Olivier Biot

Scenario 1: the pick-up drums do not roll, you hear a grinding noise You most likely hear a grinding noise of plastic cogwheels slipping when the printer tries to feed a sheet of paper. It looks like there is too much play in the paper pick-up unit (at the rightmost end inside the printer) on which both pick-up drums are mounted on a single arm. When not printing, these drums are lifted. When printing, they are dropped to the top of the paper stack and will engage to separate the topmost sheet off the stack. When lifted, you will be able to rotate these drums in one direction. When the drums touch the paper, they simply don't rotate. I suppose that because of excess play (programmed obsolescence?) eventually the cogwheels that drive the drums will slip. Sadly this unit is hard to reach. Probably the entire printer must be torn down, and I don't expect you will be able to easily fix the excess play on the paper pick-up mechanism that drive the rubber rolls when pressed on the stack of paper. Scenario 2: the...

Sadly my display died when replacing the battery. The phone is alive (it is seen in iTunes) but the screen remains black, even after resetting the iPhone (pressing Home+Sleep button for 10-20 seconds).

I also disconnected the display from the phone and reconnected all 3 connectors, but to no avail.

Is there something else I can try to resuscitate the screen?

I used a heavy duty iFixIt suction cup (used for repairing an old iMac) for the job. Worked like a charm.

This would make sense, since the original hard disk is entirely electrically insulated from the chassis: the plastic bracket at the top insulates it from the top and back of the chassis, while the bottom screw-on pins fit into rubber grommets, again isolating the chassis.

However, when using a SSD, I see no reason for grounding the SSD to the back of the LCD with this bit of conducting foam.

I would definitely use this conducting foam on a conventional hard disk as it is more prone to generating leak current through the chassis.

In my wife’s iMac the PRAM battery was a CR2032 cell (IIRC from Panasonic). After 10 years of use, it still had 3V so I decided not to replace it yet. Now that I know how to open the iMac I know it’s a quick fix (10-15 minutes). In this case, you only need to perform steps 1-4. Remember to remove the bezel starting at the top. Once you can lift it 2-3 cm, you can disengage the bottom of the bezel by gently and slightly moving the bezel “downward” (if the foot of the iMac is facing you, move the bezel slightly towards your body).

The battery should be prudently pushed to the right (there’s a metal spring at the right) so it can pass the plastic retaining claws to the left.

Likewise, remember to gently pull the microphone connector (and cables) through the ~1 inch long slot in the bezel next to the iSight camera when reassembling the bezel on the chassis. Once the bezel is in place, you can easily tuck away the connector and wires through that slot into the bezel. Make sure no wires protrude.

I upgraded my wife’s old iMac and replaced the original 250GB WD Caviar HD with a 500GB Samsung 860 EVO V-NAND SSD. Worked out of the box. I created a compressed read-only disk image with SuperDuper (took 45 minutes for 12 GB) and then restored it to the SSD (in less than 2 minutes).

Initially I bought an incorrect 2.5” to 3.5” adapter, so I reordered another which did the job without requiring extension cables: Sabrent BK-PCBS. It isn’t the most expensive option, but it is a perfect fit for the hob: screw holes at the right place and with the right threads, and SATA connectors at the same place as the original HDD (so no cable extenders required).

The machine now boots up very quickly and is much more responsive. Meanwhile I also upgraded the memory from 2GB to 6GB, which also contributes to the increased responsiveness of that machine.

With the screen facing up (iMac lying on its back), put the 4GB module in the leftmost slot and the 2GB slot in the rightmost slot. If you’re doing the memory upgrade with the screen facing down, then invert (4GB right, 2GB left).

You should actually push the old memory module in until you hear a click, then you can retrieve it by pulling the plastic tab. Otherwise you’ll have to pull hard to get the memory module out.

When reassembling the bezel, you should actually gently pull the microphone connector (and cables) through the ~1 inch long slot in the bezel next to the iSight camera, when lowering the top part of the bezel onto the chassis . Then further lower the bezel onto the chassis of the iMac, while making sure there’s no room / play between the bottom of the bezel and the bottom of the body (where the memory slots reside). . This way you’ll avoid damaging the microphone cable. Finally gently push the microphone wires and connector through that sale long slot in the bezel to conceal them inside the bezel.

In case the iMac hasn’t been opened for years (typical situation), then you may want to first carefully and prudently remove the piled up dust with a vacuum cleaner and a soft brush. Definitely not with a can of compressed air, as then you’ll spill the debris everywhere (and on the display). Otherwise you won’t be able to get hold of the right cable, connector or screw. In addition, it will help increase the air flow hence reduce heat (and allow the fans to operate at a lower speed).