Booting, Worth Repairing?

I have a mid-2011 27" iMac with a 3.4GHz i7 processor. I run both OS X 10.12.6 and Windows 10 (via Bootcamp partition). The other day I was in W10 and generating some spreadsheets. All seemed to be well, but I stepped out of the room for a moment, and when I returned the screen was dark. It wasn't sleeping, or I couldn't rouse it, so I did a hard shutdown and was unable to restart. It won't boot. No startup chime, just a sound from the DVD starting, and the fan runs, but the screen remains dark. If I had to guess, I'm thinking the video card is toast.

Two questions:

I spoke with Apple support over the phone, and they ran me through the usual steps, and I now have a Genius Bar appointment. Is there anything their in-store diagnostic software is going to tell me? I've watched them work on other machines, and it seems like the non-booting status here means I'd be wasting my time (and theirs) visiting the store.

I do have a 21.5" machine, same vintage, with a HDD where the OS X partition fails the Genius Bar diagnostic, but the machine will boot into the Bootcamp W10 partition, and is otherwise functional. I'd like to collect a few files off my 27" iMac's W10 partition, since my last backup is a few days old. Can I swap out the HDDs and get them?

Thanks in advance, sorry to go on at such length.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 17, 2017 4:27 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,660 points

Aug 17, 2017 4:52 PM in response to Zippy The Pinhead

Difficult to say if it's worth fixing. If there is no startup sound that indicates it's clearly a hardware issue, my guess the maln logic board or the GPU. Both are extremely expensive to fix. Take it to your Apple Authorized Service Provide to have it professionally diagnosed and get an estimate. Then you can decide what to do.

You were not very specifc "spoke with Apple support over the phone, they ran me through the usual steps" so we have no idea what that means. I'd at least try a PRAM reset and to attempt to restart in the Recovery Partition. If you don't know how to do either, then the PRAM reset is in iMac SMC and PRAM reset and restarting in the Recovery Partition is done by holding down Command + R on startup.

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Answer 2

Aug 17, 2017 4:43 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Sorry to be vague. I attempted the SMC and PRAM reset per their instructions, to no avail.

As I mentioned, a family member has a mid-2011 21.5" iMac which developed a HDD problem so just a few days ago I took it to the Genius Bar and watched them run their network-based diagnostic software on the machine. In that case we were able to boot into the Recovery partition, and the W10 Bootcamp partition, but not the OS X 10.12.6 partition, so the machine could be analyzed. However with my 27" iMac, since it doesn't even boot, I was thinking it might be a waste of time to take it in. However, I am also a little reluctant to simply give up.

What do you think about me taking the HDD from my 27" iMac and swapping it into the 21.5" iMac's drive bay? A bit of work, but I think I could do it. Do you figure it would boot?

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,660 points

Aug 17, 2017 4:47 PM in response to Zippy The Pinhead

It should work but you will need to wipe it clean prior to doing so. If you have a SL DVD you can do that. It you attempt to boot from the drive without formatting and installing a fresh OS it won't work because the hardware is different.

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Answer 4

Aug 17, 2017 4:52 PM in response to rkaufmann87

That's good to know, it saved me a lot of hassle. I'll see what they say at the Genius Bar.

I have all my OS X 10.12.6 stuff in Time Capsule, so far as I know, so I think I can restore that pretty easily. Can you recommend a slick way to get some files off the W10 partition in my dead 27" iMac? That would really help me a lot.

Thanks so much for the quick replies.

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Answer 5

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,660 points

Aug 17, 2017 5:27 PM in response to Zippy The Pinhead

I don’t speak MS Windows but I Google data recovery software for windows.

Your TC data should be fine, when you restore do not use WiFi though, .

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