More display weirdness with Mom's 2017 iMac

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As mentioned in this post, the display on my mom’s 2017 iMac died and was replaced (along with the logic board) by Apple. They only charged us for one of the two components. We’re both grateful, but I still don’t understand it. Does this mean the GPU got replaced as well, or is that yet another component?

This morning, she comes to me saying, “My computer is dead again!” She has her startup chime silenced, so it would appear to be dead from her perspective.

The first thing I do is have her plug in her external SuperDrive. The sound it makes at startup tells me that the computer is indeed receiving power. (Even if you no longer use optical media, that’s a great diagnostic tool!) She tells me she had tried holding in the power button already.

Using a trick I discovered before the repair was scheduled, I took out my iPhone and opened the Camera app. The image that was just faintly visible to the naked eye became dimly readable through the iPhone’s camera. There was no flickering this time; the display was just incredibly dim.

No amount of playing with the brightness keys would change the brightness. I began to wonder what was going on. I switched out her Logitech keyboard for the Apple original, powered the machine down, and held down Cmd-Opt-P-R.

To my considerable surprise, the brightness was reset and I was able to log in. I then subsequently confirmed that the brightness keys do not normally appear to work when one is still at the FileVault password entry screen.

So everything is again functional, but a real mystery remains: what caused the problem in the first place? She is not in the habit of adjusting her brightness, and it seems rather unlikely that she would inadvertently hold down the brightness key while shutting down her computer (which she invariably does using the mouse and the Apple menu – she doesn’t even know there’s any other way.) I just don’t see it. Even if she had managed to turn the brightness down accidentally, she would then not have been able to see the screen well enough to issue the Shut Down command.

Does this indicate that something else is or could be failing in the computer? She was ready to consider replacing it with a new one this morning. I myself am “terrified” at that prospect, as it will be my first experience with Apple Silicon Macs, and I don’t know what challenges lie ahead in switching from Monterey to Sonoma and switching architectures on top of it. Even so, I was hoping to hold out until the rumored M4 iMac arrives, to give her new iMac the most theoretical longevity, but not if her current one truly is on its last leg.

I really don’t want her to have to consider a new iMac unless it truly is time to do so.

Thanks in advance for all help and observations!

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Yes. It’s soldered on to the logic board.

Good solution! However, you did both change the keyboard and reboot with COPR down, so we don’t know for sure whether the problem was solved by one or the other (or both).

Hard to say. Perhaps some odd interaction between the new logic board and the 3rd-party keyboard? Was this the first boot (or the first boot with the Logitech keyboard attached) since the logic board replacement? If so, it may have just been “settling in” (I may get shot at for that diagnosis :slight_smile: ). I guess time will tell.

Well, of course YMMV, but my and others’ experience has been uneventful. Some have had hiccups, but I certainly wouldn’t be overly concerned at the prospect of upgrading to a new Mac. Get as much mileage out of that iMac as you can, of course, but when the time comes, it will likely be just fine.

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I’m not familiar with how to quote portions of the next as neatly as you did, so I will simply answer all questions in a single post.

The only reason I changed the keyboard is that I could not execute keyboard shortcuts like COPR with the Logitech, so I am absolutely confident that the fix was COPR.

This was definitely not the first boot in either case that you mentioned. The repair was completed about a month ago, with no problem from then until this suddenly popped up on the morning of 7/14, with many boots in between. That’s why I’m wondering if something else could be failing, because I can think of no way that Mom could have done this accidentally.

I’m not actually terrified of a new Mac per se, but I am at least nervous about any unforeseen compatibility issues that could arise, since it’s not just the operating system that’s changing.

It does also annoy me to know that the Apple Silicon Macs are incapable of booting from any external drive in the event the internal drive fails. This seems like such an idiotic design choice for Apple to have made.

Thanks for your help! :)

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I may have gone a little overboard with that in my reply, but it’s one of my favorite features of Discourse. You just select the text you want to reply to in any post, and then click “Quote” in the small pop-up menu that appears.

And so not to repeat my error here, without further quotes I’ll just say it sounds like you have a handle on it, and the problem (assuming it reoccurs) is out of my experience in offering any further advice.

But it does strike me as odd that you can’t perform the COPR maneuver on your Logitech keyboard. Is it missing a key?

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Wow, that’s easy! Thanks!! And I see that it can be done as many times as necessary, without any escalating difficulty when doing multiple quotes. I don’t fault you in the least for using it. :)

Not at all. Brand new and in mint condition, but it seemed not to respond to such input, despite my efforts. I’m even using the Logitech Bolt receiver, because the keyboard would not allow entry of the FileVault password over a “regular” Bluetooth connection. The dongle instantly solved that problem, as reported in Apple Discussions. Something about drivers not being loaded at that stage.

I was therefore hopeful that would translate into no problem entering common startup keyboard shortcuts, but no dice.

It’s an excellent keyboard, and the typing experience is superior to Apple’s in more ways than one, but in truth, I wish there were a wired version to avoid these kinds of problems. I would have bought it instead.