Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Discuss all hardware and software modifications
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isiolia
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by isiolia »

Ah, well, combined between pics from my iPad Pro and phone...

This is what it looked like when I popped the back of the case off. In hindsight, it was not a great idea to do this on my chair.
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While it had partly eaten through the shielding and onto the case, the plastic still seems decent enough.
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The battery mount was entirely removed from the board and rattling around though, you can see it still hanging out with the rest of the computer here.
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The motherboard has corrosion all over the place already - could partly be from caps, as is common.
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But around the battery...yeeeesh.
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I have attempted to clean it up some, and could still do more. However, I don't have particularly high hopes for it actually working. From what I've seen, this sort of thing is actually a valid concern for most older Macs - it's typical for caps to start leaking/etc, but those with Maxell PRAM batteries (particularly) can apparently see them literally explode.

The case could do with Retrobrite or something, but is otherwise decent - not cracked or whatnot. There are apparently some 1024x768 LCDs that fit, such as this one. A Mac Mini is a simple thing to drop in, since the full thing can fit in the case already.

I don't have accessories for it - I got this a few years back due to a friend seeing it in a thrift store for $20 and buying it for me. It's possible that attempts to turn it on around then created the larger problem with the battery (I know I tried to turn it on, and assumed caps due to the screen pattern).
The later ADB keyboards are definitely membrane, which are mostly the ones I've used. The only set I have are from my non-working PowerTower Pro, and work fine, save for the keyboard only registering something like three or four keys at a time (limited enough to be noticeable in some games).
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Jagosaurus
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by Jagosaurus »

I worked for the Texas A&M CIS Hardware Repair Department. I had a lucky connection there & they needed someone desperately. I answered 2 or 3 simple computer questions in my interview. Less than 5 minutes into it I got a "can you start tomorrow?" :lol:

Most folks don't realize TAMU is the 2nd largest university (enrollment-wise) in the US so we were crazy busy. Another worker & I replaced 1/3 of the campus computer labs & library (we had 7 libraries!) machines each year (mostly Dells). Their goal is to never have a computer older than 3 years on campus. The roughly 33 month old machines swapped out get whipped & donated to the Texas Prison System. The guys locked up have better computers than college me :roll:

We had walkins from students, former students, staff, and faculty. We then had contracts with all the silo IT departments. For example Meteorology, Architecture, & CGI (we get a lot of grad from there hired by Pixar) were very Mac heavy departments. I would go do an initial diagnosis, then bring the machines back to the office if needed. Meteorology had these giant custom order stand alone Mac towers running weather pattern prediction software. Those beast scared me because I knew I was transporting several grand versus a $200 Optiplex :shock:

All the scholarship athletes also get free Macbooks. You can image how well they took care of those. I picked up abused Macs from the Athletic Dept IT group DAILY!

Then the normal student tech support desk would often realize an issue was hardware versus software and I'd pick those up. A ton of those desk's pickups & probably half of student foot traffic business were Macs.

Boo... those Dell caps. Man, I bet I picked up 250 bad Dell monitors with caps busted. They paid us to repair them though. The office always smelled like solder and that citrus cap fluid odor.

Fun times. Those pics are bringing back memories. These days I'm involved with technology design and architecture builds for businesses but am not a "keyboard tech." Hardware-wise everything we install is covered under manufacturer warranty so as a company we rarely even crack a box open.

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"Victory and honor do not grow from timid seeds" -Arbiter, Halo 5
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funk_Farmer
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by funk_Farmer »

Hey, new to the forum and excuse me for jumping right in the middle of this. I have mid-2007 iMac that I love to death. I live on a farm, burn a wood stove for heat in the winter, and dust flies off me like Pig Pen from the Peanuts gang. I was wondering if there was an easy way to clean the dust out of the inside of this baby. I might just be paranoid but I'd like to clean the poor thing out. Taking it apart just to clean it looks like a daunting task. Tried Apple's site but they just recommend dusting the vents and of course they tell you not to take it apart. I'd be willing to at some point in the future but just don't know if disassembly would be worth it for the sole purpose of dusting. Is there anything else I could do/ upgrade while under the hood? Thanks in advance.
Now to brag about it for a second. I recently got tired of osX getting more limited each passing year so I did a clean install of Ubuntu 16.04 about a week ago and I'm really liking it. I mainly use it nowadays for artwork with my wacom tablet and for emulation of course. Learning my way around Ubuntu kinda breathed a new life back into my mac. How do you guys feel about running Linux over osX? Am I way out of line? Again thanks for all the info you guys post here.
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isiolia
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by isiolia »

I don't think there's an easy way to do it, unfortunately. There are three fans in there, and their basic design is to pull air in on the bottom and expel it from the top. The primary one is on the left if (screen side), and blows through the heat sinks for the CPU, GPU, and the power supply, which is in the top left of the machine. Otherwise, there's the HDD fan and the optical drive fan.
That being said, the only one that's particularly hard to get to is the HDD fan, since that's behind the motherboard. The other ones are readily accessible once you take out the LCD panel (you don't even need to do that to get at the main fan, actually, though the heat sinks/etc are behind it). While that is something you need to be careful while doing, it's not that hard. The main catch is that the cables connected to it don't have a lot of slack, so it's more a "lift screen, unplug cable behind it" type thing, but fine if you're expecting to do that.

