Trenton haul, part deux

Sounds like a good haul if you can get it. Maybe they will have some more jewels hiding in their storage area.

yeah, last time I went, I was not expecting much, but to come out of there with a G3 AIO (though it's power supply croaked), and an emate with a bad battery were nice treats.

They say there might be more eMates, and I don't have anything faster than a 450mhz G3 mac wise, so if I can get a eMac out of it, that would be awesome.

Also, they already gave me a 8550 server, which now has a dead hard drive and the power button broke on me, but it has a G3 upgrade and the DAT tape drive. I hope it's the latter 9150, since it is the only WGS without a consumer variant.

Well, now I am not getting any sleep. too excited, and I have to be up when my mom is up so I can trade cars with her, since she has the larger SUV. Last time, I took my saturn wagon, and I filled it to the brim, including the passenger seat, and dashboard. I actually had to pick and choose which stuff to leave behind.

-digital

Ahh, definately need the larger vehicle. I had the option of getting more than a car load for less than 100$ of older mac stuff however my fiancee would have killed me, plus i have no place to put it.

Unfortunately I have to live with whatever laptops come my way. At least I can have a few around and hide them without too much space being used.

9150! Wish someone would drop an email in my inbox like that

ok, I have been back for a couple hours now.

The final haul:

3x emacs. One 700mhz that was booting until I ripped the damn power button, the other two are reportedly 1ghz. one boots but has no video, the other is in pieces.

3x iMac indigos. none have motherboards, optical drives, or bottom cases. I have a motherboard for a 500mhz imac, which I might sell with the iMacs

1x Workgroup Server 9650. Have not tried to power up this one yet. It might have a sonnet upgrade in it (I hope).

I plan on selling the iMacs and the 700mhz iMac, and the eMac in parts. I wanna know if the other one is fixable. I kinda need this, I have no G4 to my name.

-digital

Try external video for the eMac 1ghz. Maybe its just a loose connection or a bad tube. Could switch parts around between the eMacs to get a good working one.

I tried unhooking the video connector and plugging it in again. No dice.

The video out is mini vga and I don't happen to have an adapter for it.

I am really scared to work around a CRT after all the bad luck I hve had with them. I know the one in the 700mhz works, but I have no idea where to begin swapping or how to do it without killing myself. I don't even know how to discharge them right.

-digital

Apple will still honor the eMac motherboard problem, so that might be it. Check the caps.

UPDATE: I put the emacs aside, and opened up the 9650. To my surprise, there are 3 hard drives in this thing: a full height (!) drive hooked to the inbuilt SCSI, and 2 identical seagate barracudas, one in a bracket right above the power supply, and one on a black plastic plate on the bottom. I will put both of these next to each other, because there is a HP 2gb I was given last time with the same 68 pin connector, and it will go above the PS.

I also opened it all the way up, and I was shocked to see not only a newer maxpower 300 card (is this a G3 upgrade?), and the RAM banks are FULL!! there are 2 different kinds of sticks, and I plan on matching them up, since there are 2 of the second group in the main bank, and 2 in the lower bank. There is no ROM simm surprisingly, but I might have one of these from last time somewhere. I assume it will not boot without this.

expansion cards include a ethernet card (my guess is an apple brand 10/100, since I have 2 more from him), the video card, and the SCSI card which provides the 68 pin connector, and oddly looks to have an external port, but it has a big white block on it with a (\) symbol on it.

I will power this one up later on tonight after class.

-digital

Apple will still honor the eMac motherboard problem, so that might be it. Check the caps.

Click to expand...

it's not the motherboard is it? it does chime, and I do get the pretty white light for power. I can also hear the CRT crackle when it powers on. The hard drive also sounds like it is reading alright.

If it is a defect, they will fix it for free, right? if so, I need to take a trip to the apple store.

You could try. That sounds like the actual crt itself.

well, didn't they have some capacitor problems across the board a while back? Then maybe this could be one of them. In which case, I am in luck, since they are still honoring that.

1.0GHz and 1.25GHz "USB2" eMacs had the capacitor problem -- I believe it'll be a version with ATi graphics.

Here's Apple's info page about it: http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/emac.html

If it's in that serial range, don't plug it in anymore, get it recapped or take it to an Apple store to see if they'll repair it for you. (Apparently some of them are still doing the repair, but your mileage may vary.)

damn, the 2 1ghz machines are YM617, and the 700mhz is YM217.

Now what?

I did manage to hotwire the 700mhx by cutting the power line and connecting the red and black wires and it started right up. I would use it if the hard drive were not so hard to replace. You have to discharge the CRT just to get to it.

-digital

If you see visibly leaking capacitors then take it to the Apple store and they will still fix it. You may have to call Apple, and the front line guy might not authorize the repairs, but you then ask for a supervisor and she will always authorize the repairs.

damn, the 2 1ghz machines are YM617, and the 700mhz is YM217.
Now what?

I did manage to hotwire the 700mhx by cutting the power line and connecting the red and black wires and it started right up. I would use it if the hard drive were not so hard to replace. You have to discharge the CRT just to get to it.

-digital

Click to expand...

