the chance of casually finding an imac in the trash 😭 (edit) i just wanna clarify this wasn’t meant in any malicious way. i just can’t imagine finding one myself :)
As someone who is an ex-Apple technician who worked on these, I can say that you did an exceptional job at the repair and upgrade. Just be careful around the camera area with the adhesive cutter because you do not want to accidentally break it. Fun fact the adhesive never goes within that little bit of the camera area. 10/10 repair and upgrade! Love to see this as an ex-Apple technician.
Even just watching a certain Australian TH-camr cleaning them with eucalyptus oil is therapeutic. Upgrading them and fixing them saves the world from a little bit of e waste at least. This thing is newer than many iMacs still in use.
@@wertywerrtyson5529Same thing goes to another Australian TH-camr whose background setting is usually white in colour, repairing phones and computers.
I actually spent one year of my life after high school working for a waste management company before pursuing college. You will not believe the number of desktop cases I have found headed towards landfill. Some of them were various imac versions without cracked screens. Since it was all trashed, it was also up for grabs by anybody who wanted one.
We had a recycling thing here where we paid money to get rid of electronics.. While in line to get rid of an old standing AC, I was sitting there watching people drop off CRTs, gaming systems (like consoles and stuff), PCs out the wazoo... they wouldn't let me get out of my car to ask if I could buy some of it. :( The thought of that stuff getting just trashed/torn apart/sold for scalping when we paid to have it taken... just very annoying.
Yeah bulk pic up week town wood have all electronics toosed. Found 10. Mac classics the small screen. Fdd ones took em and we re used them for eord processors😊😊
I would have taken them apart and then sell the parts. More money in parts than a working computer. He paid $200 just for a screen. I've often used second hand parts to fix a computer.
@@carlm1595 That's what I used to do - bought and sold iMacs on eBay, mixing and matching parts, usually a couple of years behind the latest model. I only had to trash one, and I sold the guts for parts & recycled the empty aluminum case. Now have an M1 Mini, and I doubt that there's anything in it that I could rescue and re-use. (Maybe the fan? I've never noticed it turning on - it should be like new!)
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Odds of finding an iMac in the trash: Luke Miani: 100%, rest of the world: 0%
@@tykymba I used to find one as well but I don't have the right tool to open the screen glass so it broke more and inside it there isn't anything I can harvest at all so it's stay a trash.
i found 2 in the trash a while back. one 27 inch 2011 with dead psu and one 24 inch 2007 that was in flood (but still managed to work, despite being a mud bomb)
I bought a core2duo iMac for $10 at a flea market a few years back. It was pretty scuffed up, but powered on. I replaced the hard drive with an SSD with a new OS and it worked great! Eventually I realized I wasn't using it much so I slapped a FREE sign on it in my front yard & it found a new home. :)
In the trash... and here in Italy best you can find for a 4K iMac is around 300€ for a base model with a dead display and/or dead logic board. Heck people here still asks 150-200€ for a 2010-2011 iMac! Great video as always but... US/Canada market is not remotely comparable to any other market here in the EU.
If you look carefully you can find good deals. Here in France i was able to buy a 2012 21" imac for 50 Eur, and another 2013 21" with dgpu for 70 Eur, although people here usually ask at least 200Euros for such imacs.
@@CB-kt7qd of course you can find good deals here, but it’s nowhere as easy as in Luke videos… he talks mainly to his US fan base, which is absolutely fine and correct, but whenever I see him saying “you can find this Mac for X amount of money, they’re dirty cheap, people literally throw them in to your face” I say “yeah, no. Not here. Not even in a million years, here.” Problem here is that virtually no schools have a single Mac (no Apple education programs) only maybe in some universities, and 90% of businesses also have PCs so the only possibile Mac market is from private users that purchased those Macs at full retail price +22% taxes in euros. This leads to a natural price inflation on every single Mac model in the used market compared to the exact same computer in the US. That’s the way it is.
@@CB-kt7qd the problem in italy (as my experience) is that everyone believe their stuffs is worth alot an try to gain every penny from them. I saw alot of listings about electronics devices priced above the average price (for EU) only because from italian sellers. An example? A used switch goes for 200 on average (280 new from amazon, sometimes 250) and the average price for an used one in italy is 250 at best (ofc sometime you find nice deals near 200, but is like 10% of the total). In france (thro vinted), i saw almost all switches goes for 220 on average and sometime even 150. I'm italian and i can't blame to much my culture, but that aspect is really annoying.
I dunno why you'd include Canada in that. Here in Toronto nothing goes cheap with an Apple logo on it. People "know what they have" lol! Well.. they think they do anyway...
As someone who been trained in electronic repair starting multiple decades ago I had to work on plenty of CRT's in the past. It was working on CRT's around the flyback that had me on the edge of my seat. Over the decades been inside of plenty of power supply's for computer's over the decades they don't scare me unlike the CRT's did.
The more I watch this the more I'm certain he just bought a cracked screen but working one one on ebay, and said he "found it" for a more compelling narrative.
@@janegoodall1837 I am a computer guy. I literally have people, teachers, that freely give me old macs and devices just because they upgraded. They trust me to recycle and remove data. I probably get about 10-20 computers a month. They're all re-usable. with PCIE3 and up speeds. Its insane what people don't want with computers now. Everybody is on the phone or tablets. Usable phones and tablets don't get recycled as much.
@@janegoodall1837 Like he needs that narrative. He has a ton of videos where he buys stuff on Ebay to repair, but on this one video he makes that call? Not logical Jane, but I suppose you had to inject your daily random dose of social media poison and call him a liar. Feel better?
Every time I watch Luke repair and refurbish a Mac, I am fascinated and fantasize about doing the same thing myself. Then I wake up and realize that my lack of experience means that I would endure hours of frustration and errors if I tried the same thing. Instead, I pay up for my Macs, avoid the frustrations and watch Luke for the entertainment. Thanks, Luke, for another good TH-cam adventure.
I've found a couple of late 90s and early 2000s PCs in more or less working order (had to repaste things and restore the BIOS on one). Found a 5.1 audio system too, some generic USB speakers, and a variety of mice and keyboards. A couple of CRT and LCD monitors, some ancient GPUs and modem cards, plus some other minor things.
