Posts:
945
From:
Middlebury, VT
Registered:
May 4, 2003
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 8, 2007 2:52 PM
in response to: EvilSupahFly
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Based on the Open Firmware Copyright date I'd say you either a Revision A or Revision B Bondi Blue iMac. The Revision A Bondi Blue iMac has a ATI Rage IIC+ graphics card with two MBs of VRAM. The Revision B Bondi Blue iMac has a ATI Rage Pro grahics card with 6 MBs of VRAM. Apple System Profiler would be able to tell you which graphics card your iMac has. You could also look inside it too. If it has a two MB VRAM card it's a Revision A Bondi Blue iMac. If it has a six MB VRAM card it's a Revision B Bondi Blue iMac. The fact that the Mac OS 8.6 CD-ROM isn't working narrows it down to those two specific models of iMacs.
Refurbished iMac G5 "17 1.8 GHz and PowerBook G4 "12 1.5 GHz
Mac OS X (10.4.11)
2 and 1.25 GBs of RAM
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Posts:
36
From:
Canada
Registered:
Dec 1, 2007
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 8, 2007 9:33 PM
in response to: rccharles
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Yeah - I tried both USB ports. It powers on from the keyboard button in both slots and the mouse works in both slots but once the OS actually come up (or the Firmware prompt appears) the keyboard is forgotten. I tried switching ports on the fly and that didn't make any difference.
I'll keep playing around with it and see what happens.
iMac G3 80 GB ATA-HD 24x CDR
Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier
My current iMac is not quite dead, but very uncooperative!
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Posts:
36
From:
Canada
Registered:
Dec 1, 2007
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 8, 2007 9:36 PM
in response to: Craigwd_2000
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The barcoded sticker inside the USB/ETH/Modem panel on the side says it's got 6 MB SGRAM and 32 for SDRAM.
iMac G3 80 GB ATA-HD 24x CDR
Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier
My current iMac is not quite dead, but very uncooperative!
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Posts:
945
From:
Middlebury, VT
Registered:
May 4, 2003
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 9, 2007 12:07 PM
in response to: EvilSupahFly
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Then it's a Revision B Bondi Blue iMac. That model supports up to 512 MBs of RAM. You need to find the special Mac OS 8.5 iMac Restore CD-ROM on eBay. Ask the previous owner if they still have the original Restore CD-ROMs. You need to install it onto the Mac's hard drive.
You can then use the Mac OS 8.6 Restore CD-ROM to update the iMac's firmware to 1.2. It should be in a folder entitled Updates on the Mac OS 8.6 Restore CD-ROM. Within that folder there should be a folder entitled iMac. Follow the instructions in the Readme file to update the firmware.
You will need to download & install the Mac OS 8.6 Update. This will allow you to update the firmware. Only after the firmware has been updated can Mac OS 9 be installed. There's a Apple Knowledge Base article which states the firmware must be updated prior to installing Mac OS 9. Once the firmware is updated it should install Mac OS 9 without any more issues.
Make sure you have 64 MBs or more of RAM installed before installing Mac OS 9. I recommend about 128-512MBs of RAM. 512 is the amount my 7600 has & it runs the hacked Mac OS 9.2.2 perfectly.
Refurbished iMac G5 "17 1.8 GHz and PowerBook G4 "12 1.5 GHz
Mac OS X (10.4.11)
2 and 1.25 GBs of RAM
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Posts:
1,702
Registered:
Feb 26, 2007
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 9, 2007 1:40 PM
in response to: EvilSupahFly
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The iMac 233 rev a & b have an irda port. You will see three cables attached to the logic cage on the outside. The other two are power and crt. The irda cable is round serial connector like a pc ps2 keyboard connector. The iMac 266 nor 333 has the irda port. A little round cutout exists in the cage where the cable used to be.
The author does a good job of sorting out the tray loading imacs.
http://lowendmac.com/macdan/05/0202.html
Robert
iMac G3
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Posts:
36
From:
Canada
Registered:
Dec 1, 2007
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 10, 2007 11:16 AM
in response to: EvilSupahFly
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This is really starting to get under my skin: I tried to partition the drive using the OS 9 CD and when it rebooted, it went back to the initial error logged in my first post.
So I took the drive out, reformatted it as one large partition and put it back and it was OK again. So that rules out making a partition on the HD into an Install CD, as I had attempted.
So, the question is - If I can't break the drive into two or more partitions, and it still won't read the OS 8.6 CD (which according to MacDrive is an HFS CD versus the OS 9 CD which is apparently CDFS), how do I get this thing to work?
I have to have a bootable System folder on the HD in order to apply any firmware updates, but I can't seem to accomplish that!
I'm seriously at a loss now. Does the apparently different filesystems on the CD have anything to do with my Boot CD woes? Can I convert the OS 8.6 CD to a different format (making an ISO, extracting to a virtual drive and recreating an ISO with a different filesystem)?
