iMac video card replacement

[musicman691]

Had one of the crappier days of my recording life yesterday. Working on yet another version of 'Let It Go' (don't judge) as a personal exercise in creativity. Got 3 tracks so far and adding a bass line; almost done with the bass track and the screen on my iMac starts flickering and finally everything goes dark on the screen. Computer doesn't shut off but screen is blank. I have it set to never sleep or go blank so it's not that. About a week ago I saw light flickering akin to like an incandescent light bulb loose in the socket. I don't move this computer around so it's not like any cables came loose.

Shut everything down and completely unplug from the AC mains. Count to 30 and restart everything. In the past doing this has solved some really weird problems. Screen comes up a solid pastel color with about 5 or 6 vertical solid color bars spread across the screen. Googling comes up with the likely possibility of my video card having fried somehow. I'm not sure this is the only problem and I'd hate to spend the $300 or so to get a new one and find out something more expensive like the motherboard has taken a dump as well.

Has anybody done a video card change out in a mid 2011 27 inch iMac? If so how difficult was it really? Googling again comes up with an ifixit page on how to do it but it looks a heck of a lot more complicated than swapping out the system drive. Would that it were that instead of the video as I'd have no qualms going in and putting in an ssd in place of the 7200 rpm spinner.

Right now I don't have the money to get a new machine and anything new Mac-wise would have High Sierra on it. Anyone have a line on good used or refurb Macs? Cheesegrater (no Thunderbolt ports though and I need that), a souped up Mini (didn't some commercial outfit have them at one time - I'm thinking the ones with the i7 chips), another iMac or even a Trashcan if not too expensive. No laptops if I can help it and a Windoze machine is not even a possibility.

A Sierra machine is out of the question as I'd have to dip into the PT12 waters and up until yesterday PT11.3.2 was doing the job for me. Speaking of PT11.3.2 and Sierra and not wanting to start another thread has anyone successfully gotten the two to play nice with each other? I know they're not compatible per Avid and people have had issues but still it's a question I have to ask.

PS: anything refurbed coming from Apple will more likely than not come with High Sierra on it. Just checked and every iMac refurb they have has a Fusion drive in it and an i5 cpu.

[mjslakeridge]

I don't know anything about Macs, but it is always a crapshoot when trying to keep a 6+ year old rig alive when something goes out. It certainly sounds like the video card. Does the iMac not have a connection for an external monitor?

If it were me, I would probably spend the $300 for a new video card and try to replace it myself. If successful, you could probably get a few more years out of the rig.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

I don't know anything about Macs, but it is always a crapshoot when trying to keep a 6+ year old rig alive when something goes out. It certainly sounds like the video card. Does the iMac not have a connection for an external monitor?

If it were me, I would probably spend the $300 for a new video card and try to replace it myself. If successful, you could probably get a few more years out of the rig.

It does have Thunderbolt connectors which are also supposed to be a Mini Display port capable but if the internal video card is kaput then this port won't help (at least not as I understand it). Maybe someone like Darryl Ramm will chime in with his thoughts.

[mjslakeridge]

I suggested trying an external monitor to confirm whether the video card is dead or not. It is possible the card is good, but the screen itself has failed.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

I suggested trying an external monitor to confirm whether the video card is dead or not. It is possible the card is good, but the screen itself has failed.

I understand where you're coming from but the evidence I found out via Google is that the screen itself is okay but the video card has died, possibly from overheating due to separation between the chip on the card and the cooling assembly.

I may have another issue as well due to the machine rebooting on it's own after it seems to go through it's boot process.

I found several alternative over at OWC between an iMac the same model as mine but updated with a 1 terabyte OWC ssd and a Mini with a 250 gig ssd. Apparently all the Mini's they have with spinners have 5400 rpm drives. A cheesegrater may be an alternative but there's a couple of things I have to wrestle with:
size - kind of cramped and trying to find space for both the machine itself and a monitor is a problem for me right now
Thunderbolt ports - there are none as is well known. I use Thunderbolt drives for samples and recording and while I know I could put drives in the bays I'd still have to get the stuff off the T-bolt drives. A slower alternative is I also have those T-bolt drives duplicated on two Glyph GPT50 FW800 drives. I'm only missing 2 day's worth of work on the Glyph's. No biggie. Also the lack of T-bolt ports limits my future choices for high speed audio interfaces.
Cheesegrater - 4,1 or 5,1? Keep in mind I want to run OSX 10.10.5. Some of those machines OWC has come with Sierra on them - I should be able to backdate to Yosemite right?

And of course with either a Mini or cheesegrater there's monitors to deal with. I know there's been loads of discussion here and I'll be going back through those threads. I'm thinking 27" size. Most in that size have 1920X1200; mine is 2560x1440 and my internet/Photoshop machine has 1920x1200 and that seems comfortable. Yes it doesn't show as much as the iMac screen but at my age having things a little bigger is a good thing. Size does matter after all

[mjslakeridge]

The re-booting issue "could" be due to the OS looking for a working video card, but that certainly introduces an element of risk in trying to replace the video card. If it is something else also, you would have spent money and not got the thing back up and running.

Hopefully someone else can advise you on your options for a replacement machine.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

The re-booting issue "could" be due to the OS looking for a working video card, but that certainly introduces an element of risk in trying to replace the video card. If it is something else also, you would have spent money and not got the thing back up and running.

Hopefully someone else can advise you on your options for a replacement machine.

That's the big thing that has me worried - what else could be wrong? The more I think about it the more I don't want to get into a machine with relatively cramped space inside like a Mini or iMac. I'm not nuts about computers getting the least bit warm. Granted the Mini & iMac are quiet machines; haven't listened to a cheesegrater in a while so my memory of that is distant at best.

[mjslakeridge]

You could call around to a few computer repair shops in your area to see if one of them has a video card for your model iMac lying around, and ask them if you could carry in your machine and have them swap out the card to see if that solves the issue. That may be more cost effective than buying a card yourself and maybe it does/doesn't solve the issue.

I don't know if you are in a rural part of NJ or near NYC, so that may make a difference in how many computer shops are near you.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

You could call around to a few computer repair shops in your area to see if one of them has a video card for your model iMac lying around, and ask them if you could carry in your machine and have them swap out the card to see if that solves the issue. That may be more cost effective than buying a card yourself and maybe it does/doesn't solve the issue.

I don't know if you are in a rural part of NJ or near NYC, so that may make a difference in how many computer shops are near you.

I'm in Trenton and I have a support email in to a repair place a few blocks from my house. Waiting to hear back from them.

[mjslakeridge]

I think the repair shop is the way to go. Hopefully they will be able to help you out. If not, I see you are not too far from the Philly suburbs....Road Trip! There has got to be a shop around there somewhere with a spare video card lying around.

I looked at your system details in your profile, and that rig is still pretty powerful, so spending a few dollars to keep it alive is probably your best bet, particularly since you don't want the current OS, and you need Thunderbolt ports.