I also rescued a MacBook Air Mid 2013 from the local recycling center, minor scratches, no dents, perfect screen and keyboard. All I had to do was to replace the battery that only worked for about 10 minutes with a new one from Amazon plus a MagSafe 2 to USB-C cable. After reinstalling Big Sur I wanted to get Monterey but I had these Volume Hash issues. Tried again but couldn’t patch the SSD to boot without the USB stick. I then tried Ventura using OCLP 1.5.0 and it worked perfectly fine. It has only 4 GB of RAM but I also am quite surprised how usable this 11 year old Mac still is. It is a real shame that Apple is only interested in selling new hardware because these old computers are well capable of running almost everything currently available. Instead of creating eWaste, Apple should support these machines for as long as possible. 😊
I have rescued many Macs from the trash. One is sitting behind me right now basically as a glorified juke box! The iMac I am using to watch this video was also a neglected (not quite trash, yet...) computer that, with a little love, works like a charm! Great video! Keep rescuing discarded/neglected Macs!!
You might want to pay attention to the thermal pads of the GDDR chips for the GPU too. People often forget this when they apply new thermal paste for the CPU/GPU, leaving a risk of overheating issues of the VRAM.
if you rang me when i worked at applecare i'd have put you on hold and rang every apple store within 100 miles till one picked up and gave me a price hahahaha or i would not stop calling any of them
Way to go! Watching you upgrade this machine was an educational experience. Showed that a repair CAN be done! Sometimes repairing something you own and have an attachment to is better than buying someone else’s headaches. Love the channel ❤
I found an older iPod (running iOS 12 with lightning port) in the box with the headphones and charging cable thrown in the trash while doing janitorial work at an office for rent building. It had been cleaned and was factory reset. One of my best trash finds!!!!
As a suggestion, to really unscrew the CPU mount, you shouldn't remove the entire screw one at a time, unscrewing in an X pattern is great, but you should be unscrewing them equally in the X pattern until the tension has lessened so the spring won't pop up like it did at 12:52
The upgrades were good, but that screen with the little crack outside the viewing area was super usable. You could have just added the processor, RAM and SSD and called it a day. The other move on these iMacs involves getting a damaged one with a bad MOBO and you just use the screen. If you didn't want to upgrade anything you could have booted off an external SSD and put a piece of tape over the little crack.
I absolutely would have done the same! Perfectly usable (free) machine, after the upgrades, slightly expensive though they were, but you saved it from going to Landfill -- and that's _marvellous_ and _priceless_ 🤩
Haha, have you fallen for it? No one finds a working iMac with only a cracked screen in their trash. Obviously Baseus paid him for sponsorship and he had enough money to buy a perfectly working iMac (unlocked and magically boots into a guest account, how handy) and a replacement screen for it. Hell, I won't be surprised if he even cracked the screen himself.
@@APopov some people are very willing to throw out perfectly good things. People who buy iMacs tend to fall into that category. And even if the story is fake, the video is still good. Either way, you can't verify whether it's true or not, so it's whatever.
@@APopov As he showed in the video, it was beyond economic repair. It was only worth it for Luke because it's just fodder for YT content. As a base-model 2017 iMac with a cracked screen (and perhaps damaged webcam), it's hardly inconceivable the owner just tossed it and bought the current model, with a larger screen and 10x faster. Also not surprising they had wiped their data off it. And why password protect if you're only booting to confirm it had wiped? In any case, Luke was going to install a new boot drive anyway, so would have just formatted the HDD. Still, was fortunate to not be firmware locked.
is it only me or did you guys also see on 15:25 into video crack on screen? but never the less well done bro i love watching how people save old macs and desk tops etc.
You'd be amazed at how many computers people dump at their front yards in Australia for stranger to pick them up. One time I found half a dozen of SGI workstations
I've found 2011 iMac back in 2015 from trash. It had failed GPU which i put to oven and BOOM it worked again. It has failed a couple times after it again. I still have it but it's too old for any use nowadays.
Love these videos. I still have a very useable 2009 iMac 21.5 running High Sierra 3.3hz I core 2 Duo with 8GB ram. I have converted the System to a 256 SSD but replaced the optical drive with a 2 TB ssd using the OWC conversion system. Boots and opens apps fine and with a truck load of storage now I use it to scan (using Silverfast and an Epsom 700) and store all my images from old family photos dating back to the early 1900's
why tf do i never find an imac in the street. yet every tech channel manage to find one? are u sure you're not just buying them on ebay and feeding us a scenario
@@mattstone8878 it's an unexpected find, why would we want to have our cameras on us at all times? I found an Xbox 360 Slim in the trash once and the only issue is someone mashed up one of the front USB ports.
@CautionusJay Bro you have your phone on you all day and your phone is a video camera. When something cool happens to you (and you are a professional TH-camr) it would make sense to whip out the phone and record the moment. But whatever I don't really care lol.
@@mattstone8878as a professional TH-camr, I almost never think to do this. Not even with my phone. I just do whatever I’m doing in the moment and then record a video about it later. Only time I ever bust out a camera to do anything TH-cam related is when I’ve at least somewhat planned what I am filming. Even if it’s not fully scripted.
Be careful with dumpster treasure -- and used computer stuff in general -- if you don't know much about the owner. You may end up with bedbugs. They like to go into warm electronics and will lay eggs in there, too. Give it a full inspection (inside and out, every crack and crevice) before bringing it into your home.
I bought a 2006 macbook pro for like $10. The previos owner said she didn't know if it was working or not since she had lost the charger so long ago. I got it just to see if I could make it work again. I plugged the charger, turned it on and voilá, it was working just fine, slow, but fine. The only thing I did to it was to upgrady the ram, throw an SSD in and now I'm planning to install Ventura with a patcher.
You know Luke, these are the kind of videos I really miss from you. Refreshing to see an old fashioned repair of an old mac video from Luke Miani. It is why I subscribed to your channel in the first place! Bravo for ditching all the new format ideas and going with a success story. Cheers
These are your best type of videos, in my opinion. It's great to look at these machines on the inside and being fixed, pimped and so on. And I would definitely buy these machines from you if I had the opportunity.
