What could go wrong?

Il Mio Problema

I wanted to add more space to my iMac so I could use it more so as a media server instead of having everything on external hard drives. Having everything in one spot makes it faster to browse and easier for me.

La Mia Riparazione

Everything started out good. Ordered the iMac hard drive kit from iFixit so had all the necessary tools to complete the task and set aside a day to get the work done. I watched the YouTube video as I was doing the work so I could follow it step by step and pause when I needed too.

After I got the new cables plugged in on the back of the logic board I started reseating it and once it was back in started plugging cables back in. In the video, MJ says to "make sure all the cables are out of the way and don't get pinched" or something to that effect. Well I was about to plug the power button back in when I noticed the connector had broken off. The power bottom is welded to the back of the iMac housing so you can't really replace that easily. So I thought I was screwed.

What I ended up doing was purchasing a new housing off eBay with nothing in it for cheap and was going to transfer everything over from the old housing to the new. Sounds simple right? Well, I bought the correct serial number but it wasn't from the same time of year as my iMac. So they didn't match up and I couldn't transfer everything. So again, I thought I was screwed.

So now what do I do? Well, I cut out the wire from the new housing with the connector on it and soldered it to my iMac so now I had a working connector. Used heat shrink tubing to protect the soldered connection and plugged everything back in and closed it all up and thought I was in the clear.

Once everything was put back together I plugged in the power cord and the keyboard and was ready to turn it on. I sat back, stared for 5 seconds and pushed the power button (moment of truth) and, nothing happened. So I thought I was screwed, again. But then I remember I had unplugged the cord from the wall to plug in my laptop earlier that week. So after a smack to the head, a cord plugged back into the wall I hit the power button again and heard that wonderful Mac sound, "boom" (or however it sounds). Since both hard drives were new it took a minute or so to figure out which one had the operating system on it but once it found it it started up with no problems. Both hard drives are recognized and my iMac now has a 480 GB solid state drive and a 3 TB hard drive in it, so I am happy.

Il Mio Consiglio

Listen to MJ, watch those cords and take your time with the more difficult repairs/upgrades.