Monitor vs Videocard

Ipheuria

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Jul 21, 2009
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I’ve got a Mid 2011 27” iMac and about 5 months ago I booted it up and I didn’t see anything on the screen. I could hear the startup chime but the screen was blank. At first I thought it just wasn’t booting but latter I stumbled onto the fact that it was. I logged in to Teamviewer which was running on the iMac. I saw that it was running so I logged in and everything was running like normal. I suspected the monitor at first so the next thing I did was to connect a mini display adapter and connect an external monitor still nothing. At that point I’m thinking it’s the videocard because shouldn’t the external monitor work if the internal panel is toast? I’ve been using it via Teamviewer but it seems like such a waste. I took it to a Genius Bar but they couldn’t tell me definitively what it was. I can’t remember exactly but I think they said they would replace the videocard for $500 and if it still has the problem then they would replace something else. I don’t really want to pay $500 just on the chance it might work.
 

Just_Me_D

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Heck, I wouldn't want to pay $500 for a video card either. With that in mind, I'm surprised that they couldn't tell you definitively what the problem is. You might want to call Apple Support to see if they can run a remote diagnostic of some sort to pinpoint the problem. In the meantime, I hope others will offer up suggestions / recommendations that may prove beneficial to you.
 

Ipheuria

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Thanks, I feel like its the videocard because the external doesn’t show anything but the way these things are built you just don’t know.
 

dcoke22

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What it sounds like is the $500 repair is an Apple Depot Repair. You give them the money, they send your computer off to a repair depot where they replace/fix everything that is broken, no matter what it is or what it costs. Finally, when the computer is back to 100%, they send the computer back to you.

Of course, $500 is almost half way to a newer refurbished 27" iMac… [URL="https://www.apple.com/shop/specialdeals/mac/imac/27#mn_p]https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/imac/27[/URL]