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Help with a rev. A iMac G3

D

dpfenninger

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 23, 2005
208
158
I just picked up a stock Bondi blue rev. A iMac G3 (233MHz, 32 MB RAM, 4GB HD) off Facebook Marketplace. In excellent cosmetic and working order, with the original box as well.

It is currently running Mac OS 8.1 with System Enabler 1.0. I would like to upgrade it to 9.2.2, but it doesn't seem to want to mount any CDs (data or audio) I put in the CD-ROM drive...gives me a "This disk is unreadable by this Computer. Do you want to initialize the disk?" prompt, with "ProDOS 0k" as the only option. And when I try to plug in a USB card reader or any other USB device, I get a "The software needed to use the device 'USB Storage' cannot be found. Please refer to the device documentation to install the necessary software." prompt. I have all extensions and control panels turned on, and I don't see anything system folder-wise that would prevent things from being recognized.

Soooo...how the hell can I upgrade the software on this thing? :/
 
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The CD drive (or its laser) may be dirty or dead. Can you boot from an OS install CD?

Mac OS 8.1 doesn't recognise USB storage devices.
 
Amethyst1 said:
The CD drive (or its laser) may be dirty or dead. Can you boot from an OS install CD?

Mac OS 8.1 doesn't recognise USB storage devices.
Click to expand...

Nope, it won't recognize any discs (official retail or burned ones). I tried plugging in a USB DVD drive and it gave me an 'unrecognized' prompt for that too. Not sure how I'm going to be able to change any files on this thing, other than surgery to get the hard drive out.

Might try an ethernet cable next, but I'm not hopeful that would work either.
 
What about putting in a disc and rebooting with "C" held down right after the chime? Still no dice?

Ethernet is probably your safest bet in the absense of a working internal CD drive / FireWire / USB mass storage support.
 
I have an ethernet cable that I connected between the iMac and a PMG4 I have as well, but I'm not sure what to do settings-wise on both ends to get them to see each other.

In the meantime, since I'm pretty sure the CD drive on the iMac is simply shot, I went on eBay and ordered a replacement CD-ROM drive. Hopefully that will allow me to just install 9.2.2 and get USB storage recognized. From there, I should be golden.
 
Amethyst1 said:
What about putting in a disc and rebooting with "C" held down right after the chime? Still no dice?

Ethernet is probably your safest bet in the absense of a working internal CD drive / FireWire / USB mass storage support.
Click to expand...
Tried holding down C at boot...no dice. It looks like the drive laser is either really dirty or dead (despite the seller telling me that it worked.).
 
Welp, I just dropped about 20 f-bombs... got my replacement drive from eBay, installed it relatively easily, and now...the system won't power on. At first I thought it was because I removed the PRAM battery while I had the logic board assembly out. But nope, even after putting back the old battery, the system just won't power on now. I've reseated all of the cables that I had detached, but nada.

I had a perfectly working rev. A iMac G3, and now it's a doorstop. No fan, no drive spin-up, no screen, zilch. All because I swapped out the optical drive.

Any ideas?
 
dpfenninger said:
UPDATE: opened it back up, reset the CUDA switch, and voila...powers back on.

AND the new optical drive works, too. :) So now onto installing 9.2.2.

I officially retract my copious f-bombs. :)
Click to expand...
As soon as I read your prior post I said “CUDA button!”. Glad you got it figured out.
FYI, if you have no PRAM battery in it, you may need to press that button everytime the machine is unplugged. Put me through quite a scare when I pulled my Bondi off the shelf to play with it and it wouldn’t power on.

If you plan on using it somewhat regularly you should get a new PRAM battery. Out of every mac, those things and B&Ws are weirdly particular about them and often do unexplained things without them, whereas every other Mac I have just runs without one.
 
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Project Alice said:
As soon as I read your prior post I said “CUDA button!”. Glad you got it figured out.
FYI, if you have no PRAM battery in it, you may need to press that button everytime the machine is unplugged. Put me through quite a scare when I pulled my Bondi off the shelf to play with it and it wouldn’t power on.

If you plan on using it somewhat regularly you should get a new PRAM battery. Out of every mac, those things and B&Ws are weirdly particular about them and often do unexplained things without them, whereas every other Mac I have just runs without one.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thanks for the advice...I put the old one back in, as it wasn't bulging or leaking and I had heard after researching the CUDA reset that these older G3s are often flaky if you leave it out. I should've taken a photo of the existing battery when I had the logic board out to get the part #, and I don't want to open it back up now, so do you happen to know exactly what kind of battery I need?

I also have two memory DIMMs coming (a 128MB and a 256MB) to max out the RAM, as well as an SSD to replace the VERY LOUD internal HDD, so I'll plan on putting a new battery in when I do those upgrades.

