iMac Intel 21.5" Retina 4K Display Blade SSD Replacement

The wedge is an extremely tight fit for this model. I was worried that the amount of force needed to use it as shown might damage the stand, so I used it with the long side down instead. It worked fine that way and didn’t need anywhere near as much force to insert.

Here’s a good YouTube vid on upgrading the RAM: Can a Normal Person Upgrade the RAM in the 2017 21.5" iMac?

Here are a couple tips from me:

1) Expose the adhesive to extreme temperatures. I did this by transporting my iMac in my car, screen-down on a piece of cardboard on a cold February morning (in Chicago). When I went to pick up the iMac, the screen practically fell off the chassis. I would have been distraught by this if I hadn’t already planned this replacement. So it was a happy accident.

2) Remember to expell the residual power from the power supply by pushing the power button while the iMac is unplugged. This does NOT guarantee it’s safe to touch, but when I accidentally brushed the solder and exposed capacitors, I didn’t get shocked.

Instead of using the wedge, I placed the iMac faced up with the top side (web cam) facing me while I ran the pizza roller around. It worked out great!

“All iMacs also come with a traditional hard drive” mine doesn’t!! it’s HDD bay is completely empty, no SATA cable or anything. I guess I’ll have to upgrade the PCIe SSD instead.

There is no replacement glass for this model, it is part of the LCD and impossible to remove or replace- the entire LCD has to be replaced unfortunately if the glass is cracked or damaged. You will have to Google search for a replacement. Also be careful with some of the lock tight tork screws as I broke one of my screw mounts taking one out.

Don’t get too worried about starting exactly where the picture says. The glue is stronger in some parts so just start wherever is easier and then work slowly and patiently around in the direction shown.

As this guide doesn’t cover replacing the adhesive strips, I found referring to the following was useful (noting that it’s not for the same model of iMac, so the modification they mention wasn’t necessary): iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2544 Adhesive Strips Replacement

It is very easy to crack the glass in front of the LCD during this step. I used the guitar pick, maybe it was too thick… crack is just on the frame but anyway it is disappointing :(

Erreur de traduction: "de bas en haut" et non de" haut en bas" sur le côté gauche de l'écran

If re-opening a screen that was opened and re-attached using iFixit’s adhesive strips, I would strongly recommend heating it first with an iOpener, heat gun or hair dryer. 20 minutes after attaching with the iFixit adhesive I tried to open it again with the pizza slicer to fix something and cracked the screen on the left-hand side.

In this step can I cut along the display without make any damage to the front camera?

Hi! Actually - there is no need to cut the tape around the camera area - there is no tape to cut at all! And so, the way go is easy - just pass 10 mm to the left and to the right from camera and start cutting!

P.S. Just did the whole procedure to replace a RAM and to add SSD on PSIe an hour ago! Seems to be different reading the instructions... you know - 2/10 and so on. But it's really not that hard, trust me. I'll give it 5/10.

P.P.S. By the way there is one trick to pass the difficult steps. Any action which requires pulling smth (motherboard, speaker, power supply unit) from the narrow crack (or should i say - slit?) at the bottom of your Imac is really not so easy.

And the trick is to first remove a thin metal stripe with some kind of insulation on it which held by 5 small (very small!!) screws at the bottom of your Imac. After you done it - it's easy to pull everything! Pay attention to the fact that one of this 5 screws at the center are more shortly than others.

After doing the replacement the adhesive still sticks quite good enough to hold the screen in place. Maybe this isn't rock-solid, but enough for me.

You can add a SATA SSD if you already have a PCIe SSD Factory?

Yes, do it many times to loosen the adhesive.

this step is extremely important NOT to stick in the cards too far….. doing so, you risk a 600 euro replacement as I experienced………

I drew a 3/8” line on my cards with a marker first.

I’m reading this on the EU store, please change all measurements to cm/mm.

This part must be done very carefully or you can damage the flat cable from display, despite it was under a iron cover.

It was difficult to remove this connection. I ended up having to gently pull-up vertically a little on the wire side to unsnap it about 1mm and then horizontally wiggle it out.

