Apr 24, 2014
iMac surgery
It needed to be done, my trusty 2009 iMac has been slowing down.
When I turned it over onto the operating table I noticed the fan plugged with dust. Dust so thick that even a vacuum had trouble removing it. So this would be why my fan would run non stop in Mexcio. The computer could not breathe. All the dust swirling in air each time a horse or ATV went past made it's way inside.
I needed Colin's help to open her up, it took three tools before we got into the belly.
More dust.
Not fluffy dust but compacted and hard, likely four years worth.
More dust right inside. The reason for the surgery was to increase to RAM.
My computer has been running slow and over the winter Lynne, the fearless solo traveller, suggested I increase the RAM as that would likely help. She also shared with me an online site in the USA that sells parts and all things computer at very reasonable costs. I just discovered that they have a Canadian division. So I ordered 2GB of RAM which I picked up at an RV Park in the US where I had some items shipped. Other World Computing also has video tutorials online to show you how to install whatever you buy from them. So I was ready to do they surgery until the dust stopped me. Once the dust was cleaned as best that I could it was time to proceed with the transplant. I didn’t get very far when I was stopped in my tracks. As you can see above there is a slot on the left and another on the right to insert the new RAM. My computer already has 2GB’s and the plan was to add 2 more giving me a total of 4GB’s. However the computer had a 1GB of memory on the right and another 1GB on the left which meant I had to remove one in order to install the 2GB memory. I should have looked while on the Isla as to the configuration and perhaps bought a 4GB card. So I completed the surgery and now have only 1GB more than with what I started, the old 1 GB and the new 2GB card. Too bad, I would have preferred having 4GB’s.
Mission accomplished.
For some of you this is not rocket science but for me it is. Remember I don’t even put gas in my car 😳 So thanks to Lynne, my computer is running faster and hopefully it is all I need in the near future.
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Good job on cleaning up the dust and installing more ram, it really makes a difference.
We keep my 2009 Macbook pro cleaned up monthly and now have 8 GB of Ram and a 500 Gig harddrive, works superfast for me.
Love my Mac.
George….thanks George. Love my Mac also. We do have an old iBook but now sure how old it is. We use my desktop while traveling and keep the iBook for backup in case the desktop fails.
Lynne…coming from you that is high praise indeed. I did call OWC and the tech I spoke with said that is did not matter if I was lopsided which is good cuz as you know I tend to lilt a tad. He also said that I can go up to 8GB’s on my particular iMac. Next year I will order another 4GB and that I should be really fast. Now if you could only teach me to put gas into my car. But I don’t really want to know….Colin needs to feel wanted 🙂
oh boy, that’s one clogged up machine! Glad you were able to order from OWC and follow along with their nice, easy videos! VERY proud of your new “techy” skills!!!
One thing though, I’ve always heard that computers should really have matching pairs of RAM instead of unequal sides. If you haven’t already, you might want to shoot a quick email or call to OWC to see what they say about that for your specific model.
If you’re running fine so far with no strange errors or crashes, then it might be o.k. to have 3GB, but if you do start seeing any funky behavior, I’d go ahead and upgrade the other chip.
Good job, lucky it was running at all with all that dust in there.fd7s
longdog…..I knew it was running hot and sometimes the fan would be racing at full speed. I sorted that out with a Google search and a special restart. Hopefully it was the dust that caused that problem and it won’t happen again
Wow, that was one dirty computer. I’m glad that you cleaned it up and upgraded the RAM. Way to go! 🙂
Thanks Cheryl, I am getting at this computer stuff.