iMac G3 display trouble

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My dad works for a printing company in which they use a lot of macs. When they upgrade to new systems, they basically throw away the old machines. So my dad has been salvaging a bunch of older but still usable equipment. He has already brought home a dual processor G4 that only had some damage to the case, and most recently an iMac G3.

My problem lies with the iMac. Upon boot up, the screen may or may not come on so you have to beat it a little and the screen will appear. And while the display is on, it slowly gets brighter and brighter until it becomes white and shuts off. or we beat it some more and it will be okay or turn pink and we have to keep beating it. So after numerous beatings, it is in stable condition. This leads us to believe there is a short somewhere. I have never worked on an iMac before, but am willing to perform needed surgery. I have not opened it up yet...so i am not sure where to look.

Is there a certain wire I need to look at? Is surgery even possible?

Thank you for your time
 

pigoo3

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Use this G3 iMac as long as you want to until it completely dies. It sounds like the CRT or some of the CRT components are worn out, and it won't be long before you have a weak or no display.

Plus it's somewhat dangerous to work on CRT displays given the high voltages that are retained even after turning off & unplugging the unit.

- Nick
 
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aww darn : (
dad found another one with only 94 MB ram. maybe I can swap over some components.
 

pigoo3

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aww darn : (
dad found another one with only 94 MB ram. maybe I can swap over some components.

Yes...one of the weakness's of the "All-In-One" design Macs such as the iMac G3 is the CRT display. If these things see a lot of hours of use (such as the Printing Company these came from)...then when they get to be 8-9 years old like they are now...it's really not too surprising when the CRT display's start to fail.

Maybe your dad will get one that has fewer hours on it, and be in better shape.

Good luck,

- Nick
 
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aww darn : (
dad found another one with only 94 MB ram. maybe I can swap over some components.

You didnt tell us if these are tray load or slot load Imacs. You can swap stuff with in the same family of Imacs, If you open one up to change the power supply..DO NOT touch the wire that goes to the back of the picture tube or the capasitor on the other end. Theres a special way to discharge the voltage.
 
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You didnt tell us if these are tray load or slot load Imacs. You can swap stuff with in the same family of Imacs, If you open one up to change the power supply..DO NOT touch the wire that goes to the back of the picture tube or the capasitor on the other end. Theres a special way to discharge the voltage.

i have no clue about the other one, dad just sent me a cell phone pic of the screen. but the one i am working on now is slot load.

so what i am being told is its terminally ill. i will just have to keep beating it till it does eventually die?
 
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i have no clue about the other one, dad just sent me a cell phone pic of the screen. but the one i am working on now is slot load.

so what i am being told is its terminally ill. i will just have to keep beating it till it does eventually die?

It could be several things. Like the yoke is lose on the back of the picture tube, A bad video card (its on the board) Or the PS. You can check the video on the slot load by looking under the cover on the back theres a VGA connector. Hooking up an external monitor and see if it works with out all the beating.
 

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