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iMac Intel 27" EMC 2309 (Late 2009, Core 2 Duo 3.06 or 3.33 GHz) ID iMac10,1, EMC 2374 (Late 2009, Core i5 2.66 GHz or Core i7 2.8 GHz) ID iMac11,1

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Screen flickering, possibly since hard drive replacement.

Not sure whether it's a coincidence or not, but fairly soon after doing a hard drive replacement (with the help of ifixit), my screen has been flickering in the right hand side of the screen.

The only way to describe it would be if someone was turning the brightness down to 80%, then back to 100% then down to 60% then back to 90% etc, all within the space of about a second. This effect predominantly appearing in the right side of the screen.

I'm pretty sure I didn't knock any cable or bit of hardware when I did the hard drive replacement, but now wishing I had taken the hard drive to get replaced by a reseller.

Any advice or comments, greatly appreciated. Needless to say, the computer is long out of warranty, especially after the hard drive replacement.

Thanks,

Jim.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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How are your fans doing?

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I had to use HHD Fan Control plugin to control the fan. All a bit traumatised by the whole thing :)

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Apple used proprietary hard drives on this machine with 7 lead temperature sensors and does not sell these to the public. Causing the fan problems. his is a very new machine for the hard drive to be going out. Do you still have it?

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The disk sounded really weird after about 6 months, like it was having a really hard time writing. I ignore this for a while till I started crashing in photoshop often writing large files. I did a disk utility check and came up with the red warning on the SMART status 'About to Fail' or similar. At that point I came on to ifixit which recommended a 2 TB SATA Desktop Hard Drive / Seagate. Looking at the disks they seemed identical including the number of pins on the 3 ports on the side.

In answer to your question though, I don't have the old disk I threw it away.

I don't mind using HHD Fan Control though. It works.

Cheers,

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When I took apart my iMac (probably nearly the same generation; I have an 11,1) the first time, I messed up the vsync cable, which caused some strange visual and audible problems (high pitched whining). I would just go back and check the cables you unplugged to get under the display -- it's hard to make sure they're all snuggly attached, since you can only lift the display a few inches.

Use a flashlight to make sure that all the cables are very secure. Make sure that the vsync cable (the small ribbon) is attached on both sides, as it just slides out of the other side easily.

Good luck! iMacs are great machines :)

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Thanks Adam. I'll give that a bash. Bit concerned after the first time that I'm only going to do some other damage :)

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Hi Adam. Sorry to dig up such an old topic, but the screen flickering continues. I opened the hood again to check all cables as you described, in fact unplugging and replugging, with no change. I'm concerned that maybe I've damaged one of the cables when I changed the hard drive. If that's the case is it possible to replace the cable that would cause the brightness to change, and if so: where do I get one, and which one is it! Thanks.

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jimahyland will be eternally grateful.
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