You may recall my original iMac G4 (17 inch, 800MHz summer 2002 model) which I scored through FreeCycle in 2011. My first ever PowerPC Mac. Sadly, in 2013/4, the iMac died, after a period of flakiness. Despite the fact I loved the machine, it went into the back of the wardrobe for a number of reasons. Firstly, at that point, I had already got two other iMac G4's. A 800MHz 15 inch my sister used as a jukebox with the pro speakers, and a top of the line, mid 2004 (one of the last) 17 inch iMacs with a 1.25GHz processor and an iSight mounted to it! Secondly, parts. In the UK, it was very difficult to track down a power supply. I didn't want to buy a parts machine, as I feel that it is such a waste. So I waited and waited for a new Power supply. Finally, 3 years after she died, and had been floating around my room and wardrobe. I found a power supply. Two of them in fact, for just £22 shipped. A pretty good deal I felt. There were a few issues though. On connecting the power supply with the machine apart, I checked that the dead supply had not taken out any of the other electronics. Thankfully, it hadn't. On reassembly, and powering up, I found that the machine was incredibly flakey, throwing up errors, freezes and kernel panics. I ran the AHT a number of times. Only twice it mentioned faulty memory, with other sticks throwing up the similar issues. After a while, the machine slowly stabled - I imagine the new thermal paste settled, but whether or not that fixed it in the end, I have no idea! After a number of stress tests (including playing a DVD on a loop overnight), the machine has finally stabilised. So, that's another PowerPC brought back into the world! Gallery
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Crikey! Its been a long time since I've been here!
In my defense, I have been rather busy, with my own production company taking off, it has been difficult to sit down with an iMac G4 and play around with it. But I have managed to play around with some Macs, and even get some new toys :P Since my last update, I have replaced my 2006 Core 2 Duo iMac with a 2007 20 inch iMac, running my servers (until we outgrew them). Now that machine is used for legacy applications (as a production office, we often find the need for some really old version of a Creative Suite application to convert files etc. Last December (2015) I tracked down one of my all time favourite Macs. Though I had an 400MHz indigo iMac G3, I had always wanted a Snow. Though it loses the colour that was the driving point behind that range, I feel it just looked so elegant and charming. You can just about see inside - it looks rather like an eMac, but with those lovely pin stripes on the front! The seller new nothing about it, so I didn't really know what I was getting. Upon arrival came a wonderful, well kept 700MHZ! (top of the line, very rare) iMac G3 with software disk, AND one of my most anticipated Mac Games - Tomb Raider - The Last Revelation. Shipped, it was £30. I've spent more at the cinema, so it was a great deal! A few months back, I also took delivery of a 2006 Mac Pro, Quad Core 2.66 with an ATI Radeon 5770 (a screamer of a card!) and a massive 8gb of RAM. This is really what got me back tinkering again. The older style Mac pro is such a wonderful machine for expanding and playing with. I'm running it with Mavericks at the minute (El Capitan will be going on it at some point) and she serves as a great Premiere Pro/Avid machine for some proxy editing. Very happy with it. My newest addition, and one of my new favourites... I'm typing this page, through weebly, on an iMac G4. Though the G4 is a very popular second hand machine now, the 'holy grail' has always been the 20 inch version. Sold from October 2003 right up until August 2004 (one of the shortest shelf lives of any Mac!), the 20 inch was the most expensive iMac G4. In the latter part of the lifespan of the G4, you'd most commonly find the 17 inch version. The 20 was rather big (like the 27 iMac is today) and the 15 was now rather small, but fine for businesses and education markets. I came across this iMac on eBay, looking for replacement parts for another of my Macs. The price was a little higher than I wanted to pay (and this wasn't a mint in box) but I eventually won it (I was outbid, but that buyer pulled out and I was offered second chance - my only bid on the machine, and the original starting price!). There are some peculiar tidbits about the 20 inch version. Firstly, the base is the same as the 17 inch equivalent, but weighted to stop it falling over! Also, the iMac logo below the front of the screen, has a 3D look to it, like the iMac G5 has on its back, and like the iMac had above it's screen, unlike the rest of the G4 iMacs. It also has a much deeper LCD panel, and the backlight brightness it incredible. There are also some peculiar tidbits about my specific iMac G4 20. I knew, paying half the price of the usual asking price for a iMac G4 20 in my country would have some drawbacks, which I readily accepted to have this in my fleet. 1) the apple pro audio jack is physically broken, but still works flawlessly 2) There were a few marks on the base, but fixed with a magic eraser. 3) This iMac only had around 700mb Ram, but was easily upgraded to 1.5 by just replacing the stick on the base of the machine 4) This machine runs a little hot. Thermal paste upgrade required! 5) the neck works, but is a little TOO stiff for my liking - There appears to be black material trapped in the lower neck connection. Odd, but she seems fine, and I wont be opening that neck. We've got a new section allowing you to identify which model of computer you have.
