iMac G3 'Bondi-Blue' Project

[Arkious]

Hello All

I was tidying up yesterday and stumbled across my old original iMac G3 'Boni-Blue' upon turning it on, the screen still works! Knowing that the computer still works i have decided that its going to become my new project. I want the original 233mhz cpu and the rest of its internals kept but the CRT is going to be replaced with a LCD as its clicking to its death which is unfortunate. The mouse is in excellent condition but the keyboard need lots of TLC and a good clean! But Im going to try and do somthing, which i may/ may not regret lol...

I am going to retrofit an optical mouse internals into the 'hockey puck' mouse. I am going to use a mini laptop mouse's internals and neatly fit them inside (a little modification work is required). The mouse is on order!

1st thing that is required though is a new bios battery which i have ordered as it wont boot due to incorrect time setting 13 years aint bad for a battery once thats is fitted i will attempt to overclock and fit a small GPU/ North Bridge cooler with AS5 (LOL OVERKILL!).

I have some pictures but i will upload them later once the keyboard is all sorted. all pics will be taken with the 3Gs.

Bit of a fankintosh (haha love all these names you guys use) but honestly, without an LCD replacement the computer is as good as dead. comments?

 

[Arkious]

forgot to add, i have already got 512mb ram to upgrade from 32mb and a 20gb to replace the 4gb. just need some vram to upgrade from 2mb to the whole of 6mb! usb gpu required imo haha

these imacs dont have usb 2.0 though do they?

whats the highest mac osx they can run?

 

[stroked]

forgot to add, i have already got 512mb ram to upgrade from 32mb and a 20gb to replace the 4gb. just need some vram to upgrade from 2mb to the whole of 6mb! usb gpu required imo haha

these imacs dont have usb 2.0 though do they?

whats the highest mac osx they can run?

Tiger is the last OS that will work on a G3, although it will be slow. Try to get a copy of Panther.

 

[Arkious]

ahh okay tiger it is thanks very much.

anyone know if i can run a USB graphics card with the imac to improve from the ATI Rage II 2MB?

Last night i Had the keyboard in complete pieces (Yes complete i even had the flexi board apart), so that i could clean it up and see what keys are actually broken and what ones are just full of sticky dirt and other crud. Turns out the only 2 that were broken were the left and right arrow buttons (i must have been more of a game whore than i thought when i was a kid ), so i swapped the button from under pointless help key and the one beside it (never used) for the left and right buttons, but i fitted 2 small springs to the help key and the one beside it to keep the key up. turns out it allows it to work . I rebuilt the keyboard and upon testing it, the only bit that didnt work unfortunatly was the caps lock led, however i dont know if it worked before so no great shakes as the key works.

So now the keyboard looks brand new and works very well - an led, i began work on the iMac! I have removed the computer compartment and all the surrounding plastics from the screen and the rest of the body so i am left with the CRT metal on show. However this is where i stopped as this is the dangerous part. I decided that i will take it to a TV repair engineer so that he can discharge it for me and i can work on it. if he can fix it for cheap then i might be tempted... or to stick with the LCD? I need access behind the CRT so i can get to the main power supply in order to start the iMac with an external screen, so the screen must be discharged before i go any further.

 

[Arkious]

I really need to upload photos :-/

...

Anyways last night i managed to brave the 'discharging' of the CRT... would you believe it after a year it was completely dead before i used my makeshift chickenstick haha! Anyways i have stripped out all of the CRT and its mechanics leaving the main power supply in place, so i thought now would be a good idea to ensure that it starts... and it did, well at least it turned on i dont know if it started. It didnt sound as if it were loading but i hear that if it dont detect a screen it wont boot? There was no orange/ green LED it was just dead but the hard drives started spinning and the CPU & GPU started to produce heat.

Got my eyes on a LCD and a nice 92mm blue LED fan or an arctic cooling fan (cant make up my mind) and then fit blue LEDs around lol.

Struggling to find a DA-15 (old apple video connector) to VGA adaptor lol

 

[LucyP]

Bondi Blue 1st iMac G3

Do these have any value at all? I too came across my original iMac, but I haven't fired it up for a long, long, time. Is it really worth my hoarding it at all? I don't have the box, but do have the mouse, keyboard, power leads etc.

 

[Nameci]

Monetary value? they still have. But don't expect a hundred bucks for it. If you like to play around a bit and sort of a tinkerer, that could be a worthwhile project.

 

[stroked]

Do these have any value at all? I too came across my original iMac, but I haven't fired it up for a long, long, time. Is it really worth my hoarding it at all? I don't have the box, but do have the mouse, keyboard, power leads etc.

There not worth much money. I picked up a 400 mhz slot loader for $15. I use it for things, that I'm afraid to try on my other macs, like Terminal.

 

[Lesser Evets]

Hello All

I was tidying up yesterday and stumbled across my old original iMac G3 'Boni-Blue' upon turning it on, the screen still works! Knowing that the computer still works i have decided that its going to become my new project. I want the original 233mhz cpu ...

