G3 iMac Hard Crashing......

[BaghdadBob]

I have a 400 Mhz Blue G3 iMac, built in CDROM, running Jaguar. This thing started flat-out hard crashing a few minutes into sessions. I have a feeling it may be overheating or soemthing due to the nature of this behavior.

What it did the first time, I was on the internet, eveything is going fine, then I discover that nothing is happening and the cursor is not moving. I can't do anything with the power switch in the front, and when I hit the restart button on the side, instead of going "Binnng!" it goes "THBBBBBBBT" and does pretty much nothing. So I leave it off for a bit, then try turning it back on again. It works, but only for a few minutes, then it crashes hard again.

Every time I let it sit, it will let me use it for a bit. This time around, I had it off for days, then I booted up and started installing a couple of security updates. It worked through two of those, but when it restarted the second time, it hard crashed again, as I thought it might.

This sound familiar to anyone?

 

[California]

Yeah, it sounds to my not terribly experienced ears that your hard drive has just crashed.

Buy a new Hitachi Deskstar 80 gig 7200rpm drive for your baby and either have it installed or do it yourself. Maybe drop some more ram in there too.

I have been AMAZED at all the big meetings I have been having lately in the film business -- EVERY office I HAVE BEEN TO HAS THESE G3 iMacs in use as their networked computers. They are workhorses. But you shoulda replaced this drive by now. Isn't the machine five years old? And don't pay more than fifty-sixty bucks for the new drive -- eBay or Craigslist.

Don't know what to tell you as to how to retrieve contents of what sounds like a dead drive.

 

[BaghdadBob]

Actually, the funny thing is it works absolutely perfectly right up until the point that it crashes. It goes on the internet, it accesses files, launches applications...I do agree it probably has a hard disk problem though, this is not the first of issues to start showing up. First things like, my FTP was not working from the Finder. Then...it would forget preferences...then it forgot my mail other than .mac which I haven't used since the trial period was up. So, new hard disk is probably a good idea. I think I already have a gig of RAM in there though

Anyone know a good source on how to install HDs in these things? It really is a fine performing machine, doesn't suit my gaming needs but it truly is a piece of work, and if I can get it to stop crashing all I would need is a bigger hard disk and it would definitely be around for years -- who needs to get rid of a perfectly utilitarian computer like this? Maybe this will be two birds with one stone, I sure hope so.

[Edit] When telling my PC friends about this issue I make sure to tell them this is the second or third hardware failure I've had in fifteen years. People just don't understand what's so good about the platform until you tell them things like that!

 

[California]

Methinks your hd is dying. Back up stuff if you can and search accelerate your mac site or other mac sites for a diagram/photo of how to take G3 iMacs apart. Replacing a five year old hard drive is understandable -- Mac does not make the hard drives btw!

 

[cluthz]

Here are two links about upgrading your HD in the iMac.
(note, there is a bit difference about the tray-loading and slot-loading iMacs)

slotloading imac

trayloading imac