A new sunflower arrives in my 'garden'

[CooperBox]

I was looking through my local ads last week, and spotted a G4 iMac. Initially I wasn't too interested (as I have several different models) and quickly moved on to other ads.
Some time later my curiosity took over, and I checked the ad again. It was the later 17" PowerMac6.1 model with USB2 and 1.25GHz. Did I need another? Not really. Then I saw the asking price, and that the seller was just a short drive away. A phone call and 20mins later I was ringing his doorbell.
Some might say it had been 'buchered' as it was running Lubunto 12. He showed me some of the basic features which seemed interesting, and as the deal included a good looking keyboard , mouse and a Panther CD (no separate speakers) I took it.
Next day and a few hours use later, the OS left me rather cold. I could see no way to eject the CD tray from the system, and the keyboard wouldn't activate it either. Also no obvious way to control the screen brightness which was on max. An e-mail to the seller and a reply gave me several ideas to try none of which were positive. I wasn't really concerned as I'd already decided to install Tiger or Leopard, and do a full internal strip, and full clean - as all these 'old-girls' are usually crying out for. Plus I love working on these!
With a replacement optical drive installed, now spotless inside & re-pasted, I fired her up and installed Tiger over Firewire from another iMac.
At the end of this just prior to powering down, I felt that the whole dome was exceedingly hot. With my hand over the exhaust I could feel no air escaping - the fan wasn't working. Bummer! And I swear at that moment I could have broken and fried an egg on the top of the dome within 5 mins, it felt that hot. I quickly ran temperature sensor - which showed 60deg C, then rapidly shut-down.
It took moments to open up again and find the problem which was immediately obvious.
I'd previously gone right in, removing the fan too in order to clean it perfectly, and re-lube the spindle. Having done these tasks several times before, one can become just a little too complacent - on this occasion I'd overlooked refitting the fan connector.

With heat-sink re-cleaned/re-pasted, everything performed perfectly and looked pretty good.

This is such a nice one I'll probably keep it for a bit, as once given tender loving care, I find it hard to part with my newly adopted family members.
I love how these 1.25GHz models perform under Tiger (and Leopard too). It could possibly be the next candidate for an SSD.

 

[Gamer9430]

Lucky you... I desperately want one!

 

[Ace2617]

That is so cool. Love those iMac's

 

[Altemose]

For some reason, I just love seeing these Macs running 10.4. Such a clean Dock and menu bar on a very simple clean design.

 

[bobesch]

Looks gorgeous - and the wallpaper is the icing on the cake!
I really like that kind of art of the Twenties.
(Would you send me a copy of that picture via PN?)
I definitely have to get my iMacG4 off the shelves just to copy that!

 

[MultiFinder17]

iMacs G4s are wonderful computers. I keep mine in my kitchen for music and recipes, and because it's one of the best-looking computers in the house

 

[MysticCow]

I know it's supposed to be like a sunflower, but it's a friggin swivel-arm lamp. Doesn't mean I hate it (quite the opposite!), but I don't get how it's supposed to evoke a sunflower.

 

[CooperBox]

I know it's supposed to be like a sunflower, but it's a friggin swivel-arm lamp. Doesn't mean I hate it (quite the opposite!), but I don't get how it's supposed to evoke a sunflower.

The next time you see a field of sunflowers on a sunny day, take an early morning photo. Again at midday whilst standing in the same spot, and another in the evening. What will you observe? You'll see that the sunflower has rotated approx 180deg through it's horizontal axis, with also a variation in it's vertical axis. The iMac G4 is able to move through a similar path. This is one feature that makes them so unique.
Steve Jobs is reported to have had the idea whilst walking through his wife's garden discussing a new iMac design together with Jonathan Ives, with the comment, "It should look like a sunflower."

[doublepost=1472400454][/doublepost]

iMacs G4s are wonderful computers. I keep mine in my kitchen for music and recipes, and because it's one of the best-looking computers in the house
View attachment 647050

I agree about it being one of the best-looking computers. Ever! And I've just taken delivery of a 20th Anniversary Mac! (more on that in a future post).
Now if I was asked to part with my 2004 17" iMac (PowerMac6.1), 1.25MHz G4 Cube or TAM, based on esthetics alone, imho the iMac would probably win the day.

