iMac G3 Help - Kernel Panic on Boot

BeginninVintage · Jan 19, 2010

I received this iMac G3 4ish years ago from a preschool teacher who I helped out during my afterschool care. It had panther on it (I THINK!), I loved it. It worked just fine, albeit the spring in the spacebar was broken. I would play chess, browse the internet, and pretty much enjoy my time on it. That was when I was 10, when I turned 11 I finished building my first windows computer and my focus was shifted to that. Plus, the iMac got moved into a different room where there was no internet connection so it got ignored. On my 12th birthday I got a 15 inch macbook pro with 3 gigs of ram, a 250 gb hard drive, and a beautiful matte display (I later realized I wished I would have gone with the glossy...). Focus on the iMac was gone and into the closet it went.

A year or so later I took it out again and, upon power up, I got a kernel panic. Messed around a little but gave up and shoved it back into the closet.

So here I sit, in my new room, where I have actual space, and I want this iMac again. It will mostly just be an internet machine, but I want it to work.

I do not remember any specs except for I am PRETTY SURE it had 10.3.9 installed. I do not have the disks, nor do I have anything but the powercord, keyboard, and a seperate USB mouse I bought for it when it was in her classroom (If I can get it to work then I am probably gonna get one of the original mice).

I power it up and I get 3 and 11/12ths of a spin of the ticker. I have tried a PR zap (cmd opt p r) for 3 chimes with no change. Now, I can't seem to get the PR zap to work anymore. After it freezes, I can only shut it down by pulling the plug.

Any help?

MacHamster68 · Jan 20, 2010

BeginninVintage said:
I received this iMac G3 4ish years ago from a preschool teacher who I helped out during my afterschool care. It had panther on it (I THINK!), I loved it. It worked just fine, albeit the spring in the spacebar was broken. I would play chess, browse the internet, and pretty much enjoy my time on it. That was when I was 10, when I turned 11 I finished building my first windows computer and my focus was shifted to that. Plus, the iMac got moved into a different room where there was no internet connection so it got ignored. On my 12th birthday I got a 15 inch macbook pro with 3 gigs of ram, a 250 gb hard drive, and a beautiful matte display (I later realized I wished I would have gone with the glossy...). Focus on the iMac was gone and into the closet it went.

A year or so later I took it out again and, upon power up, I got a kernel panic. Messed around a little but gave up and shoved it back into the closet.

So here I sit, in my new room, where I have actual space, and I want this iMac again. It will mostly just be an internet machine, but I want it to work.

I do not remember any specs except for I am PRETTY SURE it had 10.3.9 installed. I do not have the disks, nor do I have anything but the powercord, keyboard, and a seperate USB mouse I bought for it when it was in her classroom (If I can get it to work then I am probably gonna get one of the original mice).

I power it up and I get 3 and 11/12ths of a spin of the ticker. I have tried a PR zap (cmd opt p r) for 3 chimes with no change. Now, I can't seem to get the PR zap to work anymore. After it freezes, I can only shut it down by pulling the plug.

Any help?

shutiing down by pulling the plug is cruel , i dont think yours has kernel panics as you would seea message asking you for a restart in the earlier osx`s (i could be wrong ), but your chimes and the spinning wheel and freezing sounds like a ram problem to me , so try to take out one ram module at time and see if it then starts up , maybe slow with less ram (again i could be wrong ) the cause could also be a broken harddrive , neither harddrive or ram are expensive to replace
but you should rely think about getting a panther disc , or tiger disc (retail) they are also not breaking the bank

BeginninVintage · Jan 20, 2010

Shutting down by plug-pulling is the ONLY option short of a golf club (ooh, that reminds me, I need to start practicing again...).

It does have kernel panics, I have seen far too many of them in my Mac career (I have had infinite problems with my MBP, good thing they all got fixed). I get the whole "Your computer must be restarted. Please hold down the power button or press the reset button now" (or something like that) message when I turn it on.

I was afraid it would be a ram problem... I have never opened one of these before, could anyone point me in the direction of a GOOD guide with PICTURES? I guess it needs a ram and hd upgrade anyways. Also, a good cleaning could be in order. How much RAM can I put in these? HD space?

Does anyone have any solutions that do not require the opening of the case yet? I want to try and do this without any major surgery yet...

