Replacing a iMac slot-loading hard disk
(or CD drive) and, eventually, the internal battery and RAM
boards
As usual, I cannot be responsible for any damage to
your machines when you will experiment the following
tutorial.
No major problem: the solt-in CD drive is the sole piece
to be dead.
So I decide to change it. Of course, within this operation,
one can
(1) replace the hard disk by a bigger model,
(2) add extra RAM and
(3) check the internal battery.
1)
The machine: one of the first slot-in on the market... no
firewire!
For more recent slot-in (with FW), it is more easy (and
often less expensive) to use an external FW burner.
However, this latter solution is less aesthetic and more
cumbersome.
2)
We put the machine as on the picture: the screen down
onto a soft tissue to avoid to scrape it.
3)
We open and unhook the trap door (with a lever or a flat
screwdriver).
4)
Two cruciform screws to be removed.
The other trap door, which allows access the RAM modules
and the possible airport card, is locked by the colour
cylinder.
There is no need to dismount all the machine to access
these parts!
5)
Again, two small cruciform screws to be removed.
6)
The cockle can be unhooked from its upper part following
the movement shown by the arrow.
Unhook it smoothly but firmly: we can face a little
resistance until we hear a bright sound indicating that the
hooks which maintain the cockle are disengaged.
7)
6 small cruciform screws which clamped the armouring have
also to be removed.
8)
Removing this armouring case is easier on this kind of
iMac because of the lack of a VGA port (the yellow arrow
shows the missing VGA controller).
On the left, a little bit below the black radiator, on
can see the internal battery.
9)
The same view... but of a dead iMac in which we withhold
pieces.
The yellow arrow shows the VGA controller and the blue
one the cutting-out in the armouring -> so, when
remouving the armouring on such a machine, we have to lift
it up to avoid it hitches the controller.
And here, no battery on its support.
10)
On the left the dead "benefactor" iMac (a DV 450 MHz) and
on the right the machine to be repared (a 350 MHz).
The DV iMac has no upper cockle: we removed it in the
past to diagnose a problem (the machine does not startup (no
illuminated led).
The 4A / 250V fuse is dead. But if we place a new fresh
one, it directly burns... even before we start the machine:
a short-circuit somewhere...
But we do not want to investigate further: we use this
machine to retrieve valid pieces ;-)
11)
We remove the power cable (yellow arrow) and the IDE
connector from the mother board (blue arrow).
The white arrow points to the reset switch.
12)
We now remove the hard disk-CD drive common craddle (4
screws).
13)
The two right ones: do not damage the cables!
14)
The two left ones (already removed): and again pay
attention to the cables... either when dismounting the
machine but also when reassembling it ;-)
15)
When the screws are out, we can unplug the connectors and
extract the craddle.
16)
Two big cruciform screws on the right...
17)
... and their twins on the left ;-).
18)
We unhook the IDE ribbon which is connected to the hard
disk.
19)
We lift up the CD drive...
20)
... and extract it from the craddle.
21)
The hard disk still fixed on the craddle.
22)
We upturn the whole stuff to unscrew 4 screws which
liberate the hard disk.
We can put a bigger one: it has to be put in master mode.
We recuperate the IDE cable because it contains wires
dedicated to power the CD drive!
As usual, follow the instruction above in a reverse order
to rebuild the iMac.
23)
3 RAM modules: two 64 original MB on the top, a 512 MB
module under!
If you wish to thank or forsten me...
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