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eMac G4: Whats your two cents?

WalnutSpice

WalnutSpice

Suspended
Original poster
Jun 21, 2015
456
92
Canton, Oh
So I have a 1.25GHz iMac G4. The case is scratched up, it needs two new caps (as far as I know), OS X freezes doing anything no matter what version, Ubuntu kinda works but will eventually freeze as well, the hard drive is loud (shows symptoms of dying (clicking etc), and it has a dead PRAM battery.
If you're catching what I'm saying, this thing is a piece of work. And I'm not sure if it's worth it.
What I was thinking about doing is parting it. The speakers are incredible, I could take them out and build a new case for them and connect them to my Techwood receiver (hopefully they're not 4ohm, my receiver doesn't play well with those), I can use the RAM to amp my P4 pc's RAM and I could save the case for maybe a future hackintosh project (but I'm really not a hackintosh person). I'm also thinking about converting it to just a CRT display.
And I know I don't have the skills to repair this on my own. Blown caps are way out my league. I don't want to scrap it though is the thing. It just needs so much work and I'm not able to ship things, especially this heavy, so I can't put it on eBay.
If I do ever get around to fixing this it'd probably be awhile down the road when this thing'd be completely useless. I'm already using my PowerBook G4 as much as I can while I still can.
So what do I do? Let it live as a crippled and sick machine? Or part it out so it can live on else where?

*****Huge mistake, I'm talking about an eMac, not an iMac*****
 
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Don't know why the reason is you're not able to ship things,
but aren't the iMac G4 gooseneck & LCD valuable replacement parts for the iMac G4 enthusiast/collector?

Well, actually I don't know how difficult it is to take the iMac G4 apart,
but maybe keep those two parts in your own parts closet for a future iMac G4 transplant?
 
@WalnutSpice it seems like you're talking about an iMac G3 here, not a G4. iMac G4s are a completely different design and certainly wouldn't fit a CRT display inside.
 
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Maybe this would be a good system to learn capacitor replacement. It's not difficult to do.
 
QSDP-User said:
Don't know why the reason is you're not able to ship things,
but aren't the iMac G4 gooseneck & LCD valuable replacement parts for the iMac G4 enthusiast/collector?

Well, actually I don't know how difficult it is to take the iMac G4 apart,
but maybe keep those two parts in your own parts closet for a future iMac G4 transplant?
Click to expand...
Its actually an eMac G4. I don't know why I put iMac.
 
Well, here is my 2 cents.

Im only 20, and have done caps before. Its actually not that hard a job. Just requires some patience and carefulness. Unsoldering the bad ones is as easy as turning the board upside down and simply putting the iron on the points, while wiggling the cap around and it should come out. Then get a sucker (i think thats what its called..) Get the old solder out, place the cap in place while heating the board up in that spot a bit to get it in, then add new fresh solder around the points ensuring they meet up with the board.

Is it worth it? Not sure. last summer (summer 2014) i bought the last model emac. Its the 1.42Ghz model that came stock with its 256MB ram, 80GB drive Combo, and airport card. I paid $40 which i think is still too much. Ive soldered a CMOS battery holder like from a PC to some leads then to where the PRAM battery is, so the damn sucker now keeps time. Ive also replaced the HDD as that failed, the combo drive as it wouldnt open anymore. and upped the ram to a Gig. WIth the new drive it seems sluggish and its loud. I Want to sell it honestly as ive cleaned the fans out and its perfect aside from a noisy drive when it loads. I might replace it, but right now im short on time.

If you want to take the risk and learn something, try recapping it and replacing the hard drive. Having the CRT out there is a little nervracking but you remove the topc fan and then the board and as long as you dont touch the CRT side you'll be fine.

Many on here, inlcuding Lightbulbfan love the Emac for its beautiful, Crisp, Panasonic CRT, the amazing sound harmon Kardon speakers and its odd bigger then the Imac G3 egg shapped case. PErsonally i like it, but id rather my DP 1Ghz QS up and going. Choice is yours either way, keep us updated.
 
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comda said:
Well, here is my 2 cents.