BeginninVintage · Jan 20, 2010

Okay well, a few youtube videos later, I got the main part of the back off. Keep in mind that this is a tray loading one. It has a small handle with a screw accessible through it. After unscrewing it you pull out and up on the handle and the back comes off. From here, I am lost. I took a bunch of pictures and will post soon (sometime tonight) to see if any help can be achieved.

Is there any way for me to find out the specs without having it function?

BeginninVintage · Jan 20, 2010

This is the youtube video that helped me, but other than this I am in unknown territory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtMn1iP22FY&NR=1

What ram/hard drive types do I need for this. I want max ram and much more hard drive space...

BeginninVintage · Jan 20, 2010

Even though I am not getting responses like I would like to, I am going to continue to document it's journey and ask questions.

So I got it mostly disassembled, up to the point in that video at least, and was poking around. Definitely the 333 mhz (says so on one of the pieces). Alas, NO MORE CANNED AIR!

We went to CVS to pick some up and I brought a $10 bill, dang. Too bad its $9.99 a can! With 8.125% sales tax I needed roughly 80 cents more. Went to walmart and found it! Giant cans for $5. Went to the register and tried to buy it "Do you have an I.D.?" dangit. I'm not 18. My mom was in the car waiting, but she was wearing slippers and REFUSES to go into walmart at night even wearing normal shoes. *sigh* No air, but I will get some tomorrow.

BeginninVintage · Jan 20, 2010

Picture Time!

The Initial Pictures

All Innocent like

It show's it's true colors

Close up of kernel panic

Close up of front

Getting ready

800 thread count should prevent scratches

It's Underside

Ports

Ninja screw that I have NEVER noticed before today

Feisty lil' booger

Begin the lifting process

Separation initiated

Back off

Exposed interior

Super dusty

BeginninVintage · Jan 20, 2010

Smarties use tape

Insides removed!

Remaining monitor

What's this?

MMM... 1998

Presumably ram?

BeginninVintage · Jan 20, 2010

Would this RAM work?
http://www.memoryupgrade.pro/256mb-...206ll-a-pc66-sdram-66mhz-so-dimm-upgrade.html

The website says that I should have 2 slots, but I only seem to have 1. If I had 2 slots I would probably get 2 256 cards to bump it up to 512 (which is much higher than the current 128 I think I remember it having).

btbrossard · Jan 20, 2010

You do know that for less than $50 (that may be on the high side, I've seen old iMacs for free if you come get them and usually in the $20 range) you could buy a whole new (to you, but very old) iMac and chuck the trouble maker into the trash.

Buying new ram and taking it apart are probably way more effort than it's worth.

Craigslist can be your friend for very cheep old hardware.

As a bonus, you can buy an iMac that already has the restore discs with it so you can more easily troubleshoot and repair problems...

Darth.Titan · Jan 20, 2010

As far as the RAM you linked, I'm not 100% sure. When I search that iMac model on Crucial.com I get this, which is PC133 as opposed to the PC66 stick you linked to.

As for your second RAM slot, There are two expansion slots for RAM DIMM modules on the microprocessor board. One slot is on the top side of the processor card (as in your pic) and one slot is on the underside of the processor card.

I have a service manual PDF for that iMac, but it's too big (9.5 MB) to attach in its entirety. I extracted the chapter on upgrading RAM and compressed it to be small enough to upload here. Maybe that will help.

btbrossard said:
You do know that for less than $50 (that may be on the high side, I've seen old iMacs for free if you come get them and usually in the $20 range) you could buy a whole new (to you, but very old) iMac and chuck the trouble maker into the trash.

Buying new ram and taking it apart are probably way more effort than it's worth.

Craigslist can be your friend for very cheep old hardware.

As a bonus, you can buy an iMac that already has the restore discs with it so you can more easily troubleshoot and repair problems...

What you say is true, but that's not nearly as much fun!

Not to mention the sentimental value that may be involved with this particular iMac.

btbrossard · Jan 21, 2010

Darth.Titan said:
What you say is true, but that's not nearly as much fun! Not to mention the sentimental value that may be involved with this particular iMac.

It also provides a sense of accomplishment when the repair works out. On the flip side, it also could, in worse case scenario, provide a good item to beat the crap out of when the repair goes belly up...

If your looking for Ram for your iMac, you could also buy a used iMac and repurpose the Ram from that machine into yours. May be cheeper than buying new Ram if you can get a deal on a used iMac.

