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Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
Hi All,

On december 25th this year my faithful old iMac G3 'Bondi Blue' turned 13 years of age. Since i opened this computer as a gift at the age of 8, i basically grew up with this computer and its been used all the time up until my grandad died 3 years back. When my family were going to dispose of the iMac i made sure that i took it, but its sat there in the corner ever since. Now the screen is starting to flicker, sometimes it wont show the boot screen and its very noisy. Not being much use it has sat there in the corner looking sorry for its self.

Now... where the fun began :)

About 5 month ago, when i moved into my new home with my other half, bondi came with me and i booted her up for the 1st time in 2 years. My other half sat down beside me and it was the 1st time she had actually seen it running so she had a little play on Warcraft 2 and Escape Velocity that were installed from when i played on it as a child! When i seen it going, i thought... i want this computer back in my life!

I stumbled onto the iMacquariums and thought WOW! thats a way to keep it in my life! but then i thought no i cant do it to her... so i bought another and spent a few weeks turning a 333mhz aqua imac into a fantastic imacquarium! this made me want my old bondi even more!

So i purchased 512mb of RAM and a new fan to try cool it better, i also installed a 20GB hard drive i had lying about and upgraded it to Panther. Unfortunatly the CPU Daughter Card would only read 256mb (2x 128mb modules even though they were 256mb modules), so i made the iMac even less usable than it was previously.

I then stumbled across the overclocking guide for this iMac, and sucessfully overclocked it to 266mhz, not much of a gain but i thought why not get a 333mhz card and clock it to 400, then add a fan cooler to the cpu! after looking around, i realised it was almost impossible so i put the iMac aside for a little longer.

Then the other day i was on ebay and a 333mhz processor was for sale for £8 including delivery, so i ordered that along with a new battery as the clock was constantly wrong. they turned up the other day but i have stripped the CRT down and removed the flyback transformer that i managed to source for £18. This will get the CRT back in tip top spec again! I also thought, this computer still isnt really going to have a use, but if it had a DVD drive it would be in the spare bedroom as both a computer and tv.

Soooooo the hunt began for an ATAPI DVD drive, which had a button in the middle, with an eject button just to the right. unbelievably i found one on ebay for £5 and tonight i have managed to modify the front facure to fit it exactly... although i have not yet tested it inside the imac, i can hear the button clicking when pressing the eject, the force eject definatly works as i can test that.

So by having this 333mhz processor, it will accept upto 384mb or the 512 hopefully. then if its overclocked to 400mhz with the CPU cooler it should have gained almost 80% increase in CPU power.

The fan that i have is an Arctic cooling F9, which i have fitted a new 12v instead of the 9v apple supplies to keep it quiet. this increases the air flow but the arctic cooling fans are silent so i havent made it any noisier.

For now i will have to wait until the flyback transformer arives, once this is fitted i shall rebuild the screen and computer with the original components to calibrate the screen, then i will try the all new DVD/ CD-RW drive which im quite exited about!

Life story so far, im hoping that this can be used with Tiger to allow more funtionality... but one will have to see how it goes.

And here she is!

9F063E35-566F-47B1-A338-80B27C915800-8239-000003E6172BE7BA.jpg
 
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Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
On the left is the iMacquarium to be and on the right is my Bondi Blue

66227D0A-E4A2-4AB6-821A-E8E9126599F5-8239-000003E558FA83A5.jpg


Here is the iMacquarium ready for modification

330223CF-2D31-4B75-9514-AD6242176667-8239-000003E55E68F58B.jpg


Here is my finished thing :)

