‘Upgraded’ Apple IMacs Lock Out Hard Drive Replacement

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‘Upgraded’ Apple IMacs Lock Out Hard Drive Replacement

May 15th, 2011 ipadoholic Leave a comment Go to comments

In a posting on his company’s blog, an Other World Computing repute says that Apple has altered the typical four-wire SATA power connector is to new iMac ‘s inner drive to a exclusive seven-wire config.

That’s irksome enough, but the wizards of Cupertino have moreover motionless to succeed drive-temperature control by a multiple of that line and firmware in the drive itself.

“From our testing,” the blog post reads, “we’ve found that stealing this drive from the system, or even from that brook itself, causes the machine’s hard disk fans to turn at limit speed and replacing the drive with any non-Apple initial drive will outcome in the iMac unwell the Apple Hardware Test ( AHT ),” a program staple of Mac troubleshooting for over a decade.

Your new iMac’s hard disk ” not replaceable, not upgradeable (source: iFixit ” click to enlarge)

The implications of this change are irksome in the impassioned to fanboi tinkerers. Should you wish to ascent your iMac’s inner drive with a incomparable one, or should that drive come about to fail, you are S.O.L. ” you’ll must be go to Apple for correct unless you suffer listening to screaming air blower sound 24/7.

It’s possible, of course, that OWC, iFixit , or a few other estimable might finally come up with a workaround ” but deliberation that segment of the complaint is in the drive’s exclusive firmware, such a workaround will be a tough one, indeed.

As OWC’s blogger reminds us, back in 2009 the iMac was “upgraded” in such a way that if you substituted its inner drive with one from a not similar manufacturer, Apple’s hard disk heat sensors would stupidly result in the drive-cooling air blower to all the time run at tip speed.

Workarounds to the 2009 irritation shortly surfaced, but the fact that they were indispensable at all was an insult to users who pick to obtain inside their machines and barter a component as candid as a hard drive.

Now Apple has done iMac hard-drive deputy even more difficult.

Since that blond, red-running-shorts-wearing young poetic with the massive … uh … sledgehammer crushed Big Brother’s face in Ridley Scott’s important 1984 blurb , Apple has had a love/hate attribute with users’ aptitude to ascent their machines.

For example, upgrading the mild 128KB of RAM in the initial Macintosh took a solid palm on a solder gun. The Mac had no enlargement capabilities to verbalise of until the Mac SE and its PDS enlargement container appeared in Mar 1987.

Macs became more upgradeable as time went on ” NuBus, anyone? ” nonetheless such models as the Power Mac 9500 were scandalous for bursting fingernails and scraping knuckles. The drop-down doors of the Power Mac G3 and its follow-ons were a acquire change, and the Power Mac G5 was arguably the many simply upgradeable Mac of all time.

But those were Apple’s “pro” machines. Over on the consumer side, it has taken a few grade of tech savvy to barter the courage inside iMacs ever given the the bulbous Bondi Blue was introduced in 1998.

And as for gap up and upgrading iOS devices? Well, it’s of course probable to do elementary battery replacements, as iFixit and other have shown, but it’s not something for grandma or shaky-handed Uncle Billy .

But with the let go of the 2011 iMacs, Apple has taken other step towards a entirely sealed, proprietary, non-user-upgradeable network ” that is a bit of a shame, because the new iMacs come detached rsther than simply .

Might RAM be next on Apple’s “No upgrades for you!” list?

Larry O’Connor, founder, president, and CEO of Other World Computing, got back to us on Saturday with a bit more data about the new iMacs’ challenges, and sharp us to his own 2,000-word posting on the OWC blog.

In that missive, he conscientiously sum OWC’s contrast of assorted drives in the new iMac, that basically fixed the close of the initial post by OWC’s Michael Perry, that mentioned that replacing a 2011 iMac’s inner hard disk with a drive not supposing by Apple especially for that array will break Apple Hardware Test and result in the air blower to ramp up from a bottom level of 1,100 rpm to 5,600 rpm over time.

O’Connor moreover provides in his post a division entitled “Possible Solutions”, that he wisely characterizes as “*NOTE ” NOT FULLY TESTED/Approved/Recommended, etc.*” Among his suggestions is to partial the lines that bring the drive-temp info ” but as he realistically points out, “a effect could occur for without doubt reasons.” He moreover mentions HDD Fan Control that functions with a drive’s SMART interface to control air blower speed.

Finally, in his email to The Reg , O’Connor writes: “This isn’t going to end our own iMac ascent program, etc. Also, and important to note… This situation has 0 repercussions on adding a drive to the SSD bay.”

That’s irksome enough, but the wizards of Cupertino have moreover motionless to succeed drive-temperature control by a multiple of that line and firmware in the drive itself.

Now Apple has done iMac hard-drive deputy even more difficult.

Might RAM be next on Apple’s “No upgrades for you!” list?