Tag: iMac Page 1 of 12

The Mac Mini turns out to be the only machine ready for this post.

Of course, I did not intend for it to be this way.

The Windows tower needed a Windows 10 update.

The Windows desktop needed a Windows 10 update.

The Giada mini PC needed a Zorin OS update.

So, I was left to turn to the Mac Mini.

So far, so good.

There are still many good vibes reaching me through typing on this machine.

It still feels like a new Mac, and it is, even though it’s eight years old.

I’ve got to hand it to the Amazon refurb folks as the Mini is clean as a whistle and has flawlessly performed since it arrived a little over two months ago.

I updated it to Big Sur and have not looked back since.

New gift for the Mac

I’ve got a few Apple ADB keyboards in storage that I stumbled upon the other day.

It got me thinking.

I had heard of adapters back in the early days of USB whereby you could convert ADB keyboards to work with the USB protocol.

I did not want to try something that old. I preferred to find a new solution.

After some Googling, I was able to find a device called the Wombat.

I ordered one.

It should allow me to use those old Mac keyboards on the Mac Mini and my Windows and Linux PCs.

Using one of those legendary keyboards on vastly newer Windows and Linux devices intrigued me.

I remember using those keyboards back in the day at various graphics shops.

They were fantastic keyboards with excellent tactile feel and the reassurance of the clicking and clacking that comes with something that has lasted 30 years.

iMac graphic card bake update

The iMac graphic card I baked a little over a year ago appeared to have expired.

A few months ago, I found out it would not boot and had some yellow and white banding upon starting up.

That was what I believe the Mac’s owner told me, but the iMac came once more to me for service.

This time, it would be to extract the 6 TB 3.5″ SATA hard disk and place it in a USB external enclosure so data could be saved and stored on another iMac.

Before I started to open up the iMac, I thought I’d try starting the beast myself.

I zapped the PRAM until I heard the Bells of St. Mac three times before releasing the keys and letting the Mac boot up.

Zapping the PRAM typically does not help much, but this time it did.

I was able to bring the iMac up to the desktop, albeit it took a long while.

I ran further diagnostics on the machine to determine if anything was amiss hardware-wise.

It turns out everything was fine, including the baked graphics card. I proceeded to cull junk files and data from the iMac before finally running Apple Disk First Aid. After that, I updated everything software-wise on the iMac that I could.

Long story short, the iMac was working again, and for how long, I don’t know.

I did not have to pull the hard disk and return a gutted Mac to its owner. Instead, I gave the machine back to its owners to work again and made their day and mine.