My not-so-young pal in Cornwall has a 24 inch Apple iMac about 10 years old.

This morning, just as he was opening a file containing photographs
(that my be irrelevant) he heard a relatively loud 'crack' noise from
the bottom left-hand side of his iMac (as one faces it). The screen went
black. The computer would not restart.

Having chatted with him by phone for a bit, it was established that the
fuse had blown in the supplying extension cable. I suspect that may have occurred at the same time as the noise was heard from the computer. A
separate power supply was arranged and the outlet from the power supply
plug - the one which plugs into the back of the iMac - was checked to
confirm that 240V was actually being supplied. On reconnection, and then attempting to power-on the iMac, nothing, nothing at all, happened.

The machine is being taken to an Apple specialist shop tomorrow.

Have you any idea, any idea at all, what may have failed in such a
dramatic fashion?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

In article <LzqlK.14734$b21.7901@fx11.ams1>, David Brooks <DGB@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

My not-so-young pal in Cornwall has a 24 inch Apple iMac about 10 years old.

This morning, just as he was opening a file containing photographs
(that my be irrelevant) he heard a relatively loud 'crack' noise from
the bottom left-hand side of his iMac (as one faces it). The screen went black. The computer would not restart.

are there any noises, such as a fan or hard drive? or is it dead
silent? assuming the latter, it's most likely the power supply.

Having chatted with him by phone for a bit, it was established that the
fuse had blown in the supplying extension cable. I suspect that may have occurred at the same time as the noise was heard from the computer.

that is very strong evidence of a failed power supply.

A separate power supply was arranged and the outlet from the power supply plug - the one which plugs into the back of the iMac - was checked to
confirm that 240V was actually being supplied. On reconnection, and then attempting to power-on the iMac, nothing, nothing at all, happened.

i dunno what you or he bought, but the imac power supply is internal
and requires substantial disassembly to replace, with a high likelihood
of making things worse.

The machine is being taken to an Apple specialist shop tomorrow.

is that an official apple store or a third party store?

Have you any idea, any idea at all, what may have failed in such a
dramatic fashion?

yes.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/05/2022 18:08, nospam wrote:

In article <LzqlK.14734$b21.7901@fx11.ams1>, David Brooks <DGB@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

My not-so-young pal in Cornwall has a 24 inch Apple iMac about 10 years old. >>
This morning, just as he was opening a file containing photographs
(that my be irrelevant) he heard a relatively loud 'crack' noise from
the bottom left-hand side of his iMac (as one faces it). The screen went
black. The computer would not restart.

are there any noises, such as a fan or hard drive? or is it dead
silent? assuming the latter, it's most likely the power supply.

Having chatted with him by phone for a bit, it was established that the
fuse had blown in the supplying extension cable. I suspect that may have
occurred at the same time as the noise was heard from the computer.

that is very strong evidence of a failed power supply.

A separate power supply was arranged and the outlet from the power supply
plug - the one which plugs into the back of the iMac - was checked to
confirm that 240V was actually being supplied. On reconnection, and then
attempting to power-on the iMac, nothing, nothing at all, happened.

i dunno what you or he bought, but the imac power supply is internal
and requires substantial disassembly to replace, with a high likelihood
of making things worse.

The machine is being taken to an Apple specialist shop tomorrow.

is that an official apple store or a third party store?

Have you any idea, any idea at all, what may have failed in such a
dramatic fashion?

yes.

*Thank you so much*. The computer is completely dead.

The shop in Truro is a reseller which used to be call StormFront. They
have stores all around the UK. Now called 'Select'.
https://uk.selectonline.com

I didn't intend to confuse. I once replaced a hard drive inside my old
24 inch iMac so I'm well aware of the work involved in getting inside
the machine. I was referring to the power supply TO the computer. It had
failed because a fuse had blown, presumably when something nasty
happened inside the computer.

I will pass on your assessment to my chum. Thanks again.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

In article <VutlK.62719$E41.25317@fx08.ams1>, David Brooks <DGB@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

I didn't intend to confuse. I once replaced a hard drive inside my old
24 inch iMac so I'm well aware of the work involved in getting inside
the machine. I was referring to the power supply TO the computer.

the power supply to the computer is called the electric company, which
also supplies power to the rest of the house, including lights (even
though nobody's home), tvs, radios, refrigerator, etc. if *that* fails,
you would be in the dark (which is normally the case so perhaps that is
not a good metric).

if you're referring to the mains lead from the wall to the imac, that's
not a 'power supply'. it's just a cable and extremely unlikely to fail.

imacs (other than the m1) have an *internal* power supply that converts
mains power to lower voltages.

It had
failed because a fuse had blown, presumably when something nasty
happened inside the computer.

yes.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/05/2022 21:04, nospam wrote:

In article <VutlK.62719$E41.25317@fx08.ams1>, David Brooks <DGB@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

I didn't intend to confuse. I once replaced a hard drive inside my old
24 inch iMac so I'm well aware of the work involved in getting inside
the machine. I was referring to the power supply TO the computer.

the power supply to the computer is called the electric company, which
also supplies power to the rest of the house, including lights (even
though nobody's home), tvs, radios, refrigerator, etc. if *that* fails,
you would be in the dark (which is normally the case so perhaps that is
not a good metric).

if you're referring to the mains lead from the wall to the imac, that's
not a 'power supply'. it's just a cable and extremely unlikely to fail.

imacs (other than the m1) have an *internal* power supply that converts
mains power to lower voltages.

It had
failed because a fuse had blown, presumably when something nasty
happened inside the computer.

yes.

Update
******

I suggested to Ian - my friend - that it was likely to be a failed power
supply unit inside his iMac. He decided to purchase a new 24 inch M1
iMac like this one:- https://www.johnlewis.com/2021-apple-imac-24-all-in-one-m1-processor-8gb-ram-512gb-ssd-8-core-gpu-23-5-4-5k/green/p5551699


It should be delivered tomorrow!

On reflection, Ian decided not to bother with the 50 mile round trip to
the Apple store, which takes about 50 minutes each way. The dead iMac is
now in his large garage awaiting a decision on its future. He's well
aware of the dangers of parting with a hard drive containing all of his personal data. If he can be bothered, he might try to replace the power
supply - I have one I removed from my old machine, which I'm more than
willing to give him. He might just break into the case and remove the
hard drive before disposing of the hardware via recycling or, as he has
a few acres of woodland, dig a deep hole and bury the whole computer!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)