Introduction
The Late 2014 and later iMac Retina have a splendid image; it really hurts to see them scrapped because MacOS can no longer be updated. Components can also fail, with the most common failure being the graphics card. The good news, through, is that if the screen and the LED panel haven't also failed, they can find a second life as a monitor with HDMI or DisplayPort input. This monitor is quite an enhancement to MacBooks and especially Mac Minis.
I've seen a lot of tutorials on this transformation, and I wanted to make my own to really clarify the obstacles you can encounter and how to overcome them, and to comfort all those who want to embark on this adventure.
What you need
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Beforehand, you will need: Torx screwdrivers in two or three sizes, electrician's insulating tape (or 'scotch'), large 'scotch' masking tape... and Scotch for courage. Also needed are a small pair of wire cutters, a soldering iron with solder, and some electrical wire for the on-off switch.
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At AMZN, not to name it, you can find opening kits with a special tool and self-adhesive strips to mount the screen on the frame, which are essential for both operations. The opening tool is a kind of 'pizza cutter' disc that is passed between the glass and the frame, delicately and slowly without forcing.
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We insert the thin disk on the side and we work around the iMac between the screen and the chassis to cut the adhesive strips that held everything together.
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To take off the screen from the top, you can use a suction cup. Then gently tip it over. This step should be done with the iMac lying on its base. Here, you have to be careful and detach the screen cable which has a small safety to be lifted delicately and the backlight cable to be simply unplugged. And there you have it, separated.
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This is the operation that feels most delicate because of the risk of breaking the glass or even the panel. But with patience, it comes naturally in about fifteen minutes or less (or longer if you are very anxious).
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To do this, very simple, we can refer to a tutorial linked HERE.
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Once emptied of its components, you can choose whether or not to reuse the speakers thanks to a crossover for the bass and treble. there are several, with very divided opinions, I chose those whose critiques were best; The result is rather... nasal, not very loud but adequate. Acceptable I would say—or not.
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You can also choose to leave a male—female jack cable inserted in the motherboard and which comes out through the ethernet port of the chassis, allowing you to connect Bose companion type audio systems. You then lose the internal speakers because the jack cuts the speaker output on the motherboard that allows the crossover to be connected.
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It seems to me the best compromise to enjoy a quality stereo sound. When you use the ImacMonitor with a mac mini or a powerbook, it doesn't matter very much. You control the sound output (DP, HDMI, HP of the mac or bluetooth speakers). On the other hand with an AppleTV or a Mi box, you need sound.....
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I forgot to mention: I kept the wire that comes from the power button of the iMac (bottom left) and will use as the power on/off to the card later—and the AC power connector located at the bottom middle of the case.
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You can see the panel's short name LM27OQQ1 or LM27OQQ2, with two sets of parentheses two letters and numbers like (SD) and (B1) here. This is very important for specific cards that cost between 200 and 300€ and will have a dedicated model, or cheaper cards, between 100 and 200€ that cover up to six combinations in those parentheses.
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Above all, choose the correct card matching the panel and especially get a 12V power supply at minimum 6A. If the seller offers both, go for it! The front camera is no longer usable, you may choose to replace it with a 5 Million Pixel or 12 MP USB output camera, which you will plug directly into the Mac to use FaceTime.
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Again, above all, choose a very very flat camera because there are many of them, and some rather embossed. Facetime and all apps that use a camera work. To get the best quality, you can opt not to use a camera, but rather your iPhone for a webcam thanks to Camera Continuity to be set on the iPhone and Mac apps.
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We connect the power supply to the board but not to the mains. We connect the DisplayPort and HDMI cables and the direct usb camera to the mac. We bring back the panel that we will handle very carefully to be able to connect it to the card.
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We will plug in the screen cable, the golden pins visible upwards; it's impossible to make a mistake especially with the locking device that clips on. For the BackLite cable if the screen does not turn on when you finally plug in the mains, just unplug the mains and reverse the direction, no risk of damage.
