[wallijonn]

How does one open an iMac G3 Bondi or Blueberry?

I've removed the bottom 5 screws. Now what?

I hope someone here knows as I want to throw in a 30GB 7200rpm WD HD and 384 MB of PC133 (?) RAM before installing Ubuntu Linux.

 

[UW Howie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn How does one open an iMac G3 Bondi or Blueberry? I've removed the bottom 5 screws. Now what? I hope someone here knows as I want to throw in a 30GB 7200rpm WD HD and 384 MB of PC133 (?) RAM before installing Ubuntu Linux.

Try this page.
Upgrade an iMac
Show's you how to take it apart... has pictures too. Hope that helps.

 

[pigmode]

I had a Bondi rev B, the one where you have to pull the thing apart to install RAM. Took it apart 6 times for two hdd upgrades, twice for RAM, once for processer upgrade, and once for a Voodoo2 GameWizard. That thing rocked on Quake 3 at 28 fps.

The hardest was the hdd, which has retainer screws that are difficult to impossible to replace. Seem to recall a perforated grill/cage, the holes of which the screws had to go through to reach inside to the tabs that lock the hdd in place. Having a small magnetic tip handy might not be a bad idea.

It does not take PC 133, and there is a limit on RAM capacity somewhere under a gig if I remember correctly.

EDIT: FWIW: If you are partitioning your hdd and are creating *more than one* or multiple boot volumes, the G3 architecture sets a ridiculously low limit to the size of the first boot volume. If you go over that limit, then the other volumes will not be recognized as bootable.

Also, I seem to remember that all bootable volumes/partitions need to be within a set boundry at the top of the hdd. The G3 will only look so deep for boot info. These are more or less vague memories, but are a reasonable facsimile to the truth. Do your research.

 

[wallijonn]

Howie,

Thanks for the link. After seeing what was pictured, poorly at that, I was able to put my finger nail under the first, smaller, clear plastic cover and pry it from the larger clear plastic cover. It should be easy sailing from here. (I spent three hours googling yesterday on this problem). Yeah, I'm a tech, but taking apart an HP front panel takes over 20 minutes... The Mac was a lot easier.

Pigmode,

Thanks. I now see that it uses 144 pin PC100 SO-Dimms. Dang. I was hoping it used 'regular' PC100 or PC133 DIMMs. I really don't know if I want to put money into it. What I really wanted to do was to just throw Ubuntu on it, perhaps Hoary which looks a lot like Panther. At least I wouldn't be affected by their 8G partition limit (Holy NT4, Batman!).

So unless I can find parts off Ebay, read: really cheap, I may just sell it off at a loss. I paid $50 for it without a mouse and keyboard. I am resistant to paying $30 for a keyboard and was thinking of using my MS Wheel Mouse Optical mouse on it.

Paying $150 for OS8 or 9 or $130 for OSX is not an option. Which is why I was thinking of Ubuntu (free).

I would bypass external USB burners by just using a USB mem stick to transfer files to my WXP machine or just network the Linux box to my Windows box. (This all started when my friend bought a G4... I have been supporting him because he has absolutley no patience with Mac support and stores. I support his Windows machines, too. Man, the things we do for friends...)

 

[MichaelFranks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn I've removed the bottom 5 screws.

just did this a few days ago, their should be 6, not 5 screws!

 

[wallijonn]

Mike,

You must have a different Bondi (a 350?). My 233 tray loader has 5 screws, two under the handle, two in the recessed pockets, one under the smaller cover.

Maybe the G6 will have all the electronics incorporated into an LCD screen housing. I can envision a slot loader on the top of side... with USB, mem cards and firewire ports along the front bottom...

At the very least they can have the cube slide into a slot on the back of the LCD screen.

 

[wallijonn]

I've installed OSX on the 233 MHz Bondi (I had to buy a new keyboard) and man, is it slow! Maybe it's because it only has 96MB of RAM. 256MB will cost me about $55 - $75. But I'm having second doubts. Will it really help?

