iMac G4 blows main circuit trip

[Aulton]

Can anyone help with what seems a very off problem. I live in the UK but have a house in France, for which I wanted a Mac, rather than be constantly taking laptops back and forth. My son in the USA (A Mac Genius) had a G4 iMac surplus to requirements so he checked it all out, everything was fine, and shipped it over to the UK. This is a US-bought machine.
As soon as I plugged it in (before switching it on) it blew the main power trip. I took it to an Apple reseller who checked it out and found no faults. I brought it home and it tripped the mains again. I found that I could get it to work using a power adaptor that has no earth connection.
I took it to France and - you got it - it tripped the mains. I put an adaptor in-line and it worked fine, until I connected it to a printer...

Now - I love the look of this machine, especially where it is at the moment. What do I do? The only sensible answer I can come up with is to replace the power supply (son's suggestion).

[mrtotes]

Can anyone help with what seems a very off problem. I live in the UK but have a house in France, for which I wanted a Mac, rather than be constantly taking laptops back and forth. My son in the USA (A Mac Genius) had a G4 iMac surplus to requirements so he checked it all out, everything was fine, and shipped it over to the UK. This is a US-bought machine.
As soon as I plugged it in (before switching it on) it blew the main power trip. I took it to an Apple reseller who checked it out and found no faults. I brought it home and it tripped the mains again. I found that I could get it to work using a power adaptor that has no earth connection.
I took it to France and - you got it - it tripped the mains. I put an adaptor in-line and it worked fine, until I connected it to a printer...

Now - I love the look of this machine, especially where it is at the moment. What do I do? The only sensible answer I can come up with is to replace the power supply (son's suggestion).


You can find iMac G4 parts on http://www.applemacparts.co.uk (http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/store/index.php?cPath=7464_7551) (the part number varies against your processor speed/screen size).

The iMac G4 is a little difficult to work on. Here's a picture of the power supply in situ.

http://www.mrtotes.co.uk/mrtotes/iMac%20Flat%20Panel_files/CIMG2571.jpg

See this thread on Apple Discussions (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3711034)for details on take-apart guides and important notes.

[Aulton]

Thanks for that. Is this a job that a hamfisted amateur can attempt?

[mrtotes]

Thanks for that. Is this a job that a hamfisted amateur can attempt?

I've changed the Hard Disk/Internal RAM etc. on mine so I suppose it's not too much more complex than that - I'm not particularly experienced but have upgraded all but one of my Macs at some time or other. An AASP will charge about £65 for labour on this but at least if it turns out to be another part at fault you have some recourse.