Upgrading older iMac to SSD

Started by DCurry, May 12, 2020, 10:33:18 AM

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DCurry

Up and running - after dinner I installed the SSD into the iMac (great instructions from OWC) and it's a nice improvement - super quiet and boots up fast. I was hoping it might solve my "can't turn the screen brightness past 3 or the whole screen turns black and won't come back unless I press the power button to put it to sleep, then jiggle the mouse to bring it back up and real quick turn the brightness back to 3" issue but that would just have been a fringe benefit.

Now to find the Java SE 6 Runtime - for some reason my old CS apps won't run because it say it can't find it, which is strange because I brought everything from the old system but I think I have something at work that I can dig up to remedy that.
Prinect • Signa Station • XMPie

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. But set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!

Joe

Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

DCurry

Joe, you magnificent bastard! Whatever I tried and downloaded yesterday wouldn't install but yours magically did. Thanks!
Prinect • Signa Station • XMPie

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. But set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!

Joe

 :rotf: Greatest compliment I've ever received! Thank you. :rotf:
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

DCurry

Prinect • Signa Station • XMPie

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. But set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!

DigiCorn

I *just* did this on Windows 10 to a regular HD and not SSD and AOEMI partition assistant software was totally worth the $40 for OS migration.  https://www.diskpart.com/download-home.html
"There's been a lot of research recently on how hard it is to dislodge an impression once it's been implanted in someone's mind. (This is why political attack ads don't have to be true to be effective. The other side can point out their inaccuracies, but the voter's mind privileges the memory of the original accusation, which was juicier than any counterargument ever could be.)"
― Johnny Carson

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– Nikki Sixx

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― Ernest Hemingway

joch230

Quote from: Joe on May 13, 2020, 05:21:15 PM
Here ya go: [Link Removed]

Just Unzip and you will have the file that you install directly from within OS X. If you need a bootable disk like a USB stick you need to create it with something like Install Disk Creator or DiskMaker X.
Joe...could I get the link to the High Sierra installer, please. Thanks!

Joe

High Sierra is still available in the App Store. High Sierra Installer
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Skryber

Quote from: DCurry on May 19, 2020, 06:49:42 PM
Up and running - after dinner I installed the SSD into the iMac (great instructions from OWC) and it's a nice improvement - super quiet and boots up fast. I was hoping it might solve my "can't turn the screen brightness past 3 or the whole screen turns black and won't come back unless I press the power button to put it to sleep, then jiggle the mouse to bring it back up and real quick turn the brightness back to 3" issue but that would just have been a fringe benefit.

Now to find the Java SE 6 Runtime - for some reason my old CS apps won't run because it say it can't find it, which is strange because I brought everything from the old system but I think I have something at work that I can dig up to remedy that.

2009-2010 iMac? I have one with this same problem. At first it seemed to happen only when it got hot. Then it was every 10 seconds. And it didn't matter what the brightness was. It was useless to me.
In my case, it's a communication problem with the graphics card not signaling the led to turn on. The graphics card for that last I checked was almost $900 after shipping. I would just get a brand new iMac before I spent that to fix it so I never did anything with it. There is a way to bypass the graphics card using a diagnostic LED but I never tried it.
Fast forward 2-3 years, I'm picking up some freelance so I bought an adapter so I can mirror onto a different monitor. I set it up last night and the iMac is working fine.  :wtf:
Rampage 11.1 • Preps 5.32 • Fuji Film Sabre P-9600 CTP Platesetter with inline FLP 1260 processor • Rampage •  ManRoland PECOM using CIP3 data • HP DesignJet 5500 42" 6/C • Epson Stylus Pro 9880 • Xerox Docucolor 8000 with Fiery • Mutoh ValueJet 1604 • Océ Arizona 250 GT • Océ Arizona 365 GT • Onyx Production House/THRIVE • ManRoland 700 5/c + coat and 2/3 perfect • and a coupla' Heidelbergs and other stuff

Skryber

Off topic....we have an identical Mac here at work and one morning I got weird vertical stripes and it faded to nothing. Restarted, then it was worse. I read up on it and the graphics card separates after many years sitting vertical and the fix I was reading was to bake it in the oven to rebridge the solder and apply new thermal paste. I asked our IT guy if we can try it in the toaster oven. He said "WE ARE NOT BAKING COMPUTER PARTS!" Said he was going to figure out another way. He came back the next day, took it home and baked it in his oven.  :rotf: Fucking worked. It's been about 6 months and still ok.
Rampage 11.1 • Preps 5.32 • Fuji Film Sabre P-9600 CTP Platesetter with inline FLP 1260 processor • Rampage •  ManRoland PECOM using CIP3 data • HP DesignJet 5500 42" 6/C • Epson Stylus Pro 9880 • Xerox Docucolor 8000 with Fiery • Mutoh ValueJet 1604 • Océ Arizona 250 GT • Océ Arizona 365 GT • Onyx Production House/THRIVE • ManRoland 700 5/c + coat and 2/3 perfect • and a coupla' Heidelbergs and other stuff

David

throw some chocolate chips on there and then you have an awesome snack!

:lmao:
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca

DCurry

You got me thinking, Skryber. Seems like every time I ever research this issue I never find a definitive answer as to what the real problem is, and like you I don't want to throw gobs of money at a 10 year old computer. I also don't want to by a new one either, because this one is otherwise perfectly fine.

I think I might try replacing the LED driver board - looks like an inexpensive thing to try and if it doesn't help I'm only out 20 or 30 bucks.
Prinect • Signa Station • XMPie

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. But set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!

Skryber

This one is a 2008 but it's where I saw the option to bypasss the graphics card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMihRCvTs9U

I'll let you know what happens with mine after I start using it. I'm sure the problem will be back.
Rampage 11.1 • Preps 5.32 • Fuji Film Sabre P-9600 CTP Platesetter with inline FLP 1260 processor • Rampage •  ManRoland PECOM using CIP3 data • HP DesignJet 5500 42" 6/C • Epson Stylus Pro 9880 • Xerox Docucolor 8000 with Fiery • Mutoh ValueJet 1604 • Océ Arizona 250 GT • Océ Arizona 365 GT • Onyx Production House/THRIVE • ManRoland 700 5/c + coat and 2/3 perfect • and a coupla' Heidelbergs and other stuff

Joe

Quoteadapter so I can mirror onto a different monitor.

We have done that several times to extend an iMac life at work. Works great.

You can get around graphic hardware problems also by accessing the bad iMac with screen sharing from another iMac. Of course this is useless if two different people need to be using these two iMacs at the same time.

I have replaced the display adapter on an older iMac before. A lot of them though are soldered to the logic board but there were a few older ones that had a separate display adapter that could be replaced. I think the one I did was around a 2008 iMac and the new video card was under $100 so it was worth that to fix it at the time. Not sure I would fix one that old now though.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

joch230

Quote from: Joe on May 28, 2020, 07:42:52 AM
High Sierra is still available in the App Store. High Sierra Installer
The Mac I wanted to upgrade showed it already downloaded but damaged. I downloaded it on a different Mac and will try moving the installer to the Mac I actually want to upgrade.