Ive worked on these imacs for a while with many a zaps from apples lovely exposed psu's. ive found that if you unplug the imac and then hold the power button for 5-10 seconds it discharges the capacitors and makes it safe to handle
I used to work for an electronic waste recycling company and in the more financially affluent areas people throw away perfectly good stuff. I recently found a 2019 MacBook Pro fully maxed out and all I had to do to get it running was replace the battery. Saved myself hundreds of dollars and it works perfectly.
Next iMac you find: Grab the main (working) PCB, convert it to use a 65watt USB-C wall wart (instead of the scary PSU), find a new cooling option, then 3D print a case. No $200 screen and it takes less table/desk real estate. Like a home-made Mac Mini. (and yes, ditch the speakers since you can still plug it all into a speaker/stereo or use bluetooth sound.)
thanks. great job. however, instead of reapplying adhesive strips just put a small piece of clear tape somewhere along the rim to keep the screen in place and for easy future access to the internals.
Found a tossed out iMac A1312, two Mini Macs, 3 Apple laptops, several iPhones and iPads (couple of iPods too!) This is over a period of about 3 years. Also found a tossed out Power Macintosh / Power PC 6500 / 250, matching CRT, keyboard, mouse, some disks, programs and it works! The A1312 works but needs the iOS reinstalled! It's possible to find electronics but depends where one looks.
Loved the video, especially the “the scary power supply 🥳) part 😂😂😂 Just a few recommendations: 1st) The displays in the back are too bright imo and I actually enjoyed them being in sleep mode 😅 maybe turn them down a bit in the future 😜 2nd) Hugh Jeffreys shorted and therefore drained the power supply of his TV with a screwdriver - maybe that would work for you too 😊 Also: Thanks for being so transparent on what you actually spent on your repairs 🤗❤
Well done, good job. If I found one of these, I would just take it to an Apple store and get them to recycle it. You also need to take into account the time and effort spent fixing it, not just the cost of the new parts. Great video anyway, I enjoyed watching it, keep up the good work 👍
I had this EXACT thing happen to me at my old apartments! Sitting by the trash were two 27inch 2011 monitors that just had fried chords. Took them home and the work PERFECTLY! Still using them today!
As strange as this comment may sound, your videos make me very happy. I've been on Macs since college in 1987 where I would spend hours in the CIRCA Lab learning everything I could about computers and desktop publishing. I helped put myself through biz school as a tech and by finding and repairing old Macs or profit (Classic, Si, Ci, SE, etc). I still run all Macs in my company and do my own repairs (even though I'm the president). Bottom line, I love Macs and you do to. You did a great service by bringing this beautiful machine back to life.
Love to see you saving still usable tech. However, I'm wondering if it's possible to add the omitted SSD slot from a dead/parts Mac so as to have two storage drives? Would it still work?
For the last 3 years my wife has been using a late 2009 21.5" iMac for all her Zoom meetings. I found the iMac at the curb of my neighbor's house. He cleans out abandoned apartments and he found the iMac but couldn't figure out how to get past the password. I replaced the original HD with a SSD and upgraded the RAM. It works just fine. The screen is great and it does what she needs it to do.
An FYI for hard drive swaps on iMacs. I’m not sure what iMac models are effected, but some like my 2017 iMac with a Fusion Drive will run the fan at full speed continuously if you swap the hard drive out without dealing with Apple’s proprietary built in extra thermal sensor. OWC sold a kit for it at one point. Basically just a SATA cable with an extra sensor you can fix to the new drive to avoid the problem.
Luke: "Gosh-diddly-dang it! Why did they have to put a screw for the heatsink, which is attached to the logic board, underneath the tray that holds in the hard drive?" Me: *laughing* "Whoa, whoa, whoa, such profanity!" In all seriousness, this was a fun and informative video, as always. 👍👍👍
I had almost the same exact thing happen to me, I found a 27in 5k with a cracked screen on the side of the street in NYC. I'm typing this on it now. It has been a great free iMac!
for some weird reason, only TH-camrs tend to find expensive things casually and cleanly put in the trash... it's almost as if they intentionally put things out there or something😂
i tend to do the same thing try to breath new life into things. found a netbook a little ways back, and plan on putting a SSD in it, already put the max of 2gb of ram in it. it might not be the fastest, but will work as a down little download mule, and it has a SD card slot so there is a plus as well. good on you to save tech, and that right there has earned you a subscribe, keep on saving tech from the trash heap.
Repairing it and using it (or giving it to someone who will) is the most efficient and purest form of recycling. I wish more people realized that "recycling" it isn't actually green when it can still be used.
I bought a 2011 27" iMac for 50 bucks from an auction. I couldn't upgrade the iOS so I installed Ubuntu and it works very well. It does need a better hard drive and new ram I think but overall it is a very usable computer. I'd like to open it and do some of this myself but I've never done that. Videos like this help. Thank you.
I just got this same model, but with 16bg ram and a 1tb HDD for $115. the iMac was dropped while powered off and the only damage was the stand got a small bend where the hole for the power cord goes. Plan is to upgrade the HHD for a 2tb SSD, Upgrade the i5 to the i7 and replace the whole stand assembly while the screen is off.
I really enjoyed watching this video. You make repairing it look so easy! I found it really difficult to get the display on and off when I upgraded to an SSD in my 2013 21.5. Now it's actually usable and I love it.
Sweet find! I think the person wanted someone to find it and save it; didn't have the knowledge or want to fix it themselves. I have the same machine (but 27"). It's been the best one I've ever had. She's a workhorse! The positive thing is how clean this mac is on the inside.
Nice but i have an 27" imac from 2013 and updates not work anymore. tried to put new IOS on it but it always gives errors. what can i do with my perfect working imac in 2024? opencore legacy patcher is not working.