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For subsequent testing, while using the screen place it in a safe place, it is better to plug and unplug this cable at the motherboard, That connector is keyed and there won't be a risk of reversing the direction (as was the case for me). Fortunately, there is no risk of a disastrous short circuit.
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Now we're looking for where to put the card, power supply and the rest. First; insulate the card so that it doesn't touch the aluminum of the chassis. I chose to attach it to one of the lugs that held the motherboard. The location of the control module was tricky. I considered putting it outside to access it and choose HDMI or DisplayPort
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This is why I wanted to go through the existing holes and not through the memory cover. So I put two together, dedicated to USB, to make a sufficient opening for the passage of the HDMI DisplayPort and USB camera cables. and I gave up putting the control module outside when I saw it detected the source itself.
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By this time, I've already soldered on the module, at the two leads of the power push button, (two wires in yellow inulation) which is an extension of the two wires of the on-off button of the Imac. Very simple to do even for a beginner. After seeing that we could do without the hypothetical controller, I changed the layout.
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We graft the crossover modules to the card to connect to the speakers (check right left with the You Tube stereo videos). To insert the speaker cables you have to cut the lugs on the side with a cutter until it fits. Be patient and careful, it's very easy anyway.
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They are installed on the right and left near the loudspeaker. We take the opportunity to place the USB camera in the housing for this purpose at the very top, in place of the old one, checking that it will be in the middle of the hole for this purpose in the screen glass.
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I also change the location of the control module which I place very close to the memory cover so that it can be easily accessed if necessary. We see it with the cover open on it's right. I took the opportunity to connect the HDMI socket, the display port and the extension of the camera's USB cable.
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I attached the power supply using Velcro which compensates for the curvature of the chassis. I also took the wires from the original power supply, cut the connector to the original Apple power supply, and cut the original EU plug from the power side and connected them with a small electrical strip.
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We can see the black wire from the power supply which goes to the electrical strip. The yellow wire coming from the on/off button and leading to the controller attached to the side of the opening. There's not really a need to extend the on-off wire, but I extended it since I was planning to put the controller outside.
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The last photo shows the extension of the On-Off button cable by the yellow wire which has its two core wires soldered to the control module of the card at the level of the power button, on the two small tabs of this button which are towards the other buttons of the module.
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At this point I decided not to use the speakers. Too nasal. On the other hand, I placed in the motherboard jack socket, a male jack cable on the motherboard side and a female jack on the outside. It comes out through the ethernet port and is ready to possibly receive a Bose companion system or any other….
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Then we align the screen, check that the camera is correctly placed at the level of the glass, and we use masking tape to fix the screen glass to its base. you can then place a shoe box for example to be able to tilt the screen 90° to peel the protective adhesive strips.
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We put the screen back on the horizontal base, the masking tape keeps it aligned; we reconnect the screen cables which we latch by pressing the small strip and we secure the backlighting with the ribbon cable.
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P.S. After deciding not to use the speakers, I may have just found a solution that I did not test because I had closed the IMacMonitor. I found on A.express an amplifier module which is placed after the crossover filters and equipped with a jack socket which can find its source in the jack output of the motherboard.
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We would connect the crossover modules provided by this seller to the Speakers, and place the Bluetooth module outside the IMacMonitor to enable volume adjustment if necessary. The In jack input would connect to the motherboard via a male-male jack cord so sound would go from the motherboard to the speakers of the IMacMonitor.
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You could also not use the jack input and instead use the Bluetooth module from the Mac connected to the ImacMonitor. For around €21.59 but you must also provide the external power supply for the module. Choose the Crossover option and amp.
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The ImacMonitor sits at an almost right angle on the raised shoe box. And above all it must be perfectly aligned for closing and gluing to be successful. The screen cable detached from the screen and the backlite cable detached from the motherboard.
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We are going to use the adhesive strips from the Amzn kit which allowed us to open the Imac using the pizza wheel. First of all, take care to clean off the remains of the previous adhesive. Using your fingers, a cotton swab soaked in isopropyl alcohol at 60%+ (great for photo lenses, but complicated to obtain). In short, clean well.
