I would agree except for the fact that even loading the ASD OS tester(Snow Leopard maybe?) should be the original driver for this iMac had the same issue of being unable to load unless put into Safe Mode. Unless there’s a bios style deep driver that kicks in and drives any and all loaded OSs that are loaded, I’m going to stick with dead 4850. crosses fingers (generic driver may just not push the GPU hard enough to die.
edit: Aaaaand, time to go to work essentially for the next 3 days before i have off from 1 of the jobs.
Brother had a “dead” CPU once that would boot and last long enough to get windows partly loaded before shutting down. That was fun to diagnose.
The OS in ASD OS will ONLY load the Driver for the OEM card for that given model of mac.
The ASD testing environment is minimalist to reduce false errors, there is theoretically nothing in it that is not required to run the tests.
I would agree that your original card is likely the culprit in this scenario. A blown video card in my '07 iMac finally put it to pasture after many years of service. The replacement card was as much as a whole unit of the same vintage!
So after burying myself in my iMac almost completely(when the i7-880 comes in it won’t be but a few more screws away then how deep I got), I’ve got a fully working machine again.
Used to be a AMD 4850 512MB. And now to go and restore to my old backup.
See that you’re running Sierra reminded me that I had to chase down a copy of Javi SE 6 last night to keep Adobe Illustrator CS6 running after upgrading to Sierra on my iMac.
Heehee. Only thing left would be at some point pump the RAM to 32GB. Just have to put six more screws back into holding the monitor in the frame, clean it well, then set the glass back in front of it.
well, over the weekend I got bored and installed WINE and tried to setup Final Fantasy XI. I got the installers going but haven’t yet worked out the kinks as I’ve got stuck on some of the DLLs. I had the same issues on my PC a few years back, but was easily able to install a bunch of various years VC-redist packages dotnet and an old dx8 and was good.
I’d toy with the RAM(it will support 32GB) but as stated way up there, I have no need(justified need, not want) for that much expense.
Oh. I also scrubbed the Logitech files in the hidden and system areas, reinstalled the Logitech Controller software and now I have usable forward and back buttons on my M570 again. Busy computer week.
Now if only I had a giant grey laser box to sit next to my computers.
You’re braver than me. My iMac has a “broken neck”, as I understand it, one of the two spring clips that allow the iMac screen to be tilted has broken This cause the monitor to lean all the way forward all of the time.
To fix this I’d have to completely disassemble the iMac removing everything inside to get to the broken plastic clip and replace it with a custom made metal clip. One weekend I stated to do this when I realized the newer iMac does not have a magnetically attached front glass, but rather it’s held on with double sided foam tape. Taking this apart would also require cleaning off all of the old tape and replacing it before I could put the glass back together.
So I cheated and cut a couple foam blocks to sit under the monitor (on the base stand) to hold the screen up. So, I guess there is life after a “broken neck” as I’ve been running this was for months and it general it works really well.
The new iMacs are easier to service than the old ones. A few less parts inside, quite a few less screws.
The Tape is two pieces of VHB (Very High Bond) tape with foam between them. There is a neat tool to cut the foam, you can then remove the adhesive from the panel and the Housing. I’m sure there are methods to do it without the proper tools, just don’t damage the black mylar on the glass, you will wind up with a visual cosmetic defect.
ooh, speaking of this topic, i sold the bad board on ebay for a decent amount and just yesterday put the old CPU up for sale…holy crap. less than 15 sec after I posted it I had four offers and about 10 seconds later a fifth one came in. All were decently over the “average” suggested price ebay had told me. So I made maybe 1/4 of my upgrade cost back via selling the old parts.
For the updating('cause why not): Still going strong with the new hardware. Still planning on doing the RAM upgrade at some point but it’s an(increasing cost) $300 now. These miners need to stop hogging up the RAM out there. It started out a year ago at about $240. I’ll have to start up a new thread soon. I picked up a cheap T5600 and wanna have an adventure with it…
In the mean time:
Sometime in Late Feb, I grabbed a fairly cheap 2011 mac mini i7 2.7. Turns out I gambled poorly on that one. It slowly died over the next 5 months. Sent it out for repair and abruptly died 3 months after that. Think a capacitor is shot. I can hear it whining when power hits it. So it’s up on ebay now as parts. Already have a 130$ bid for it so I’ll at least be making my repair cost back and the RAM will go up for sale next. 8Gb (2x 4Gb) DDR3 1333 PC-10600 by Crucial.
Welp, that’s been my electronics adventure over this past year.
I put one of these in my imac as well as my macbook and they work great. Not SSD but still much faster than a standard HD. Boots in about a tenth of the time.
It’s not the RAM it’s the GPUs (or more specifically the gaming video cards) that mining uses (and now that’s only the altcoins, bitcoin is all about ASICs now). Even my trading bots don’t require huge machines - I run those off the small stick PCs. I expect the RAM issue is normal seasonality as all the PC manufacturers build for the holiday gift giving craziness.
I expect that’s because everything is becoming a RAM hog now. Even cheap $500 laptops have 12GB Phones are starting to standardize on 64 for low end and 128 for higher end models. Smart connected stuff has RAM, toys have RAM, everything is getting connected and often require RAM.
I’d sound like my father if I made a comment about remembering when 2GB was huge but that was only 10 years ago
Just swapped out 2 of the 4Gb RAM modules for 8Gb ones. Take that Apple. Now running 24Gb 1333 RAM in a 16Gb max 1066 specced 9 year old imac. When I pick up some more cash I’ll hit the other two. Got them for $110 total from Amazon. Seems to be much smoother as just having all my browser tabs open was 10Gbs. Gotta have my comics, my research tabs for podcasts, my research on audio editing, all my GF tabs(app, store, catalog, main account, forums, both matrix), various material sites, etc, etc.
Now maybe Logic Pro X will stop complaining so much about extra things running.
Busy computer week.
This cause the monitor to lean all the way forward all of the time.
Phones are starting to standardize on 64 for low end and 128 for higher end models. Smart connected stuff has RAM, toys have RAM, everything is getting connected and often require RAM. 
When I pick up some more cash I’ll hit the other two. Got them for $110 total from Amazon. Seems to be much smoother as just having all my browser tabs open was 10Gbs. Gotta have my comics, my research tabs for podcasts, my research on audio editing, all my GF tabs(app, store, catalog, main account, forums, both matrix), various material sites, etc, etc.