I wonder if it just needs the nvme slot, or the other support components for it also? I have a MSI GL65 Leopard which comes with a 2.5" SATA bay and a nvme slot. It also had a unpopulated nvme area with the bare pads. So I ordered the nvme slot and the other components and soldered them on. Luckily MSI left the 2nd m.2 slot enabled in the BIOS.
I came across some ads showing a resin that you apply on cracked glass and it fixes it. It's supposed to be for windshields, I think. Can this be used on the iMac screen?
I got a bought a used 2019 iMac a few years ago and upgraded the the hard drive to a SSD. That was the only upgrade and the speed improvement was great. Would have been interesting to see each upgrade added one at a time so show the improvement each made on its own so we know what gives you the best bang for the buck.
That model's been my daily driver for five years, until it crashed a few months ago. I thought about getting a Mini with a 4K monitor, but balked. I had a 1T SSD sitting around, ordered a 16 gig memory card, and had my Mac guy put it all together for me. All for $350, about a third of the cost of a Mini setup. It's performing better than it was before, with the 20 gig memory upgrade. If you can keep it cheap, this iMac is definitely worth saving. And I sure do like that Retina monitor.
Great video. While it is rare to find working stuff in the trash room, I recently pulled a 49" Sony Bravia from the bin and it works perfectly, even had the remote with it. I think the power supply must have gone missing and that was why it was in the trash. Unbelievable!
You can seperate the broken glass from the display panel by simply using a thin guitar string connected to a battery to heat the guitar string and it will slice through the resin that fuses the outer glass with the display panel.
Good for you! I owned a late 2000's iMac. I had to change the HD. The glass held with magnet at that time. After I was done I said: "iMac? Never again!" Yet I eventually sold it for a good price. ;-)
5/13/24 Good seeing you back to fixing old macs, you did answer the question when buying a used mac that isn't too old or repairing or upgrading one. I have a 2012 27" imac with DVD drive and the thick case. that I was trying to do some upgrades on the hard drive and video card, but in the process I destroyed the video connector on the motherboard when the screen fell forward on me, I was able to get another replacement mother board after checking parts and codes off Ebay to match, but have not attempt a fix and wondered if that is something you might be interested in doing? I can get a monitor to work using a back connector on the back to an external monitor, but it seems a shame to not use the perfectly good screen I still have for the front. Long live old iMac that can be upgraded.
maybe this is my tech ignorance, but could it be set up with a different display? or its that locked behind proprietary items? I thought you used to be able to take old laptops and run a display port to them and turn them into "desktops".
I found a couple old CRT iMacs in the trash several years ago, fixed them up and sold on eBay. Haven't stumbled across anything recently, though. Man, I had no idea iMacs as late as 2019 were that upgradeable, even the CPU! I think just repairing the screen for a little over $200 vs the roughly $1k Apple would have charged made it worthwhile. And the RAM, storage and CPU upgrades for just a little more made it pretty satisfying, even if you can get a comparable or better spec'd unit for a little less.
the chance of casually finding an imac in the trash 😭
(edit) i just wanna clarify this wasn’t meant in any malicious way. i just can’t imagine finding one myself :)
And importantly, the chance of it’s PSU not blowing up. That’s important
…. It’s like Russian roulette, I’ll say
Almost like it didn’t happen and it’s just a fake premise for a mundane repair video.
I found an m1 mac mini near a dumpster so it's not entirely impossible
Someone gave me a 2015 4k iMac that they were going to e-recycle
Lol my dad found a Legion gaming laptop with a i7 and GTX 1050
As someone who is an ex-Apple technician who worked on these, I can say that you did an exceptional job at the repair and upgrade. Just be careful around the camera area with the adhesive cutter because you do not want to accidentally break it. Fun fact the adhesive never goes within that little bit of the camera area. 10/10 repair and upgrade! Love to see this as an ex-Apple technician.
There’s something therapeutic about repairing old macs and watching them repaired
tell me about it
Even just watching a certain Australian TH-camr cleaning them with eucalyptus oil is therapeutic. Upgrading them and fixing them saves the world from a little bit of e waste at least. This thing is newer than many iMacs still in use.
There’s something therapeutic about old macs and watching them repaired by Luke and his gosh diddly dang style 😉
My dad loved computers when I was growing up and I enjoyed them as well, it’s nostalgic and homey
@@wertywerrtyson5529Same thing goes to another Australian TH-camr whose background setting is usually white in colour, repairing phones and computers.
I actually spent one year of my life after high school working for a waste management company before pursuing college. You will not believe the number of desktop cases I have found headed towards landfill. Some of them were various imac versions without cracked screens. Since it was all trashed, it was also up for grabs by anybody who wanted one.
Did you bring them back home? Did you resell them?
We had a recycling thing here where we paid money to get rid of electronics.. While in line to get rid of an old standing AC, I was sitting there watching people drop off CRTs, gaming systems (like consoles and stuff), PCs out the wazoo... they wouldn't let me get out of my car to ask if I could buy some of it. :( The thought of that stuff getting just trashed/torn apart/sold for scalping when we paid to have it taken... just very annoying.
Yeah bulk pic up week town wood have all electronics toosed. Found 10. Mac classics the small screen. Fdd ones took em and we re used them for eord processors😊😊
I would have taken them apart and then sell the parts. More money in parts than a working computer. He paid $200 just for a screen. I've often used second hand parts to fix a computer.
@@carlm1595 That's what I used to do - bought and sold iMacs on eBay, mixing and matching parts, usually a couple of years behind the latest model. I only had to trash one, and I sold the guts for parts & recycled the empty aluminum case. Now have an M1 Mini, and I doubt that there's anything in it that I could rescue and re-use. (Maybe the fan? I've never noticed it turning on - it should be like new!)
Odds of finding an iMac in the trash: Luke Miani: 100%, rest of the world: 0%
what are you talking about? it is realy common nowadays. every tech youtuber finding them all over the trash
@@tykymba I used to find one as well but I don't have the right tool to open the screen glass so it broke more and inside it there isn't anything I can harvest at all so it's stay a trash.
I've come across 2 just in the last 5 years, without even looking for dumpster treasure.
i found 2 in the trash a while back. one 27 inch 2011 with dead psu and one 24 inch 2007 that was in flood (but still managed to work, despite being a mud bomb)
Welcome to LA. It’s a rich place. In any other part of the US, they’d sell this on Facebook marketplace, at least at a big discount.
