Sostituzione RAM iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 3068

The wedge is an extremely tight fit for this model. I was worried that the amount of force needed to use it as shown might damage the stand, so I used it with the long side down instead. It worked fine that way and didn’t need anywhere near as much force to insert.

Here’s a good YouTube vid on upgrading the RAM: Can a Normal Person Upgrade the RAM in the 2017 21.5" iMac?

Here are a couple tips from me:

1) Expose the adhesive to extreme temperatures. I did this by transporting my iMac in my car, screen-down on a piece of cardboard on a cold February morning (in Chicago). When I went to pick up the iMac, the screen practically fell off the chassis. I would have been distraught by this if I hadn’t already planned this replacement. So it was a happy accident.

2) Remember to expell the residual power from the power supply by pushing the power button while the iMac is unplugged. This does NOT guarantee it’s safe to touch, but when I accidentally brushed the solder and exposed capacitors, I didn’t get shocked.

Don’t get too worried about starting exactly where the picture says. The glue is stronger in some parts so just start wherever is easier and then work slowly and patiently around in the direction shown.

As this guide doesn’t cover replacing the adhesive strips, I found referring to the following was useful (noting that it’s not for the same model of iMac, so the modification they mention wasn’t necessary): Sostituzione strisce adesive iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2544

It is very easy to crack the glass in front of the LCD during this step. I used the guitar pick, maybe it was too thick… crack is just on the frame but anyway it is disappointing :(

Erreur de traduction: "de bas en haut" et non de" haut en bas" sur le côté gauche de l'écran

If re-opening a screen that was opened and re-attached using iFixit’s adhesive strips, I would strongly recommend heating it first with an iOpener, heat gun or hair dryer. 20 minutes after attaching with the iFixit adhesive I tried to open it again with the pizza slicer to fix something and cracked the screen on the left-hand side.

Ne pincez pas l’écran avec l’autre main. Vous exercez une pression inutile sur le verre et empêchez la roulette de couper le joint.

In this step can I cut along the display without make any damage to the front camera?

Hi! Actually - there is no need to cut the tape around the camera area - there is no tape to cut at all! And so, the way go is easy - just pass 10 mm to the left and to the right from camera and start cutting!

P.S. Just did the whole procedure to replace a RAM and to add SSD on PSIe an hour ago! Seems to be different reading the instructions... you know - 2/10 and so on. But it's really not that hard, trust me. I'll give it 5/10.

P.P.S. By the way there is one trick to pass the difficult steps. Any action which requires pulling smth (motherboard, speaker, power supply unit) from the narrow crack (or should i say - slit?) at the bottom of your Imac is really not so easy.

And the trick is to first remove a thin metal stripe with some kind of insulation on it which held by 5 small (very small!!) screws at the bottom of your Imac. After you done it - it's easy to pull everything! Pay attention to the fact that one of this 5 screws at the center are more shortly than others.

Yes, do it many times to loosen the adhesive.

Would be good data to show the 3 areas (wifi antennas where the "tape" is larger and covers them. The rest of the "tape" is 1.4" and easy. Also after removing the display, be sure to remove the old "tape" from both the display and the rubber parts of the case. Use the spudger to start an end and it should pull off easily. Careful on the baackside of the display as you can scratch off the black paint/covering.

this step is extremely important NOT to stick in the cards too far….. doing so, you risk a 600 euro replacement as I experienced………

I drew a 3/8” line on my cards with a marker first.

I’m reading this on the EU store, please change all measurements to cm/mm.

This part must be done very carefully or you can damage the flat cable from display, despite it was under a iron cover.

You don't need to do it like this, simply open the iMac bendidng the LCD completely and use the pizza cutter to remove the adhesive.

Using glass removal suction cups will avoid running this risk of damaging the camera (or any wiring).

It was difficult to remove this connection. I ended up having to gently pull-up vertically a little on the wire side to unsnap it about 1mm and then horizontally wiggle it out.

I had a difficult time removing this connection. I had to lift the wire-side about 1mm before it unsnapped and then carefully wiggle it out horizontally.

Can this cable be replaced? I am worried mine is damaged. I have no display after the screen fell and stressed the display flex cables following an SSD upgrade.

I also need that cable.

It's a little difficult to tell... but looking at the connection to the logic board on the video data cable, are the pins faced up or down?

On the display, same question since it appears you have to "twist" the cable during the reconnection step.

