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A1418 / EMC 3069 / 2017 / 3.0 GHz quad-core i5, 3.4 GHz quad-core i5 or 3.6 GHz quad-core i7 Processor. Released June 8, 2017.

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Catalina, fresh install, can only run in safe mode

Hi,

I’ve just bought a 2017 21” retina imac, and ever since I reinstalled it it’s always been rather unstable : restarting without warning, not waking up.

The reports said kernel panic and something apparently related to the gpu (but that’s according to one forum). I’m very sorry I did not write the log down. Once, I had some very odd glitches (red squares on the browsers, glitchy dock and menu)

I tried hooking up a eGpu to offload the internal GPU, but no change.

But I figured it was maybe, because I installed too many things at once and started fresh.

However, now, after it started properly 1/3 of the time, it decided to not start at all, unless in safe mode.

I’ve had several weird glitches : half the apple showing (sometimes the other half was yellow or pink, most of the time invisible)

So…here we are I can now only run my mac in safe mode, and despite being slow and safari having dark grey tab titles, it works fine.

Advanced diagnosis and HDD tools yield no error.

I’m willing to try anything, but know I feel a bit helpless

Thanks a ton in advance

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Well you’ve isolated the issue to the Radeon Pro 555 GPU chip as failed. This chip is soldered to the logic board (the large chip just above Start Guide label in the image below). Your only option is to replace the logic board iMac Intel 21.5" Retina 4K Display (2017) Logic Board Replacement

You may want to consider retuning the system to the seller. If you bought it as a referb’ed Apple sold system then you should still have hardware warranty.

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2 Comments:

Thanks a lot for the reply. Is there any way to be sure that the gpu fried ?

It sure looks like it, but It’s still a guess at this point isn’t it ?

i bought it from my wife and I can’t just return it like that :D

(thanks again)

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iMac's have two display systems! The built-in graphics engine within the Intel CPU and the dedicated GPU chip. Here the Intel engine is working and the dedicated one is not.

Sadly, I've seen this a few a times clearly the dedicated GPU is not coming on.

You might be able to get someone to fix your logic board but since you just bought this system why should you cover that cost? Are you unable to get your money back or have the seller get it fixed?

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Étienne R will be eternally grateful.
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