Lampshade iMac won't turn on.

[insaneboy]

Machine has never had any problems, it was in daily use until a few weeks ago.  I installed fresh copy of 10.5 Thursday, did all updates,  used it on Friday all was fine.  Went to install iLife on it today (sunday) and nothing.  no life at all. 

Any known issues with these you guys can think of?  its the 1.25GHz 17" model.     I have someone coming to buy it this afternoon, need to know if I have to tell them sorry it died or tell them to come at a later date.     At least it chose to do this before it was sold.  

 

[insaneboy]

left it plugged in and went to try resetting the PMU, didn't have to it booted.  weird...    think I'll still try resetting the PMU, after iLife finishes installing. 

 

[bibilit]

How bad is the battery ? can be the problem here.

 

[insaneboy]

I was thinking that.   Buyer never showed up, so I bought a new battery this morning.  no go, Left it unplugged for 24hrs, put in the new battery and it didn't turn on.   I have it plugged in and will see if it decides to turn on again.  

 

[techknight]

Arnt these known for some power supply issues? 

 

[insaneboy]

I know the G5 iMacs are very well known for PS issues.   never heard any with the G4 my self. It turned on when I went back to it later.   and turned on after an hour unplugged.  left it unplugged and will try again tonight. 

 

[Sherry Haibara]

Might be bad caps in the power supply.

 

[Macdrone]

The cord contacts can become loose. I have needed to bend the contacts to make them contact the imac pins before. The cord always fits tight because the rubber square is tight in the hole. But any movement can basically unplug it.

 

[bibilit]

Arnt these known for some power supply issues?

Yes, now you are talking about, those have faulty psu (it's a two piece item indeed) probably some caps going bad.

 

[ScutBoy]

They are also a PITA to replace the PSU.

 

[insaneboy]

Yeah I'm suspecting caps now too,  time needed to wait for start up is increasing.   I'm doubting its cord contacts, first thing I tried was wiggling the cord while trying to start up.  

Maybe I'll have time some night to open it up more and get a closer look, see if I spy some bulging caps...   when I did the battery I only opened it far enough to get to the battery.

Edit:   just to add.  So, I fix it, then what do I do with it   This was a surplus from my mother's work that I was selling on their behalf, probably have more into it then its worth so it'll be mine...     

Really have limited use for a G4 based mac, that's why I have a PBG4  1.5GHz model...  Just sits in the attic and is used when I want to rip LPs from my USB turntable.

so 1.25GHz 17" lampshade(if I fix it) or 1.5GHz 15" PBG4 

 

[insaneboy]

Have not had time to tinker still.  but I was upstairs putting the humidifiers away so I thought I'd plug it in and see what it does.    Powered up immediately. :-/  

 

[IIciNov90]

It has been awhile since I last logged in but I have been following this topic hoping for more.

I love my Luxo iMacG4s to the point that they make me really dislike the iMacG5s.  The design was so perfect and when the G5 versions came out they were simply too hot to retain the elegant design of their G4 predecessors.

This is a very important topic as far as I see things.

I have (2) 17" models:  A 1 GHz model that started refusing to start first (makes sense - it's older) and a 1.25 GHz one that also does this mostly now.  The youtube video blow dryer trick by ytmaximonstre in the top vent holes can coax them both to start thus confirming that it is the PSU capacitors located near the top of the dome.

Has anyone done a good tutorial on replacing these capacitors?  I think that this would very much be a "Sticky Worthy" topic if a complete and comprehensive tutorial approach with good troubleshooting checkpoints was taken on this with good images to go along with it.

The work on this site for some of the other systems has helped me to resurrect (2) SE/30s and my trusty old IIci.  Time to go after some of the "newer classics".  I love my iMac G4s and would really probably still use the 1.25 one more regularly - especially if it would still start up reliably.  The 1 GHz I want to use single purposely as my iTunes jukebox with my entire CD library encoded using the Apple lossless codec.  It looks cool when I crank my speakers with it next to my amp with the visualizer zinging away on it and being sourced off of iTunes, the bass from my speakers won't cause skipping like what happens with my records or CDs.

Brian