[rescue] anyone ever work on imacs

[William Enestvedt]

I used to be a Mac guy, and the iMacs are a funny thing.
>
> Also, I'm trying to figure out how to open this thing... I'm having a
> hell of a time figuring out how this thing comes apart !
>
   The older ones required a full-nelson type of hold on them to wrest the
outer care from the bottom, but after that it's pretty strightforward. The one
you have is newer, and not so hard to crack. See the second URL, below, for a
link to a manual that explains how to disassemble it.
>
> [I want] to remove the picture tube, and to disable the HV, etc
> of the internal monitor (my plan is to use it with an external
> monitor till I can locate a dead unit/parts unit someday...
>
   It's worth noting that the Power/Analog/Video boards still die on the
iMacs, and it involves the modem as well as some video stuff. I'm fuzzy on
just _what_ is monted there, but a big portion of my iMac problems were solved
by its replacement.
   I have a 600MHz G3 iMac, which is about the same age as yours, and I had
its analog board replaced when it was about sixty days old. (Yeah, AppleCare,
baby!) It's emitting a low whine again, and I dunno if that's the analog board
singing its death song again. *sigh*
>
> So, anyone out there familiar with iMacs enough to know if I
> can disable the internal monitor and run this on the external
> VGA connector ?
>
   I think the external VGA is just a slave of the internal video, so you
probably don't want to monkey with the internals too much.
   The FAQ for a piece of software called SwitchRes makes it sound like the
computer should run happily with nothing being displayed on the internal
monitor:
      http://www.madrau.com/html/SR2/FAQ.html
   The manuals for everything Apple are still available from here, though
these types of resources never seem to last:
      http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/manuals.html
>
> I'd like to play with MacOSX sometime, and this is the only
> thing with enough horsepower to be able to possibly do it...
>
   I have OS X 10.2.3 on my iMac, and I lurrrrve it. Just get as much RAM as
you can into the thing.
-wde
--
Will Enestvedt
UNIX System Administrator
Johnson & Wales University -- Providence, RI