I bought a core2duo iMac for $10 at a flea market a few years back. It was pretty scuffed up, but powered on. I replaced the hard drive with an SSD with a new OS and it worked great! Eventually I realized I wasn't using it much so I slapped a FREE sign on it in my front yard & it found a new home. :)
That's such a nice thing to do! you made a lucky persons day
In the trash... and here in Italy best you can find for a 4K iMac is around 300€ for a base model with a dead display and/or dead logic board.
Heck people here still asks 150-200€ for a 2010-2011 iMac!
Great video as always but... US/Canada market is not remotely comparable to any other market here in the EU.
If you look carefully you can find good deals. Here in France i was able to buy a 2012 21" imac for 50 Eur, and another 2013 21" with dgpu for 70 Eur, although people here usually ask at least 200Euros for such imacs.
@@CB-kt7qd of course you can find good deals here, but it’s nowhere as easy as in Luke videos… he talks mainly to his US fan base, which is absolutely fine and correct, but whenever I see him saying “you can find this Mac for X amount of money, they’re dirty cheap, people literally throw them in to your face” I say “yeah, no. Not here. Not even in a million years, here.”
Problem here is that virtually no schools have a single Mac (no Apple education programs) only maybe in some universities, and 90% of businesses also have PCs so the only possibile Mac market is from private users that purchased those Macs at full retail price +22% taxes in euros.
This leads to a natural price inflation on every single Mac model in the used market compared to the exact same computer in the US. That’s the way it is.
@@CB-kt7qd the problem in italy (as my experience) is that everyone believe their stuffs is worth alot an try to gain every penny from them. I saw alot of listings about electronics devices priced above the average price (for EU) only because from italian sellers. An example? A used switch goes for 200 on average (280 new from amazon, sometimes 250) and the average price for an used one in italy is 250 at best (ofc sometime you find nice deals near 200, but is like 10% of the total). In france (thro vinted), i saw almost all switches goes for 220 on average and sometime even 150. I'm italian and i can't blame to much my culture, but that aspect is really annoying.
I dunno why you'd include Canada in that. Here in Toronto nothing goes cheap with an Apple logo on it. People "know what they have" lol! Well.. they think they do anyway...
@@CB-kt7qdboth unusable at this point
As someone who been trained in electronic repair starting multiple decades ago I had to work on plenty of CRT's in the past. It was working on CRT's around the flyback that had me on the edge of my seat. Over the decades been inside of plenty of power supply's for computer's over the decades they don't scare me unlike the CRT's did.
For 90% of the population , this is a perfectly acceptable and usable machine!
The more I watch this the more I'm certain he just bought a cracked screen but working one one on ebay, and said he "found it" for a more compelling narrative.
Yeah not so much
@@janegoodall1837 I am a computer guy. I literally have people, teachers, that freely give me old macs and devices just because they upgraded. They trust me to recycle and remove data. I probably get about 10-20 computers a month. They're all re-usable. with PCIE3 and up speeds. Its insane what people don't want with computers now. Everybody is on the phone or tablets. Usable phones and tablets don't get recycled as much.
@@emilsecker7881 Oh yeah? I think you're wrong okay? lol
@@janegoodall1837 Like he needs that narrative. He has a ton of videos where he buys stuff on Ebay to repair, but on this one video he makes that call? Not logical Jane, but I suppose you had to inject your daily random dose of social media poison and call him a liar. Feel better?
Every time I watch Luke repair and refurbish a Mac, I am fascinated and fantasize about doing the same thing myself. Then I wake up and realize that my lack of experience means that I would endure hours of frustration and errors if I tried the same thing. Instead, I pay up for my Macs, avoid the frustrations and watch Luke for the entertainment. Thanks, Luke, for another good TH-cam adventure.
I wish I had that kind of luck. The best thing I’ve ever found in the trash was an unopened 6 pack of bud light when I was a teen
I found a whole core 2 duo motherboard a few months ago. I still have it and it still works. But I have no tower case to put it in.
I've found a couple of late 90s and early 2000s PCs in more or less working order (had to repaste things and restore the BIOS on one). Found a 5.1 audio system too, some generic USB speakers, and a variety of mice and keyboards. A couple of CRT and LCD monitors, some ancient GPUs and modem cards, plus some other minor things.
My best find was a Dell Optiplex 9010 SFF. That thing made a decent little Hackintosh.
I found a working 2012 HDD unibody in a trash before…
Score!
I also rescued a MacBook Air Mid 2013 from the local recycling center, minor scratches, no dents, perfect screen and keyboard. All I had to do was to replace the battery that only worked for about 10 minutes with a new one from Amazon plus a MagSafe 2 to USB-C cable. After reinstalling Big Sur I wanted to get Monterey but I had these Volume Hash issues. Tried again but couldn’t patch the SSD to boot without the USB stick. I then tried Ventura using OCLP 1.5.0 and it worked perfectly fine. It has only 4 GB of RAM but I also am quite surprised how usable this 11 year old Mac still is. It is a real shame that Apple is only interested in selling new hardware because these old computers are well capable of running almost everything currently available. Instead of creating eWaste, Apple should support these machines for as long as possible. 😊
I'm such a sucker for when Luke does these upgrades. Love these videos.
Yeah R AND R OF THE GOLDEN OLDIES WARMS THE COCKLES OF MY HEART
I have rescued many Macs from the trash. One is sitting behind me right now basically as a glorified juke box!
The iMac I am using to watch this video was also a neglected (not quite trash, yet...) computer that, with a little love, works like a charm!
Great video! Keep rescuing discarded/neglected Macs!!
You might want to pay attention to the thermal pads of the GDDR chips for the GPU too. People often forget this when they apply new thermal paste for the CPU/GPU, leaving a risk of overheating issues of the VRAM.
Hi from Australia saving these older Imac's is a labour of love not a money tree, thankyou for saving it from the trash
The crack isn't even in the way of functioning of the pc
It's a perfectly fine working system as is
Wasn't it like a split all the way down the centre?
