Can I Use iMac As Monitor For Mac Mini ?

Thanks for your help..

unfortunately ,near me i have access only to this ssd https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/portable-solid-state-drives/portable-ssd-t5-500gb-mu-pa500b-am/

so if hard disc fails then my imac can still work with an external ssd?

how about the OS..Ventura is the last one on it and from what i read it will be outdated from updates ,in about 2-3 years meaning my imac wont work properly after these 2-3 years ,meaning get a new one.so is it worthy to give an extension of life to my imac investing to an external ssd?

i think that with a new ssd i cant have the latest OS even if i wanted to bcs my hardware can't support it anymore.or am i wrong?

Servant of Cats wrote:

I may try to resurrect that Mac at some point, to run old 32-bit applications, but after getting nearly 14 years of use out of it, it seemed like time to move on.

so i do have some time since its only 7 years old.

No, it doesn't mean that your Mac "won't work properly after 2–3 years." It does mean that after 2-3 years, you will find it harder to get new applications that are compatible with that Mac … and you won't be getting security updates.

yeah, thats what i meant, it happen once when i went from sierra to Ventura until last year. i hadnt run any of the previous mac os versions before.

thanks for your answers. i guess i have 2 choices...run the mac with external ssd and see what happens( gain 5 years would be great) or wait until hard discs fails completely and move on to a new mac.

just remembered , my nephew has a 2011 imac which failed from motherboard. is its hard disc alive? its been 4 years since it has been used.will it fit to my 2017 imac if i try? well not me ,but a tech guy.

no ,i meant if i can replace my hard disc when/if it fails with the 2011 imac's one.i dont know if its possible to pull it out and place it in mine's hard disc place.

by the way how do we know if a hard disc is failing? which are the most common symptoms? except that gling noise they told me it could be

ok,lets take things one by one.

no i dont have fusion drive,no ssd.

i have never installed any app such as cleaning e.t.c.

also i have never run any of these diagnostic programs not even have installed any of them.i wanted to but opinions vary especially about etrecheck. i never had any serious problem to try them.

now about the hub. i am not sure what you mean about a self powered hub. the hub is a NTC hub ,i have it for almost 20 years ,has 6 ports ,i usually use 3 of them.it is connected with a usb cable to the imac port and with a power cord to the ups plug .

about the sleep mode.oh man, this is a vary debatable subject on the Internet community.many are for it and many against it. some told me ,do you switch off your phone, then why do that to your pc? and such opinions.that metals are doing a hard job trying to turn on the mac and that causes problems to hardware.some others say that in sleep mode imac uses more power e.t.c.

i dont know which is good for my hardware, i decide it to split my decision to both opinions. so i turn on my imac early in the morning and then for the rest of the day to put it in sleep mode when i don't use it.first screen saver for 5 min and then set it to sleep mode automatically.and late at night, i turn it off again until next morning.

i dont really know what you mean ''to go blank'' .what is that?

The suggestion was to power down the display, which can be configured in System Settings.

i tried to find the power down the display setting but there isnt on written like that in my ventura system settings.

is it the:

system settings> energy (the yellow button with the bulb) > turn on(activate) power nap ?

do you know the exact path in ventura? i am still learning that OS.

i assumed from your writings,mr Hoffman's actually, that he mentioned not to sleep mode the imac ,bcs in sleep mode the computer spins the drives ,so its not good for them.bcs no sleep mode, less use of hard drive.

but now you are telling me that if its not in sleep mode ,then the computer is running normally meaning that the drives will still spin and with normal speed, not lower one like in sleep mode. ,so whats the profit of going blank screen? what the screen has to do with my possible problem with the hard drive? unless its just an addional advice and still i dont get the use of it , since with just the display off the only thing that you gain is less use of screen.so save the screen,but thats not the case here.

i thought from what mr Hoffman mentioned that the problem with the hard drive comes from the added time of the spinning, not the added time of the display.

ok, here are the settings on my ventura concerning the sleep mode and display:

system settings:

energy (orange box with white bulb)> put hard disk in sleep mode whenever is possible, I DEACTIVATED THAT

> activate power nap , I DEACTIVATED THAT

> wake up from sleep mode for internet access, i left it ACTIVATED

displays> prevent automatic sleep mode when screen is deactivated, I DEACTIVATED THAT

lock screen > how minutes after the screen saver will begin when screen is inactive (this is set by me to 5')

> how many minutes after the screen will be deactivated when it is inactive (this is set by me to 10')

require password after screensaver or deactivated screen (this is set by me to 15')

after i did all these settings and had some time with my imac ,i left it alone to see what will happen.

well, i had a screensaver ,then screen went black according to my settings. i left it for hours .when came back and tried to wake up the screen by pressing a key as usually, no response.

so i pressed the power button and screen woke up.but i had set the password code in my personal settings when from screen wake up.but i couldn't write anything on the password area.so i thought to connect the usb cable charger and connected it to the keyboard.that was that!it worked!i typed my password and took me into my os.but then mouse didn't work.

i pressed the power button again for a while until the message pop up appears saying /giving me the choice to restart my mac.i did that and then the mouse came back alive.

conclusion.with the hub disconnected ,certainly that wasn't the cause. sleep mode no more, so that wasn't the cause either.

so the cause is the bluetooth ,thats my conlusion.when screen goes black, trying to wake it up then i loose the bluetooth .bluetooth is off. not all the times i wake up the screen,maybe 2/10 times.its happens more often sometimes.

so why am i loosing the bluetooth connection for mouse and keyboard when trying to wake up the screen from black? does this has to do with hard disc as i initially thought ot it has to do with something else?