So, I need a new card.

• Are all MXM 3.0 B cards compatible or does the card need Apple firmware?
• Would a 6970M card for a Dell Alienware laptop or another card with the same chip as one of the iMac 2011 models work?
• Where can I get a card that works? (<400$)

I've see a lot of questions and answers that dance around these questions but none that actually answers them specifically so ANY help will be greatly appreciated.

• ''Are all MXM 3.0 B cards compatible or does the card need Apple firmware?"
• "Would a 6970M card for a Dell Alienware laptop or another card with the same chip as one of the iMac 2011 models work?'

I found out Apple uses special firmware and for a card to work it needs an EFI flash with Apple firmware.

A card without Apple firmware will simply result in a black screen.

A friend of mine did suggest I could remove the BIOS/EFI-chip from the original board and reflow it onto a cheaper card - but that will probably be too complicated for a lot of people and I already had a new card on the way.

Cards that already have Apple firmware (pulled from iMacs) are interchangeable though - I upgraded from the 1GB 6970M to the 2GB version.

• "Where can I get a card that works? (<400$)"

You can get a working card on Ebay or Aliexpress - any MXM 3.0 card pulled from an iMac should be fine. I paid ~300$.

Lastly, as @mayer pointed out, if you have an iMac 27" Mid 2011 with issues, the GPU is most likely the cause and Apple will fix it if it's no older than four years, because it's a recognized issue.

Apple refused to fix this one because it was sold in 2011 but if you want to fight Apple, maybe that'll work too - I chose to fix it myself instead.

⟐ Commented 七月 31, 2024 at 10:24 GMT-7

Looking at the pictures below it looks possible....

Macbook Pro 2011 logic board:

http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/QWKKP...

Macbook Pro 2012 logic board:

http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/11bHZ...

Has anyone attempted it?

⟐ Commented 十月 06, 2023 at 6:48 GMT-7

⟐ Commented 七月 24, 2022 at 19:09 GMT-7

Tried so far:

PMC-reset

Cleaning the trackpad and its edges with a soft cloth from the top and from the bottom after removing the battery.

⟐ Commented 八月 27, 2022 at 16:03 GMT-7

⟐ Answered 六月 09, 2022 at 19:45 GMT-7

Oddly enough, for the first few hours it would go away if I restarted the computer, but would reappear if I adjusted the tilt of the screen. Now restarting, jostling, shaking, etc has no effect.

Photo of defect

Any ideas? I suppose I'll do a little exploratory surgery today and see if I can re-seat any ribbons/cables that go to the screen....I'm hoping I don't have to replace the whole thing. Any tips would be incredibly appreciated....I'm in the middle of exams, and this is not making studying very easy!

Cheers!

-Patrick

⟐ Commented 十一月 13, 2022 at 1:16 GMT-7

For what it's worth, I was just able to fix mine with the help of this list.

For me, the key was trying to start the computer with no RAM installed. After that succeeded, I went ahead and put a single RAM chip back in, and it started up.

What started the problem was the main battery getting too depleted, which seems to have an impact on other parts of the system.

Thanks, everyone!

⟐ Answer deleted 三月 05, 2022 at 15:10 GMT-7

⟐ Commented 六月 04, 2023 at 21:35 GMT-7

After that the iMac doesn't boot properly. It does the chime sound, then the apple logo with indicator and then just goes to a white screen. The keyboard doesn't work as caps-lock light wont come on.

I have tried the following:

• RAM reset (Cmd+Opt+P+R)
• SMC reset (unplugged power source for 2-3 hrs, held down power button for 10 sec)
• Removed ram cards and powered up, it did the SOS beep with 5 second intervals, so I'm guessing logic board is fine
• Holding down Option key during startup brings up the disk selector (I have 2 partitions one with Lion and one with Mountain Lion) neither boots up.
• Tried booting from an external Mountain Lion Install USB drive, it shows up in Disk Selector, am able to select it, but then it stops at white screen
• Ran a thorough Apple Hardware Test off the internet through ethernet cable, took 1:45 hours and it showed no errors
• Tried to run through Mountain Lion Recovery Disk, same white screen
• Entered sIngle user mode (Cmd+S) and ran fsck -fy on boot disk, it gave a few minor errors, so I repeated fsck -fy a few times until it no longer gave errors, still doesn't get past white screen. I'm able to browse the HDD in single user mode using the shell. Then did "exit" and also "reboot" commands, both ended in white screen.

I've looked around and found several guides dealing with this exact problem, but as you can see from the elaborate list above, none of those remedies have worked for me.

Any help is greatly appreciated, I'm on a tight deadline to finish this animation project and this is the only machine I have access to at the moment.

I don't have Apple care nor warranty and there's no Apple store/Genius Bar nearby.

⟐ Commented 三月 12, 2024 at 14:44 GMT-7

I went ahead and installed 16GB RAM ram in my Macbook. It works fine, except for when I try to run Windows 7 Pro in bootcamp. It comes to the login screen then it stops. sometimes it just comes to a white screen. I think win pro7 can handle 192 GB REM, so what's the problem? Can it be the memory model ? I bought Crucial DDR3 16GB 1333MHz SODIMM for Mac.

Thanks!

⟐ Commented 十月 13, 2021 at 13:33 GMT-7

I'm planning on buying a 13" Macbook Pro early 2015 model with 256 GB storage.

I want to check, is it possible to upgrade the storage later. I might want to upgrade to 1 TB to run VMs.

Regard

-Dino

⟐ Commented 七月 09, 2020 at 14:14 GMT-7

Yesterday, I noticed that when I tilt the screen back beyond the 90 degree angle the screen goes black. Then if I move it back to 90 degrees it gets illuminated. But the angles vary a lot. Sometimes it gets illuminated only If I move it back to 60 degrees and sometimes a little more than 90 degrees.