Never too soon to start a collection of used computer parts. I have a basement full of computer junk that I will probably never use again, but I'm saving for the "just in case".

mstrze · Jan 21, 2010

BeginninVintage said:
Would this RAM work?
http://www.memoryupgrade.pro/256mb-...206ll-a-pc66-sdram-66mhz-so-dimm-upgrade.html

The website says that I should have 2 slots, but I only seem to have 1. If I had 2 slots I would probably get 2 256 cards to bump it up to 512 (which is much higher than the current 128 I think I remember it having).

The PDF above says the second slot is on the underside of the processor card...although I think Darth covered that already.

WOW...I am so happy my circa 2000 iMac Sage had 'exposed' memory on the underside of the computer. Just remove a 'door' and upgrade away!

mstrze · Jan 21, 2010

btbrossard said:
\Never too soon to start a collection of used computer parts. I have a basement full of computer junk that I will probably never use again, but I'm saving for the "just in case".

Never too soon to become a hoarder!

How's that 8" floppy drive?

btbrossard · Jan 21, 2010

mstrze said:
Never too soon to become a hoarder! How's that 8" floppy drive?

It's working better than the old Jazz drives and disks I've inherited from work...

BeginninVintage · Jan 21, 2010

mstrze said:
The PDF above says the second slot is on the underside of the processor card...although I think Darth covered that already.

WOW...I am so happy my circa 2000 iMac Sage had 'exposed' memory on the underside of the computer. Just remove a 'door' and upgrade away!

I kinda wish I had one of those right now

But that's okay

what's upgrading a computer WITHOUT the risk of losing screws, stripping holes, or dropping vital parts?

btbrossard said:
It also provides a sense of accomplishment when the repair works out. On the flip side, it also could, in worse case scenario, provide a good item to beat the crap out of when the repair goes belly up...

If your looking for Ram for your iMac, you could also buy a used iMac and repurpose the Ram from that machine into yours. May be cheeper than buying new Ram if you can get a deal on a used iMac.

Never too soon to start a collection of used computer parts. I have a basement full of computer junk that I will probably never use again, but I'm saving for the "just in case".

I would repurpose other ram, but the thing is, I wan't more than I am probably going to find in any g3 for cheap. 512 is where it's at

mstrze said:
Never too soon to become a hoarder! How's that 8" floppy drive?

Oh trust me, before I get tired of these things I will have plenty of spare parts, Fo sho.

BeginninVintage · Jan 21, 2010

btbrossard said:
You do know that for less than $50 (that may be on the high side, I've seen old iMacs for free if you come get them and usually in the $20 range) you could buy a whole new (to you, but very old) iMac and chuck the trouble maker into the trash.

Buying new ram and taking it apart are probably way more effort than it's worth.

Craigslist can be your friend for very cheep old hardware.

As a bonus, you can buy an iMac that already has the restore discs with it so you can more easily troubleshoot and repair problems...

I actually will be browsing craigslist very soon, but for another one to fix. Me thinks having a few more colors wouldn't hurt, and I could always sell to friends (a few are lined up to purchase this one, which WON'T be happening). Plus, as inexpensive as these are with the potential they have it is totally worth upgrading. I mean, a sexy (vintage/retro sexy), inexpensive, 3 cord, computer with 512 mb of ram and a 80 gig hard drive, what's not to love?

Darth.Titan said:
As far as the RAM you linked, I'm not 100% sure. When I search that iMac model on Crucial.com I get this, which is PC133 as opposed to the PC66 stick you linked to.

As for your second RAM slot, There are two expansion slots for RAM DIMM modules on the microprocessor board. One slot is on the top side of the processor card (as in your pic) and one slot is on the underside of the processor card.

I have a service manual PDF for that iMac, but it's too big (9.5 MB) to attach in its entirety. I extracted the chapter on upgrading RAM and compressed it to be small enough to upload here. Maybe that will help.

What you say is true, but that's not nearly as much fun! Not to mention the sentimental value that maybe be involved with this particular iMac.

Thanks so much, I am going to look at that in a second. If I PM'ed you my email would you be willing to shoot me a copy of that manual, it would be invaluable

MacHamster68 · Jan 21, 2010

hello yes that is a kernel panic sorry but your description of spinning ticker
did not point to a kernel panic , but the picture clearly does

and here some manuals at the end of list you find the g3 imacs
(watch dates as some are for slot loader)
http://support.apple.com/manuals/#imac

iMac G3 Help - Kernel Panic on Boot

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