350 iMac CRT going bad?

tacojohn · November 28, 2003 7:43PM

My mom has an older 350 iMac...its decent for what she needs to do with it (e-mail and the web).

The monitor flickers with the regular color (which looks good for a cheap CRT) and a really blue tint with some lines...

Is it possible that the RGB connection of the monitor and computer is loose? How hard would it be to crack the case and check it out?

Any other ideas?

opuscroakus · November 28, 2003 10:47PM

Hook up an external vga monitor to it. If the tinting occurs on the external monitor also, then you are looking at a bad logic board. If not, the you are looking at the PAV board.

dmband0026 · November 28, 2003 11:28PM

My dad had this happen with one of his old 6400s. It ended up being the logic board, so don't take this lightly!

ghost_user_name · November 29, 2003 12:04AM

Quote:

Originally posted by opuscroakus

Hook up an external vga monitor to it. If the tinting occurs on the external monitor also, then you are looking at a bad logic board. If not, the you are looking at the PAV board.

Ok... read the first post!

350 iMac CRTs do NOT have external vga ports. They also lack firewire.

Anyway... tacojohn,

Sounds like a PAV problem. I would NOT try to fix the problem yourself, unless you know what you are doing. I killed an iMac CRT myself so I know how easy it is to make "stupid" mistakes.

EDIT_Genius Bar

tacojohn · November 29, 2003 9:42AM

Damn, any idea how much this would cost to get it fixed?

We already had the power supply/port fixed because it would just shut itself off- I can't remember how much this already cost.

I'm thinking its just time for a new iMac/eMac... or just live with it until the poor thing dies.

I was thinking about (after my mom gets rid of it) putting in a huge hard drive and using it as a server possibly.

Can I take the internals and put them in a smaller case?

Thanks for you help.

ghost_user_name · November 29, 2003 11:31AM

It would cost much less money to buy a used iMac (350) on ebay. Around $120.

Yes you can gut the iMac...

and put it into this: http://www.marathoncomputer.com/irac.html

But the case costs an arm and a leg.

Check this out if you feel like a little DYI style.

http://www.maclounge.net/ibib/imac_sl_atx/

murbot · November 29, 2003 12:20PM

I had the PAV board go on an iMac... sounds like the same thing here.

Also not really a GD topic... moving to Genius Bar.

Good luck!

tommy_thompson · November 29, 2003 1:36PM

Don't toss it!!! I have a friend with the same model. All you need to do is update the firmware! I kid you not, I even took it to an Apple service center where they told me it may be the board as well. Well, luckily for my buddy I had one last place to take it BEFORE I gave up on it. I took it to another friend of mine who is Apple certified, and he had just delt with something like it. He told me to update the firmware (I thought, yaaa, riiight, ok, whatever? firmware is NOT gonna help this..), but away I went to update the firmware, and OMG, IT FREGGIN' WORKED. It is a know bug with that particular model of CRT iMac. I could not believe my eyes!! I used to be Apple certified years ago, and decided to call a contact I had who works for support for Apple..I told him the story and he agreed that this has been known for sometime? usually people don't know about it, cause most don't visit the Apple discussion boards or think it is hardware and warranty is out, so they don't call. Try it, it will more than likely work. Let me know your outcome!

This may shed some light on the problem, you can go here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58179

This one does not mention the problem of video (but again, neither did the other firmware update.) I am trying to get a hold of my buddy to see which firmware update he used.

~tommy

ghost_user_name · November 29, 2003 1:55PM

Hope you are right...

I have only known the firmware update fix and prevent CRT problems after or before installing OSX. I think his iMac is running OS 9 or 8.6. I could be wrong about his OS... he never stated which one he uses on the iMac. If you are running OSX with out the firmware update then UPDATE for the love of god!

If not then update anyway... it won't hurt but may not solve your problem.

Oh and he never said anything about tossing the mac... so don't worry about him parting with it.

tommy_thompson · November 29, 2003 4:03PM

Well, that is what I thought..but the video was acting REALLY bizzare on this one too, still on Mac OS9. He wanted me to upgrade it to Mac OX. He had his wife buy the X cause he did not want to look like a "techie". But seriously, he was still on Mac OS9 when this all went down. And if he is already on X, then even a better reason to do the update.

~tommy

350 iMac CRT going bad?

Comments