Skip to main content

Model A1311 / Mid 2011 / 2.5 & 2.7 GHz Core i5 or 2.8 GHz Core i7 Processor

429 Questions View all

Powers off randomly; hangs on AHT!

So a client brought in their iMac to my shop for the symptom of randomly powering off whenever it wanted to. I ran it on my bench for 24 hours with no problem, unable to duplicate their issue. They also brought in a second iMac that I was instructed to migrate data from (to the one with random power issues once I fixed it).

Well long story short, the first imac with power issues refused to connect through migration assistant to the other imac (even through firewire) and I was unable to get finder to run without crashing. So I booted into AHT and it started the pre-test hardware probe (which is required before a test can even be ran) and it just HANGS. Also it has powered off for me a couple of times now (before running AHT) and when I tried to power it back on I either got a forever pinwheel or a blue screen with no icons but a mouse pointer.

The "probing your hardware, this may take a minute" message has been running now for over an hour (hasnt powered off again yet) and I am thinking that either the motherboard is bad or the CPU is bad.

Any thoughts?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Score -1
Add a comment

1 Answer

Chosen Solution

Pop that suckers drive into an external case (the drive might be the cause of your problems). You will soon find out if the drive is damaged by running Disk Utility and any other disk diagnostic/recovery software you have (or should have).

This will also allow you to transfer the files to the second machine.

You can try booting from an Optical drive with the HD out... if not you can check out the diagnostic LEDs on the inside of the machine.

If this Answer is helpful please remember to return and mark it Accepted.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1

2 Comments:

So ya, the hard drive is def bad... my next questions is, I have read some conflicting forums about whether or not I need a specifically APPLE rated hard drive to replace this one. The hard drive I pulled has a Apple Logo on it, (its a seagate barracuda 500 GB 7200 RPM) which suggests to me that it was designed specifically for this imac. I have seen reports that the temp sensors are no longer installed on this model imac so therefore the hard drives have to be a specific model. Any thoughts?

by

You're correct read this about replacement HD options.

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

Disciple Technologies will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 0

Past 30 Days: 0

All Time: 787