98C7B934-787F-4665-A2D1-7B8A87106870-8239-000003E583AA26FA.jpg

8EF4D05D-085D-4A60-AFCE-2767BAA283AF-8239-000003E58A71FA8E.jpg

DF417A4B-681F-4907-8CCD-5E926B8F8516-8239-000003E591F58C8A.jpg

EE80085F-633E-4E0D-A8CE-811704E9940B-8239-000003E598BE8B8F.jpg

2219D637-9603-459F-8636-43B388CCBB07-8239-000003E565C795A6.jpg

EDA62F83-65A2-4FDD-8158-649A2AD98F9F-8239-000003E56D647267.jpg

91FF8742-8326-4565-A8F2-112BFA68987F-8239-000003E574352506.jpg

1C5FFD8F-744E-41AF-89EF-7D166CD83937-8239-000003E57E26FC8D.jpg


will get the pictures of the drive modification up when i can, cant upload to photobucket via the iphone i dont think :p
 
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MAC MAN JW

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2011
320
17
Buffalo,Ny
I Love stories like this:) Please post pics when you get your iMac working:) I have a Bondi Blue 233 Rev.A iMac G3 and it has Issues to:( but on the + side i think the Fly back is good on mine it just makes a hissing sound when off but works fine when on some day i may try to fix it i had it for 6 years or so:)
 

lippyt

macrumors member
Aug 14, 2010
36
0
I'm liking the sound of your story! I can't wait to see how it goes.

It reminds me of when I gutted a powermac G4 which was left in an incense room and caked in dust. Cleaned every single part with detergent and water and used alcohol to remove gluey residue on the thing and replaced both the main 14" and PSU fan.
 

Goftrey

macrumors 68000
May 20, 2011
1,853
75
Wales, UK
Woah great story man! And the iMacquariam is looking great! Keep us posted as to when you get the iMac up and running! :D
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
I Love stories like this:) Please post pics when you get your iMac working:) I have a Bondi Blue 233 Rev.A iMac G3 and it has Issues to:( but on the + side i think the Fly back is good on mine it just makes a hissing sound when off but works fine when on some day i may try to fix it i had it for 6 years or so:)

i am hoping the fly back turns up in the next few days! but yeah mine does the hissing, it used to cause much trouble if you left the plug on without the computer actually runinng. you would press the button and it would make deeper hiss/buzz and when you let loose it would go back to normal but not allow it to start. if you unplugged it for a while (like 2-3 hours) sometimes it would work, but other times it takes a day or 2 lol.

I'm liking the sound of your story! I can't wait to see how it goes.

It reminds me of when I gutted a powermac G4 which was left in an incense room and caked in dust. Cleaned every single part with detergent and water and used alcohol to remove gluey residue on the thing and replaced both the main 14" and PSU fan.

Yeah i havent cleaned all the parts yet, but i have polished the EMI shield as it had corroded a bit on the top, hasnt hidden it but its brought it up. I am also going to get my rotary polisher out onto the case to bring the plastics to life again. If you look at the iMacquarium above, you can see where i buffed that case to look like new :)

Will get the modified DVD/CD-RW Drive pics up shortly
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
Woah great story man! And the iMacquariam is looking great! Keep us posted as to when you get the iMac up and running! :D

Thanks ^.^

Btw dont know if anyone realised the crack to the top left of the iMac Aqua in the 1st picture. When i stripped it down, this is what i was left with...

C3BC2B39-8A4C-4E27-AD5C-DF239146B043-8239-000003E5A68F4F31.jpg


and this is how i fixed it :)

99EEF0CF-F053-4608-8D39-731BCA68E3BD-8239-000003E5ACDC29CF.jpg

BDFB9B99-B126-4BEC-98FD-EE16A868E1A6-8239-000003E5B39962F7.jpg

49FA15C5-BEB8-46C6-840C-5C7F0F94CF7C-8239-000003E5BA380393.jpg

53409D12-A48D-4CA0-AA00-CC89EB3F2E6E-8239-000003E5C1847AEC.jpg

BC678E75-13A0-45B7-A881-1518201987A8-8239-000003E5C69785D9.jpg


then back together

4523E30F-18B0-4660-AAB0-56D64091EA48-8239-000003E5CB028822.jpg


just thought id put them up to show work involved so heres a few modifications to allow the tank to fit.