It gives you vital information (which we'll add to later) on the types of RAM needed, the right Airport Card, and OS compatibility. There were days where Apple was a little less serious in their business. In the days of the 2nd Generation iPod, Apple noted that the device had 20 minutes of skip protection! Unheard of before 2002! But the subtlety of the "(yes, minutes)" it just something that Apple wouldn't do these days. Yes, they still innovate, yes they still design beautiful products, but Apple Inc is not the same as Apple Computer. My iMac g4 has died :/
I unplugged it for half an hour to clean the desk it lives on, and it no longer boots The power supply makes a slight chirp sound, but does not power up at all. Looks like I'll be disassembling it!! A whole new load of content has been added, and some design refreshes will come, but we need you! Let me know what should be added to the site on the contact page! I had always thought that one day, having two iMac g4s would satisfy my desire to have an achingly beautiful mac on my desks..
It didn't. In addition, my summer job had paid really rather a lot, and the iMac g4 17" 1.25ghz I was using for graphics design was begging me to buy it and keep it. I just couldn't resist.. So after paying just under £100, I unplugged it from my work desk and wrapped up the pro speakers, power cable, keyboard, and mouse. Seeing as I worked as an IT guy for this situation, (building a FULL apple collection), I had the choice of many macs.. Flower iMacs, indigos, mac pluses, colour classics, power macs.. There was even a dual 1.25 mdd with studio adc screen going too! I also had the choice of keyboard and mouse, so I chose the original keyboard, but swapped the mouse/pro mouse for a mighty mouse, though I'll buy a magic mouse soon! Buying this iMac was really an impulse buy.. £100 for a full setup, perfect condition, and the highest spec was pretty good idea.. And im even more happier that it came with an original iSight camera! Time to upgrade...
The first iMac G4 that I got (for free) was a 2002 17 inch 800MHz in perfect condition, and was (and is) usable in 2012, thanks to Leopard assist.. Then, late last year, I got my second G4 iMac - a 15 inch 2003 model with an 800MHz with a boxed copy of iLife 04, and a boxed copy of 10.3 Panther.. Then I got my summer job this year- cleaning a mac collection - and designing information leaflets for each one.. My work computer was a collection surplus- a lovely top spec 2004 iMac G4 17 inch with 1.25 GHz chip, and 1GB memory.. And I couldn't help but buy it when I left.. So upon my desk was two 17 inch iMac g4s, a 800mhz, and a 1.25ghz... However, I'd completely forgotten my iMac G5 - gone in for repair of the power supply.. When it returned, I had a dilemma.. Where to put it.. In the end, I became too power hungry, and moved the 800mhz iMac g4 away, placing the 1.8 ghz iMac g5 on my desk, with the top spec g4. So now, two iMac g4s are all setup and waiting to be used.. Yet sadly, they won't be.. I couldn't part with them, yet I've no use for them.. So I need your help - what could I do my iMac g4 800 with leopard for? Comment below... :) So as you can probably see by the title of this post, I have managed to get my old iMac G4 800mhz with 758mb ram to run Leopard 10.5.8, and I have a few notes that may help you along the way. 1) Keep it simple. Don't mess around in open firmware, just download LeopardAssist (in downloads page) which fakes the clock speed and lets leopard install. **Please note that after this app is run, you MUST boot into the install DVD, as if it is rebooted more than once, the process is undone.** 2) ***Don't*** upgrade the OS. Seriously, this was my major problem. I always tried to upgrade from Tiger 10.4 to Leopard 10.5, and it would install, but on first boot, kernel panicked constantly. A fresh install will be faster, and also, works.. no kernel panics, its really smooth. Just make sure all files you want to keep are on a separate drive or storage medium. 3) Let it settle. When I first got to the Leopard desktop, I was horrified at the performance, and I really regretted upgrading. I started reaching for the Tiger install DVD. Then I remembered - Spotlight was using tonnes of system resources, indexing the system. Waiting for it to finish or disabling it completely (google that) will greatly increase performance, so don't go running for Tiger until you've tried Leopard for a few days. Check out the rest of the site, and our youtube channel. |
Apple VaultOfficial Apple Vault blog site, with extra iMac G4 goodies thrown in for good measure. Archives
July 2016
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