The adhesive strip along the bottom is designed with a pull tab on each outer end. Rather than lever and pull the screen simply carefully pull the tab which removes that half of the lower adhesive strip and frees up the screen.

Vorsicht: Wenn man den Bildschirm einfach versucht vom Kleber wegzureissen, besteht die sehr grosse Gefahr, dass danach der Bildschirm tatsächlich defekt ist, was daran zu erkennen ist, dass dieser bei der Inbetriebnahme schwarze Diagonale Striche oder Lücken enthält. Dann muss der ganze Bildschirm ersetzt werden, was dann recht teuer wird!

Caution: If you simply try to tear the screen away from the adhesive, there is a very high risk that the screen will actually be defective, which can be seen from the fact that it contains black diagonal lines or gaps during commissioning. Then the whole screen has to be replaced, which then becomes quite expensive!

I would recommend that those trying this have the project tray to contain all of the screws.

2 notes for reassembly, carful with screws not to strip the heads as they are really really small, make note to cut a gap in the the adhesive over the whole for the microphone.

I managed to strip the head of one of the screws when putting it back in. So be carful with them when putting in / taking out. If you strip it on the way out you will need to take a fine drill and rill it out. Going back in, well as long as you never need to strip it down again not a problem.

The second problem is a real pain, you need to make sure to cut a gap in the adhesive just to the right of Center at the button to allow for the microphone opening. If you don’t, the adhesive tape will stop any real pick up on the Mic, so you just need to cut a small gap in it before putting on the screen. Unfortunately I didn’t find this out (or do my checked before sticking it all back down, so have to pull screen back off and reapply new adhesive with a cut out in it at an other time.

Refer her for more info on the mic / adhesive work around —> Muffled Microphone - iMac 21.5" (mid 2017) - Following Adhesive Strips

Keep this long, aluminium part very straight when pulling it away or you might bend it

que pasa si no coloca esta pieza?

At step 26, when reassembling, it's super easy to over-tighten the 9mm screw and strip the brass ferrule out of its hole in the plastic bracket (%#*@).

Mine has 4 different length screws, the two red colored 21mm screws in this guide are actually two differ lengths

Mi imac does not have a HDrive whats the steps to follow?

I didn't bother to remover the power supply lead in this stage but simply flippedthe circuit board over onto the lower body of the iMac (NOT placing it directly onto the metal but onto a sheet of plastic)

The newer drives have rubber ends and an adhesive side, be careful removing them if replacing the drive and be sure they are securely pushed back into the holder

Kudo to @jerrid_foiles! I was going crazy trying to attach the SATA cable until I took the two screws out of the left speaker and slid the top end of it aside by about 3/4 inch. Make the whole process SO MUCH easier!!

And DON’T do what I did, which is to remove the left speaker - which can easily lead to breaking the cable between the power on button and the power supply. The cable is routed through a hidden slot at the very bottom of the left speaker

I did loosen the speaker so I could get a tool behind the SATA cable to push it on to the SSD drive. Otherwise hard to align cable.

it`s a t10 screw..! ;)

I found it easier to connect SATA cable before fixing tray.

I am following these procedures for the following: iMac Retina 4K - 21.5" - 3GHz Quad Core - Radeon Pro 555 2GB - 4GB/4GB (8GB total - 2 slots) 2400MHz DDR4 SO-DIMM - Mid 2017 - Model: MNDY2LL/A - iMac18,2 - A1418 - 3069. In my case, the SATA cable is clipped into the bottom of the hard drive tray. Pull the hard drive tray up slightly and angle to reveal clips. SATA cable pops out from the side of each clip.

Better yet, after reading Step 49 - no need to remove SATA cable from the bottom of the hard drive tray.

Not included in the SSD kit. Happy to have disassemble everything and see i'm lacking this torx T4 from the kit when i'm in the middle if nowhere.

The bottom left screw was covered by a protective plastic adhesive circle that had to be removed to access the head of the screw.

I found removing the speaker (be careful of the antenna wire in the slot along the outside edge) made re-assembly much easier and it might have helped with disassembly.

When putting the logic board back in, make note to clear the speaker cable on the right-hand side through the notch in the board. Same with the headphone jack connector in the bottom right. Otherwise you’ll have to pull the whole board out and try again.

I found removing the speaker (be careful of the antenna wire in the slot along the outside edge) made re-assembly much easier and it might have helped with disassembly.

once you have done all these 63 steps, you should take the opportunity to also replace the PRAM battery with a new one, just two bucks more...