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The strips are marked with numbers to place them exactly on the frame of the chassis and have small holes (markers) to place opposite the existing holes in the frame. We hold the strips using a slightly pointed tool, it could be a sharp pencil, splinter forceps, etc.
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We stretch the strip and stick it straight along the frame. We move on to the next one... This operation is done with the screen removed from the tablesurface and placed exactly horizontally on a shoebox, for example, in front of the frame and almost held in place by the masking tape at its base. We can then peel the adhesive protections.
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...and reassemble by pivoting the slab towards the vertical, ensuring that it is well aligned. Pay attention to the alignment of the front camera, and carefully wipe the glass in this area on the inside so as not to leave grease from your fingers which would blur the camera image. We reassemble the panel, reconnecting the two layers.
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And then we press the screen firmly against the frame. We put masking tape back on the four corners of the frame on the screen and the frame and above all we leave them for at least 24 hours before removing them. And there you have it! It's done and it's an accomplishment we can brag about... that's what I don't deprive myself of here.
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I thank a thousand times the pioneering authors who allowed me to achieve this feat by providing the links to their Youtube videos. They're in English and German.
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So thanks to Luke Miani, Run Young and Armand from Abgechekt who doesn't specify his name, but whose German meaning of Abgechekt would be 'verified' in the sense 'good for service' in my opinion. Despite my German first language, it is not in my usual vocabulary, so with reservations......
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During the transformation, as I was not sure of my success, I imposed breaks on myself. A lot of questions slowed me down, such as the direction of connecting the cables, especially the use of the HP of the Imac. Where to exit the cables and especially the installation of new components.
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I am very proud of the achievement but above all over the moon to rehabilitate this marvel of design and image quality. Associated with my two Bose MusicMonitor speakers (not new) 'it's really a ball baby'. So I don't dare imagine with a current system.....
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Do you want to get started? Don't hesitate, with all the tutorials online, but especially mine 😎, you will get there!!!! and then if necessary I will answer your questions if it is within my ropes. Have a good adventure.
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To reassemble your device, follow the instructions in reverse order.
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11 Guide Comments
Bonjour, Savez-vous si des entreprises proposent cette prestation en France ou Belgique?
Très honnêtement, je ne crois pas, ou bien, si c’est le cas, je pense qu’il vaut mieux acheter un Moniteur neuf du commerce que de passer par une entreprise qui n’hésitera pas à vous prendre ne serait-ce qu’en main d’oeuvre 300 €…alors que c’est si facile, il n’y a pas vraiment de piège,, Armand de abgecheckt a même trouvé une caméra pour le remplacement qui fait micro: c’est une webcam usb et c’est génial et vraiment pas compliqué, j’ai essayé de lever les doutes avec l’es manipulations délicates et de surmonter les petites difficultés. Tout le monde devrait s’en tirer sans accrocs et avec l’ego bien valorisé. Que craignez vous?
Bonjour, je compte me lancer avec mon imac 27 de 2014, certaines personnes ont rapporté des soucis de luminosité d'ecran (rétroeclairge )très faibles suite à la transformation ainsi qu'une latence elevée. Avez vous eu ce genre de problème? Y a t il une marque ou un modele de carte controleur à privilegier ?
merci en tout cas pour ce tuto tres clair
Bonjour, je n’ai absolument pas rencontré ce problème, et toutes les personnes dont je me suis inspiré ne font pas mention de ce problème.S’il était avéré, à mon avis cela pourrait venir de la carte de remplacement or sur les sites d’achat là non plus aucun acheteur ne semble être déçu…. Je pense qu’il faudrait éplucher les avis sur le site où tu vas prendre la carte, en regardant combien ont été achetées et la satisfaction générée. Ton iMac est-il Retina? Si oui je ne vois pas pourquoi le retroaiclairage serait moins bon, sauf à avoir choisi une alimentation insuffisante en terme d’amperage, c’est un détail que je pense avoir signalé et personnellement j’ai acheté l’alim proposée par le vendeur de la carte. Point important. Bonne aventure!