The system was literally BASE rev. A. The original owner hadn't upgraded any of the software past the stock OS and included apps...even the firmware was the original, as when I went to install 9.2 it gave me a message saying I needed to upgrade the firmware. Thank god it was still a pretty easy find on the internet.

System is now fully running 9.2.2. Once I get my RAM and SSD, I'll be installing Panther on top. Might try to shoehorn Tiger onto it too.

My one minor beef is that the faceplate on my replacement optical drive is slightly yellowed compared to the original (which, like the rest of the iMac front, is pristine white still), so I wish I could pop off the faceplate from the old, non-working drive...but it seems to be fused/glued onto the drive and not realistically swappable without probably damaging the faceplate and/or drive. It's not terrible, really, but just looks slightly off considering how clean the rest of the system is.

But for a $100 Facebook Marketplace find, I can't really complain, as I was looking to add the Bondi blue iMac to my collection...the computer that bailed out Apple. :)
 
Nermal said:
I believe it's an ER14250; at least that's what mine (Rev C?) takes.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's just a 3.6v half AA battery. You can get them at most battery\electrical suppliers. I have a batteries+ where I live and get them there. But they're also available online. Pretty much every desktop PPC Mac takes that battery.
 
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dpfenninger said:
System is now fully running 9.2.2. Once I get my RAM and SSD, I'll be installing Panther on top. Might try to shoehorn Tiger onto it too.
Click to expand...
I would. Mine runs Tiger and I find it a lot faster than Panther. Panther while a great OS, is sorta pointless while Tiger exists.
Since you're getting an SSD anyways, stick it in a supported Mac and install Tiger before installing it into the iMac. Probably the fastest way unless you don't have one available. Just one thing to note though, if the computer you use to install Tiger on the drive does not natively support OS 9 it will not include the option to install the OS 9 drivers. So best to use a Mac that has OS 9 support to do the Tiger "shoe horning".
 
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Ok, I've got the SSD in the iMac to replace the original HDD, and it's partitioned for OS 9, Panther, Tiger, and a spare partition. Have all three OSes installed (put the drive in my PMG4 first and installed there before putting the drive in the iMac) but haven't tried booting into Panther or Tiger yet as I'm still waiting on my RAM upgrades to arrive, and with only the base 32 MB right now, I'm guessing I'd get kernel panics.

The SSD has obviously made a huge positive difference in the noise coming from the system...noticeably quieter now...but the fan inside still spits out quite a bit of noise. I'd love to get this thing as quiet as possible, but I haven't been able to find any really clear guidance online as to if it's possible or worth the hassle to try to replace the main cooling fan inside. Anyone have any suggestions for this? Easy? Hard? Would hose the system if I tried it? Links to a good tutorial?
 
dpfenninger said:
Ok, I've got the SSD in the iMac to replace the original HDD, and it's partitioned for OS 9, Panther, Tiger, and a spare partition. Have all three OSes installed (put the drive in my PMG4 first and installed there before putting the drive in the iMac) but haven't tried booting into Panther or Tiger yet as I'm still waiting on my RAM upgrades to arrive, and with only the base 32 MB right now, I'm guessing I'd get kernel panics.

The SSD has obviously made a huge positive difference in the noise coming from the system...noticeably quieter now...but the fan inside still spits out quite a bit of noise. I'd love to get this thing as quiet as possible, but I haven't been able to find any really clear guidance online as to if it's possible or worth the hassle to try to replace the main cooling fan inside. Anyone have any suggestions for this? Easy? Hard? Would hose the system if I tried it? Links to a good tutorial?
Click to expand...
Honestly 32MB isn’t even really enough for OS 9. At least not to while running very many apps.

As for the fan... If you’re looking for a quiet iMac, go find a slot loader. They’re faster, have better graphics and are a lot easier to find. They’re also passively cooled. I’m not sure what your living situation is and if noise is a problem, but personally I find the tray loading iMac quieter than most computers that have fans.
I’ve never heard of anyone removing the fan from the original iMac, but I’ve never done research on it either.
 
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I'd be weary of buying a slot-loader online unless you can pick it up or get it insured. They're structurally weaker than the trayloaders, and after 20 years the plastic is likely to be brittle. Due to this they can be damaged in shipping quite easily, it's definitely a gamble. It can vary from small chunks of the inner case breaking off and sitting in the bottom of the computer to the whole frame breaking apart. Just a word of caution.

My slot loader is nearly silent other than the HDD obviously.
 
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Not really looking to just add another iMac to the collection, at least not right now...my goal was to get the original Bondi blue iMac and get it maxed out and running to its full potential. I can live with the fan if it's not something that's commonly or easily done. Now the next question would be...is the VRAM upgrade out there anywhere? Is it a standard memory module or is it an Apple proprietary DIMM?
 
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