5:00
I believe it broke while he was removing it
Could have been cracked beforehand
he didnt find this im sure, i mean whats the odds to find id and without an account inside
As an Apple technician I like how you quickly jumped past the cable connections and screen alignment 😂
😂😂 oooops
if you rang me when i worked at applecare i'd have put you on hold and rang every apple store within 100 miles till one picked up and gave me a price hahahaha or i would not stop calling any of them
Great video Luke, I myself would have just used the original 4k display, the crack didn't look that bad.
I miss this kind of video😍
Way to go!
Watching you upgrade this machine was an educational experience.
Showed that a repair CAN be done!
Sometimes repairing something you own and have an attachment to is better than buying someone else’s headaches.
Love the channel ❤
Luke back in his element. Thank you.
It sitting on the edge like that gave me goosebumps! 15:26
Love to see young Flanders staging a computer rescue.... Okiley dokiley!
I found an older iPod (running iOS 12 with lightning port) in the box with the headphones and charging cable thrown in the trash while doing janitorial work at an office for rent building. It had been cleaned and was factory reset. One of my best trash finds!!!!
15:16 you should try to sell the iMac back to whoever trashed it and say your the Trash Can Fixer 😂😂
As a suggestion, to really unscrew the CPU mount, you shouldn't remove the entire screw one at a time, unscrewing in an X pattern is great, but you should be unscrewing them equally in the X pattern until the tension has lessened so the spring won't pop up like it did at 12:52
I’m just thinking how casually dripped out Luke is, got a good sense of style
The upgrades were good, but that screen with the little crack outside the viewing area was super usable. You could have just added the processor, RAM and SSD and called it a day. The other move on these iMacs involves getting a damaged one with a bad MOBO and you just use the screen. If you didn't want to upgrade anything you could have booted off an external SSD and put a piece of tape over the little crack.
yeah lol apply some black spray paint and you're good to go. Replacing the whole screen because of this on an OLD computer doesn't make sense.
I absolutely would have done the same! Perfectly usable (free) machine, after the upgrades, slightly expensive though they were, but you saved it from going to Landfill -- and that's _marvellous_ and _priceless_ 🤩
Haha, have you fallen for it? No one finds a working iMac with only a cracked screen in their trash.
Obviously Baseus paid him for sponsorship and he had enough money to buy a perfectly working iMac (unlocked and magically boots into a guest account, how handy) and a replacement screen for it. Hell, I won't be surprised if he even cracked the screen himself.
@@APopov some people are very willing to throw out perfectly good things. People who buy iMacs tend to fall into that category. And even if the story is fake, the video is still good. Either way, you can't verify whether it's true or not, so it's whatever.
@@APopov As he showed in the video, it was beyond economic repair. It was only worth it for Luke because it's just fodder for YT content. As a base-model 2017 iMac with a cracked screen (and perhaps damaged webcam), it's hardly inconceivable the owner just tossed it and bought the current model, with a larger screen and 10x faster.
Also not surprising they had wiped their data off it. And why password protect if you're only booting to confirm it had wiped? In any case, Luke was going to install a new boot drive anyway, so would have just formatted the HDD. Still, was fortunate to not be firmware locked.
is it only me or did you guys also see on 15:25 into video crack on screen? but never the less well done bro i love watching how people save old macs and desk tops etc.
Yaa. TH-camR finding iMac in trash ..... never gets old :)
While walking to the garage in his apartment building.
You'd be amazed at how many computers people dump at their front yards in Australia for stranger to pick them up. One time I found half a dozen of SGI workstations
😂😂
@@daspecyea, a newish fully functional mac without icloud lock
I've found 2011 iMac back in 2015 from trash. It had failed GPU which i put to oven and BOOM it worked again. It has failed a couple times after it again. I still have it but it's too old for any use nowadays.
Love these videos. I still have a very useable 2009 iMac 21.5 running High Sierra 3.3hz I core 2 Duo with 8GB ram. I have converted the System to a 256 SSD but replaced the optical drive with a 2 TB ssd using the OWC conversion system. Boots and opens apps fine and with a truck load of storage now I use it to scan (using Silverfast and an Epsom 700) and store all my images from old family photos dating back to the early 1900's
why tf do i never find an imac in the street. yet every tech channel manage to find one? are u sure you're not just buying them on ebay and feeding us a scenario
It's a bit suspicious that he didn't record himself finding the iMac. But I believe him. These iMacs are insanely cheap these days. I got one for $40.
@@mattstone8878 it's an unexpected find, why would we want to have our cameras on us at all times? I found an Xbox 360 Slim in the trash once and the only issue is someone mashed up one of the front USB ports.
@CautionusJay Bro you have your phone on you all day and your phone is a video camera. When something cool happens to you (and you are a professional TH-camr) it would make sense to whip out the phone and record the moment. But whatever I don't really care lol.
@@mattstone8878as a professional TH-camr, I almost never think to do this. Not even with my phone. I just do whatever I’m doing in the moment and then record a video about it later. Only time I ever bust out a camera to do anything TH-cam related is when I’ve at least somewhat planned what I am filming. Even if it’s not fully scripted.
@@IAMLXGEND Cool, you're the exception :)
Be careful with dumpster treasure -- and used computer stuff in general -- if you don't know much about the owner.
You may end up with bedbugs. They like to go into warm electronics and will lay eggs in there, too.
Give it a full inspection (inside and out, every crack and crevice) before bringing it into your home.
the imac is so hard to open i doubt they could even get into it /s
I use a 2019 21.5" iMac - 3 GHz i5, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. Works great still!
I love finding stuff in the trash and getting it working! It is very satisfying.
I bought a 2006 macbook pro for like $10.
The previos owner said she didn't know if it was working or not since she had lost the charger so long ago.
I got it just to see if I could make it work again.
