iMac G3 revival

[Arkious]

Well the mouse turned up with an iffy left click so i stripped it down and opened the button its self, turns out the spring had came off so now thats working 100%, i fully cleaned it and rebuilt it. its not exactly bondi but its better than nothing for the time being

I also received the Airport Extreme card and plugged it in, it worked straight away hassle free!

BUT... heres the bad news...

Unfortunately no matter what i do, i can not get the computer to run fully accelerated graphics! which is a major downer as the computer will be pretty worthless without it :-( so after lots of reading and discovering what i should have done the 1st time round... I'm buying the following;

Intel i3 2125 (Built in HD3000 Graphics)
Zotac H67ITX-C-E

This graphics is fully supported out the box, the wi-fi isn't but i have the airport to fit in its place. In the mean time of selling the old board (my brother is interested in it) i will be modifying the iMac chassis and getting the iMac CRT to run without the motherboard installed.

 

[bigeasy_uk]

I've been reading your thread with great interest, wish I hadn't given away my G3 now! I know building a hackintosh can be a struggle, It's a pain even when your not constrained by having to fit it into a G3 iMac! But it'll be worth it when you're done!
My Mrs wasn't interested in what you are doing when I showed her the pics but when I told her you were a Geordie (she's from shields) she wished you luck too!

 

[Arkious]

I've been reading your thread with great interest, wish I hadn't given away my G3 now! I know building a hackintosh can be a struggle, It's a pain even when your not constrained by having to fit it into a G3 iMac! But it'll be worth it when you're done!
My Mrs wasn't interested in what you are doing when I showed her the pics but when I told her you were a Geordie (she's from shields) she wished you luck too!

Wey! I'm from south shields :-D well thankyou very much and I will get there in the end no matter what ^.^

It will be great when it's done though, I can't wait! Hopefully I will get the monitor working without the motherboard this week

 

[Arkious]

Been playing about with the iMac monitor and basically it's as simple as short the Purple (constant 5V) to the brown (power on) this allows the CRT to start but does not run the fan or anything else. So my board will use a PNP 3906 with a 5.6k ohm and 1.5k ohm resistor which will allow me to run the iMac 'on button' to the ITX motherboard.

As an update on parts, I'm just waiting for the old bits to be sold before purchasing the new ones. Instead of the H67 and getting SATA3 and USB3 which is not needed for what I'm doing, im going to save a few ££ and go for a H61 with either an i3 2105 or 2125

 

[Arkious]

still waiting on the parts selling but ive put my time to use to create the PCB artwork for the iMac Power adaptor to ATX adaptor... fingers crossed! how do you think it looks?

this gives me a 24 pin ATX lead, a 4 pin CPU lead and a molex connector!

the connector 'should' fit directly on top of the holes and the big holes fit the mounting holes, the arangement in the middle converts the ATX power signal to an iMac power signal allowing it to start upon the start button being pressed.

 

[estrides]

That is awesome! Good work my man! I cant wait to see this thing perform!

 

[Arkious]

That is awesome! Good work my man! I cant wait to see this thing perform!

thanks man

well look what i did today...

I went shopping for the kit to make the PCB, i had to buy a lot more stuff than i needed so it bumped the cost up a little but they will store so i dont mind

I also have the components to fit to it, but i need to lend a small pillar drill for drilling the small holes before i can fit them.

I have attached the PCB drawings incase anyone would like it, however you will require PCB Wizard in order to open, edit or use it.

Like?

 

[Arkious]

slowly but surely i need a broken ATX power supply to take some cables from for the ATX side but its looking awesome!

 

[estrides]

I can't believe how in-depth this is getting. I guess i was just expecting everything to just "fit" hahahah.

Anyway, excited for the next update!

 

[yanksrock100]

Wow, what a great project! Best of luck, I will definitely be following this till the end!

 

[Orange Furball]

slowly but surely i need a broken ATX power supply to take some cables from for the ATX side but its looking awesome!

Image

Dang. If you were in the us I would donate one of my old power supplies!

Unless you want to play shipping. Probably not worth it!

Good luck!

 

[Arkious]

I can't believe how in-depth this is getting. I guess i was just expecting everything to just "fit" hahahah.