I had a difficult time removing this connection. I had to lift the wire-side about 1mm before it unsnapped and then carefully wiggle it out horizontally.

Can this cable be replaced? I am worried mine is damaged. I have no display after the screen fell and stressed the display flex cables following an SSD upgrade.

Cannot seem to find a replacement cable for this, as I suspect mine is damaged. Can’t even find a part number. Anyone know what it might be?

I also need that cable.

The adhesive strip along the bottom is designed with a pull tab on each outer end. Rather than lever and pull the screen simply carefully pull the tab which removes that half of the lower adhesive strip and frees up the screen.

Yes, use the tabs as Andrew indicates. Super easy.

The adhesive strip along the bottom is designed with a pull tab on each outer end. Rather than lever and pull the screen simply carefully pull the tab which removes that half of the lower adhesive strip and frees up the screen.

I used the CR-V 4.0 standard screwdriver head to help peel away the adhesive lining. My fingers were too big to grab it, and my fingernails too short to get the removal started. This 4 screw head worked perfectly.

I put it in at a slight angle lining up the right hand side holes, screwed in the two screws and gently pressed my finger behind it on the rest

At step 26, when reassembling, it's super easy to over-tighten the 9mm screw and strip the brass ferrule out of its hole in the plastic bracket (%#*@).

Mine has 4 different length screws, the two red colored 21mm screws in this guide are actually two differ lengths

Mi imac does not have a HDrive whats the steps to follow?

ej P: remove the fan assembly first. Then remove the connector that runs from the iSight camera to the logic board on the left.

the RAM is located right near that cable. It’s tricky to remove but you can pop open the connectors with a black nylon stick and the RAM chip will pop up at 45 degrees. Make a mental note on which way you will need to install the new ram as it’s tough to see. For the Crucial memory I got it was label side facing away you (facing towards rear metal enclosure).

the second chip has a plastic adhesive piece on it that you should probably attach to the new ram.

remove both chips then install the new ram in sequence from the board out.

In the photo for Step 28, the power button cable connector is placed around the power board screw hole on the top left of the power board.

However, on the iMac I upgraded, the power button cable connector was “fed” through the power power screw hole on the top left of the power board. The cable was too short to run around and below the hole.

Hence, I had to ensure the cable was “fed” through the hole during re-assembly and the screw carefully screwed back through the hole.

I guess every iMac is assembly just a bit differently, just to make repairs that much more fun.

Just replaced the hard drive and RAM with SSD and 16GB respectively and did NOT remove the power supply or logic board. Tricky is a word to describe putting the RAM in without removing the logic board. You work in the dark with little room to get your fingers in between the logic board and the back of the case. I put the first RAM chip in without a problem (the one next to the logic board), but the second to four tries and dropped it behind the logic board three times before finally getting it to position correctly. Just impossible to see and must work but feel. Still it was faster than removing all the components… though did remove the fan (needed cleaning anyway). All in all I can’t say enough about the help the guide was through the upgrade ! Thanks !

I found this connector to be very tight and was afraid of breaking it off. I just kept slowly working on it—it did eventually come out.

I did try to sneak the RAM in without removing the logic board but my fingers were too big. I found it too difficult and just continued on with this guide.

I was not able to install the memory without removing all the components. My fingers are too big and I could barely get in that tight spot to swap out the memory. The hardest part about the power supply is that one connector under the chin next to the Apple logo. Once it is out, you are home free because it is so easy to plug it back in when you are putting it all back together again. Ridiculous that Apple did not put a simple access door behind those memory slots because they are on the backside of the Mac! They did an access door on the PowerBooks and it did not ruin the appearance. They could have designed a cool looking pop out door that only had a thin seam around it so it would still look good. Then you could remove the access door to upgrade the memory easily.

Does anyone know if this is the same situation as in the 2017 model? I just changed RAM in the 2017 version and also skipped taking out the logic board. I just bent a pair of tweezers and put some tape around the tips to make them less scratchy and used them to place the RAM modules into the slots. Worked supereasy and much much quicker than performing the complete tear down of the whole machine.

This step is impossible!

In my case, the left side corner of the PS was caught against the Lower Support Bracket, and I had to remove the LSB in order to get the PS freed and out.