BAE0C2F9-3691-4D2F-AB72-BDCE0AC19486-8239-000003E5DB1050F9.jpg

4118319B-0A8F-417A-95D5-AE8A3B5AF9E4-8239-000003E5EAE0B966.jpg

B8858E45-1E4E-46D3-A8EB-CA8C0ED77023-8239-000003E5F2E8141C.jpg

785FDAF3-AAEF-4F23-A3B2-5E20B2CA49AD-8239-000003E5FB0AFFF8.jpg
 
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Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
As promissed, here is a picture of my modified tray loader, before and after shot.

The drive I used for this little modification project is the Quanta SBW-242C DVD/CD-RW drive. This is an ATAPI drive, which meant I could remove the connector from the back of the original drive and fit it to this drive.

The reason I chose this drive is that it's eject button is centralised and the force eject just to the right. This still needs modification but less than one that's completely different lol.

Anyways here is a before shot, as you can see the apple drive with the bindi blue buttoned front.

7816ba36.jpg


Here is an after shot, completely fitted with foam and everything, the front still needs securing into the right cental position, but I can't do this until I rebuild the iMac when the flyback arives so I can rebuild the iMac and fit it 1st :)

bdc5cb88.jpg


What u guys think :)
 

Goftrey

macrumors 68000
May 20, 2011
1,853
75
Wales, UK
It's amazing how much work someone puts into something that means a lot to someone. If you don't mind me asking, how much is this all costing you? It must be costing a bomb time and cash wise. :D
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
It's amazing how much work someone puts into something that means a lot to someone. If you don't mind me asking, how much is this all costing you? It must be costing a bomb time and cash wise. :D

Well my goal is for the iMac bondi not to cost a great deal, so far the most costly item has been the flyback at £18, the RAM I got on a bid at 9.71, the fan cost £4.99, the 333 CPU cost £9 and the DVD drive cost £5 so really, not much :) time is just enjoyable tbh :)

The iMacquarium was a little different. The iMac aqua cost £40 including delivery, £20 for the 25w heater, £80 for the tank, £5 LED lighting, £10 for the filter and £10 for the glass stones. Time wise, took a significant amount more time than the bondi blue computer project will. But again I loved it :)
 

MAC MAN JW

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2011
320
17
Buffalo,Ny
"i am hoping the fly back turns up in the next few days! but yeah mine does the hissing, it used to cause much trouble if you left the plug on without the computer actually runinng. you would press the button and it would make deeper hiss/buzz and when you let loose it would go back to normal but not allow it to start. if you unplugged it for a while (like 2-3 hours) sometimes it would work, but other times it takes a day or 2 lol."



So mine does have a bad fly back as well i guess:( at lest i know what is wrong with it now:) By the way Your iMacquarium Looks Very cool:D you did a very good job:)
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
"i am hoping the fly back turns up in the next few days! but yeah mine does the hissing, it used to cause much trouble if you left the plug on without the computer actually runinng. you would press the button and it would make deeper hiss/buzz and when you let loose it would go back to normal but not allow it to start. if you unplugged it for a while (like 2-3 hours) sometimes it would work, but other times it takes a day or 2 lol."



So mine does have a bad fly back as well i guess:( at lest i know what is wrong with it now:) By the way Your iMacquarium Looks Very cool:D you did a very good job:)

well it will probably just be dieing, mine hasnt officially died but i wanted it replaced before it did lol. but honestly, all this stuff about people saying CRTs are extremely dangerous, they are totally not as long as you take the precaution. quite easy to remove, im guessing it will be easier to replace lol

thanks very much i put a lot of time and effort into it :-D Everyone who comes round to our home comments about how nice it looks. most of them dont really know what it is though until i kind of 'jog their memory' lol
 

lippyt

macrumors member
Aug 14, 2010
36
0
Yeah i havent cleaned all the parts yet, but i have polished the EMI shield as it had corroded a bit on the top, hasnt hidden it but its brought it up. I am also going to get my rotary polisher out onto the case to bring the plastics to life again. If you look at the iMacquarium above, you can see where i buffed that case to look like new :)

Will get the modified DVD/CD-RW Drive pics up shortly

Sounds sweet! The restoration costs are looking good too!
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
Well today the flyback transformer i had been waiting for turned up, and as i sort of snatched it off the postman i was anxious to get it fitted... but i had to take my time.

