Second Chance (eMacs Arrived)

[iMac600]

After my misfortune with the Quicksilver G4 (which may still see life) I have been given a second chance at an upgrade with this haul, along with one of my all-time favourite machines.

iMac G3/400 "Ruby". Absolutely amazing. It belonged to a school where it served as the teacher's personal machine for presentations and slideshows, probably used not all that frequently. Most of the damage is to the casing, the base needs a realignment and the upper case just needs a good polish up. Otherwise it's pristine. Was running Mac OS X 10.4.7, but I reinstalled Mac OS 9.2.2 mostly for the nostalgia factor.

eMac G4/??? x2. These machines are a mystery. One is missing the drive door and the other is missing the sticker from the drive door. We'll assume they're 700mhz for now until any other spec is confirmed. They were used as student machines until their building caught fire a while back. Both were written off as "fire damaged" but a safety inspection has found they are both perfectly operational without any warping or cracking of the cases. They look pristine. Will find out more when I pick them up.

Pics! 

iMac G3 Front Photo

iMac G3 Side Photo

iMac G3 Powered Up and OS 9

Perhaps for one of the eMacs, provided the specs are within range, i'll load it up with OS X Leopard. Even if it isn't, I can still do it with a firmware trick. As usual only just for fun, but as with all my fun projects, if it works well enough, it stays...

EDIT: Just did an inspection of the G3, the speakers are free of pin damage and the optical drive still runs perfectly. Hard disk is silent and quick to access. It's practically new.

 

[Bunsen]

Very nice

 

[macgreg]

Those iMacs are great - my wife still uses a Sage 450MHz iMac for all of her stuff (email, photos etc). Give it some RAM (512MB ideally) and it will be sweet.

 

[iMac600]

The eMacs.

When I picked them up they were wet, no idea why but perhaps the rapid heating and cooling of the server room caused some condensation. Took them back upstairs to the IT staff room for some maintenance work.

Front door needed the springs reattached, the power button reattached on the second, plus the cases needed a good scrub up with some water and a sponge. Then the moment of truth.

Both dead. Or so I thought, until I reached behind and turned them on at the wall, a step i'd overlooked. :lol:

Both fired up perfectly and after some transplanting of hardware out of my current old G4 desktops into these, they are now running smoothly.

eMac #1

700mhz PowerPC G4 Processor

512mb RAM (384 pre-upgrade)

160gb HD (20gb pre-upgrade)

32mb GeForce2 MX Graphics

Mac OS X 10.4.11

Damage- None.

eMac #2

700mhz PowerPC G4 Processor

512mb RAM (384 pre-upgrade)

40gb HD

32mb GeForce2 MX Graphics

Airport Wireless

Mac OS X 10.4.11

Damage- Needs new drive door, Speaker Grilles.

Pics! 

eMac #1

eMac #2

At Home on the desk.

One is mine, in fact i'm posting from it right now. The other went to my brother who used it to replace his failing iMac G3/600, which i've picked up for repair (Flyback Transformer).

Only change i'll be looking to make is bumping up eMac #1 to a gigabyte of RAM at some point. Should be good to go then.

NOTE: Damn they're noisy! That fan in the back sounds like a wind tunnel. Suppose it's better than having silence with no fan, and a bunch of overheating components.

 

[iMac600]

Probably posted this on the wrong forum, eh'. Too new for the 68kmla.

 

[Bunsen]

A conquest is a conquest ;D

 

[iMac600]

Indeed, and it's running quite well considering its past.

Had a few requests to overclock it, but I really don't dare pull it open again... :lol:

Finally, with the second eMac now in place I had an old friend return to me. She's aged with time and is now knocking on heaven's door, with the flyback transformer weak and the hard disk unbootable.

The iMac G3/600 otherwise known as the "iMac600" when it was first introduced into the home, influencing my forum name when I registered years ago.

iMac G3/600 - Returned at Last.

 

[LCGuy]

I wouldn't, especially if it involves playing with SMT resistors, right?

Either way, congrats, very neat score

 

[iMac600]

Cheers, I just updated the post above yours as well with pics. Aye, it involves messing with surface mount resistors, much similar to the Sawtooth G4, but much more difficult.

I've found a donor iMac anyway with a faulty logic board and a good FBT, so it's worth a shot. The process will involve swapping the flyback transformer out, a fairly simple solder job, a swap of the speakers, returning it to 384mb RAM and loading it with an operating system, maybe OS 9, no more than OS X Panther.

The topcase will also be modified to include a ventilation fan, and a mounting bracket to support it. The fan is quite large, a good 10cm diameter, pulled from a G4/Sawtooth tower.

 

[Bunsen]

Is it just me, or would Flyback Transformer just be the awesomest band name ever?

 

[iMac600]

Is it just me, or would Flyback Transformer just be the awesomest band name ever?

The concert would be an electrifying experience, for sure.

 

[iMac600]

Everyone, I have some really bad news. I gave the second eMac to my brother, who loves it as an upgrade from his old iMac G3.

Unfortunately, my eMac has begun to die.

It started as a problem in which putting it into sleep mode would cause the entire machine to shut off. Coius diagnosed it as a faulty analog board. Today, the screen has started shaking, another symptom of a dying analog board.

I don't expect this eMac will last too much longer.

Second Chance at a newer Mac has failed.

The other eMac and the iMac G3 Ruby are both fine, but i'll need to resume the hunt for a newer Apple machine. I assure you though, this has turned me off AIO's for life. The Quicksilver in the corner is also bricked, but the components still function. I just need to source up a digital audio/gigabit ethernet logic board (at the very least, a Sawtooth board) and it'll be good to go.

EDIT: May be a third time lucky. 3 Gigabit Ethernet boards just came up on eBay Australia for $70 each.