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My disabled G4 iMac -- R.I.P.?

J

jwp333

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 24, 2006
69
1
An electrical storm may have fried my ethernet port. The repair is to replace the whole logic board. Kind of crazy to do that considering the expense of the repair and the age of the computer.

A computer without the internet is kind of useless except for typing. I may be able to connect via Airport, but I'd have to buy the old Airport card and an Airport too.

I hate how these things happen at inopportune times. I know the current iMac is a great machine, and a huge upgrade over my current setup. But I was kind of holding out for the upcoming iMac revision. Now I may be forced to buy and then suffer when the latest and greatest is announced.

Anybody else ever been in this situation?

Maybe I can hold out longer with the office computer.
 
jwp333 said:
An electrical storm may have fried my ethernet port. The repair is to replace the whole logic board. Kind of crazy to do that considering the expense of the repair and the age of the computer.

A computer without the internet is kind of useless except for typing. I may be able to connect via Airport, but I'd have to buy the old Airport card and an Airport too.

I hate how these things happen at inopportune times. I know the current iMac is a great machine, and a huge upgrade over my current setup. But I was kind of holding out for the upcoming iMac revision. Now I may be forced to buy and then suffer when the latest and greatest is announced.

Anybody else ever been in this situation?

Maybe I can hold out longer with the office computer.
Click to expand...

Or just get a Windows computer :eek:

Could you survive 3 months on one?
 
Have you received an estimate for the repair at a service center or Apple store?

There are a few 700 and 800 mhz logicboards on ebay at the moment. They're not too difficult to replace if you've ever poked around inside a computer and probably wouldn't cost too much either.
 
jwp333 said:
An electrical storm may have fried my ethernet port. The repair is to replace the whole logic board. Kind of crazy to do that considering the expense of the repair and the age of the computer.
Click to expand...

Yes that happened to us at work once but with G4 powermac. It didn't just zap ethernet though. It wouldn't boot at all and had to take it in for service and I believe the logic board was replaced if I remember correctly.

At least your machine still works.
 
I would suggest trying to find a Mac compatible usb to ethernet adapter(example- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812107293..though this is pc only)

It may run rather slow if your system is only usb 1.0. Otherwise you may have to bite the bullet and get a newer system. Oh if you decide you want to go the airport route, all you would need to get is an original airport card($50-100 depending on where you look). You can use any 802.11b router with it. You don't have to get an airport base station.
 
All's well that ends well

Final result is that my iMac is now back on line using a Belkin usb to ethernet adaptor. I'm using software that I found through Google. It's open source and it works perfectly as far as I can tell.

A new logic board would have cost me around $350 installed. The Belkin cost $25. Money saved will go towards a new iMac when they come out.
 
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