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Model A1224 / EMC 2316 / 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo processor / Education only model. Released on March 4, 2010.

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Found in trash and EFI locked, can I bypass and disable it?

I found this iMac in a lot of two at the transfer station today. The last owner removed the glass panel and... lost it I guess, removed the RAM, and removed the HDD. I put new RAM and an SSD in it only to find when I tried to boot off a USB it had an EFI lock. I tried the RAM trick for models around and/or before this era and that has allowed me to bypass the lock and boot from USB but upon a second boot the EFI lock has returned. Has anyone discovered a flaw that can be exploited to bypass and disable the EFI lock on models of this era or do I need to go the hardware route and re-flash the EFI chip?


BTW I know that this is an anti-theft data safety type feature and it should be assumed by others that I stole it if I don't know the EFI lock password but I swear I have not stolen this more then decade old EDU iMac, that would be unbelievably stupid of me to do.

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Ok within about 5 minutes of asking this question I found a solution to my issue. On earlier models changing the RAM config bypasses the EFI lock on the next boot, which allows you to do a PRAM reset removing the EFI password. For others in the same situation here's what you need to do:

1) Remove one of your two RAM modules, if you only have one remove it then turn on the computer and after the "no/bad RAM" beep code turn the computer off.

2) turn on the computer and after the chime hold down command, option, P, and R at the same time, wait for the screen to go black.

...and that's it. It's really simple and it was easy to find online, I just managed to miss it on my first search.

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Last month I found a similar unit in a similar circumstance. An iMac "Core i5" 2.7 27" (mid2011). I'm completely unfamiliar with Apple devices therefore have no keyboard or magic mouse or any of that stuff laying around, but just cannot stand to see potentially good electronics go to waste, outdated or not. I found upon powering up what sounds like a disk boot failure & the loading bar freezes just past the middle. * apparently not an unusual occurrence for this device upon reading other reviews online. I just wanted to issue a "pre-thank you" as I feel I may encounter further issues..... assuming I can get past the current one.

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The method that worked for the OP only works for iMacs made before 2010, so it won't work for the 2011.

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Apple devices should work with any USB keyboard an mouse, you just have to know which keys map to the unique Apple ones on boot to do things like PRAM resets and booting from USB drives. A lot of these iMacs have temp sensors that plug into the drives and without the drives installed can cause weirdness, I'd advise using one of the SSD replacement kits available from iFixIt to replace the HDD, it's likely just old and has failed.

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Lorelei Rareheart crwdns2934231:0crwdne2934231:0
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