Anyway, excited for the next update!

i was going to 'throw it all together' but then i thought, well what if i want more out of it in the future? if i have hacked the thing to pieces to make it just fit then i may struggle to reuse it. my thought is once it is transformed properly so that any Mini-ITX board can be fit inside, people might be interested in doing it themselves. i know I've taken lots of leaps and lots of falls but that is because i am experimenting on whats good and bad. Having this board will make life sooooooo much easier! as i don't have to cut any original cabling, the original removable tray will still be the original removable tray lol. so i hope its worth the effort hahaha, getting the tracks to the right place was the hardest, i had a few short terminals once soldered as they are so close together but a stanley blade soon sorted that out

Wow, what a great project! Best of luck, I will definitely be following this till the end!

Thanks very much I've put lots of effort into this and I'm itching to see it in the end! :-D

Dang. If you were in the us I would donate one of my old power supplies!

Unless you want to play shipping. Probably not worth it!

Good luck!

Haha that would have been useful! I'm going to see if i can pop to the local recyclers today to see if there is an old computer with a 24 pin ATX power supply there, my friend said i could hack up the one he lent me but it seems pointless destroying a useful working one.

 

[Arkious]

well i finally got round to modifying the CD/DVD drive to become SATA from IDE. This modification required trimming excess material to allow me to fit the 50% larger SATA back plate in place of the original IDE back plate. I also removed the aluminium spacers and super glued them in place on the new plate to ensure that the board sits perfectly. Here is some pictures;

It is attached to a PC, this is to allow me to test its functionality & needless to say, it works perfectly

 

[Arkious]

well not much to update really apart from the parts sell on ebay in a few days, I've just been tracing wiring and trying to locate a broken PSU to test the setup

also... BRILLIANT IDEA! haha

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IMAC-G3-P...pplies_Cats&hash=item25729cdbb5#ht_500wt_1413

thats if it goes pear shaped ;-) but seriously, can't get more original than that xD

 

[Orange Furball]

well not much to update really apart from the parts sell on ebay in a few days, I've just been tracing wiring and trying to locate a broken PSU to test the setup

also... BRILLIANT IDEA! haha

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IMAC-G3-P...pplies_Cats&hash=item25729cdbb5#ht_500wt_1413

thats if it goes pear shaped ;-) but seriously, can't get more original than that xD

If you made a cat bed from a g3 I would buy it from you. I want one now!

 

[Lil Chillbil]

Cats beds are easily made I made mine by just removing all of the internals so I just had the plastic case sitting there. The I rounded all of the sharp edges and such. Finaly I slapped a rounded throw pillow in that and put 3 cat blankets over that.

 

[Lil Chillbil]

This machine has come a long way from being a old unloved flickery os 9 gaming computer to being an absolute beast !!

 

[Arkious]

If you made a cat bed from a g3 I would buy it from you. I want one now!

Lol :-D probably the easiest thing to make tbh

Cats beds are easily made I made mine by just removing all of the internals so I just had the plastic case sitting there. The I rounded all of the sharp edges and such. Finaly I slapped a rounded throw pillow in that and put 3 cat blankets over that.

U made an iMac g3 cat bed :O pics! :-D

This machine has come a long way from being a old unloved flickery os 9 gaming computer to being an absolute beast !!

thanks very much just wait until it is finished!!! I really can't wait for that.

The old parts sell on eBay within the next 22 hours. So far the current bid is £105 so fingers crossed! :-D

 

[Arkious]

Right, new hardware ordered!!! 3rd time lucky, well at least i have done my homework this time so i know everything is supported lol.

I have ordered a...

Intel Core i3 2125 3.30GHz Dual Core HD3000
Zotac H67ITX-A-E

The benefit of this setup is not requireing a Graphics Card to support full hardware acceleration. The Sandybridge CPU is faster and used less power so shouldnt put as much strain on the PSU. This motherboard is SATA3 and USB3 so should i wish to use these features in the future, i can.

