Rant: I picked reflowing the GPU in my 2011 iMac over just buying a newer used one and I'm still mad about it

Fiona Robinson · 2026-09-22T14:50:05.408415+00:00

My 2011 27 inch iMac started showing those lovely pink and green vertical lines about 3 weeks ago, so I had two choices: bake the graphics card at 385 degrees for 10 minutes like the forums say, or grab a used 2015 model off Craigslist for $180 here in Portland. I went with the oven trick because I'm cheap and stubborn, and it actually worked for 6 whole days before the lines came back, now worse than before. So I spent $12 on thermal paste and 4 hours of my Saturday pulling that screen off with suction cups for basically nothing. The kicker is the guy selling the 2015 one dropped his price to $150 while I was elbow deep in my own bad decision. I'm not baking anything again, so what do you all do when a repair has like a 50/50 shot, do you gamble on the fix or just replace the whole thing?

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Rant: I picked reflowing the GPU in my 2011 iMac over just buying a newer used one and I'm still mad about it | Ancient Tech Fixers - HW Forums