screen problem with G3 iMac

I recently bought two old macs, a PowerMac G3 and an Imac G3, I'm trying to get myself more 'ambidextrous' with both windows and mac

I want the imac for all my word processing, some internet exploring and maybe music, but... the screen looks all funny



Anything I can do...i was thinking...

I have an old Philips LCD screen (smaller than 15in) At worst could i take out the CRT and replace with this (via a cable out by VGA) and possible power cable out, not too bothered about having some external cable

Any thoughts, otherwise...i LOVE the imac, its soo quiet too run, and lets face it, darn good looking!

Thanks

* I have checked the ram and reset PRAM already

jamiesmith said:

I recently bought two old macs, a PowerMac G3 and an Imac G3, I'm trying to get myself more 'ambidextrous' with both windows and mac

Click to expand...

Sounds fun. Be aware though, these Macs will not help you learn anything about the current OS that Macs use. The OS on these Macs you have purchased is from almost 10 years ago, and has not been supported or updated since then. It's an interesting nostalgia trip, but not much more.

jamiesmith said:

I want the imac for all my word processing, some internet exploring and maybe music, but... the screen looks all funny

Click to expand...

There is likely some failing component. That type of problem looks video chip-ish.

The software choices for Macs that old is a bit limited. If you plan to do web browsing, note that there's not much in the way of "modern" web browsers for these old Macs. You may find your web browsing experience limited by the lack of ability to render newer web code. Flash can be an especially sore spot. Youtube didn't even exist when the last pre-OS X Macs shipped. Word processing may not be so affected, but you will be stuck with old software that will likely never be updated.

Is there any sort of high pitched whistle at all from the iMac? Some of the very old iMac G3 had Flyback Transformer (Horizontal Output Transformer) issues which did that just before they died. Also the resolution could be set wrong but on even Mac OS that might not be the case.

The Flyback Transformer issue was usually on the older Tray load iMacs and not the Slot Load like you have.

OS 10.4.11 can be installed on many of these old G3 iMacs. So many of the more recent OS features would be available.

But I definitely do agree that "YouTube" is a website to stay away from...old G3 & many G4 Macs just can't handle YouTube.

- Nick

If it's a really old Revision A, B, C or D's I usually recommend 10.3 Panther as they are a 333Mhz or lower G3 and only take a max of 512 Megs RAM. For the Slot loaders though 10.4 can work quite well given enough RAM.

dtravis7 said:

If it's a really old Revision A, B, C or D's I usually recommend 10.3 Panther as they are a 333Mhz or lower G3 and only take a max of 512 Megs RAM. For the Slot loaders though 10.4 can work quite well given enough RAM.

Click to expand...

OP didn't mention their iMac G3 specs. I have 10.4.11 installed on my 400mhz or greater iMac G3's (I have 3...or is it 4 I forget)...slower ones may be a bit "pokey"!

- Nick

Is that not a pic of the iMac in the first post? That is for sure a Slot load so at least a 350 Mhz G3 or higher.

dtravis7 said:

Is that not a pic of the iMac in the first post? That is for sure a Slot load so at least a 350 Mhz G3 or higher.

Click to expand...

It is indeed an slotloading imac

dtravis7 said:

Is that not a pic of the iMac in the first post? That is for sure a Slot load so at least a 350 Mhz G3 or higher.

Click to expand...

It definitely is a "slot-loader"...so it could have anywhere from a 350mhz-700mhz G3 CPU.

I would guess...given the color & slot-loading..that it has a 400-450mhz CPU.

- Nick

Ruby reds generally, and that is a generalisation only, come in the 400-500MHz processor range so it will handle Tiger nicely.