That level of disassembly would allow for swapping in an SSD, which would be a very worthwhile upgrade. You'd need a 2.5" to 3.5" drive adapter as well. There are other potential parts to swap without pulling the motherboard out (the CPU and such are on the back side of it), like trying to change out the WiFi module, or a fresh PRAM battery. It's also probably possible to swap the DVD drive out and mount a second HDD (plenty of kits exist for laptops, so I assume there's on that'd fit here).

Unless the fans are running a lot, I wouldn't worry too much about dust though. The one I had was fairly clean overall - good case design tends to maintain positive air pressure to keep dust at a minimum.


Personally, I haven't really messed with Linux on Macs since PowerPC and Yellow Dog. It's definitely a potential way to go for hardware that Apple left behind, depending on what you've got on hand or want to use. I just have enough hardware sitting around that a Mac wouldn't be my first pick to run Linux on.
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funk_Farmer
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by funk_Farmer »

Thanks for the response. I live in pretty small town in the middle of nowhere so the nearest Mac shop is 150 miles away. Starting to get into the market for a new desktop. Maybe in the next couple of years. When I do get a new desktop I'm going to get a little more gung ho about taking my current iMac apart. For right now though I need it and there's really nothing wrong with it, except my dust worries which you helped ease. The only other comp I have is a laptop with Windows 10. Haven't used Windows in over 10 years so it's hard but I'm trying. Been scrounging the web for info on my Mac so I'll be ready when the time comes. Thanks for all the information, definitely saved me a couple hours of reading from elsewhere. I will be penning it down in my notebook for future use.
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stickem
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by stickem »

anybody had any luck or heard of a good place to buy 3rd party or refurbished macbook pro batteries? i have an 07 intel core duo i still mess around with. the og battery swelled up and so its been a desktop the last couple years. i don't think i'm going to have luck with the ebay knockoffs. charges up 100% and looks good on coconut battery but won't start up unless the charger is plugged in. its trys to startup but shuts off after 25 seconds and i have to plug the charger in. after startup i can remove the charger and its good to go. maybe i just need to do the drain, leave dead overnight, charge up calibration thing or something.
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isiolia
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by isiolia »

I've bought a handful of third party replacements on Amazon for machines at work, though for slightly newer machines. Skimming through I think Temark and Egoway ones, but really I just look for well rated ones.

While I imagine you've done it (intentionally or not) anyway, you may want to try resetting the SMC.
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stickem
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by stickem »

Thanks, I'll check out those brands . Yep the smc and pram reset lol. Apples number 1 thing to try first it seems....
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samsonlonghair
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by samsonlonghair »

funk_Farmer wrote:Hey, new to the forum and excuse me for jumping right in the middle of this. I have mid-2007 iMac that I love to death. I live on a farm, burn a wood stove for heat in the winter, and dust flies off me like Pig Pen from the Peanuts gang. I was wondering if there was an easy way to clean the dust out of the inside of this baby. I might just be paranoid but I'd like to clean the poor thing out. Taking it apart just to clean it looks like a daunting task. Tried Apple's site but they just recommend dusting the vents and of course they tell you not to take it apart. I'd be willing to at some point in the future but just don't know if disassembly would be worth it for the sole purpose of dusting. Is there anything else I could do/ upgrade while under the hood? Thanks in advance.
Now to brag about it for a second. I recently got tired of osX getting more limited each passing year so I did a clean install of Ubuntu 16.04 about a week ago and I'm really liking it. I mainly use it nowadays for artwork with my wacom tablet and for emulation of course. Learning my way around Ubuntu kinda breathed a new life back into my mac. How do you guys feel about running Linux over osX? Am I way out of line? Again thanks for all the info you guys post here.

Yo Funk, you got a good strong shop vac on your farm? Here's one gung-ho option that Apple does not recommend: you can suck out excess dust with a vacuum cleaner. It's not the same as taking the screen off your iMac, but it's a whole lot easier. :idea:

I don't use Ubuntu, but I'm looking into setting up ChromeOS on an old iMac.
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funk_Farmer
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Re: Apple Computers & iMac - Repair, Mod, and Upgrade!

Post by funk_Farmer »

samsonlonghair wrote:Yo Funk, you got a good strong shop vac on your farm? Here's one gung-ho option that Apple does not recommend: you can suck out excess dust with a vacuum cleaner. It's not the same as taking the screen off your iMac, but it's a whole lot easier. :idea:

I don't use Ubuntu, but I'm looking into setting up ChromeOS on an old iMac.


Yea we have two shop vacs. Actually just used one this morning in the house to clean up broken glass, damn kids, ha. I know Apple doesn't recommend that because of the static electricity or whatever but I kinda thought it should be safe enough to try. Thanks for the advice. I used a can of air on it just last week and a crap ton of dust came out of there. Dust is my number one concern for electrical stuff out here. It's a mess.

I'm liking Ubuntu so far. Pretty similar to OSX so I feel right at home. Wish our local school system would use some type of free software like Ubuntu instead of paying out the butt for Windows packages every couple years. Linux has come a long way in terms of usability.
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