Newbie needs help with iMac G3

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Hello,

I am a recent convert to Macs after spending all of my adult years working in the PC world. I purchased a MacBook Pro for Christmas and fell in love with it. So much so that I replaced by kids' pc with an iMac G3. Yesterday, my daughter was trying to import a cd into iTunes and it sounds like she somehow locked up the Mac. Well now, there is no video. The Mac boots (I hear the chime and then the hard drive going), there seems to be power going to the screen as I can see it illuminating a bit but that's as far as it goes.

I tried booting with the Install CD but nothing.
I tried resetting the PVRAM (Command - Option - P-R) but nothing.

Is there anything else that I can try before taking this thing into the Apple store later this morning?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Oscar
 
M

MacHeadCase

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Welcome to Mac-Forums, oim415/Oscar!

I had a grape iMac years ago (bought it second hand from a friend) and the analog board fried a couple of months later. It was quite a long time ago so can't remember if I heard the startup chime and the hard drive spinning but for sure I never got any video at all.

When I took it in for repairs, the techie told me the analog board was an achille's heel on that line of G3 iMacs and that repair was quite common on them. But for me the cost of the repair just wasn't worth it and decided to buy a new iMac G4.

I don't know if you have the same problem with your iMac though. Right before it went, the analog board emitted electrical zapping noises which spooked me right out of my chair each time.

A few questions... Is the CD still stuck in the CD player? Did you install any OS updates on it? Which OS version is this iMac running on? How much RAM does it have?
 
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wrong forum

oops. I guess I didn't have enough coffee this morning. The unit is a 17" G4 1.2Ghz running Panther.
 
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MacHeadCase

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Ok so it's the flat-panel model, not a G3 at all. Well this kinda changes things then... This iMac does have a FireWire port so you could use target mode on it from your other Mac.



Edited to add:

In case you haven't any idea of what is target disk mode, just follow these instructions: How to use FireWire target disk mode. From your newer Mac you could re-install Panther on the flat-panel iMac. Maybe the music CD had some kind of copy protection on it that messed up the iMac G4... or it was just something else that coincided with the music CD.
 
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There's not a whole lot on the hard drive that needs to be saved as this was primarily for kids use. I don't have a an external monitor connector so I can't check whether it's the video card or the flat panel or both that is not working. I tried F14 and F15 to see if maybe my daughter had turned the screen brightness all the way down but that's not it. Any suggestions?
 
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MacHeadCase

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Try what I suggested in my post above, I added some info in the edited part.
 
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MacHeadCase

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Of course none of this will work if it is a hardware problem. I hope that the re-install of the OS works though. :girl:
 
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Your Mac's Specs
G5 dual 1.8 / G4 Dual 867 / iBook G3
Hi
With the Mac off, turn it on, and then hold down Apple + ALT(option) + F + O
If you get a screen up, with a prompt, type clear-all ( enter ) then mac-boot ( enter ) let us know how it goes
 
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Your Mac's Specs
ibook g4, imac 2ghz c2d, mbp 2.4ghz c2d - 10.5.1
Hi
With the Mac off, turn it on, and then hold down Apple + ALT(option) + F + O
If you get a screen up, with a prompt, type clear-all ( enter ) then mac-boot ( enter ) let us know how it goes

what does this do ?
 
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I took my iMac to the Apple Store and the genius that looked at it tried all of your suggestions so far with no success. We hooked up a second monitor and the thing is booting up. If I go into the system preferences and select display it shows both the iMac display and the external. I can set the iMac display to different resolutions and the computer acts like it's making the changes.

I can't boot into the hardware test however because it only shows on the primary LCD and not on the external.

The genius says that I have either a bad controller card or a bad video card both of which will run around $600 to fix. How difficult is it to diagnose/repair either of these on my own. Have built numerous pcs but never taken a Mac apart.
 
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MacHeadCase

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Here is the service manual (.pdf file) for your iMac model (or close to it), iMac (17-inch Flat Panel, 1 GHz). Please note that it takes forever to open so leave the browser window open, it will eventually appear. And I suggest once it is fully loaded that you save a copy to your desktop: you don't want to wait like this again.
icon12.gif


I had a quick glance and am not sure they show the parts you talk about but maybe with the photos of other parts near one of them you can see their locations.

As for the parts themselves, maybe you can find something here or do a google and see what comes up.
 
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Thanks. I will take a look and see. It likes it may be the inverter according to the troubleshooting steps for no video.
 
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The inverter controls the backlight, which you already stated you could see lighting up. Not the problem.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
iMac Alum 20'' 2.4GHz | iMac G4 | iPod Silver Nano 2GB
So, the LCD panel does show video?
 

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