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Dead iMac G4


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I got an iMac G4 from the local dump for $10 (cheap, I know) so eagerly I brought it home and tried to plug it in...but I realized I couldn't plug it in. I didn't get a cord and they didn't have one for me. So I drove down to my local electronics shop and bought a new cable for $5 (half the price of the computer!) and then plugged the iMac in. In an attempt to power it up, I pressed the power button only to see that it would not start up.

 

I hear a faint ticking sound coming from the base when it is plugged in, which is why I think that it might be the power supply. What do you people think?

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the G4 iMac should take a 24 pin power supply, just snag a power supply out of a current computer for a few mins and test it, if it works, and it boots up, goto ebay and find one at a good price, but im guessing the computer has been stripped inside. you may very well be looking at buying a new MoBo, New CPU, New hard drive, new ram, new super drive. the motherboards arn;t cheap and very rare, and doubt you can put a regular G4 cpu in that bad boy and be on your way, so thats going to get expensive and hard to find, also keep in mind when looking for a cpu, make sure your bus speeds are the same otherwise your going to have more problems and have to spend more money. BUT if its not stripped, then i would imagine theres something else wrong with it i mean $10 for a G4 iMac? thats rare, it cost me 25 for my Mac case.

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The ticking sound means that the PSU probably *is* working. When I unplugged my G5 in a thunderstorm, it ticked off, and when I plugged it back in, it ticked on.

 

Dead G4's are pretty much that...dead. There's very little upgradability (unless you want to sink $450 for the Daystar upgrade) except for RAM and HD. The display has a proprietary connector meaning you can't put in a Mac mini or anything, and the arm is too thin to fit a DVI/VGA/ADC, only micro-DVI *might* fit, but good luck finding a computer connecting by micro DVI.

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Firstly, I don't want to take it to an Apple store because it would be an expensive repair. Besides, I got it from my local dump. They don't know who it came from so I can't ask them if it's under warranty. Besides, I've cracked it open to have a look around so I doubt that they would accept repairing it without me paying a lot of money.

 

Secondly, new iMac G4 power supplys are like $75. I don't want to spend that much and find out that the power supply was actually fine.

 

Thirdly, no the Mac wasn't stripped. It still had the power supply, optical drive, hard drive and logic board. I think it just stopped working and someone decided they would throw it out and get a new Intel based Mac. And a standard PC power supply won't fit because the iMac G4 uses a non-standard plug (thanks Apple) that goes from the power supply to the logic board.

 

I used my volt meter on the plug going from the power supply to the logic board to find out if it was giving any power. It wasn't. However I read somewhere that the power supply won't give off any power unless it's on so I still can't be sure it's the power supply as it could well be the actual logic board it self.

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Try to get the PSU Pinout. Normally you have to short the Ground and power detect pins in order for it to switch on.

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If you can, I guess, you could try to find someone with a functioning iMac and ask to swap your PSU in...

 

Silly apple gave the G4 proprietary everything so the parts are usually iMac G4 only, unlike the power mac/pro. I guess you do need some crazy hardware in order to fit into that case, though.

 

Otherwise, you don't have many options. I guess you get what you pay for, and though I wish you the best, you probably have a dead iMac on your hands.

 

If you have a desktop sans screen, and you don't mind a big cable coming out of the back of your mac, you could drop in a screen of the same size of your imac, cut a hole for the cable to come out and hook it up to your computer. It would make a very attractive display (I had a [functioning] G4 until recently, when I was forced to sell it in order to raise money for a macbook). Worked great under screenrecycler as an extra screen for my power mac g5.

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