iMac Graphics Card Replacement East Midlands Derby

UKSL are pleased to offer our reliable iMac graphics card repair service to the public.

Do you own a faulty 2011 27" iMac Model A1312?

Symptoms of graphics card failure include:

  • White Screen with Pink vertical stripes
  • Blank White or Grey loading screen
  • Crashing and restarting while in use.
  • Chimes but no video on startup (Black Screen)

 

Faulty iMac

What is the fault?

This is caused by a faulty ATi 6970m graphics card. A very problematic card even from new, Apple offered an extended warranty service available many years after purchase. Any spare graphics chips were bought back by Apple leaving next to nothing available for any future repairs. We have heard many of stories of iMacs going back for repair many times under Apples repair program making these 27" unreliable and bit of a time bomb.

What is the solution?

After years of research and trial and error with our own iMacs we now have a permanent solution. We modify a more reliable graphics card into the iMac which involves modifying and machining the larger 27" heatsink to fit.

What are the advantages?

Advantages we have found are that the iMac is much happier being used all day every day without any crashes or restarts. Temperatures are reduced by up to 30 Degrees. Much cheaper than sourcing and fitting a brand new time bomb 6970m which are often over £700 for the part alone.

iMac Logic Board

Are there any disadvantages?

The graphics cards that we fit may be lower Spec with less memory such as 512MB compared with the original 1GB. It has never been a problem for any of our customers as most do not use any 3D Apps. Photoshop and other 2D applications will not be affected.

What other models are affected?

We also replace graphics cards in 2009-2010 27" A1312 iMacs or 2009-2011 A1311 21.5" iMacs. Which have normally been cooked from oveheating due to never being serviced (blocked fans and heatsinks with dust and fluff).

We can still change cards in older 2006-2008 20" A1224 iMacs and 2007-2009 24" A1225 iMacs.

How much does this cost?

We charge £359 inc VAT for this service.

Considering a new 27" iMac is at least £1800 this is a great opportunity.

What else does this repair involve?

While the iMac is in for repair we remove, strip down  and clean out internal fans. Dust is removed from all heatsinks. A new PRAM battery is supplied and fitted (if below 3v). All dust and fluff is removed from the internal casing.

Often our customers use this as a great opportunity to supercharge their iMac with an SSD. We can offer a better price as the iMac is already stripped down. For more information about SSD upgrades please see our SSD Upgrade Page.

What are the alternatives?

Its a shame to leave a very capable machine like the 27" iMac unusable.

Many other companies online and advertising on eBay offer a reball or reflow service. This involves either heating up the graphics chip (reflowing) or wrongly diagnosing the fault as cracked solder balls under the chip and replacing them. The act of heating up the chip temporarily fixes the internal fault for a short period of time (1 Week - 3 Months) before the fault returns. There is a reason the warranties for these repairs are this short. Replacing the chip leaves you with the same time bomb scenario.

Is it reliable?

We are so confident in this repair that we offer a 12 Month Warranty. 

How long does this repair take?

We stock replacement graphics cards speeding up the repair. This is  very in-depth repair involving the iMac being stripped down and rebuilt completely. We can normally complete the repair in 1 Week including 24 hours of testing.