Bought an original iMac, couple questions.

[kdot2004]

Picked up an old iMAC for $10 the other day Came with everything, the only problem is it won't boot up It just doesn't wanna power up. Any ideas?

This is my first MAC and I bought it to see if I liek how MAC works so I can decide between a Windows laptop or a powerbook.

 

[Lyfer]

I'm guessing the mac got everything working stripped out (hard drive/cpu/ram/etc.). So it'll prolly cost you an arm and a leg to get it booting up (plus the OS is hard to find/expensive for old macs). If need help deciding between a windows/powerbook, go to a local retailer and try them out.

 

[kdot2004]

Actually, everything's there. My brothers a mac guy and he looked at it and identified all the parts, we just cant figure out why the thing won't boot up.

 

[GL]

I hate to break it to you, but your iMac probably runs an OS that is entirely different than what would ship on a new Powerbook. We're not talking the same type of difference between say Windows XP and Windows 95, but Windows XP and Windows 3.1. That iMac probably has OS 8 or OS 9 on it. There have been 4 major Mac OS releases since OS 9 - 10.0, 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3. Don't be fooled by the point releases - each point release has been a major upgrade unlike in the Windows world where a service pack (the equivalent of a point release) is not considered a very big upgrade. The newest OS, OS X 10.3 would run on your iMac with 128 MB RAM but it would be very slow. Interestingly enough, 10.3 is faster than 10.2 which is faster than 10.1 which is faster than 10.0. So if you try any version of OS X on this machine, stick with 10.3.

In regards to your original question though, try searching Apple's site for instructions on how to reset your iMac's "PMU". That's the power management unit and often is the cause of start-up troubles.

 

[Bleep]

It probably has to have the Boot floppy in the drive.
Bleep

 

[Twsmit]

they probably nuked the hard drive. Try to get a boot CD.OS install CD. Any version of OS 9 or OSX should work, though maybe not very fast with the newer ones.

 

[labrat25]

what does it do?

beep?
screen light up?
drives click?

anything?

 

[AIWGuru]

The original iMac ran OS 8.1.
If the hard drive were blank it would still boot and you would get a "SAD MAC" face on your screen.
One person suggested booting from the floppy. Guess what? There isn't a floppy drive.
Where all of the USB connectors are (where the keyboard and mouse are plugged in) you'll fine the BIOS (or as apple calls it "Parameter ram") reset switches. You can find the manual on www.apple.com (it's different for each model) and try resetting the bios. If that fails, it's the power supply, or motherboard (or anything connected like RAM, processor. Anyway, that thing really isn't worth fixing.

 

[AIWGuru]

By the way, I think the power button for that model might have been on the keyboard. How exactly ARE you trying to turn it on?

 

[AIWGuru]

You could try this but i have a feeling you'd be better off with the switches:
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

 

[AIWGuru]

By the way, using that to decide between a mac and a windows machine would not be fair.
That os doesn't even have protected memory and the interface is completely different than Apple's current OS (although it's just as moronic and non-functional)
You should get the windows laptop. If you, you know, want to do anything with it.

 

[Erasmus-X]

Picked up an old iMAC for $10 the other day Came with everything, the only problem is it won't boot up It just doesn't wanna power up. Any ideas?

This is my first MAC and I bought it to see if I liek how MAC works so I can decide between a Windows laptop or a powerbook.

Well first of all, as mentioned before, that original iMac probably runs a legacy Mac OS (like 8.x or 9.x); too slow OS X, which is a radically different OS. Therefore, I don't think it would present itself as a good reference if you got the thing running. If you've been on the PC platform for enough years, you'll probably hate the legacy versions of Mac OS.

Probably the best thing to do is to find someone who's selling a faster G3 (>500 MHz) for a good price and toy with OS X on that machine. It won't be the fastest thing in the world, but at least it'll give a feel of OS X, since a new Apple machine will ship with it. You can even stop by an Apple retailer and try them out a bit.

 

[thorin]

kdot2004 It's be really good if you could be a little more specific then ""we just cant figure out why the thing won't boot up. "

Does it error out?
Does it get stuck at a certain screen?
Does it not power on at all? Does the HD sping up? Does the CPU fan spin?

Thorin