Skip to main content

iMac G3: Replacing logic board



Since I have bought my iMac I knew that it is not a very fast version. But because of availability of 350 MHz G3 CPU's I decided to buy this one and see how does it work. After a while there was one thing I didn't like. No FireWire means no Mac OS X Tiger. I used XPostFacto, but still it was not something I like.

I looked for many sites how to upgrade your old iMac. CPU upgrade is not reasonable these days - it is very expensive, you can buy a better machine for that price. So only option for me was to find a cheap logic board and replace the old one. I knew about the issues with incompatibility but I risked it. I found one logicboard in NYC. But after a few days, it was only 400 MHz instead of 600 Mhz and I didn't want so little increase of power. Then I found 500 Mhz G3 on eBay in Canada only for 35$.


My friend in the USA bought it for me and I waited until Christmas for this delivery. I was not sure if it will work but I wanted to risk it.
The most important thing for me was this iMac G3 Disassembly Guide. I followed the instructions and replaced the logicboard. It was not very complicated but you have to be careful with the screws. If some of them falls inside the case - then prepare for opening the whole case.

And that was my case. Replacing the logic board was not difficult, the most difficult in this process was bring it to life. The first problem was that the power button has been lit very low. Another thing that OS X was not booting. At first I thought the logicboard is broken or there is not enough power for this type or CPU was overheating.

The worst of all, I was ill that time and instead of lying in bed I was doing "devilry" with iMac. I replaced also HDD with my old DeskStar 120 GB. I formatted whole drive and tryied to install Mac OS 9 but without success.
After fifth time I was a bit desperate what to do next. I almost decided to install the old logic board and live with it like it was before but with OS X Panther.
But after one great SMS I decided to try it once more time. But this time, with the old logic board inside, I installed Mac OS X 10.3 and then replaced the new one. And ... it worked!

I was very surprised. I couldn't believe it. Everything worked perfectly and after a while I installed Mac OS X 10.4 finally. But my body temperature raised and I have finished installations later.

GeekBench score: 260

I can say it runs far more better with 500 Mhz CPU, it is possible to watch normal avi videos, browse the web with Safari 4 (playback of flash videos is still bad of course) and with new 7200 rpm hardrive booting time is shorter and work with files is improved. There is also possibility to install Airport card but I use only ethernet connection now.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

iMac G3: Mac OS X 10.4.11

So my goal to install Mac OS X Tiger has come true. Firstly I needed Tiger on CD's and that was a big problem because you can buy Tiger mostly on DVD although there are also some CD versions but very expensive. But I was lucky because friend of my friend, Neuromanc, lent me this very rare 4-CD version. So thanks again :-). My iMac is not officially supported because it has no FireWire. But you can override this with software XPostFacto . I downloaded and installed the latest version so I could use it with Mac OS X 10.3 (the previous versions worked only with OS 9). I erased HDD entirely before the installation just to be sure. After first restart the installation continued from other CD's. The installation process took approximately one hour and ran without problem. After registration the update process started-up and took another hour or more. It was repeated several times ma inly due to Java updates. Then finally I could download software and this time the latest versions. I ...
2 comments
Read more

Our Wedding

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”  When Harry Met Sally... (1989) In the midst of a global pandemic, when the future was so uncertain, we knew that it wouldn’t be a traditional wedding.  Our wedding planning all started months ago in our small Upper West Side studio apartment. We began planning our wedding together the day after we got engaged (but if you know anything about Mia, you would know that she had really been planning her wedding day since she was a little girl). Without all the answers and with a lot of moments of “wait..., what!?”, we began planning the day that would mark the beginning of our lives together. And like in the movie quote, we both agreed that we wanted that day to start as soon as possible, before the situation with COVID-19 in New York, and in the world, got worse. Truth be told, the process was anything other than what we expected wedding planning w...
7 comments
Read more

Thanksgiving in Auburn, upstate NY

Mia and I had hoped to spend our Thanksgiving with our families and friends, but this is 2020. First we were thinking about traveling South (e.g. Virginia), but the driving would be just too long for us. Then we thought about going North and we both agreed that the Finger Lakes region beckoned to be discovered by us. For this trip, Mia suggested bringing our road bikes and I just could not say no. We found a very affordable Airbnb in Auburn, upstate NY. Driving there was not that long (~4.5 hours) but because we were not in a hurry, we came to town in the evening - Thanksgiving evening. We naively thought that we could get dinner in town, so after we checked in our Airbnb, we drove downtown. Surprise, surprise - everything was closed. Luckily, Mia packed frozen gluten-free pizza, avocados, apples and other food so our Thanksgiving was saved! Our apartment had a stove, oven and microwave oven and we could prepare meals for the evening and for our whole stay in Auburn. Next day we chose ...
4 comments
Read more