24” 2009 iMac, bad screen, lvds or both?

[Certificate of Excellence]

Hi everyone, my kids knocked my 24” 2009 iMac off their desk horsing around and ever since the display is wonky donkey. At first I suspected gpu and did have a compatible apple spare in my junk which is what is powering the mirrored external screen below.

The machine works as it should via the external monitor. I suspect at this point either the lvds cable or the lcd panel itself got jacked in the fall. Any thoughts or common sense tests I am not thinking about that could tell me which one?

 

[phunguss]

If you have removed the 4 screws on each side and can remove the screen, you will see if there is damage on the video cable connector or not (on the motherboard). I would suspect the display itself. You can try some gentle "impact maintenance" around the lcd panel to see if anything changes (better/worse).

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

If you have removed the 4 screws on each side and can remove the screen, you will see if there is damage on the video cable connector or not (on the motherboard). I would suspect the display itself. You can try some gentle "impact maintenance" around the lcd panel to see if anything changes (better/worse).

That is a good idea. I did take the lvds off from both ends and reattached it but it did not change the result unfortunately. I’ll give the panel a good couple whacks to see if anything changes. Don’t really feel like buying a new panel but whatevs, the Mac has mostly survived two boys and their youngest brother (he’s 2) just recently found the keyboard and mouse so I think the new/used panel is the way to go. They’re not too bad - $30 to 50 bucks round about on eBay.