Seems like a lot of work for what will amount to nothing more that a child's toy...
iMac G3 80 GB ATA-HD 24x CDR
Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier
My current iMac is not quite dead, but very uncooperative!
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Posts:
1,702
Registered:
Feb 26, 2007
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 10, 2007 8:35 PM
in response to: EvilSupahFly
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Well, you are learning a lot about Mac hardware.
Perhaps, the other drive is ok and just needs to be reformated.
So I took the drive out, reformatted it as one large partition and put it back and it was OK again. So that rules out making a partition on the HD into an Install CD, as I had attempted.
I think you can run off of one partition as long as none of the data needed for booting is past the 8gig.
So, the question is - If I can't break the drive into two or more partitions, and it still won't read the OS 8.6 CD (which according to MacDrive is an HFS CD versus the OS 9 CD which is apparently CDFS), how do I get this thing to work?
On a slightly different track. Did you sort out which tray loading iMac you have?
We are not sure exact what version of the os you need? I have never sorted out for the tray loaders if you need the version of mac os that came with the machine or if some other version of 8.x will be ok. I should say that if your machine came with 8.5.1 there could have been some extra software added to the machine to get the machine to work. This means that 8.5.1 isn't what you would find on an 8.5.1 retail cd. The software would be on subsequent retain cd's.
Robert
iMac G3
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Posts:
1,702
Registered:
Feb 26, 2007
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 10, 2007 9:02 PM
in response to: rccharles
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The iMac's firmware is stored on the same card that holds the CPU and memory chips. If firmware hasn't been updated and your iMac is acting up, swapping the CPU card from a known working iMac will usually fix things. Then update the firmware in the other iMac.
http://lowendmac.com/imacs/imac-c.shtml
Robert
iMac G3
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Posts:
36
From:
Canada
Registered:
Dec 1, 2007
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 10, 2007 10:16 PM
in response to: rccharles
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Yeah, I sorted out which Tray Loader I have - it's a Rev. B Bondi Blue. Using the guide on Low End Mac, I was able to tell it apart based on the serial number. The other drive is totally useless. When I put it in my PC, my BIOS doesn't recognize it and is unable to see any other drives as long as it is connected.
It's a Maxtor. I'm rather partial to Western Digital myself. But I find it odd that I can't break the drive into more than one partition. The first time I tried, I formatted one as 7.99 GB and the remaining space I used to creat the second and it wouldn't boot, as I noted here.
The second time, I formatted first as most of the 60 GB and the second as 800 MB, slightly larger than a CD and it didn't work either.
This thing hates multiple partitions and I don't know why.
I emailed Mr. Knight, who runs the Low End Mac website, and he doesn't know why it hates multiple partitions either. I directed him to this forum and he says normally most of what we've been over should have fixed this thing by now and suggested finding another iMac to swap parts with and see if I can't make one working iMac from two broken ones. If I did, I'd start with the CPU and ROM board because there's a great deal of potential in that alone (and everything else seems otherwise normal).
I'm going to put it away for a few days and let my head clear and perhaps I'll have an epiphany or something while I'm focused on other projects.
Thanks for the help, advice and suggestions so far though. I've learned more about Macs since I opened this thread than I have in the last few years!
iMac G3 80 GB ATA-HD 24x CDR
Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier
My current iMac is not quite dead, but very uncooperative!
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Posts:
1,702
Registered:
Feb 26, 2007
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Dec 11, 2007 1:02 PM
in response to: EvilSupahFly
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I'll be away from this forum for awhile too. I'm changing ISP's.
I am glad that I helped you out. I got to utilize some of my problem solving skills.
I think you got some good advice. You may want to consider putting a free add in craig's list or freecycle for a clunker. A try loading iMac with no video should be free.
Robert
iMac G3
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
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Posts:
945
From:
Middlebury, VT
Registered:
May 4, 2003
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Re: My iMac Died!
Posted:
Jan 24, 2008 1:40 PM
in response to: rccharles
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Update: I have some more good news. I was just now searching through Apple's Knowledge Base for info about available firmware updates for various optical drives used in older Macs. As luck would have it there appears to also be a firmware update available for the Revision B Bondi Blue iMac's tray loading CD-ROM drive. Apparently some iMacs shipped without the updated firmware which causes CDs/CD-ROMs to vibrate while spinning in the CD-ROM drive. Here's a link to the Apple Knowledge Base Article that contains a link to download the iMac CD Update 2.0: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60458.
I must honestly admit that I stumbled onto this while looking for a firmware update to the optical drives of my own Macs. This should provide another much needed fix for your Revision B Bondi Blue iMac. I'm going to search eBay to see if I can find the model specific Mac OS 8.5.1 CD-ROM that shipped with that particular iMac too.
Refurbished iMac G5 "17 1.8 GHz and PowerBook G4 "12 1.5 GHz
Mac OS X (10.5.1)
2 and 1.25 GBs of RAM
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