Re: iMac G4 questions
On Sat, 2011-04-30 at 04:17 -0500, Kris Tilford wrote: > On Apr 30, 2011, at 4:07 AM, Ralph Green wrote: > > > I don't see how the bottom plate comes off. > > I see in the pictures that they got it out. > > But, what do you pull or pry on? > > In the 2nd photo the plug that's causing you problems is shown taken > apart in about the 11 o'clock position and someone has used a photo > editor to attempt to place a transparent red box over both halves of > the problem connector. To remove you wiggle the two halves apart > gently but firmly. Alternatively you can try pulling directly upward > but be careful not to bend the board too much and pull with very even > pressure. The wiggle method is better in my opinion. Notice the > problem connector appear to be near an edge, so working near that > point on the edge on each side of the connector will probably work > best for you. > Howdy, The only edge I can see is around the inside of the cutout around the ram and the airport card. I can get a flat bladed screwdriver under that. If I do that and pull, am I going to remove the bottom plate or just mess up the bottom plate? I don't see any place around the outside edge that I can pull on or get a screwdriver under. Or, am am missing the right place to apply pressure? Thanks, Ralph -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On Apr 30, 2011, at 4:07 AM, Ralph Green wrote: I don't see how the bottom plate comes off. I see in the pictures that they got it out. But, what do you pull or pry on? In the 2nd photo the plug that's causing you problems is shown taken apart in about the 11 o'clock position and someone has used a photo editor to attempt to place a transparent red box over both halves of the problem connector. To remove you wiggle the two halves apart gently but firmly. Alternatively you can try pulling directly upward but be careful not to bend the board too much and pull with very even pressure. The wiggle method is better in my opinion. Notice the problem connector appear to be near an edge, so working near that point on the edge on each side of the connector will probably work best for you. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On Tue, 2011-04-26 at 16:01 -0700, Dan Ziegler wrote: > Ralph, this hard disk was pretty easy to get to: I just removed the > motherboard, and the disks were right there in a caddy. See xlr8 your > mac's page here: > http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html > - it's helpful. > > Dan Ziegler > Howdy, So, I started to look at it again. I removed the User Access Plate, as it was called at xlr8yourmac. I took off the 4 T15 screws. I don't see how the bottom plate comes off. I see in the pictures that they got it out. But, what do you pull or pry on? From reading ahead in the takeapart article, I am a bit concerned about the copper foil. Is is difficult to put back on after you take it all apart? Thanks, Ralph -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On Apr 26, 6:01 pm, Dan Ziegler wrote: > Ralph, this hard disk was pretty easy to get to: I just removed the > motherboard, and the disks were right there in a caddy. See xlr8 your > mac's page > here:http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html > - it's helpful. And while you're in there, you can update the internal DIMM to 512MB, so that the machine can be taken to 1GB of RAM if you like... Jeff Walther -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
Thanks for all the insight... now I'll have to check and see what GeForce it has!! ;-) This screen has plastic on the top as far as I can tell, the shame is all the pixels are nice and bright, only the top layer is scratched. Might just have to keep an eye out for dead iMacs with good screens. As for the hard disk, out of curiosity, does anyone know if OS X refuse to boot on SMART errors? My PCs never hesitate... maybe OS X takes the "safe route" and kernel panics. Ralph, this hard disk was pretty easy to get to: I just removed the motherboard, and the disks were right there in a caddy. See xlr8 your mac's page here: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html - it's helpful. Dan Ziegler -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On Apr 26, 2011, at 1:43 PM, Tina K. wrote: On 2011/04/26 14:28, John Carmonne so eloquently wrote: On Apr 26, 2011, at 10:58 AM, Tina