imac G3 buzzing from left bottom corner

[kmd]

Hi all, my first post. I will formally introduce myself at some point, but heres the question that made me want to sign up.

I pulled an imac G3 from the trash a few days ago, and was surprised when it booted up. Its in decent condition and seems to function normally, except for one thing. There is a fairly loud electrical buzzing noise coming from the bottom left corner, between the left speaker, and the disc slot. It will get really annoying after a couple of weeks.

Google gives a bunch of gobblygook answers, as is pretty normal. So a clear, concise answer to what you think it is (and how to fix it) would be greatly appreciated!

I am quite hardware knowledgeable, but I don't want to poke around inside the case without knowing what the problem could be. From what I understand, these are fanless, so its either the HDD, power supply or speakers. Speakers seem unlikely, and the HDD isn't making any other strange noises, and it hasn't had problems booting or reading files so I doubt its the culprit (but it is old so maybe). So its likely the power supply. Though I'm not sure the PSU is on the front side.

What do you guys think?

My plans are to install osx Tiger and use it as a basic creative workstation. Would be hard to justify keeping this if I can't fix the issue, which sucks because I find these really cool and have never used one before.

Edit: Its a late 2001 model, 600mghz processor I think, 512mb RAM, 40gb HDD, with Mac OS 9.2. Also heres a picture, its my favorite color too.

 

[chscag]

So its likely the power supply.

That would be my guess also. Apparently you like old iMacs - seeing as you also posted about another ancient iMac.

 

[kmd]

calle studio

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll look into the PSU.

I didn't get a modern PC until 2008, and never used a mac until 3 years ago. I always loved the way imacs looked, and wondered how different they are from windows (the answer is, really not much). An all in one with wifi, bluetooth, built in speakers etc was really ahead of its time for 2006 too.

Next I'd like to a 2014-2015 model or even one of those 4k imacs but they're still very expensive.

 

[chscag]

Apple has some new refurbished iMacs in their on line refurbished store. They have the 2015 5K model and even some new 2017 5K models. Anything that Apple sells in their refurbished store is like brand new and comes with their one year warranty plus Apple Care can be added. Still expensive though but the savings is around 15%.

Oh.. and that buzzing in the PS is likely a bad cap or several bad caps. Bad electro caps are famous for buzzing and when they go out completely, you'll smell them all over the house. LOL.