Introduction
Remove the LCD to access most of your iMac's internals.
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Stick a suction cup near each of the two top corners of the glass panel.
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If your suction cups refuse to stick, try cleaning both the glass panel and the suction cup with a mild solvent.
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Gently lift the glass panel perpendicular to the face of the LCD enough to clear the steel mounting pins attached along the underside of the top edge of the glass panel.
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Pull the glass panel away from the lower edge of the iMac and carefully set it aside.
What's the best product to clean the face of the LCD?
Microfiber Cloth
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Remove the eight 8 mm T10 Torx screws securing the display to the outer case.
The metal near the screws is VERY magnetic. Honestly, the hardest and by far most frustrating step was trying to put these screws back in.
I ran into the same problem - easily the most frustrating part of this process. To help deal with it, I took a drinking straw, cut it to be about 2 inches long, and used it as a chute to guide the screw to the hole. Dropping the screw down the straw, it'd still stick to the side due to the magnets, but using my screwdriver, it was easy to push the screw down to where it needed to go, and the straw kept the screw from being pulled out of place by the magnets.
josh -
Hmm… yes, the magnets sucks - literally. But if you use a normal screwdriver or a bit, the screwdriver tip or the bit can be “loaded” by the magnets too. Just move the screwdriver (or bit) over one of the magnets and then “plug” the screw onto the screwdriver’s tip (or bit). It will be held by magnetic force. Just enough to move the screw vertically and very slowly into the whole.
There are some special screwdriver on the market with “claws” to hold screws, but they are hard to find/to buy and expensive. I sometimes use superglue (a LITTLE) to temporary fasten the screw at the screwdrivers tip. This technique can be used with destroyed screw heads too to optimize adhesion.
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Slightly lift the top edge of the display out of the outer case.
The harddisk can be removed WITHOUT the next steps. The opening angle of the partially lifted LCD display gives enough room to untighten the two Torx T9 screws of the hard disk bracket, to unplug the two SATA connectors and to carefully lift out the harddisk. There is absolutely no need to dismantle the whole thing.
All you need is a screwdriver which fits into the room. I’ve used the “Pro Tech Toolkit” from iFixit. The screwdriver with Torx T9 bit fits perfectly.
The other “tool” you need is either someone who holds the LCD plate or the inner leftover of a kitchenroll, a scrunched paper, a small towel or similar which has to be stuffed between the logic boards and the LCD plate to keep the LCD at its lifted place (careful! don’t unplug any of the cables).
I’ve opened and changed the harddisks of those 21,5 iMacs a dozen times with the help of the “Pro Tech Toolkit” and a kitchen roll.
If i want to replace the HD with a SSD, can i still skip the next steps? I think i can’t because i need to change the termal censor, but i would like an other opinion please.
Danois -
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Pull the vertical sync cable connector out of its socket on the LED driver board near the top left corner of your iMac.
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Rotate the display out of the outer case enough to disconnect the LED backlight power cable from the LED driver board.
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Grab the plastic pull tab secured to the display data cable lock and rotate it towards upwards.
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Pull the display data cable straight out of its socket on the logic board.
I am having a difficult time reattaching the LCD cable. A better description or any tips would be useful here.
Me too — ditto that.
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDI... —> abt. 5:30 into the vid. Handle up to slide in, then flip it down to lock the connector in place.
The connector needs to be carefully pushed in parallel to the board with a surprising amount of pressure and the pull tab must be folded back. Not super fragile, but not strong either.
I really wish that the fagility of this connector was mentioned in Step 10 or 11.. When i rotated the screen on step 11.. It pulled this connector out and now I can't get it back in.. I hate computers.. HA!
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Disconnect the LCD thermal sensor cable connector from its socket on the logic board.
The replacement hard drive I used doesn't even appear to spin up and the Time Capsule restore process doesn't show it as available. It just stays at Searching for disks and never finds it.
I had to use Disk Utility to partition the drive and then it showed fine. Rookie mistake.
JRBv3 -
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Carefully pull the display toward the top edge of your iMac and lift it out of the outer case, minding any cables that may get caught.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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2 Comments
My screen does not come on but the dvd player powers up and the orchestral noise in the beginning sounds what do you think the problem is?
Change "Before beginning, unplug your iMac and lay it on a soft surface as shown." to "Lay your iMac on a soft surface as shown"
Henry Barnett - Reply
my imac power sullye not powering
tahir - Reply
imac 2544 2.5 core i5 i touched the motherboard to supply and it spark now it is not powering
please tell me the directions
thanks witting for answering .
tahir - Reply
Im sorry to say, If it sparked when you touched it your motherboard s now fried. You need a new one.