K. wrote: According to Mactracker both of the USB 1 17" iMacs use the GeForce4 MX but the earlier one came with 32 MB of VRAM whereas the second one came with 64 MB VRAM. Tina IMO EveryMac.com gives more info than Matracker on all the Macs. According to EveryMac.com Jeff's explaination is spot on. I agree that EveryMac has more information, I just find a local database to be convenient. Of course now it's a matter of determining which database is correct. Tina I have Mactracker too but for in-depth and more models I use Everymac daily and it seems to be updated by the minute In fact I can use it for a lot of info Apple keeps close to home, such as RAM specs and system specs. Like Jeff's identifying factors are they're the same I use often when serial numbers don't work, that's not to say an individual didn't swap out some parts. Video cards can be a giveaway in a lot of machines.:-) JOHN CARMONNE Yorba Linda CA 92886 USA From TiBook 867 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On 2011/04/26 14:28, John Carmonne so eloquently wrote: On Apr 26, 2011, at 10:58 AM, Tina K. wrote: According to Mactracker both of the USB 1 17" iMacs use the GeForce4 MX but the earlier one came with 32 MB of VRAM whereas the second one came with 64 MB VRAM. Tina IMO EveryMac.com gives more info than Matracker on all the Macs. According to EveryMac.com Jeff's explaination is spot on. I agree that EveryMac has more information, I just find a local database to be convenient. Of course now it's a matter of determining which database is correct. Tina -- iMac 20" USB 2 1.25GHz G4 2GB RAM GeForceFX5200 Ultra 64MB VRAM 10.4.11 PB G4 15" HR-DLSD 1.67GHz G4 2GB RAM Radeon 9700 128MB VRAM 10.4.11 Mac Pro Mid-2010 2.8 GHz QC 6 GB RAM Radeon HD 5770 1GB VRAM 10.6.7 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On Apr 26, 2011, at 10:58 AM, Tina K. wrote: On 2011/04/26 09:41, t...@io.com so eloquently wrote: There were two extremely similar models of 800MHz G4, 17" iLamp. The first one will boot into OS 9.2. The second one will not. It's a bit like the difference between a regular MDD and a FW800 MDD, except harder to tell apart. Yours is probably the first model, as it came with an 80GB hard drive, and the later, OSX only model, came with a 60GB hard drive. But hard drives can be changed. The clear distinguishing characteristic is that the OS 9 booting model has NVIDIA GeForce4 MX graphics and the OSX only model has NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics. I had forgotten that the G4 iMacs were updated once before they added USB 2, thanks for the reminder. According to Mactracker both of the USB 1 17" iMacs use the GeForce4 MX but the earlier one came with 32 MB of VRAM whereas the second one came with 64 MB VRAM. Tina IMO EveryMac.com gives more info than Matracker on all the Macs. According to EveryMac.com Jeff's explaination is spot on. JOHN CARMONNE Yorba Linda CA 92886 USA From TiBook 867 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On 2011/04/26 09:41, t...@io.com so eloquently wrote: There were two extremely similar models of 800MHz G4, 17" iLamp. The first one will boot into OS 9.2. The second one will not.It's a bit like the difference between a regular MDD and a FW800 MDD, except harder to tell apart. Yours is probably the first model, as it came with an 80GB hard drive, and the later, OSX only model, came with a 60GB hard drive. But hard drives can be changed. The clear distinguishing characteristic is that the OS 9 booting model has NVIDIA GeForce4 MX graphics and the OSX only model has NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics. I had forgotten that the G4 iMacs were updated once before they added USB 2, thanks for the reminder. According to Mactracker both of the USB 1 17" iMacs use the GeForce4 MX but the earlier one came with 32 MB of VRAM whereas the second one came with 64 MB VRAM. Tina -- iMac 20" USB 2 1.25GHz G4 2GB RAM GeForceFX5200 Ultra 64MB VRAM 10.4.11 PB G4 15" HR-DLSD 1.67GHz G4 2GB RAM Radeon 9700 128MB VRAM 10.4.11 Mac Pro Mid-2010 2.8 GHz QC 6 GB RAM Radeon HD 5770 1GB VRAM 10.6.6 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On Apr 24, 6:14 pm, Dan Ziegler wrote: > I have recently bought an iMac G4 (iLamp) off craigslist-it's the > original 17" model (800 MHz, SDRAM, 80 GB). Just an aside, as your main questions have already been addressed