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Model A1311 / Mid 2011 / 2.5 & 2.7 GHz Core i5 or 2.8 GHz Core i7 Processor

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White Screen of Death after booting up at Recovery Mode

This is kinda weird, but I don't know if that was part of the system. After I boot up to Recovery Mode (both internet and USB) I usually ended up at WSoD.

History:

My 2TB WD HDD died due of bad blocks and got replaced by 1TB WD HDD. So when I am trying to work to boot on my USB and/or Internet Recovery Mode, I always get the white screen of death which is awkward. And when the last time I reboot back, I got my iMac fans blows very loud and fast at the top of the ventilation, this is the time I ran the Hardware Utility check. Everything seems fine. But back again on rebooting, I always ended up to White screen of death whenever I boot to recovery mode.

Update:

After successfully booted-up to High Sierra bootable disk, I noticed that my 1TB is not listed under Disk Utility. But when I test the HDD on my WD Elements (external) and plugged it to my Mac Mini to see if the 1TB is damaged, it runs fine there.

Please don't tell me that the cable of my HDD inside my iMac is the culprit?

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Can you tell us your exact model. Each series is a bit different which why we need to know.

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Hi Dan, my imac was Mid July 2011. that was all i can remember. as of now, I can only determine that the hard drive line is undetectable after successfully booted up to Bootable Disk of High Sierra. There is no indication of new 1TB HDD. Im not sure at all why. My only guess was could be the wiring. And I hope it is not.

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ok, the issue was the Video Card after I brought it to authorized service center. I may need a replacement of the video card. Either I buy here or Ebay/Amazon.

The case was, Apple marked all iMac 2011 as vintage and all internal parts are obsolete and no guarantee that there will be a service that will do the replacement. Either you do it by yourself or ask a friend to help you.

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UPDATE:

As of August 30, Video Card replacement was arrived (purchased one here) and start to disassemble the iMac. After few hours of repairing the unit and put back all, I see that the unit was working back again after a successful boot up.

SU-weet!!!

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@imarkdesigns - Sounds like the person who put in the replacement drive failed to connect things up properly.

Are you up to fixing your own system? This is one of the easier things one can do on this series. Follow this IFIXIT guide here: iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2428 Hard Drive Replacement. If you are using a 3rd party drive (not Apples) you'll need this special cable: OWC In-line Digital Thermal Sensor for iMac 2011 Hard Drive Upgrade as the system uses an internal thermal sensor within the custom Apple drive to manage the systems cooling. It maybe they used the correct cable but it managed to unplug on its own. I have really needed to replace the SATA or power cables on this series unless someone buggered them up.

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Hi Dan, thanks for the idea... Btw, I did the replacement, and the 2TB was done last 2 years ago until it went broken again last few days ago.

I contacted iFix* center here in my country to assist me to fix the issue. I will let you know what was caused of my problem.

*iFix is an Apple certified service provider here in Philippines.

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@imarkdesigns - You may want to get a UPS for your system and peripherals as some parts of the Philippines has bad power. You also may need a good dehumidifier if you live in the more humid part as condensation can effect things badly.

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Maybe try to plug in the old drive to see if that works. If that isn't detected either, there's a large chance it's the hard drive cable.

Just to be sure;

have you tried resetting SMC / NVRAM? Doing this can perform magic sometimes!

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Hello... I tried everything. And I think the main issue here now is my cable. Upon trying several times, It took me to High Sierra recovery mode system and be able to see my HDD there and be able to install High Sierra (take note that whenever the system runs on loud fan) and after pre-installation, it reboots for the main installation, after that it can't recognize anymore my hard disk.

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The loud fan is normal. In the original iMac disk, there's a built-in sensor that checks for temperature. When you replace the disk, that sensor isn't there anymore and the iMac will run the disk fan at full speed. This can be fixed after installation with Macs Fan control. (My iMac does this as well)

Your problem is almost certainly due to a faulty cable.

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Does the power and sata cable can be replaced via normal PC retailer shop? I have check yet the board if it the cable itself is replaceable. Thanks for your heads-up... I appreciate it. It generally affect my work now. All of my backups to my 2TB was gone after Disk Drill found theres a bad sector on my previous Hdd. Also, do you have any suggestion how to remove bad blocks from hdd under osx journaled disk?

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"Does the power and sata cable can be replaced via normal PC retailer shop?"

I'm afraid not, macs are only to be serviced by AASPs (Apple Authorized Service Providers) because of their custom nature, with custom parts etc...

The cable is pretty easy to replace though, but I don't know how expensive it could be.

MacOS has a build in tool in Disk Utility called "Drive Aid", I don't know if it will fix bad blocks, but it fixes some of the biggest problems with drives most of the time.

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I see.. yeah, my problem was, the Disk Utility always set my 2TB as "uninitialized" even if it is mounted. I have to initialize the disk for me to be able to reformat it or recover some of my files there inside.

anyway, thanks for the info. I appreciate it!

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Mark Rivera crwdns2934231:0crwdne2934231:0
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