Graphics Card Failure

Question

Let me preface this by stating I did look for a similar board handling similar situations but couldn't find one either in topic or response that covered me needs. I apologize deeply if I have broken a rule. That was not my intent in posting this

My first thought with my Mid 2011 iMac was a graphics card failure that apple announced a recall for and then later ended approximately one month before I had my unfortunate event. I was using a low end application (Diablo II) when I hit an orange screen followed by the WSoD. I didn't panic (yet). I had a lot of boot option to try to fix this. I ran through everything I could find on the web regarding various boot options and disc repairs. These would all start to work but die with a small percentage of the progress bar left to fill. This would be met with a full-width artifact just before WSoD.

To this point, and after a lot of struggling, I joyously was able to boot main drive through target disc mode. So I am at a worst case scenario of transferring all my data to an external drive and then (hopefully) clone the drive for further use.

I am experiencing the protracted "Stopping" on transfers that I have seen all over the net without much help.

What should I do next? Any ideas? All help will be welcome.

And assuming it is the graphics card (AMD Radeon HD 6970M), and ballpark ideas on repair costs? The sell and buy new may be an option if the numbers work right.

Answer 1

Given that Apple was offering free replacements, my recommendation is to go to a physical Apple store location and ask for a replacement. Apple still services these machines, and will be willing to quote you a price for replacement. There's a good chance that they'll offer to replace it for free given the circumstances, though the fee is up to their discretion.

Failing that, you could replace the GPU yourself. The GPU is an MXM board slotted into the logic board; while it's not the easiest thing to repair, it is serviceable.

Unusually, iFixit doesn't have a full repair guide for this model, but the limited guide should be enough to get you most of the way there. A 6970M or 6770M should work.