I plugged the charger, turned it on and voilá, it was working just fine, slow, but fine. The only thing I did to it was to upgrady the ram, throw an SSD in and now I'm planning to install Ventura with a patcher.
you can’t on a 2006 MacBook. You can on a 2008 MacBook Pro though
Don’t use that crap as a daily machine for the love of god
You know Luke, these are the kind of videos I really miss from you. Refreshing to see an old fashioned repair of an old mac video from Luke Miani. It is why I subscribed to your channel in the first place! Bravo for ditching all the new format ideas and going with a success story. Cheers
Could have sold it for about 100. Now you spent 250 and can sell it for 200.
These are your best type of videos, in my opinion. It's great to look at these machines on the inside and being fixed, pimped and so on. And I would definitely buy these machines from you if I had the opportunity.
I don't believe you found this in the trash
I agree with you.
I agree with you. This is such a piece of junk, the trash is too good for it.
Ive worked on these imacs for a while with many a zaps from apples lovely exposed psu's. ive found that if you unplug the imac and then hold the power button for 5-10 seconds it discharges the capacitors and makes it safe to handle
I too found a 21.5in iMac on the side of the road with a perfect display just a bad os. Slapped a new macos Ventura on it and voila free working iMac.
How old is it though? Hardware probs leaves a lot to be desired
Yesterday I found a Bentley Batur Convertible in the trash, but was scratched and I left it there 😂
You should just drive it to the Genius Bar in the Lexus you also found in the trash.
Bro come on, you wouldn't find a Lexus in the trash...
A Tesla however...
I used to work for an electronic waste recycling company and in the more financially affluent areas people throw away perfectly good stuff. I recently found a 2019 MacBook Pro fully maxed out and all I had to do to get it running was replace the battery. Saved myself hundreds of dollars and it works perfectly.
Next iMac you find: Grab the main (working) PCB, convert it to use a 65watt USB-C wall wart (instead of the scary PSU), find a new cooling option, then 3D print a case. No $200 screen and it takes less table/desk real estate. Like a home-made Mac Mini. (and yes, ditch the speakers since you can still plug it all into a speaker/stereo or use bluetooth sound.)
dumbest suggestion ever
thanks. great job. however, instead of reapplying adhesive strips just put a small piece of clear tape somewhere along the rim to keep the screen in place and for easy future access to the internals.
Hey Luke, It's lovely to see you in your happy place, it brings a tear to my eye for the olden days.
Found a tossed out iMac A1312, two Mini Macs, 3 Apple laptops, several iPhones and iPads (couple of iPods too!) This is over a period of about 3 years. Also found a tossed out Power Macintosh / Power PC 6500 / 250, matching CRT, keyboard, mouse, some disks, programs and it works! The A1312 works but needs the iOS reinstalled! It's possible to find electronics but depends where one looks.
I loved watching you fix this Mac from the garbage. I'm also glad it wasn't my money, but yours. Still appreciate what you did to fix it.
I appreciate the effort Luke put into creating this helpful fixing video. It's always great to see someone sharing their expertise.
17:01 “broken discarded waste of space” was my nickname in high school🤣🤣😂
Loved the video, especially the “the scary power supply 🥳) part 😂😂😂
Just a few recommendations:
1st) The displays in the back are too bright imo and I actually enjoyed them being in sleep mode 😅 maybe turn them down a bit in the future 😜
2nd) Hugh Jeffreys shorted and therefore drained the power supply of his TV with a screwdriver - maybe that would work for you too 😊
Also: Thanks for being so transparent on what you actually spent on your repairs 🤗❤
Well done, good job. If I found one of these, I would just take it to an Apple store and get them to recycle it. You also need to take into account the time and effort spent fixing it, not just the cost of the new parts. Great video anyway, I enjoyed watching it, keep up the good work 👍
I had this EXACT thing happen to me at my old apartments! Sitting by the trash were two 27inch 2011 monitors that just had fried chords. Took them home and the work PERFECTLY! Still using them today!
As strange as this comment may sound, your videos make me very happy. I've been on Macs since college in 1987 where I would spend hours in the CIRCA Lab learning everything I could about computers and desktop publishing. I helped put myself through biz school as a tech and by finding and repairing old Macs or profit (Classic, Si, Ci, SE, etc). I still run all Macs in my company and do my own repairs (even though I'm the president). Bottom line, I love Macs and you do to. You did a great service by bringing this beautiful machine back to life.
Love to see you saving still usable tech. However, I'm wondering if it's possible to add the omitted SSD slot from a dead/parts Mac so as to have two storage drives? Would it still work?
For the last 3 years my wife has been using a late 2009 21.5" iMac for all her Zoom meetings. I found the iMac at the curb of my neighbor's house. He cleans out abandoned apartments and he found the iMac but couldn't figure out how to get past the password. I replaced the original HD with a SSD and upgraded the RAM. It works just fine. The screen is great and it does what she needs it to do.
Love these classic Luke Miani videos! Keep it up
An FYI for hard drive swaps on iMacs. I’m not sure what iMac models are effected, but some like my 2017 iMac with a Fusion Drive will run the fan at full speed continuously if you swap the hard drive out without dealing with Apple’s proprietary built in extra thermal sensor. OWC sold a kit for it at one point. Basically just a SATA cable with an extra sensor you can fix to the new drive to avoid the problem.
12:04 “Lets set aside that empty shell”
This is the story of my life.
Luke: "Gosh-diddly-dang it! Why did they have to put a screw for the heatsink, which is attached to the logic board, underneath the tray that holds in the hard drive?"
Me: *laughing* "Whoa, whoa, whoa, such profanity!"
In all seriousness, this was a fun and informative video, as always. 👍👍👍
I had almost the same exact thing happen to me, I found a 27in 5k with a cracked screen on the side of the street in NYC. I'm typing this on it now. It has been a great free iMac!
How old though?
@@emilsecker7881 2017, I also found it 2 years ago
for some weird reason, only TH-camrs tend to find expensive things casually and cleanly put in the trash... it's almost as if they intentionally put things out there or something😂
I've always enjoyed watching your Mac fixes and upgrades. I'm really glad you swapped out the HDD.
i tend to do the same thing try to breath new life into things. found a netbook a little ways back, and plan on putting a SSD in it, already put the max of 2gb of ram in it. it might not be the fastest, but will work as a down little download mule, and it has a SD card slot so there is a plus as well.
good on you to save tech, and that right there has earned you a subscribe, keep on saving tech from the trash heap.
