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Zimwy · May 2, 2003, 01:52 PM

Hey all,
I was wondering if anyone has any advice. My friend just gave me a 1st gen imac. Here's what it does: You hit the power button, it plays the startup chime, screen doesn't turn on, then about 1 or 2 seconds later it just turns off. Then if you try and turn it on again, it won't do anything.

I think the way it died was it was just sitting there, made a loud crackle fizz noise, and was dead.

If this computer is completely dead (which I doubt) I'd love to take apart to learn anything. Anything I should avoid so I don't have my brain electrified?

Thanks!
gabe

shmerek · May 2, 2003, 07:11 PM

If it is the analogue board you could hook up a external monitor and if will work. If the power board is dead vmarks has a conversion board so that you can stuff it in a PC case with the ATX power source. Lots of creative things have been done with first gen imacs from the crude ibox hack to the highly innovative imac media server or the suff in be- tween . I myself have opted for the cheapo ibox hack which is a work in progress there is a thread here somewhere.

This one is crazy.

carnagex2000 · May 3, 2003, 03:37 AM

Marathon has a 1U rack mount iRack for you iMac
http://www.marathoncomputer.com/irac.html

euphras · May 3, 2003, 01:52 PM

Maybe a stupid idea, but these symptoms sound like there�s simply the backup battery drained. If so, insert a new and viola

: running iMac

Zimwy · May 3, 2003, 09:57 PM

iMacs have a backup battery? What is this battery backing up ? there's no main battery that I know of, unless you're talking about the clock battery... Is it hard to find and put in a new backup battery?

gabe

shmerek · May 4, 2003, 09:36 AM

The only battery is a little purple thing sitting on the mother board, I know in my case the analogue board died. I highly doubt this is symptomatic of that little battery being drained. Hey vmarks do you have any comments on this one?

escher · May 4, 2003, 09:53 AM

My Rev.A Bondi iMac/233/192 is still chugging along beautifully. However, I would love to upgrade the HDD from 4 to 80GB, transplant it into a headless case, and use it as a media server/backup desktop with an inexpensive 15" LCD.

Originally posted by carnagex2000:
Marathon has a 1U rack mount iRack for you iMac
http://www.marathoncomputer.com/irac.html

If only the iRack were less expensive. For $400 you could probably buy a second-hand G4 PowerMac. Maybe I should just sell the old iMac and move on.

Escher

andretan · May 4, 2003, 10:54 AM

iMacquarium?

euphras · May 4, 2003, 01:48 PM

Quote:
"The only battery is a little purple thing sitting on the mother board, I know in my case the analogue board died. I highly doubt this is symptomatic of that little battery being drained. Hey vmarks do you have any comments on this one?"

The described symptoms are matching: startup chime and then nothing, black monitor. I�d say it is likely that the backup (clock) battery is drained. With broken analogue board you�d hear the HD spinning up...

Zimwy · May 4, 2003, 04:52 PM

I'm not sure if I hear the hd spin up or not. The green light on the front turns on, (but I think it's actually red...) and then after about 2 to 3 seconds it all just turns off and won't turn on again. Where can I find a new battery and is it hard to install?

gabe

The story was that the poor imac was sitting there minding its own business, but then made a loud buzz/zap noise and was dead.

shmerek · May 5, 2003, 07:43 AM

Do a search through the imac forum about first gen iMacs and you might be able to find a case that is similar. Or better yet talk to vmarks.

euphras · May 5, 2003, 12:28 PM

Have a look here for the appropriate manual. It should be easy to locate the battery....

Zimwy · May 15, 2003, 11:16 AM

Hey all,
The adapter fixed it! It was the Analog Video board that died. So now I have a working 266 iMac. (It wasn't first gen, sorry, I got confused. It's blueberry...)

What do y'all think of this? I actually think it's really cool. He says he used the original power supply and such. Do you think it'd be hard for me to fit all the parts in there myself?

Just wondering what y'all thought.

gabe

escher · May 15, 2003, 01:13 PM

Originally posted by Zimwy:
What do y'all think of this?

Glad to hear you figured out what the (easy) problem was, Zimwy.

That's a pretty awesome mod, especially considering that the guy didn't even use a new power supply. I'm tempted to do this myself, and hook it up to a cheap 1024x768 LCD. It looks easy enough to do.

