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imac g3 help

C

cave12man

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 26, 2007
96
0
avalon, nj
i hope my post about boosting my airport signal didnt scar me for life here but need a little help on a newly aquired imac g3

i need a little insight into what model this is. ive seen some different stats for the fruit colored models and then some for the DV model n such but want to make sure i know which ive got before posting again on some problems with startup

these are the stats given: 400mhz/512k/L2/128MB/13GB/DVD/56K/GR

any help would be great and apologies if i offended anyone about the signal boosting
 
thanx for the reply

the casing is a semi transparent smoke grey color if that helps at all

the guy i got it from i think recently tried to update it to OSX and he said it would restart so i want to get some info about it before i try anything
 
You will need to install the lates version of OS 9 on it (you cna prob get it from ebay or here on the market place I think it is 9.2.1) and install the latest firmware on it. Then install OS X.
 
If he "upgraded" to OSX there should be OS9 already on there. Set the start up disk to os9. Then update to 9.2 (free from apple site), download and upgrade the firmware while in OS9 and you should be fine. I had to do this with a graphite 400 exactly like yours. (DO NOT ZAP THE PRAM UNTIL YOU DO THIS UPDATE) seriously!!! Bad things, many hours of pain!

If you do it right you should be able to fix this for free.
 
Im pretty sure he tried to upgrade but once inserting the disk he couldnt reboot. Havent tried to start it yet so im not entirely sure.

Also i hate to be a pain but is there any way to set the startup disk to OS9 safely? Apologies for the questions i thought i knew what i was doing until i came across this problem:D
 
You should be able to boot from any OS disk and set the startup disk. Or you can hold down option and choose it that way. But it sounds like your monitor is not even turning on anymore. When you boot do you hear the hard drive spinning up? It would help if you could give step by step what happens after you push the power button.
 
ok finally got it home last night and after hitting the power button i hear the chime and something seems to start spinning but stops suddenly then there's no sound and no video but the light stays on
 
Thats what happened to me after zapping the pram. Have you tried plugging in a monitor in the vga port in the back. You have to flip it over and remove an oval panel to get to it. It is not the ram panel, it is the one at the imacs "butt". You can do your fixes to the firmware while using the secondary monitor.
 
thanks for stickin through this with me...the only monitor i have is the flat panel that came with my G4 so hopefully that will work or ill have to find another from someone. Couple more questions and i should be good to go.

I have the OSX Panther and Tiger startup disks but not the original that came with the G3. Will either of these work to reset the setup disk? Is this upgrade and such going to fix the video problem?

thanks again
 
1. The disks should work just to boot it and use the utilities (change password too). But you wont be able to install with them.

2. No guarantees on if this will fix your problem. It does sound like the problem I had. This has been around since OSX came out and has happened to tons of other people. It happened to me and I got help here, so I'm just passing it forward.

Do some searches with "imac firmware" here, and you will get some more info if you need it.

The old firmware tricks the imac into thinking it has a bad video board. But, you may really have a dead video (analog, I believe) board. If it is that, the imac is toast.
 
i appreciate all the help. ill be keeping my fingers crossed! hopefully its not fried but, ill let ya know how it goes.

chris
 
cave12man said:
i hope my post about boosting my airport signal didnt scar me for life here but need a little help on a newly aquired imac g3

i need a little insight into what model this is. ive seen some different stats for the fruit colored models and then some for the DV model n such but want to make sure i know which ive got before posting again on some problems with startup

these are the stats given: 400mhz/512k/L2/128MB/13GB/DVD/56K/GR

any help would be great and apologies if i offended anyone about the signal boosting
Click to expand...

I still use my original graphite iMac DV 400 every day (well, not me, but one of my people...) BUT Tiger will either NOT work at all with 128 MB RAM or else be slow dog slow that you won't be able to use it. I have 768 in mine and it does OK for what we use it for.
 
Oh I missed that. It will work, but yes, dog slow. I installed tiger with 192mb of ram before. He has to do some work in OS9 land before any osX install. OS 9 can run on next to nothing.
 
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