Im only 20, and have done caps before. Its actually not that hard a job. Just requires some patience and carefulness. Unsoldering the bad ones is as easy as turning the board upside down and simply putting the iron on the points, while wiggling the cap around and it should come out. Then get a sucker (i think thats what its called..) Get the old solder out, place the cap in place while heating the board up in that spot a bit to get it in, then add new fresh solder around the points ensuring they meet up with the board.

Is it worth it? Not sure. last summer (summer 2014) i bought the last model emac. Its the 1.42Ghz model that came stock with its 256MB ram, 80GB drive Combo, and airport card. I paid $40 which i think is still too much. Ive soldered a CMOS battery holder like from a PC to some leads then to where the PRAM battery is, so the damn sucker now keeps time. Ive also replaced the HDD as that failed, the combo drive as it wouldnt open anymore. and upped the ram to a Gig. WIth the new drive it seems sluggish and its loud. I Want to sell it honestly as ive cleaned the fans out and its perfect aside from a noisy drive when it loads. I might replace it, but right now im short on time.

If you want to take the risk and learn something, try recapping it and replacing the hard drive. Having the CRT out there is a little nervracking but you remove the topc fan and then the board and as long as you dont touch the CRT side you'll be fine.

Many on here, inlcuding Lightbulbfan love the Emac for its beautiful, Crisp, Panasonic CRT, the amazing sound harmon Kardon speakers and its odd bigger then the Imac G3 egg shapped case. PErsonally i like it, but id rather my DP 1Ghz QS up and going. Choice is yours either way, keep us updated.
Click to expand...

Any tutorials on the cap replacement....? Probably with some good stills...
 
redhatcode29 said:
Any tutorials on the cap replacement....? Probably with some good stills...
Click to expand...
I would look up a tutorial on replacing iMac G5 caps, so you can get familiar with the process. You would have to take the logic board out of the eMac, and buy the correct caps. Just follow the same basic process from the G5s process, and apply it to yours
 
MacCubed said:
I would look up a tutorial on replacing iMac G5 caps, so you can get familiar with the process. You would have to take the logic board out of the eMac, and buy the correct caps. Just follow the same basic process from the G5s process, and apply it to yours
Click to expand...

tutorial on G5, ok noted.
 
I've got an iMac G3 Graphite for 50$ and I was happy to max it out (soft&hardware) and it's fun to fire it up from time to time...
Then there was another iMac G3 that came from an old friend of mine as a present (nobody in his PR-agency did want it)
I, I mean VLC's equalizer, completely blew the speakers and there was my nice's favorite DVD trapped in the optical-drive.
Opening the iMac and starting to try any repair had been somehow a challenge... (it ended up with an empty case to be used in an uncertain future as a lampshape or home-bar or anything else.)
Finally the high-voltage-hazard of the CRT made me stop any further steps to revive that iMac and I decided to keep off any CRT-device at all.
Those CRT-things, especially the eMac or the CRT-cinema-display do really look pretty strange and pittoresk but they are also really bulky and I would only use them up to their EOL without fiddling around with the CRT.
"Life is to short for the wrong drinks..."
 
bobesch said:
I've got an iMac G3 Graphite for 50$ and I was happy to max it out (soft&hardware) and it's fun to fire it up from time to time...
Then there was another iMac G3 that came from an old friend of mine as a present (nobody in his PR-agency did want it)
I, I mean VLC's equalizer, completely blew the speakers and there was my nice's favorite DVD trapped in the optical-drive.
Opening the iMac and starting to try any repair had been somehow a challenge... (it ended up with an empty case to be used in an uncertain future as a lampshape or home-bar or anything else.)
Finally the high-voltage-hazard of the CRT made me stop any further steps to revive that iMac and I decided to keep off any CRT-device at all.
Those CRT-things, especially the eMac or the CRT-cinema-display do really look pretty strange and pittoresk but they are also really bulky and I would only use them up to their EOL without fiddling around with the CRT.
"Life is to short for the wrong drinks..."
Click to expand...

The imac G3 does an excellent job of separating the computer from the CRT. If you know what youre doing, even better but if you dont simply stay on the side that the motherboard is on. Ive taken apart both my Tangerine and my INdigo imacs for HDD replacements and RAM upgrades. The Emac i tore the motherboard completely out, to get the to HDD, and since i put a HORRIBLE one in there im going to have to do it again.
 
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