One important thing to mention: when I open the lid until 60 degree there's no stage light issue, the display is clean, with no shadows. The issue starts at 60 degree with the shadows appearing and screen brightness being lowered until it goes black.

It works perfectly with an external monitor. So it must be something with a damaged display cable, right? Can it get worse than it already is, like damaging the logic board or something?

I can't afford an expensive repair (new display) so if I'm safe keeping the lid closed, I'm planning to use it as a desktop.

⟐ Commented 六月 19, 2021 at 12:00 GMT-7

I installed 64GB of RAM into my iMac 4 x 16GB

After the upgrade the system fails to boot. I can hear the hard drive, however the screen is off, with the old RAM the iMac works as expected.

I have verified that the RAM is compatible and should work with my iMac.

Any solution to get the iMac to work with the new RAM?

⟐ Commented 四月 19, 2024 at 12:48 GMT-7

As a whole, what are your best tips and tricks for getting these annoyances out without damaging the machine? I'd love to hear some seasoned answers!

⟐ Answered 十一月 04, 2025 at 0:50 GMT-7

What can I do short of replacing the logic board.

⟐ Commented 九月 30, 2021 at 14:30 GMT-7

More over, when I press Shift, Control, Option and power button while charging, Magsafe turns green for 2 seconds and turn amber again. Which usually means the reset works. So the power button seems to work as well.

Any idea how to fix it? Won't turn on, no startup chime, and no light at all.

⟐ Answer edited 八月 08, 2024 at 8:29 GMT-7

Can anyone help?

I have an Apple Wired USB Keyboard since 2013 and yesterday some keys stopped to work.

I didnt pay much attention, thought it was a momentary USB glitch, replugged it, and it seemed to help.

But today the trouble returned.

Keys "8", "I", "K", and "," are not working. As you can notice, they're all in a straight line. So it feels like some contact line is dead/malfunctioning.

No, I didnt spill any liquid. Its perfectly dry.

Googled it. Many users report the same problem here and there, but not the real remedy.

Apple's answers are as useless as they should be, deemed to housewives, a la "Check if your house has electricity". :)

If you can give a tech-savvy advice, please do.

PS: If you're going to say "Go buy a new one" - thank you in advance. :)

⟐ Commented 十一月 30, 2025 at 17:52 GMT-7

I purchased my Macbook pro 1.5 years ago in Aug 2010 (did not purchase Apple care for extended warranty) . Started getting kernel panics recently and after every panic attack the machine would beep 3 times repeatedly. However, after not bothering with it for many hours (busy with work) I would be able to turn the machine on and use it for 5-15mins and would experience another kernel panic. I recently took it to Genius Bar in UK and was advised it was a 3rd party conflict (Sophos anti-virus) issue. I was advised to delete Sophos and everything would be fine. But it wasn't the case and I had to travel to go again. This time I was advised that the technicians would run a detailed diagnostic test and they suspected that it was a Logic Board or RAM issue. Today I was advised by a store personnel that it was a "Logic Board " fault and had to be replaced (costs approx 400GBP). I wanted the technical details of the fault emailed to me so I could get a second opinion. Instead, I get an email advising me that I have to physically go to the store to get the technical details of the fault.This is so disappointing. It has lasted just 1.5 years and as a student I just don't have the funds to get this fixed (could probably get a decent PC for that money).

On Monday the Apple store informed me it was my Logic Board. I wanted to find out the exact details of what's wrong with the Logic Board and waited to hear from them for two days. Initially they said that I could not get this by email. Yesterday when I rang them again, I was advised that they were running more tests to make sure it was the Logic Board.

Today I get a call advising me that their diagnostic test LO AND BEHOLD highlighted that their "GRAPHICS CARD" ( Nvidea ) had failed. When I pointed out the whole "NVIDEA-MACBOOK PRO SAGA" genius bar member ( she was nice and empathetic) said to me that the problem with my GRAPHICS CARD was not the same problem. So, I asked her to specify what the problem was with " my graphics card". Apparently, they do not have the techinical knowhow (even it went to their factory or some sort of centre) to find out what was wrong with the GPU and all they do is plug in a gadget to test it. This seems like a party line that they have to tow. All in all, I will have to fork out 400pounds to get this fixed.

However, I am not going to accept this and am going back to witness the diagnostic test. I would like to arm myself with as much info as possible about this whole NVIDEA saga. Spoke to Apple Centre and they were very helpful. However, the ultimate decision to put in a new Logic Board FoC depends on the store manager.

People with new Macbook pro's (Nvidia GT330M) and not just the old GeForce 8600M GT seem to experience this as well. Help and suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks

⟐ Commented 五月 13, 2020 at 15:01 GMT-7

I was given an Apple Ibook G4 model number A1134 as a gift recently although I have a little problem. Okay make that more like a medium sized, problem maybe even large. Issue is I dont have the password to the former owners user account.

Apple Ibook G4

Model Number: A1134

Operating system: Mac OS X

Is there a way to reset the laptop itself from factory settings?

Or bypass the password login?

Or anything at all i can do or was this gift pointless?

SOMEONE HELP A PC USER OUT!!! IVE NEVER HAD A MAC BEFORE, IM LOST!!

⟐ Commented 二月 10, 2021 at 12:16 GMT-7

This is the SSD that I ordered: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...

I am currently booting off that SSD, which is connected via USB 2.0, and I believe that it's being bottlenecked by USB 2.0.

⟐ Commented 七月 18, 2021 at 10:30 GMT-7