 

[bobesch]

@CooperBox: thanks for the Wallpaper! Looks great - though I didn't manage to recover my iMac from the shelves - lazy sunny sunday ...
You told about your iMac running hot up to 70°C without the fan running. To be honest, that's meant to be still "my normal" temperature-level on my PBG4 15" when running a few power-consuming tasks. I'm using G4FanControl to put the threshold up to 75° for the CPU to stop the fans from runnung all the time and 70-75° is the upper-level steady-stade without fans.
I wonder, if this is good or bad on the long run ... Maybe continous healthy "reflowing" the board, hehe?
As for using any Tiger-Macs for music I currently have no clue how to max them out except from copying my whole music library to the device to have the comfort of creating playlists, since I couldn't find a way to do this with music streamt via iTunes-sharing ... Do I miss anything?
Radio is fine with iTunes. Collected the whole bunch of my favourite radio-stations to be streamt with iTunes. Better than our old steam-radio.
Currently an iBookG3 Snow is doing that job - also to get rid of the keyboard-smell (it's increasing all the time, when the lid is close). Maybe it smell will change to garlic some day ...

 

[bobesch]

This is an old thread, but my problem is related to this one:
Got a boxed iMac G4 1,25GHz today. It has no Airport. Does the AirportExtreme modules of the later iBooks do fit into this iMac G4? And does it allow connecting to WPA/WPA2?
Thanks for help...

 

[CooperBox]

This is an old thread, but my problem is related to this one:
Got a boxed iMac G4 1,25GHz today. It has no Airport. Does the AirportExtreme modules of the later iBooks do fit into this iMac G4? And does it allow connecting to WPA/WPA2?
Thanks for help...

As you said, quite an old thread......
Well done with your purchase, especially boxed. Enjoy!
The 1,25GHz G4 iMacs do take the Airport Extreme card which is the same as the A1054/A1055 iBooks from Oct 2003 onwards, and these cards support 802.11b/g.
These are great iMacs - together with their difficult to find 20" big brother, but there's something about the 17" model that feels 'just right'. I love 'em!
If it's not been opened in years, you'll find the logic board & internal components crying out for a clean. Don't forget to clean/repaste the cpu and both heat sink locations.
How about a few photos as proof.

 

[Slix]

Nice iMac! I've got the same exact model, and it's really lovely. The wallpaper you have really makes it look right at home too!

 

[bobesch]

As you said, quite an old thread......
Well done with your purchase, especially boxed. Enjoy!
The 1,25GHz G4 iMacs do take the Airport Extreme card which is the same as the A1054/A1055 iBooks from Oct 2003 onwards, and these cards support 802.11b/g.
These are great iMacs - together with their difficult to find 20" big brother, but there's something about the 17" model that feels 'just right'. I love 'em!
If it's not been opened in years, you'll find the logic board & internal components crying out for a clean. Don't forget to clean/repaste the cpu and both heat sink locations.
How about a few photos as proof.

Thanks for your help. Gonna swap the AirportExtreme card (and RAM? if possible) from my 12" 1.2GHz iBookG4 to the iMac when I find the right moment ... And I'm keen to max out the machine with 2GB of RAM and an SSD. The seller told me, that she go the iMac refurbished-2nd-hand from a dealer a few years ago. So it might be somehow cleaned inside, hopefully. To replace the drive I'm gonna have to open it - it's a bit tricky, as far as I remember replacing the optical drive of another G4 two years ago.
So here I can share some pictures of the box - unfortunately the central foam-block, the one that holds the speakers, is missing ... (that picture is a snapshot from an unboxing video at YT)

 

[CooperBox]

@bobesch,
The memory from your 12" 1.2GHz iBookG4 should be ok at the outer (user-installed) location. The innermost location takes 184pin SDRAM PC-2700 memory.

 

[bobesch]

(...) With a replacement optical drive installed, now spotless inside & re-pasted, I fired her up and installed Tiger over Firewire from another iMac.
(...)
I'd previously gone right in, removing the fan too in order to clean it perfectly, and re-lube the spindle.
(...)
With heat-sink re-cleaned/re-pasted, everything performed perfectly and looked pretty good.
(...)
It could possibly be the next candidate for an SSD.

@CooperBox: this weekend I was lucky to get a 20" sunflower.
Drove the long way from the East-Coast to the West-Coast (that sounds great - well, only 40miles) to pick it up personally

As you told before, these machines really need some attention! I can see all the dirt spread over the fan-blades just peeking through the grid at the top of the half-dome.
Three or four years ago I've got my first iMacG4 and I managed to swap the optical drive, but didn't know anything about repasting stuff inside. That iMac was meant to serve as an eye-catching fat-client for RDP-sessions at work, but now I'm happy, trouble with the MS RDP-Client for PPC damned it to rest in the shelve ...
I'm somehow afraid now, that I might mess things up during maintenance. Unfortunately there are only a few repair guides at iFixit.
Especially getting access to the fan seems to me a bit tricky. How did you re-lube the spindle and did you add an SSD yet?