by others... There were two extremely similar models of 800MHz G4, 17" iLamp. The first one will boot into OS 9.2. The second one will not.It's a bit like the difference between a regular MDD and a FW800 MDD, except harder to tell apart. Yours is probably the first model, as it came with an 80GB hard drive, and the later, OSX only model, came with a 60GB hard drive. But hard drives can be changed. The clear distinguishing characteristic is that the OS 9 booting model has NVIDIA GeForce4 MX graphics and the OSX only model has NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics. Probably not important to you, but a bit of iLamp trivia which is easy to overlook. Most of the folks selling them on Ebay don't seem to know which model they have, or even that there are two nearly identical models with such a significant difference in capabilities. Jeff Walther -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On Mon, 2011-04-25 at 14:23 -0700, Dan Ziegler wrote: > Hi there, > I have recently bought an iMac G4 (iLamp) off craigslist-it's the > original 17" model (800 MHz, SDRAM, 80 GB). When I bought it the girl .. > stuck a old 60 GB hard drive in and installed OS X 10.4 and now it > works fine. > I have a15 inch iLamp, if you call them that. I get similar errors in the hard disk. I started to replace it, but was intimidated by the process. Is the 17 in iLamp easier to replace a hard drive on? I love the appearance if these G4 iMacs and would like to get this back into operation. > But I was wondering why the old drive "failed". It wouldn't even start > up off the OS X DVD to do a disk check! I took the original "failed" > hard drive and stuck it in my Linux box, and ran Disk Utility (the > Gnome app, it's similar to Apple's). Disk checking on "Macintosh HD" > turned up clean, but the S.M.A.R.T. Status field said, "Drive has a > few bad sectors." On scanning THAT, it told me the drive is about to > fail. But I can use all of the files on Linux fine, such as the System > folder, Users and such. I don't know if the S.M.A.R.T field will cause > OS X to crash or what. > From what I can read, SMART is not all that smart. Particularly, SMART often fails to notice that drives are failing But, when it tells you a drive is failing, then it probably is. I am guessing the firmware in the iMac queries SMART, but I don't know. If there is anything interesting on that drive, I suggest you copy it off soon. Linux will report SMART data, but normally lets you decide whether to proceed or not. OSX is more of a hand holding type of OS, so I would not be at all surprised if OSX just acted on SMART data. > Also the screen has a number of small scratches in the upper left > corner. When a light color is displayed underneath them, the screen > looks dirty. But the pixels themselves are bright and all work. So I > was wondering, is it possible to buy a screen "top mat" or whatever > you call it to replace the scratched one? Or remove the scratches. > I think that front is glass. Apple says to use only a damp, lint free cloth. There is a light tint to the screen and polishing it would remove it on that spot. That would be no good. At least, that is what I read. Maybe you should look for a nice 17 inch screen with a dead motherboard and do a transplant. Good luck, Ralph -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
Re: iMac G4 questions
On Apr 24, 2011, at 4:14 PM, Dan Ziegler wrote: > But I was wondering why the old drive "failed". It wouldn't even start > up off the OS X DVD to do a disk check! I took the original "failed" > hard drive and stuck it in my Linux box, and ran Disk Utility (the > Gnome app, it's similar to Apple's). Disk checking on "Macintosh HD" > turned up clean, but the S.M.A.R.T. Status field said, "Drive has a > few bad sectors." On scanning THAT, it told me the drive is about to > fail. But I can use all of the files on Linux fine, such as the System > folder, Users and such. I don't know if the S.M.A.R.T field will cause > OS X to crash or what. When SMART tells you it's failing, it's failing. That drive is on the way out. I've had such drives work OK for a bit after formatting and re-installing, but SMART does not say 'failing' because some sectors go bad; the failing sectors are a symptom of the impending disk failure, not a cause. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list