I see two problems with it - the monitor size (I'm used to 21" CRTs) and the mouse. I'm presently using a MS Optical Intellimouse and it give me problems with scrolling even with WXP. Man, I really love my Logitec MX510 and I should have picked up a second one last week when they were going for $24.95 after rebate. I also should have picked up an external USB2.0 enclosure with the 80GB WD HD for $40 after rebate as I'm thinking of installing a 30GB WD on it, which will leave me with one less HD for UBuntu.

I find the OSX dock to be almost useless. how does one remove applications from it? when using it I have to set it to auto hide because it takes up so much real estate, thereby interfering with web browsing. I have resized the dock so that it is half the size, but still see only so much functionality in it. With the addition of the dock getting to applications is a lot harder. Ubuntu is much better in this respect as it works more like Windows where there is a pull down menu with applications listed on it.

Since the Bondi has a tray loader CD rom, its usefullness is also called into question - you can't burn CDs and you can't watch movies. What is indispensible is having a USB port on the keyboard. MY regular Compaq keyboard did not work on it, even after buying a PS2 to USB converter. The new keyboard won't work with OS9, it can only be used i OSX and above. But to upgrade the firmware code you need )S9 installed. There's no way in which I am going to spend $150 to be able to upgrade the microcode, then throw it away and install OSX. Apple has a lot of 'splaining to do.

Sometimes it's a curse being a computer technician...

 

[MichaelFranks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn I've installed OSX on the 233 MHz Bondi (I had to buy a new keyboard) and man, is it slow! Maybe it's because it only has 96MB of RAM. 256MB will cost me about $55 - $75. But I'm having second doubts. Will it really help?

minimum requirements for osx are 128mb of ram I believe, so I guess you are lucky it even worked? ) again 512mb on a 400mhz is more than useable, any improvement would be better but at some point you should probably just consider getting a new machine. not sure what you could get for that beast but for 500$ the mac mini might be a worthwhile upgrade.

Quote:

I find the OSX dock to be almost useless. ow does one remove applications from it? hen using it I have to set it to auto hide because it takes up so much real estate, thereby interfering with web browsing. I have resized the dock so that it is half the size, but still see only so much functionality in it. With the addition of the dock getting to applications is a lot harder. Ubuntu is much better in this respect as it works more like Windows where there is a pull down menu with applications listed on it.

just pull it off the dock to remove it. you should also consider hiding the dock, simply mouse to the bottom of the screen to make it reappear.

Quote:

Since the Bondi has a tray loader CD rom, its usefullness is also called into question - you can't burn CDs and you can't watch movies. What is indispensible is having a USB port on the keyboard. MY regular Compaq keyboard did not work on it, even after buying a PS2 to USB converter.

any usb keyboard should work, if the converter sucks then the os can't really be held responsible. firewire drives are always a possibility and work great.

Not attempting to put words in your mouth here, I just want to make it clear that you are trying to build a ferrari with a 2 stroke engine, don't pass too much judgement until you have used a machine that at least meets the bare requirements! Did you get a 7200 RPM hard drive in there yet? That made a huge difference!

Sorry it has been so frustrating so far!

 

[450]

Did the 233mhz iMac come with firewire??

 

[wallijonn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 450 Did the 233mhz iMac come with firewire??

Nah, this is a first gen (Rev A) Bondi.

Michael,

I installed a 256MB SO-DIMM PC133 and it only saw 128MB. SO I'm going to have to try 2x256MB.

For some reason I could not pull off the 'Big E'. Not that it really is a problem as I will probably be re-installing OSX onto a 30GB WD ATA100 7200rpm HD. The Quantum / DEC 5400rpm 4GB HD isn't going to cut it. I should have bought that WD 80 GB USB2.0 drive in an enclosure last week for $40 when it was on sale.

Quote:

you are trying to build a ferrari with a 2 stroke engine

But, as a tech I have to try.

Before changing over the HD (what a pain to remove. This definitey goes against Apple's 'ease of changing parts' policy from the old days.) I'll probably try Ubuntu Hoary on the 4GB just for kicks.

If nothing else, after splitting the case open a half dozen times I can now do it in under 2 minutes. I'm going to see if I can't get a job at the local Apple store, so this at least helps getting reacquainted with their products (OSX).