The total cost of these parts was £160 which again is a fair price, my parts are currently still for sale and end in 8h43m and have a current bid of £127 so im not far off breaking even.

these parts should arive tues/wed so i can crack on with getting this thing running Lion! also on tuesday i have asked a local computer repair shop to keep a hold of an old 24 pin PSU so i can get the board running off the iMac PSU. once this is done i can make use of the iMacs CRT and then its time to put the thing together


Hopefully this week should be a progressive week. Im also in the market for an SSD for my iMac 27", so that should be fun to fit!

 

[Vorlox]

Great work, the iMacquarium is awesome! and the restoration is perfect! iMac G3 was my favourite looking Mac! Followed by the iMac G4 and Macbook!

Always forgot how lucky i was when i bought my iMac in 2003, Top Spec model with DVD player-(Slot loading)

Then i Inherited an eMac in 2007 and the iMac never saw use until recently as i needed a DVD player

Then in 2009 i bought a PMG5 and by mid-2011 sold it to buy My first intel; The Mac Mini!

I found that living with PPC these days is really difficult no matter which way you put it, I still have both the eMac and the iMac and am currently trying to find something to do with them, Might do something like this , My iMac also has those cracks in the top right and the bezel is almost off it's so loose!

Anyone want to see a similar thing done with an eMac? One thing i know is the eMac is A LOT more cramped than the iMac, Not even sure if an itx would fit.

For hackintosh, trying to get the hardware as close to vanilla as you can is the best option, as you then get flawless updates and flawless graphical performance.

When i have some spare time il' begin measuring up my eMac, Might pull out the CRT and put in an LCD as the eMac has Flat glass unlike the G3 which is curved, it'd also save space in the already cramped eMac!

Might do it with this spare/repairs PMG4 i have first, seems like an easier job! See how easy a hackitosh is to get vanilla, more importantly; how cheap!


I Want to see more from this project Arkious; Spent the last hour catching up through this thread! Looking awesome real shame about the bad hardware! You've inspired me!

 

[Arkious]

Great work, the iMacquarium is awesome! and the restoration is perfect! iMac G3 was my favourite looking Mac! Followed by the iMac G4 and Macbook!

Always forgot how lucky i was when i bought my iMac in 2003, Top Spec model with DVD player-(Slot loading)

Then i Inherited an eMac in 2007 and the iMac never saw use until recently as i needed a DVD player

Then in 2009 i bought a PMG5 and by mid-2011 sold it to buy My first intel; The Mac Mini!

I found that living with PPC these days is really difficult no matter which way you put it, I still have both the eMac and the iMac and am currently trying to find something to do with them, Might do something like this , My iMac also has those cracks in the top right and the bezel is almost off it's so loose!

Anyone want to see a similar thing done with an eMac? One thing i know is the eMac is A LOT more cramped than the iMac, Not even sure if an itx would fit.

For hackintosh, trying to get the hardware as close to vanilla as you can is the best option, as you then get flawless updates and flawless graphical performance.

When i have some spare time il' begin measuring up my eMac, Might pull out the CRT and put in an LCD as the eMac has Flat glass unlike the G3 which is curved, it'd also save space in the already cramped eMac!

Might do it with this spare/repairs PMG4 i have first, seems like an easier job! See how easy a hackitosh is to get vanilla, more importantly; how cheap!


I Want to see more from this project Arkious; Spent the last hour catching up through this thread! Looking awesome real shame about the bad hardware! You've inspired me!

When i first seen the eMac i really wasnt that impressed but after using it, they are great machines! but i would do exactly that, the iMac G3 with a CRT is just wrong in every way, but the eMac you could not tell and of course its a 17" which is better anyways. I for one would love to see this done!, i have had a google and havent came across another thread or anything that has done somthing like that so that would seem to be a first

This being the eMac logic board in its carrier, it may just fit... or you will have to do as i am and fit it on a bit of a tilt

id love to hackintosh a PMG5 case and build it into a gaming beast but i dont need to at the moment as my iMac 27" does it quite fine so it would be a waste at the moment. However i did ask my partner if she would let me do it to hers, the short answer was no lol.

but thanks very much for your comments, ive put lots of time and effort into this and im itching to see it running lion :-D

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it wasnt too bad actually, it was just getting the old one off that was the problem lol.