Repairing it and using it (or giving it to someone who will) is the most efficient and purest form of recycling. I wish more people realized that "recycling" it isn't actually green when it can still be used.
Yeah
I bought a 2011 27" iMac for 50 bucks from an auction. I couldn't upgrade the iOS so I installed Ubuntu and it works very well. It does need a better hard drive and new ram I think but overall it is a very usable computer. I'd like to open it and do some of this myself but I've never done that. Videos like this help. Thank you.
Nicely Done.
Maybe I missed it but did you use a heat gun or something else to replace the cpu ?
any tips :)
Thanks
if I have a 2014 iMac with 5K retina, can I use it as a monitor and connect with M2 Mac mini?
I just got this same model, but with 16bg ram and a 1tb HDD for $115. the iMac was dropped while powered off and the only damage was the stand got a small bend where the hole for the power cord goes. Plan is to upgrade the HHD for a 2tb SSD, Upgrade the i5 to the i7 and replace the whole stand assembly while the screen is off.
Don’t waste money on it
@@emilsecker7881 Why? there's nothing Wong with it. I use it as a Time Machine Back up destination for my M1 iMac and my M1 MacBook Air.
@@LieutenantDanVic if that s all you use it for, that’s fine
I really enjoyed watching this video. You make repairing it look so easy! I found it really difficult to get the display on and off when I upgraded to an SSD in my 2013 21.5. Now it's actually usable and I love it.
Hey Luke, definitely a cool video! Sometimes I want to come over to collect all the Mac computers / iPad that are dumped in the US.
Just got one of these with 32gb of ram and a Fusion Drive for $75. Definitely doing some of these upgrades. This video dropped at the perfect time!
Sweet find! I think the person wanted someone to find it and save it; didn't have the knowledge or want to fix it themselves. I have the same machine (but 27"). It's been the best one I've ever had. She's a workhorse! The positive thing is how clean this mac is on the inside.
Very nice restauration Luke. well done !
Thanks for the video.
My late 2013 27inch is still going strong, Was the highest spec at the time.
Nice but i have an 27" imac from 2013 and updates not work anymore. tried to put new IOS on it but it always gives errors. what can i do with my perfect working imac in 2024? opencore legacy patcher is not working.
A rescued mac is a happy mac. Well done.
This was great! Is there a way to turn a functioning 2012 5K iMac into a 5K extended display for my 2020 MacBook Pro?
I wonder if it just needs the nvme slot, or the other support components for it also?
I have a MSI GL65 Leopard which comes with a 2.5" SATA bay and a nvme slot. It also had a unpopulated nvme area with the bare pads. So I ordered the nvme slot and the other components and soldered them on. Luckily MSI left the 2nd m.2 slot enabled in the BIOS.
I came across some ads showing a resin that you apply on cracked glass and it fixes it. It's supposed to be for windshields, I think. Can this be used on the iMac screen?
I got a bought a used 2019 iMac a few years ago and upgraded the the hard drive to a SSD. That was the only upgrade and the speed improvement was great. Would have been interesting to see each upgrade added one at a time so show the improvement each made on its own so we know what gives you the best bang for the buck.
Where did you find that watch band been looking for a leather one and love the way yours look
Did you find this in cottage grove WI? I saw someone throwing away an imac screen and almost took it but it was snagged really fast
That model's been my daily driver for five years, until it crashed a few months ago. I thought about getting a Mini with a 4K monitor, but balked. I had a 1T SSD sitting around, ordered a 16 gig memory card, and had my Mac guy put it all together for me. All for $350, about a third of the cost of a Mini setup. It's performing better than it was before, with the 20 gig memory upgrade. If you can keep it cheap, this iMac is definitely worth saving. And I sure do like that Retina monitor.
Great video. While it is rare to find working stuff in the trash room, I recently pulled a 49" Sony Bravia from the bin and it works perfectly, even had the remote with it. I think the power supply must have gone missing and that was why it was in the trash. Unbelievable!
You can seperate the broken glass from the display panel by simply using a thin guitar string connected to a battery to heat the guitar string and it will slice through the resin that fuses the outer glass with the display panel.
I found a late 2015 iMac in the e-waste at work. Only thing that was failing was the internal fusion drive. The monitor looks amazing.
Now upgrade it to touch screen! 😁 Nice directions and thanks for the before and after benchmarks!
Good for you!
I owned a late 2000's iMac. I had to change the HD. The glass held with magnet at that time. After I was done I said: "iMac? Never again!" Yet I eventually sold it for a good price. ;-)
5/13/24 Good seeing you back to fixing old macs, you did answer the question when buying a used mac that isn't too old or repairing or upgrading one. I have a 2012 27" imac with DVD drive and the thick case. that I was trying to do some upgrades on the hard drive and video card, but in the process I destroyed the video connector on the motherboard when the screen fell forward on me, I was able to get another replacement mother board after checking parts and codes off Ebay to match, but have not attempt a fix and wondered if that is something you might be interested in doing? I can get a monitor to work using a back connector on the back to an external monitor, but it seems a shame to not use the perfectly good screen I still have for the front. Long live old iMac that can be upgraded.
We have this imac but the Radeon Pro 560 version. Identical original cpu and ram but ive heard this one has a chance for an NVMe slot
maybe this is my tech ignorance, but could it be set up with a different display? or its that locked behind proprietary items? I thought you used to be able to take old laptops and run a display port to them and turn them into "desktops".
2:09 does it support DisplayLink on Mac?
I found a couple old CRT iMacs in the trash several years ago, fixed them up and sold on eBay. Haven't stumbled across anything recently, though. Man, I had no idea iMacs as late as 2019 were that upgradeable, even the CPU! I think just repairing the screen for a little over $200 vs the roughly $1k Apple would have charged made it worthwhile. And the RAM, storage and CPU upgrades for just a little more made it pretty satisfying, even if you can get a comparable or better spec'd unit for a little less.
Great video Luke, You are my 76th favorite TH-camr on youtube!