Robert Wacker -
Very easy to lift the glass out. Don't jerk too hard.
kctipton - Reply
Success replacing the stock ST31000528AS with a STBD3000100 (Dead 1TB to new 3TB, both Seagate). First try. Using another Mac and a quality Firewire 800 cable, I formatted it using Target Disk mode, 2 partitions (defaults, except I made the first one bigger than the second). To the second, smaller one, I copied a bootable Install OS X Mavericks partition. Tried to boot. It booted, and I installed; nary a glitch. (Running the Installer over Firewire would have been faster, but I didn't want to reboot this machine.)
See part 2 below...
Matthew Elvey - Reply
(Part 2:)
I SKIPPED steps 6, 7 AND 8! Instead, after doing Step 5, I noticed I then had enough room and cable length to access the screws in Step 11 if I lifted the LCD up an inch or so, rotated it about 20-30 degrees clockwise and moved it a couple inches toward the base, and put it down. After removing them (Step 11), I propped up the LCD (with a spare spudger) and had enough room to do Steps 12, 13, and 14 without much difficulty. Felt safer/less work and risk than not skipping steps 6-8. No risk of the damage Ersan and Michael caused performing Step 7!
Matthew Elvey -
I just edited that step to add a note about the shortcut.
Matthew Elvey -
What the ???
Geoff Wacker has REJECTED my edit: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/history/ste...
I wonder why. What's the deal, Geoff? I mean I'd understand if I suggested folks didn't need the suction cups, as that could cut into iFixit's income stream, but what's wrong with suggesting that a few steps aren't needed? It worked for me; the EMC 2389 I fixed is humming along with a new 3TB HD I installed while skipping those steps.
Matthew Elvey -
I did not have to remove a single cable! After undoing the torx screws from the sides, I was able to rotate the LCD out of the way enough to reach all the screws holding in the ODD bracket. One of them was a bit challenging to get to, but I never felt that I was risking the cables by leaving them connected. Also, it wasn't totally clear, but you have to actually remove the ODD itself from the ODD bracket - 4 torx screws. The SDD mounts into the hard drive enclosure, then the enclosure is screwed into the bracket. Those holes (enclosure <-> Bracket) did not line up correctly for me, and I had to go with only three of them connected in the end. Seems to work fine.
cdansmith1 - Reply
Another comment on DATA & LCD Temp. Sensor cables: I had to remove the vertical sync, and the backlight cable, however, if you have an assistant or/can carefully rotate the screen clockwise/and then have it held up about 5" to 6" at a slight angle, you do not need to remove LCD data cable or LCD thermal cable, however - IMPORTANT: you must have a second pair of hands/or way to securely prop up the LCD. Also, don't rotate too much, since then you will pull out LCD data cable, and it renders the whole exercise moot, or can damage the cable or connector.
MaximBorzov - Reply
You don't need suction cups. The screen, held by magnets, can simply be pried off using a very thin blade such as a screw driver and fingers.
Deepsurvival - Reply
That's a bad idea. using a metal tool to pry off glass is likely to end with an expensive broken front glass.
Suction cups are common. Find a couple and do it the safe way. I use some cheap ones that came with iPhone repair kit.
max damage -
Hello, I just need to replace a slightly cracked screen on my iMac. Where is it best to place the suction cups? Thanks in advance
michelemiller0 - Reply
No need for suction cups, I just stuck my nails (short like guys usually have) between the top part of the screen and body, and it came off easily. I've never done it before, so it seems to be very easy.
Nikolas Lintulaakso - Reply
Nails worked for me too
Rob Dale - Reply
Just completed the replacement of the optical drive with an SSD using an OWC Data Doubler kit. Attempted to remove the optical drive without disconnecting any cables but found it a bit fiddly to orient the screen for good access. I bit the bullet and disconnected them and found the process less daunting than I imagined. Reconnecting them was similarly straightforward if you're careful.
Tip: you can skip the step for removing the optical drive thermal sensor connector from the motherboard. Still need to remove the sensor from the optical drive but you can leave that hanging and reattach it to the SSD later.
osienna - Reply
I have an odd question -- I want to remove the polarizer from the LCD. With some monitors this is trivial, others not so much. My question is whether it is bonded to the Liquid crystal, or whether it's loose, or cutting it with a razor blade would remove it. Obviously I'd like to know before I go to the trouble of dismantling the thing... Thanks. Paul
Paul Kwiat - Reply
I use Garmin GPS suction cup. Work very well
jc3Dcx - Reply
I used a plumber's helper (you know, the thing you use for a clogged toilet
Kai-U. Köhler - Reply