I took many pictures over the course of the day, i hope you find it as interesting as i did!

Well here is what i have to build my new old iMac :)

faf0fac2.jpg


Here is the new flyback transformer as it was out of the box

ddb8914e.jpg


Here is the video board with the old flyback transformer still attached

ca8b1237.jpg


After some time removing the old one, here is the new and old transformers together, as you can see the old one looks... well old!

00d59925.jpg


Rather than bodge the new one on, i decided that properly removing the crimped fittings and soldering them back on, so that it is 'new out the box' looking, but this added more time... worth it in my oppinion!

9d0eb38b.jpg


Now its time to solder the new one on... now you can see how it was difficult to remove!

2e7df1fd.jpg


All ready for fitting!

c627c45f.jpg


All fitted back into the iMac before shielding is reinstalled.

b46fc684.jpg


Shield fitted

6e7be61f.jpg


New Arctic Cooling F9 fan fitted, with adaptor plate to take increased depth fan

f817524f.jpg


Now that its in a 'test' state, i refitted the logic board draw loosely

49d6bbb2.jpg


For precaution i thought... if this explodes i want it to be outside! and i dont want to lean over it to turn it on. So i put it outside and decided the keyboard on button would be the best bet hahaha

e8232582.jpg


OMFG WE HAVE LIFE!!! no squeeling, no clicking, just one beautiful picture! by the way when i first turned it on, the screen was blank... i needed to turn the brightness up on the flyback transformer and then adjust the focus, this picture was after i had done this.

adb41490.jpg


Now its time to refit the plastics after i give them a good clean down (no polishing though)

7f67fdde.jpg


I remembered that i had to fit and test the DVD drive, i didnt know if it was going to fit or anything but when i put it in... too my amazement it wasnt far out!

58bb2511.jpg


So i started the computer and i was greeted with somthing new! a nice green LED that was a rare sight on the old drive. But did it actually read the disks? well your about to find out!

f9098108.jpg


bbf6e928.jpg


YES!! it does!! although i havent played a video from it yet, it notices disks and plays music from disks but i have to glue the facure onto the front at the moment.

I will update later on if i get the chance, i also have the new CPU cooler to fit to the new 333 chip i am hoping to clock to 400.

wish me luck :)
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
Well here is the new 333Mhz card and its jumpers pre modding

c24aaf64.jpg


i didnt take one post but here is my new fan cooling mod, i tapped into the 12v supply from the hard drive... this gives extra cooling ofc.

06aa783e.jpg


OMFG IT ACTUALLY STARTED UP AT 400Mhz!!! it runs so much faster its unreal! i dont know if i should push it to 433Mhz or just be happy lol. unfortunatly i still dont understand why it registers the 256mb ram as 128mb ram :-(

d20fbc68.jpg


comments? :)
 

MAC MAN JW

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2011
320
17
Buffalo,Ny
Well here is the new 333Mhz card and its jumpers pre modding

Image

i didnt take one post but here is my new fan cooling mod, i tapped into the 12v supply from the hard drive... this gives extra cooling ofc.