And then I was disappointed. I thought you were going to rip out everything and replace it with a MacPro and LCD screen. The tear-drop shape would be awesome if Apple packed a MacPro in there, so four dives and the cards can be accessed out of the back when opened.

 

[raysfan81]

I got my 500mhz version for $50. I had to pay a little extra for the "snow" version. Though I really wanted a 700mhz version.

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Just tape an iPad to the front if it.

I've always wanted to stuff a Mac Mini or two into a Classic - throw in that iPad3 (or 4, 5 - whenever it comes to life) "retina" LCD as a display, that would be pretty sweet. A massive waste of money and resources, but good for some fun.

 

[Arkious]

And then I was disappointed. I thought you were going to rip out everything and replace it with a MacPro and LCD screen. The tear-drop shape would be awesome if Apple packed a MacPro in there, so four dives and the cards can be accessed out of the back when opened.

I need to start somewhere

My goal is to first be able to make the iMac run with an LCD (which i am struggling to source). Once i get the thing running i wouldnt mind fitting in a mac mini or somthing along them lines. But because mine is a tray loader i am limited to what i can actually upgrade. Im sure that i could find some sort of a tray loader DVD drive to fit but like i say first of all i want to see it running. Now that it is completely stripped down with the CRT out i have been able to see things a little better. I am however thinking of getting a standard monitor cable and rewiring the end of the imac video lead onto the end so i can see it working 1st. If i cant get the thing working i dont know what to do.

I have overclocked the CPU to 366MHz and added a fanned cooler, when you press the button the computer turns on but there is no light on. i hear that is because there is no screen?

 

[666sheep]

I have overclocked the CPU to 366MHz and added a fanned cooler, when you press the button the computer turns on but there is no light on. i hear that is because there is no screen?

You've clocked it too high. 366 is max freq for 750 CPU. 233 one can't handle it IMHO. If power button doesn't light up, usually it means hardware problem (which in your case is CPU IMO).

Second thing is, that above some MHz increase you'll need to bump CPU voltage a little.

 

[Arkious]

You've clocked it too high. 366 is max freq for 750 CPU. 233 one can't handle it IMHO. If power button doesn't light up, usually it means hardware problem (which in your case is CPU IMO).

Second thing is, that above some MHz increase you'll need to bump CPU voltage a little.

so nock it down to 333 and give it a go? thanks very much how do i up the voltage on these? i have a 450mhz motherboard from a slot loader and was thinking of removing the CPU and fitting it to the daughterboard, might be too much hassle though :-(

thanks for letting me know though, al try reducing it tonight and see what happens. So if it works, next time i boot up the computer i should get an orange light only indicating missing screen?

 

[666sheep]

In matter of voltage bump: unfortunately I don't know where voltage regulator is located in tray loaders Never had one in my hands, mine both are slot loaders. Look for voltage regulator on CPU daughtercard or on logic board.
You can upload somewhere hi res pics of both sides of CPU card and logic board, and post links here. I'll try to help you.

I've never OC'ed tray loader but I've done it with both of my slot ones.

Every single chip behaves differently when comes to OC. So, if 333 will be no go, you have 2 ways: to find voltage regulator and bump CV or lower CPU multiplier to achieve 300 MHz. If you're doing this without screen, connect HDD with working OS on it. If iMac will start OK with OC'ed CPU, disk activity will be another sign. IIRC, pwr btn should light up without screen connected.

 

[Arkious]

In matter of voltage bump: unfortunately I don't know where voltage regulator is located in tray loaders Never had one in my hands, mine both are slot loaders. Look for voltage regulator on CPU daughtercard or on logic board.
You can upload somewhere hi res pics of both sides of CPU card and logic board, and post links here. I'll try to help you.

I've never OC'ed tray loader but I've done it with both of my slot ones.

Every single chip behaves differently when comes to OC. So, if 333 will be no go, you have 2 ways: to find voltage regulator and bump CV or lower CPU multiplier to achieve 300 MHz. If you're doing this without screen, connect HDD with working OS on it. If iMac will start OK with OC'ed CPU, disk activity will be another sign. IIRC, pwr btn should light up without screen connected.

Well last night i made some progress... I did what you said and underclocked to 333, upon doing this i got half a startup chime (obviously it couldnt handle it), so i then moved it back to 233 and i get a startup chime followed by a beep (indicating bad memory)... it would help if i installed some xD. So okay, after doing that i thought cool i have gotten some where but then i started it up and i get no chime and no beep and im like okay... wtf?

So then i thought to myself, what do i do? is an lcd mod really worth doing as its going to look rather terd because of the curve of the plastics, so off i went to the TV repair store with my fingers crossed for a flyback transformer and to my absolute shock THEY HAD ONE!

