08-31-2010, 10:10 PM

I picked up a couple of 15" g4 lampshades REALLY cheap almost free! One is a 700 with a dimming screen but everything else works perfectly. The other is an 800 with a faulty I/O where only external HDD and DVD drive will work, but all else works and a perfect screen. At first I figured I would just take the top shell and screen off the 800 and put in on the 700 base, but then I got thinking, can I swap out the 700 cpu for the 800?
I have worked on pc's for over a decade and have pulled apart older ibooks, imacs and mini's to upgrade the innards so I am not afraid of doing this if it is possible. I need to know if the cpu's are soldered on the main boards or not. If they are soldered, no, it's not worth the effort to swap. If they are not soldered , I have nothing to lose.
Thanks.

09-02-2010, 01:48 AM

I cannot find any reference to a removable G4 iMac processor, so assume it's soldered on. Bad luck for you, it would have been an interesting exercise (I guess!).

09-02-2010, 04:55 AM

Best way to find out is to just pull em apart, and see. Mac sure the bus speeds are the same before doing so. The G4 towers the cpu (daughtercard) is set in with 3-5 screws, once you pull the screws you just pull the daughtercard out. It may not be that with the imac like hugh said but you can take a look and see.

10-04-2010, 10:34 PM

not possible, thanks though, they are soldered in.

10-04-2010, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by wslctrc

One is a 700 with a dimming screen but everything else works perfectly. The other is an 800 with a faulty I/O where only external HDD and DVD drive will work, but all else works and a perfect screen. At first I figured I would just take the top shell and screen off the 800 and put in on the 700 base, but then I got thinking, can I swap out the 700 cpu for the 800?

I think your first idea was the better one & more on track with what's possible (because of the soldered on cpu's). Since the CPU speeds of these two G4 iMacs are so close (700 & 800mhz)...you might be able to swap the motherboards or swap the "top case" with the good display to the one with the bad display. That's at least what I would try...but you won't know if everything will fit until you start pulling them apart.

Good luck...sounds like a fun project,

- Nick

10-04-2010, 11:05 PM

You said something about the I/O on the one machine being bad? Are you talking the IDE port on the main board is bad? Are you sure? You said something about External HDD.