Image

OMFG IT ACTUALLY STARTED UP AT 400Mhz!!! it runs so much faster its unreal! i dont know if i should push it to 433Mhz or just be happy lol. unfortunatly i still dont understand why it registers the 256mb ram as 128mb ram :-(

Image

comments? :)

Very good Job it's like new again only better:) What Website did you find the flyback on? i may get a new one for mine:) i do recall seeing a post wear someone overclocked a 333MHz to 450MHz and it would not start then they put it back down to 333MHz and it would still not start and he ended up frying his cpu so you may not want to go much higher:)
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
Very good Job it's like new again only better:) What Website did you find the flyback on? i may get a new one for mine:) i do recall seeing a post wear someone overclocked a 333MHz to 450MHz and it would not start then they put it back down to 333MHz and it would still not start and he ended up frying his cpu so you may not want to go much higher:)

i was thinking 433, but tbh I'm happy the way it is... I'm just struggling to install OS X 10.4 now lol. i have the DVD in the computer and it reads but it tells me i am unable to install on this computer :-(

as for the new flyback, their are 2 types in these iMacs so you need to open it up 1st to check. but i got it from ebay from a very helpful guy named Chuck

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290595654328&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123
 

MAC MAN JW

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2011
320
17
Buffalo,Ny
i was thinking 433, but tbh I'm happy the way it is... I'm just struggling to install OS X 10.4 now lol. i have the DVD in the computer and it reads but it tells me i am unable to install on this computer :-(
Use XPostFacto to install 10.4:) why it does not install is OS X 10.4 checks for FireWire ports and if they are not there it won't install. XPostFacto tricks it to instill:) i have never used it but from what i see it is the only way to get 10.4 on the original imac:) Here is the link to it http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7594/xpostfacto

----------

as for the new flyback, their are 2 types in these iMacs so you need to open it up 1st to check. but i got it from ebay from a very helpful guy named Chuck

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290595654328&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

Ok thanks for the info i will look in to it:)
 
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Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
Use XPostFacto to install 10.4:) why it does not install is OS X 10.4 checks for FireWire ports and if they are not there it won't install. XPostFacto tricks it to instill:) i have never used it but from what i see it is the only way to get 10.4 on the original imac:) Here is the link to it http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7594/xpostfacto

----------

Ok thanks for the info i will look in to it:)

ahhh nice one, will have a look at that now! i need 10.4 to get wi-fi lol

will let you know how it goes :)
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
Use XPostFacto to install 10.4:) why it does not install is OS X 10.4 checks for FireWire ports and if they are not there it won't install. XPostFacto tricks it to instill:) i have never used it but from what i see it is the only way to get 10.4 on the original imac:) Here is the link to it http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7594/xpostfacto

----------



Ok thanks for the info i will look in to it:)

well so far so good! its installing :) well its checking installation dvd lol

this is 2 good things, 1 it plays dvds via the new player and 2 its actually installing!!!

thanks a bunch for the info, would have been there all night hahaha
 

MAC MAN JW

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2011
320
17
Buffalo,Ny
well so far so good! its installing :) well its checking installation dvd lol

this is 2 good things, 1 it plays dvds via the new player and 2 its actually installing!!!

thanks a bunch for the info, would have been there all night hahaha

Let us Know how the install goes:) That's cool that it can play dvd's. let the movies begin:D
 

Subish

macrumors member
Dec 2, 2011
53
1
Nice job on keeping it alive!

Man I can only think of how much of a pain that flyback transformer what to take out and solder the new one it. respect!
 

Arkious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
583
0
Newcastle, UK
Let us Know how the install goes:) That's cool that it can play dvd's. let the movies begin:D

When you get Tiger installed you can Disable dashboard and spotlight to save Ram if you do not use them:) Hear is the app for that:D http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/18182/disabletigerfeatures How Did the Tiger install go?

well it started to install then it failed... now i cant boot to OS 8 disks or OS X disks :S im a bit stumped! wonder if its worth pulling the hard drive out, formatting it in a PC then reinstalling?

Nice job on keeping it alive!

Man I can only think of how much of a pain that flyback transformer what to take out and solder the new one it. respect!

:) thanks, the screen looks brand new again as in focused correctly and colours etc!
 
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