So i fitted the new transformer, cleaned all the boards and back of the screen and was a little worried that it might explode (since ive never done anything like this before). I took the imac to the garden and plugged it in... okay still in tact, then i lent round the front and pushed the button... still in tact, no chime no nothing... but as i looked round it was quite happily booting :-D :-D

I now have 512mb installed (but only registering 256mb?) which must feel like rocket fuel from 32mb lol! unfortunatly the fan i installed, some tornado 5000rpm cooler (what? i didnt want it to blow again xD) wasnt spinning so ive got to have a look at that during the weekend. I was going to fit Airport but now i have found tray loaders dont support them -.-

Need ideas folks! :-D

 

[Arkious]

Well this weekend I did a few bits and bobs to the computer.

I installed a new crystal blue LED fan to replace the standard fan pushing 55cfm (major increase with nice blue FX). To my amazement the fan when fitted was no better than stock? So after investigating I find that the original power line for the fan is only supplying 10v, possibly to reduce noise? Anyways I removed that and tapped into the motherboard supply lead for 12V which made the fan much more powerful and brighter. Simple efficient cooling mod! To add, the tornado fan was pulling 1amp at 12v so that's why it wouldn't spin on 10v

The fan I installed onto the CPU was only running 5v instead of the 12v I thought it was, that was because I tapped into the wrong line so now that is fixed and running faster.

Finally I installed OS X 10.3.9 which runs great but is pointless because java, itunes and everything else is dated and unsupported. So im going to get 10.4.11 as it will allow a bit more usability. I'm trying to source a 333mhz CPU card so I can overclock to 366-400 and support the full 512mb installed but I am struggling to find one so if anyone can help please let me know.

I found mine is a Rev.B which is supposed to support 512 as it has a rage pro with 6MB VRAM, so I don't know what's going on there.

I was thinking of buying a slot loader and fitting the bondi blue bits inside of it but I think a better tray loader will be more beneficial. at the moment the computer isn't much use as it can't stream YouTube videos properly... Old safari I'm thinking?

Anyone with ideas/ help please post

Many pictures to upload now xD

 

[stroked]

I think you need to move up to at least a G4. I have a slot loader G3 with a 400 mhz, 512 ram, and Tiger, even with tenfourfox, it is too slow to browse. YouTube is impossible, even with mactubes.

All of my G4s, still work well enough for the internet, including youTube, with mactubes.

 

[Arkious]

Thanks for the heads up iMac g4 board into a g3 then?

 

[Arkious]

Well I have purchased an iMac G3 Aqua 350 slot loader. This change of heart in what I plan to do has 2 reasons

No.1 create a slot load bondi blue iMac with mixed internals from the aqua iMac (bondi blue back with the aqua front as they are pretty close colour match, however I will have to check). The original bondi blue iMac had lots of metal surrounding it's screen which looks crap so I'm going to use the fully working screen from the aqua so it can be more transparent. The original iMac has a nice cable hatch which is much better than the newer ones (in my oppinion anyways) so I'm going to try to keep the original bottom half. By keeping the original bottom half that will allow me to use the removable tray to mount the internals of a mac mini with a slot loading DVD player & 2.5" hard drive with an adaptor in there original positions. The blue fan that I installed will remain inside to allow cooling but I may reinstate 10v to run it quieter.

No.2 The aqua case will be stripped of all components and turned into an iMacquarium! I'm very exited to do this and I believe it will make a great office addition for my new house .

It should arrive on Monday so I will take a look at colour matches on delivery as I may need to stick with a tray load, then modify the supposidly much better speakers! The iMac cost me £30 delivered from eBay so if anyone else fancies an iMacquarium there not too pricey for something so unique! :-D

 

[Arkious]

New iMac aqua arrived today, something is wrong with the DVD player so am going to fix that before swapping out the CRTs. I can't decided wether or not to keep the tray load or switch the front to slot load. There is a subtle colour difference but I want the harmon kardon speakers in the bondi, I hope they will fit

I'm sure any tray load drive will fit in place of the standard cd for use on a mac mini

 

[CaoCao]

And then I was disappointed. I thought you were going to rip out everything and replace it with a MacPro and LCD screen. The tear-drop shape would be awesome if Apple packed a MacPro in there, so four dives and the cards can be accessed out of the back when opened.

*raises hand* That'd be me, I'll need to get some modelling software to make a scaled up iMac G3, might go with a 27" screen and then I'd need to get some glass cut just right

 

[CaoCao]

Project isn't going to happen until I can get an IBM T221 to preserve 4:3 aspect ratio, problem is that it is over a grand and takes a dual link and a single link DVI to drive it at the max refresh of 48 Hz with its absolutely absurd 3840×2400 display in a 22.2" form

 

[Squicken]

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This sounds like an awesome project, pics??

 

[CaoCao]

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This sounds like an awesome project, pics??

I can't do anything until I get an IBM T221 which is over a grand. Once I get one I can begin also I'm taking a CAD class in the fall