Funky acting iMac G3 350

Hello all,
I have a couple questions re: an iMac G3. Its a G3 350, slot load cdrom. There is no firewire, or external video connector. Here's whats goin on:

I power up the computer, and hear the standard chime. About 2-5 seconds later, it appears to "power off", meaning that the hdd spins down, the green power light starts to flicker a bit, and I hear what sounds like a clicking sound.

This was abandon w/ me, and I wish to give it to my sister. The person that abandon it said that it blew the hard drive (more to the point, it blew one of the chips on the drive) and she was told that it wouldn't be worth fixing. I suspect that I didn't get the whole story.

I would like to get this to boot for under $100USD, as at that point, I'll just give her my G3 desktop.

For those of you in the Pueget Sound region, I can buy ya a beer/coffie for your help.

Thanks in advanced,
Nick

This iMac ran the original OS when it died...

Les Kern said:

Clicking. Not booting.
Hard drive most definately.
They are cheap though.
To be sure? Boot from an OS9 CD. See the drive? If you do, try to reinitialize. Won't work? It's the drive. I told you!
Don't see it? Open disk tools and try to mount. Din't mount? It's the drive. I told you!
It worked? Okay, you saved 78 bucks.
Carry on sir.

Click to expand...

The system makes a slight clicking sound w/o any drives... I've never seen any other machine do this, mac, pc, sun, etc... its a new one on me...