If buying a used iMac...

[MrColin]

What sort of due diligence/resources would you recommend?

I'm thinking about blacklisted serials and testing for janky components somehow.

 

[master_shake_]

really? they blacklist serial numbers?

why?

 

[MrColin]

really? they blacklist serial numbers?

why?

I've heard they do it with stolen iPhones, not sure about iMacs though.

 

[JEDIYoda]

HAHAHAAAAAaaaaa

 

[Eug]

No they do not blacklist Macs.

 

[TheStu]

No, they don't blacklist, yes you can feed it into this site to double check any claims the seller may be making about the coverage on it.

Have you ever bought used computers before?
If yes, did you have these same concerns?
If yes, how did you address them?
Take that answer, plug it into a search engine with "blah blah, for Mac" or "blah blah for OS X"

 

[MrColin]

No, they don't blacklist, yes you can feed it into this site to double check any claims the seller may be making about the coverage on it.

Have you ever bought used computers before?
If yes, did you have these same concerns?
If yes, how did you address them?
Take that answer, plug it into a search engine with "blah blah, for Mac" or "blah blah for OS X"

Thanks man!
I've almost always bought new in the past. I figure the FS/FT crowd on AT might have some tips for me.

 

[KeithP]

Apple Hardware Diagnostics https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

-KeithP

 

[sbpromania]

Unfortunately Apple doesn't have a stolen products database. You cannot be sure 100% if a used device is stolen. You can check your Service and Support coverage by entering your hardware serial number but it won't do you much good, because anyone who knows the serial number can register it under his own Apple ID.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, not much to worry about. It's a big single-board computer that runs too hot and eventually will cook itself to death, but that's the way it goes.

If you meet it in person before you buy, of course, you check the monitor for dead pixels and stuff, and you listen carefully for wonky-sounding moving parts (grinding fans, strain or crunching noises in the optical drive, loud pre-failure HDDs, etc.)

But most of those problems are prohibitively expensive to fix, soooo.... (Even cracking the case to blow out the dust is a pain.)

 

[Pneumothorax]

Especially 2012 and new imac's! The stupidly glued screen is the PITA to work on. I cracked the bottom half of my wife's 2012 imac upgrading the HDD to SSD. ($500+ to replace the screen!!!) OTOH, the 2011 and earlier imacs are a piece of cake. I just upgraded my nephew's 2010 imac 27 from an i3-550 cpu to an i7-860, Samsung 850 SSD and it was so much easier to work on!