Modify it so that its like the inside of the firewire iMac G3's.

ok, I powered up the 9650 after making some modifications. DAMN this thing is loud. the 2 seagates are showing up, at 4gb a piece, the full height hard drive was split into 2 partitions, and I found out it's a monster 18gb.

the 2.1gb is not showing up. Needs ID changed.

RAM is reported at 384mb, so either 12x 32mb, or 8x 16mb and 4mb 64mb, since there are 2 types of RAM.

gonna go play around with this some more, experiment with rhapsoday, and OS X, and maybe even linux.

good news about the reported 1ghz emacs. I flipped the CD cover open and the configuration was right there: 1.25ghz/256mb/40gb/CD

that makes it fall under a USB 2.0 revision, and a 2gb RAM limit, but the 1.25ghz model of that one came with a superdrive, so it might be a custom configuration, which would explain why the last 4 digits of the serial number do not align with the identifying the emac KB article, but they are similar to the last revision model, but those only came in at 1.42ghz.

This also makes it fall in line with the capacitor plague.

Think it's worth it to take it in to bring it in to the apple store to see what they say? and if it costs money to fix it, think I should spend it to do so? If I do have them fix it, I might as well have them install the 120gb HD for me, if they would do that for nothing while they have the machine apart. I can install my DVD burner myself, but I don't feel comfortable messing with where the hard drive is.

capacitor plague.
Think it's worth it to take it in to bring it in to the apple store to see what they say? and if it costs money to fix it, think I should spend it to do so?

Click to expand...

Apple store: yes.

Pay: not Apple.

Disassemble it yourself, and if it really is bad caps, take it to a TV repair shop and have them do it for a tenth of the price. Make sure you talk to the actual repair guy and point out - and write down - which caps need replacing. Recapping boards is an everyday repair at these places.

Look for the grungiest, downmarket repair shop you can find - the one with really old gear stacked up inside. The shinier and newer it is, the less chance they'll take the job. Most new gear is only board swap repairs these days.

I know just the place. There is a nice little TV repair shop that has old equipment and open TVs all over the place. Authorized RCA repair center, but I think they could look at my white lump.

I was going to take it to the apple store tomorrow, but the snow storm is moving my way, and we are expecting a foot; so after class on Saturday, I will take it in.

^^ same here, but I'm going to try and brave it tomorrow night. Actually its snowing now.

Woah there nelly, I meant take the -board- in, not the entire computer.

If you do that, take in a -printed- disassembly guide for the specific eMac model, and be prepared to pay them workshop rates to disassemble. And possibly break stuff.

Far, far, better to strip it down yourself (if you are able) and point directly at the suspect caps.

/edit/ oh, wait, you mean you're taking it to the Apple store first? I may have misread. I thought you meant the TV store.

Like Mike said, call Apple on the phone.

yeah, I am going to take the whole shebang into apple and have them diagnose it for nothing, then take out the problem part and take it to the TV repair shoppe.

I just need to learn how to discharge a CRT quickly.

good news bad news here:

Bad news: I took the eMac in to the apple store, and they looked on their system and the earliest appointment would be 4 p.m. (this was at noon). I decided to hold off until after Christmas, and after I get back from my trip.

Also, I put in the serial number onto their online records, and it said the machine was not eligible for service, even over the phone.

But the good news is according to Apple, my eMac is a 2005 las gen model. Did not know they sold a 1.25ghz. I will check the other one out, probably the same story. Maybe once I get it working, I can see if it has a radeon 9200 or a radeon 9600. Probably the former if it's a 1.25, but you never know. That would be about the only noticeable difference between the two.

If I am feeling adventurous and they say I can't have it fixed for me, I will just pop the 1,25ghz board out and stick it in the 700mhz. It should fit, and there should be only slightly more power draw.

Still though, I will take it in and see what they say when I get back next week.

The 1.25ghz board is a different beast altogether from the eMac 700Mhz system; it won't fit. If you're going to all this effort, replace the caps on the faulty 1.25!

JB

Well, I did manage to get the mobo out of the 700mhz and remove the hard drive without discharge, so I might try to see what all is wrong with the other 1.25ghz and swap in parts as needed.

I am going to get at least one working machine out of this for all my effort.

Well, I got at least one eMac working. I took the one Dan gave me on Saturday, and swapped in the motherboard out of the one that was arcing. Low and behold, it comes right up. I swapped in my DVD burner and hard drive from my B&W G3, and that machine is now officaly retired.

This 1.25ghz G4 feels so much faster, even with only 256mb of RAM currently. I will upgrade it to 2gb sooner or later, and put leopard on it, but right now, it feels great running tiger. I love the higher screen resolution.

Two small issues though: The CRT is a bit pinkish. I checked my connections for video, but nothing. Does that mean it's dying? if so I need to find a replacment really quick. The other one is there is a small bit of black something stuck on the inside of the tube. It is about the size of a single pixle, and only noticable when I am on a white screen.

Other than that, this is the most awesome mac I have ever owned.

-digital

If you can source an eMac service manual, it should list the pots for adjusting the R/G/B levels of the monitor, to remove the pinkish hue.

Other than that, well done! Now clock that baby up to 1.5Ghz

JB