I think the author Walter Galan should put this in the main section of his instructions. I have TWO identical iMac 14,1 / i5 2.7GHz / 21 Inch Late 2013 / Order ME086LL/A. They both required removing the LSB. Thank you very much Walter Galan & others for your contributions.

Those screws were definitely not T10 but T9 on my unit

Those screws were T8 on my unit.

When replacing the PSU (on the re-build) take care not to trap the power button cable behind it - I did...

In my case, the left side corner of the PS was caught against the Lower Support Bracket, and I had to remove the LSB in order to get the PS freed and out.

I think the author Walter Galan should put this in the main section of his instructions. I have TWO identical iMac 14,1 / i5 2.7GHz / 21 Inch Late 2013 / Order ME086LL/A. They both required removing the LSB. Thank you very much Walter Galan & others for your contributions.

when pulled the cable, even slightly, the actual female piece that connects to the logic board came off. am i screwed?

Repairing sockets that come off the logic board is possible, but very specialised work. Unless you have a magnifying lamp and the necessary desoldering and soldering skills, it will be difficult but not impossible.

The tab is at the far end of the connector, so you’ll need to reach farther than you might think.

When I pulled the disconnect, I pushed down on the disconnect, instead of pushing down on the tab on the disconnect and bent those pins… tried to straighten the bent pins and two of the pins broke off the logic board. Will I need a new logic board or can I purchase the pins…?

I didn't disconnect the input cable to the power supply. Because I had the machine lying on its back throughout, I placed it on to the metal bit at the bottom of the machine instead (with a cloth to stop the metal getting scratched). The AC inlet cable was pretty tricky to get un-locked, and the PSU sat on the case fine. It didn't hinder anything else throughout the guide.

I thought from Dave’s comment that I could leave the power supply completely in place, but I was mistaken. In order to remove the hard drive assembly after you remove the center screw in it, you’ll need to at least unscrew it and the HD assembly will slip out. Like Dave said, you don’t need to unplug the AC or PSU, which I left hanging.

Getting power supply to the logic board unplugged is also tricky without unscrewing the two bottom screws. They didn’t make this part easy.

Kleiner Rechtschreibfehler - statt „denac“ muss es wohl „den iMac“ heißen

Au ja. Du kannst so was selbst ausbessern. Einfach auf “Übersetzen" gehen und loslegen.

I would like to thanks Dave Hallett for his tip of not removing the AC inlet connector of the power supply. I simply wrapped the board in bubble wrap and taped to the iMac case, out of the way, thus giving access to the remaining disconnection procedures and preventing the board from scratching to the iMac case. It also made reassembly much simpler.

Yeah, that AC inlet plug was a nasty one to unplug, mainly because I was trying not to bump the solder joints on the PSU. After a few wiggles and pulls while manipulating the spudger tool to release the clip, it finally unplugged. Made it easier by removing the PSU completely so you don’t have to worry about it. Don’t worry, plugging it back in is a breeze!

With the right tool this plug comes out very easily. Forget about your tiny computer tools, go to the garage and grab a regular old needle nose pliers. Grab the clip and the plug at the same time. The plug will come right out.

erreur: retirer "la carte d'alimentation" et non" le disque dur" !!!!!

During the reassembly process I found it very difficult to plug the power/data cable on to the new hard drive. On my machine it’s very short and the fact that the cable comes into the plug from below at 90 degrees means it’s hard to keep straight on to the drive. I found this process could be made much easier by undoing 2 x T10 screws and CAREFULLY (there are cables attached) moving the adjacent speaker assembly a little away from the drive, reattaching once done. Hope this helps

I found that there is one more torx screw underneath the hdd when you take it out. If you remove this it seems to be easier to reattach the SATA cable to the new drive.

You will have to reroute the sata cable beneath too. The drive tray will not simply lift out.

左下のネジの上にこの画像にない配線がある　2019 iMac

At this “Remove logic board” guide iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2805 Logic Board Replacement step 65, I’m not seeing any PCIe socket. Does this mean if you bought an iMac with HDD you cannot add PCIe-based storage module to it later? I see in this guide, there can be a HDD with the PCIe-based model.