iMac internal modem replacement

[FrankAZ]

Greetings from Arizona,

Can anyone point me towards a website that would list the specific internal modems that fit specific iMacs ? The modem is acting up again on my wifes old iMac. The internal modem works intermittently but usually not at all. The last time this happened the Mac repair shop diagnosed it and ended up replacing the modem with a used unit for the princely sum of $172. The new/used modem worked great for 99 days ... 9 days past their 90 day warrenty period. In retrospect we coulda bought a comparable used iMac off Ebay for not much more $$$.
But, that was then and this is now. I'm not about to "invest"(?) ANOTHER $170 at the repair shop, but rather than junk an otherwise adequete computer I'd like to invest a few bux on Ebay to replace the internal modem ourselves. How hard can it be ? However ... first I need to find out WHICH modem to get.
Perhaps I could even get an external modem off Ebay for cheap ? Can an iMac use an external ? If so, which one ?

OK ... enuf questions for one post.

Thanks in advance for any info,

Frank

 

[imac9556]

Hey,
Could we know what type of iMac you have? For example, like iMac 1ghz 17in FP or the iMac 600mhz Snow, etc
Then it might be easier to know which modem to use..the modems internally are fairly cheap

 

[FrankAZ]

Hey,
Could we know what type of iMac you have? For example, like iMac 1ghz 17in FP or the iMac 600mhz Snow, etc
Then it might be easier to know which modem to use..the modems internally are fairly cheap

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's a 350mhz ... blue colored. (blueberry ?)

We have it open and can't FIND the modem !
Pretty funny <G>.

Now what ?

Later,

Frank

 

[lbodnar]

How about using external USB modem?

 

[combatcolin]

Isn't the modem built into the MB on everything apart from PM's?

Don't know if you havn't though about it yet, but you really should try broadband MUCH better than dial up.

 

[FrankAZ]

Progress

Well ... we finally found the modem ... under the motherboard(?) ... got the part # ... ordered one off Ebay for $17 incl. shipping.

This may or may not fix our modem problem, but it's worth $17 to try and we had lottsa fun taking it all apart !<G>

Considering that this computer is useless to US as it was (non working modem) and that we would have just bought a replacement off Ebay, rather than taking it BACK in for a $150+ "fix"(?) ... we don't have a lot to loose by trying to fix it ourselves. Plus, as I said ... we had fun tearing it apart !

For those who suggested broadband .... it, nor cable, nor DSL is available here in the middle of nowhere, AZ. We're lucky to even have running water ! <G>

An external modem ? Yes ... that might have been an option. I couldn't find any on Ebay.

More later >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[imac9556]

Well ... we finally found the modem ... under the motherboard(?) ... got the part # ... ordered one off Ebay for $17 incl. shipping.

This may or may not fix our modem problem, but it's worth $17 to try and we had lottsa fun taking it all apart !<G>

Considering that this computer is useless to US as it was (non working modem) and that we would have just bought a replacement off Ebay, rather than taking it BACK in for a $150+ "fix"(?) ... we don't have a lot to loose by trying to fix it ourselves. Plus, as I said ... we had fun tearing it apart !

For those who suggested broadband .... it, nor cable, nor DSL is available here in the middle of nowhere, AZ. We're lucky to even have running water ! <G>

An external modem ? Yes ... that might have been an option. I couldn't find any on Ebay.

More later >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hey,
good job finding the modem! Its much better than having an external modem sitting outside..reminds me of a windoze pc

Well, here is a service manual for your iMac, it might help you if there is any problems:
http://z1.micro.umn.edu/ucs/imac_sl.pdf

pg 196 has details about the modem

Well, good luck and please let us know what happens!
-Paul

 

[FrankAZ]

i-modem madness

Well, we finally got the right modem and installed it.
Put everything back togeather (only had 2 screws left over !)

The good new is that the computer worked at all.
The bad news is the message "no serial port available" in the "connect via" box and no modem listed in the system profiler.

Any ideas ?

Thanks,

Frank

 

[imac9556]

Well, we finally got the right modem and installed it.
Put everything back togeather (only had 2 screws left over !)

The good new is that the computer worked at all.
The bad news is the message "no serial port available" in the "connect via" box and no modem listed in the system profiler.

Any ideas ?

Thanks,

Frank

Ummm, thanks for the update.
Did you reset the PRAM? hold down the Apple + Option + P + R keys (w/o the + sign, but holding all the keys down). Also try going to open firmware (hold down the Apple, option, o, f) keys and then when you get into a "unix" like screen, (white background), and type in:
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all

Then you might want to try to reset the PRAM. if it still hasn't identified, check the connections b/w the modem and the motherboard, or chances that the modem is also bad. An extreme measure is that the bad modem fried out the modem port on the motherboard itself... Good luck!