Cheers , bob

 

[CooperBox]

If you take your time, work carefully and methodically, there's no reason why you should mess things up during maintenance.
Some general tips I've learnt along the way.
i) Don't set yourself a time limit. I never say, "I'll finish this within a day." Obviously these iMacs can be disassembled, restored and re-assembled in a few hours. But I always take my time, which helps to ensure that I'll get it right first time, (unfortunately not the case with my 12" G4 Powerbooks), but that's another story........
ii) Take photos during disassembly, especially the cable runs. Makes re-assembly easier, and generally foolproof.
iii) The ifixit link HERE shows removal of the fan. Once the HD/Optical drive assy is removed, fan removal is a doddle. Take a few photos of that as there is a cable running beneath the fan and its mounting which you have to ensure is correctly positioned and not being pinched during re-assembly.
The Ifixit link shows the earlier USB1 version iMac. Yours is the later and nicer USB2 version. I've always found these are in fact a little easier for removal/refitment of the inner base housing, as it doesn't have the 'floating' interface connector.
I believe Ifixit doesn't detail the removal of the heat sink to gain acces to the processor for cleaning and repaste. I will trawl through some of my photos detailing this, and also disassembly/cleaning and relube of the fan spindle.
My 17" iMac shown in the post #1 didn't receive an SSD. I decided to install it to my 20" iMac......and very nice it is too.

 

[bobesch]

@CooperBox: Many thanks! I'm really looking foreward to see some pictures about "disassembly/cleaning and relube of the fan spindle". Did you clean the machine inside with a vacuum cleaner of by compressed air? (I'm considering getting a compressor - also to maintain the server at work, which runs 24/7 and collects a lot of dust too.)
How did you attach the SSD into you 20" iMac? When I swapped the spinning drive of my Tangerine iMacG3 with an SSD it turned out to be somehow tricky: the first IDE-To-SATA-adapter didn't have the correct jumper-architecture and the metal-frame to fix the SSD needed some rough adjustments to fit into the case ... #11

 

[timidpimpin]

One of the most well engineered pieces of computer hardware ever made. I have a 17" that needs a bit of work to get running. One day!

 

[CooperBox]

@CooperBox: Many thanks! I'm really looking foreward to see some pictures about "disassembly/cleaning and relube of the fan spindle". Did you clean the machine inside with a vacuum cleaner of by compressed air? (I'm considering getting a compressor - also to maintain the server at work, which runs 24/7 and collects a lot of dust too.)
How did you attach the SSD into you 20" iMac? When I swapped the spinning drive of my Tangerine iMacG3 with an SSD it turned out to be somehow tricky: the first IDE-To-SATA-adapter didn't have the correct jumper-architecture and the metal-frame to fix the SSD needed some rough adjustments to fit into the case ... #11

The SSD was installed using an IDE to SATA converter. There are several brands and different generic names, and prices vary - not always in relation to the quality. I have tried the Startech brand and also another for less than a quarter of the price. The latter displayed fairly low-class soldering and uninspiring white flux deposits. When cleaned up using isopropyl alcohol it performed well, so imho worth trying.
The SSD was secured to the top of the optical drive using double-sided tape. The tape should be as thin as possible, and the converter located a little further back than shown in my photo to ensure adequate clearance between the fan housing. The converter used had a useful master/slave jumper.

Incidently I never use a vacuum when internal cleaning a pc, as first time I did on an HP desktop tower, I zapped both Ram modules due to the build-up and flow of static electricity. I learnt my lesson, and now always loosen dust/debris deposits with a small paintbrush or toothbrush - no brisk brushing as that can create static - and then I blow out well with an air compressor.

I'm still trying to locate the photos of the fan lube, will post when found.
[doublepost=1542399613][/doublepost]Here are some photos I took during refurb & fan clean/relube of a MacBook.
After the iMac fan removal, remove the ident sticker with a craft knife or razor-blade. From memory I believe the spindle is retained by a circlip which is easily removed with a small screwdriver - a second may be required to prevent the clip from rotating. The following is for general interest, same principle applies to the iMac G4 fans and others similar. Plastic cotton-bud with isopropyl alcohol for cleaning, also alcohol prep pads for cleaning the spindle bore used with a jeweler's screwdriver.
I've found that 3in1 vaseline oil is better than a lighter, thinner oil. Apply with the cropped chisel-shaped end of a cotton bud or a fine needle. Use very sparingly, one drop would be excessive. Less is more! Ensure that oil is kept well away from the rotor lining and windings. Wipe away any signs of excess oil before refit.
When re-assembled, test the fan for satisfactory, silent rotation. Re-install to iMac. Don't forget to reconnect the fan cable, as I initially did - See photo in post #1.

 

[Black Grape]

So very useful in preparing my iMac G4 for a fan and HD swap. Thank you.

 

[CooperBox]

So very useful in preparing my iMac G4 for a fan and HD swap. Thank you.

Pleased it helped. Let us know how you get on - ideally with some photos.

 

[Black Grape]

Pleased it helped. Let us know how you get on - ideally with some photos.

Definitely will. This forum's such an amazing resource, it's the least I can do!