The iMac G3 came out while I was still in school. However, it was at the tail in of my school life. So What makes the vibrate colored Vintage Apple computers so special? People Loved their colors and freedom to choice the one you liked. My personally favorites are Grape and Lime Green. I never got to Play with one when they first came out, but a few years down the line I was buying and selling them. I would get them cheap on the used markets and sell them after fixing them up.
The issue today is most collectors that get these have issues with the built in CRT. The flyBacks or CRTs fail. Right now replacing Those parts isn’t to bad as the there were many iMac G3’s made and sold. So why would I replace a perfectly good iMac Lime Green CRT? Well I have two reasons. First there was no walk through or tutorial on how to do this. Second The CRT draw a lot of power. So the power draw can be Taxing on the overall iMac G3. By removing it it will help to give it a longer life. This also makes it so the CRT and flyBack are not being used thus saving those too.
I have experienced first hand how Vintage apple collectors get upset about this being done to Collectable iMac. So here is the thing These mods are 100% reversible and do not in any way affect the iMac G3. In fact all changes will help to give it a longer life as it will run cooler, and have less energy taxing to the Power Supply PCB.
Here is the finished productHere is the Before
Some things to note the LCD on the front isn’t happy as the board doesn’t detect the CRT even though the PCB’s for the CRT are in the system. This has to do with the parts not being powered up. The reasons they are in the system is so that the Power Supply PCB will power up. Here is the Link to the youtube Video about this Project.
Here are a few more of the work in progress pictures.
So I have Several Retro Computers many of which use IDE or SCSI for their storage devices. Well the Issue is they just don’t make those old storage devices anymore. So what do you do? If you have IDE you can just get an IDE to SD card reader and you are good to go, but until recently there hasn’t been a cheap solution for SCSI.
The BlueSCSI can be built for as little as 10-15 USD if you make it yourself. If you buy A blueSCSI they are around 35-60 USD. Of course you can always buy them from a retailer on https://scsi.blue/. I have both bought and built my own BlueSCSI devices. The github for the blueSCSI is here.
So why did I build and source my own? Well because I have about 40 – 50 computers that use SCSI and I can’t afford to buy so many of the BlueSCSI Devices at 35-60 USD each. Well was it worth it to buy them? Yes for me it was A great deal I am also good with soldering. If you aren’t I recommend buy a premade one as they are a great price. their speed could be a bit faster. Their ease of use is beyond simple as you can use the Hard drive files in an emulator to transfer data.
These are currently targeted towards Macintosh computers but some people have gotten them to work with other computers as well.
I have used several Macintosh computers through the years. I have never used the iMac G5. Though the iMac G5 is well on it’s way to being a Vintage Computer now. while I was looking for a g4 or CPU to use to test a G4 Tower, I ended up getting this free with a G4 Tower I bought.
There are some things I found interesting about this iMac. It can’t boot Mac OS 9 but if you have the disc in it will try to boot OS 9.2.2. This is super zippy and a great retro all in one computer. It can even run old windows/dos games with Soft Windows.
I had a hard time getting it to use Mac OS classic on this Vintage computer. So I made a youtube video you can look at here on how to set up Mac OS Classic on MacOS X 10.4.11. Once I had it setup I was able to do all kinds of stuff like Play Mac video games. I had a lot of fun testing out Mac OS Classic.
Here the G5 is in all its glory.
This is now my New favorite All in one Retro Computer. I am happy I got it. Not all went well though it did have some issues. The capacitors in it were bad. I had to replace them. Once I replaced the caps, I was able to get the iMac to spring to life.
This G4 Tower may be a Vintage computer now, but back in 2001 or 2002, when I got it, it was brand new. I was fresh out of high school and working at my first full time job. I had always wanted an Macintosh since I first saw the Macintosh LC in Jr High school. In late 1999 I was able to get a second hand PPC Clone, but it didn’t feel or look like a real Macintosh. That PPC Clone also had issues running software too. I noticed in late 2001 or early 2002 apple had a Deals section on their store page. That is where I saw it A G4 tower for 900 USD
I spent months saving money to buy this g4 tower. I was about 200 bucks short of the money I need to get it. The G4 Tower I wanted was a Sawtooth and it was in the clearance section of the deals page. They were selling out fast! I was worried I wouldn’t get the money in time to buy the G4 Tower. Me and my brother were hanging out and having a chat about things, and I told him about the G4 Tower in passing. He asked me how much I was short, and after I told him he handed me 200 bucks. I could now buy myself my very first Apple branded Macintosh.
It has been about 20 years since I got that computer. I used it for the longest time in 2003 or so I got A Giga Designs CPU upgrade for it. That CPU coupled with some Cheap 512 MB sticks of ram made it screaming fast. I think I used it as off and on up till 2009 when I bought an New 27 inch iMac. Over the years I have had a few Macs since my G4 tower, in 2013 I started using the G4 Tower again. Now I used it as a Vintage computer to play retro video games.
In 2015 I knew the computer need the thermal paste replaced on the CPU that got hotter than a volcano so I put the system in storage as replacing the thermal paste was a pain. Little did I know my nephew would be removing the system from storage to play with it… Since he did that the system would lock up… but I didn’t think it was the CPU at first as it seemed to lock up with IO or ram related issues.
I got a MDD G4 Tower and haven’t messed with the first Macintosh I bought from apple since then. Fast forward to July of 2021 I figure I would start checking out what the issues are. I got it down to Just the CPU that could be the problem. I started looking around for A cheap CPU or a whole Cheap System. I was Able to get a New old stock G4 Sawtooth for 35 USD and it came with a free iMac G5.
Here is the New in box G4 Sawtooth I got so I could check out the Cpu of my system.
So after Getting The CPU moved over from the New in box G4 Sawtooth, I found out it was my CPU…. So I decided to reflow the cpu when I took off the Giga Design’s cooler I found this
So The CPU had clearly over heated while running and the heat while running physically damaged it. I didn’t notice this the first time when I replaced the thermal paste.
So Now that I got that sorted I did some research and ordered a G4 CPU to replace the damaged one and got a G4 Daughter card from old QuickSilver off ebay. Well I got two QuickSilver G4 Daughter cards but that is a story for My youtube channel. After some modification I got the G4 daughter card to work in on the New in Box G4 Tower. It runs smoothly and is a dream to use.
So you might be wondering why didn’t I make these mods to my G4 Tower if it is so sentimental to me. Well my brother pass a few years back so I don’t want to damage that mac. In Fact I plan on keeping that G4 Tower I have in the box that came with the New in Box Tower I got. I will use the New G4 Tower to do all the crazy stuff I want while saving the keepsake G4 tower in a box.
I think this New In box G4 Vintage computer, will serve me well while saving my keepsake computer nice and tucked away. Look at out on my Youtube channel for Videos about this in the future. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX5TMUjcprsGAdRd8KAD0ow
This Site Is all about showcasing Tech new and old. Mostly It will show tech from the past and new tech that makes that old tech still work. It is mostly about computers and the like, but there are other retro bits of tech that are interesting.
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