Escher

Zimwy · May 15, 2003, 09:15 PM

Yeah, isn't that amazing? Instead of buying 6 of these:

from here, which I would then have to cut down to 10x10 if I wanted, I think I'm going to just buy this

from here without the basketball.

Unfortunately, the basketball case doesn't lock into place in any way, and it's only 1/8th of an inch thick. I guess I can glue it or latch it to keep it closed. Do you all think that 1/8th of an inch is too thin? Will it crack when I drill holes in it? Any thoughts at all?

thanks,
gabe

The Godfather · May 17, 2003, 01:09 PM

Originally posted by Zimwy:
Yeah, isn't that amazing? Instead of buying 6 of these: from here, which I would then have to cut down to 10x10 if I wanted, I think I'm going to just buy this from here without the basketball. Unfortunately, the basketball case doesn't lock into place in any way, and it's only 1/8th of an inch thick. I guess I can glue it or latch it to keep it closed. Do you all think that 1/8th of an inch is too thin? Will it crack when I drill holes in it? Any thoughts at all?

thanks,
gabe

1/8th of an inch acrylic is plenty tough. It won't crack if you drill it.

If that collectible basketball box is like the baseball ones, it will be two U-shapes that snap together to make a cube. They will be chamfered to lock tightly, but they may slip if you lift only one of them.

It would be cool if you get one of those cubes, and cut one of the U-shapes so that you can make a flip-up lid. Glue the back, bottom and sides together, let the lid swivel up and down (like a barbeque grill).

Zimwy · May 17, 2003, 02:39 PM

I was actually thinking of gluing the two U shapes together. I hadn't really thought of making the top open, although it would certainly make putting it together a lot easier.

US Plastics (the same people that sell the sheets of Acrylic) sell Acrylic hinges here. I could get those and make the top flip up. The only problem then is that I did like the original guys idea of putting the iMac handle on the top. I'd have to have a sort of locking mechanism to hold the top on.

Do you think the guts are the iMac are too heavy for just a glued basketball case? I mean, if I had all the stuff in there, glued the case together, attatched a handle to the top, and picked up it, do you think it'd fall apart? I hope it wouldn't. I guess it really depends on the type of glue? Any recommendations?

Oh, also, I've heard that it's possible to get all of the guts out of the iMac without going anywhere near the CRT, right? I'm rather hesitant to discharge the CRT myself, and I don't actually need the original case of the imac at all. Does anyone have any links to an iMac disassembly page?

Thanks again,
gabe

shmerek · May 20, 2003, 11:48 PM

Originally posted by Zimwy:
I was actually thinking of gluing the two U shapes together. I hadn't really thought of making the top open, although it would certainly make putting it together a lot easier. US Plastics (the same people that sell the sheets of Acrylic) sell Acrylic hinges here. I could get those and make the top flip up. The only problem then is that I did like the original guys idea of putting the iMac handle on the top. I'd have to have a sort of locking mechanism to hold the top on.

Do you think the guts are the iMac are too heavy for just a glued basketball case? I mean, if I had all the stuff in there, glued the case together, attatched a handle to the top, and picked up it, do you think it'd fall apart? I hope it wouldn't. I guess it really depends on the type of glue? Any recommendations?

Oh, also, I've heard that it's possible to get all of the guts out of the iMac without going anywhere near the CRT, right? I'm rather hesitant to discharge the CRT myself, and I don't actually need the original case of the imac at all. Does anyone have any links to an iMac disassembly page?

Thanks again,
gabe

The power source board is vertical to one sie of the monitor so you have to dig deep.

Angus_D · May 21, 2003, 08:27 AM

If it went crack as it died it's probably the analogue board. At least, that's what mine did. It cost about �200 to repair, IIRC.

Zimwy · May 21, 2003, 01:11 PM

Cool. Are there are good take apart guides online? I've found one for replacing the hard drive, but I'm not sure that that one ends up with everything except for the CRT taken out. Any pointers?

gabe

Zimwy · Jun 3, 2003, 12:18 PM

Well, all of the parts are OUT OF THE CASE. They're sitting right next to me. I connected them just laying on my floor, and everything still works! As soon as I figure out how in the world I'm going to mount the two boards, there'll be a crazy case mod on here for you guys!

gabe