 

[Arkious]

morning guys!

well i finally have some progress!!!

Yesterday the new motherboard turned up but unfortunately there was no sign of the chip, so i went out to the local computer shop that said they would hold me a busted PSU.

i then proceeded to hack off all the cables coming from it as close to the PSU as possible (didn't want to open it up to get the extra length and get somebody's dead skin everywhere...YUK!).

after i stripped all the ends of the cables back, i then proceeded to 'tin' the ends of the wires to make it easier to solder onto the board.

and here is the result! a finished iMac to ATX converter board!

there was one little error for the 4 pin molex and 4 pin cpu connectors. i had branched into a 5v line instead of the required 12v, so i had to scratch off that terminal and use a bit of wire to link it on the back to the right place. I tested the continuity of all the lines so i proceeded to plug it into the iMac and test the voltage outputs when forced online. They were all okay

About 30 mins after i had finished this i got a knock on the door... IT WAS THE CPU! :-D weyyyyy

Core i3 2125 & Zotac H67ITX

this is where i thought, uhh ohh... here comes the pain of installing OS X. but i will let this picture do all the speaking.

Well i was impressed that i didn't need to use any lines to start it, and that it installed through 1st time without any errors! I believe my 8GB USB is causing me some problems as it keeps corrupting its self over night so i may need to get a new one. so at the moment i can't boot to it as i need the Unibeast usb installation to boot to the installation before i can run multi beast. its getting written as i speak!

Now here is the iffy bit... as there has to be :-(

I thought, well lets go and start this motherboard up on the iMac using this new board of mine. I plugged it in, switched the plug on and i had green lights on the board... SO FAR SO GOOD! but then i pressed the power button and it started for a split second and then i could hear a clicking as the psu was trying its very best to power the board, the fan was spinning very slow and the lights were turning on and off on the board. basically in a nutshell, the PSU in the iMac is under rated for this board :-(

So that is my task today, i would like to see if i can take some strain off the 12V line by using a wall plug 12V transformer. If this works i will strip the transformer and mount it inside of the iMac towards the top for extra ventilation, then this will power all the 12V side of things. But this is just an idea at the moment, i need to research how feasible it is

 

[Lil Chillbil]

congrats on the lion install are you going to upgrade to Mountain lion when it comes out

 

[Arkious]

Just a quick update...

Still struggling on with getting the graphics install working but so far i have it being recognised as a HD3000 which is a start but its only registering 64MB RAM :-( so thats what I'm trying to sort. However it does play 1080p movies streaming from youtube but won't load the likes of Minecraft or anything of the such. Even a simple task of opening Launchpad and it really struggles! so thats what I'm trying to sort out at the moment.

Once that is fixed, i have had a bit of a brainstorm at fixing the PSU issues inside the iMac. Basically what i need to do is get a hold of a 200-300W server PSU (generally they are very small). and I'm going to fix it under the grey bezel of the CRT. I might even strip the metal case from it making it open to cooling. This PSU will be connected directly to the power board i made previously but will need a little modification as i will not require the soft start part. This will then allow me to power the motherboard no problem, but what i also need to do is start the old PSU that powers the CRT. To do this i will run a 12V to a relay then to ground from the new PSU. Then i will take the Green and Purple power on wires to either side of the relay. This will then power on both PSU's when the power supply is energised! I will not bodge this, it will be done properly but it will also mean i will have the ability to upgrade to an i5 2500K cpu if i like (but will have to take into consideration the extra heat output).

The monitor cable i made ages ago, i never tested properly. I plugged it into the iMac and my partners laptop. I then shorted the Green and Purple on the iMac PSU allowing the CRT to start. And before my eyes i seen the extended desktop pop up! so that makes my life a bit easier

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congrats on the lion install are you going to upgrade to Mountain lion when it comes out

thanks very much, that all depends on how much trouble it will be lol

 

[estrides]

It Lives! Its refreshing to see the Desktop show up! Did you manage to get your flash drive working?

Also, be careful with the server PSU, they hold an INSANE amount of power after they are shutdown. i got blasted once when I was careless and cleaning one.

Either way, love the progress, this is one of the only threads I constantly check.