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I have an older blue and white iMac G3 that will
not boot.. it chimes, and seems like it is going to
load, but never shows anything on the display. I
hooked it up to a VGA but still nothing.I did however turn the power on today and after
the apple chime, it gave 3 short low pitched
beeps.. some kind of code i am guessing... any
idea what that code means or what my problem
might be?
There may be a couple problems, depending on the age.
Number one, the motherboard PRAM battery may be dead. Replacing this may not be for the faint of heart, but not impossible.
However, if you are opening your case, take your hard drive out and look at the bottom. There may be a chip that is fried -- blown-up -- on one corner. I have seen this several times and it totally keeps the computer from working at all.
Also, you may have a bad BIOS. This is rare, and may only be fixable by an apple tech. It is also hard to diagnose, so I wouldn't jump to this conclusion unless ALL ELSE fails.
K
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ok I THINK that the problem is the video board,
but I need to know of a place to buy a
replacement CHEAP and also if someone could
point me to some kind of instructions or diagrams
to take apart the imac, that would help a LOT...
thanks in advance
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added bit of info that might help someone help me
when i plug it in and turn it on, it does not chime...
when i then hold down cmd-option-p-r and do a
hard reset it DOES chime every time its reset
thereafter (still does not bring anything on screen
or on external vga) unless it is unplugged...
following the chime on reset though, the green
power light comes on for a few seconds, then
turns yellow for 2 seconds, then blinks yellow 3
times, then turns green again.. this repeats until
the imac is turned off....any idea what the blinking means?
thanks again
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Grab the service manual from google (hint: search for "gamba") and see if that flashing pattern is listed as a diagnostic code.
p
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BTW, if it is the video board (by which I hope you mean the power/analogue board), a TV repair shop may be able to fix it cheaper than Apple will. If it's the video *card*, which is part of the mobo, you'll need a new mobo.
p
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yeah i think it might be the card on the mb now
that i think about it.. since the vga output also
does not work and that is on the motherboard...
time to look for a new logic board on ebay or
something :)
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Well i did some testing, and found there was not a
full 5+ voltage on the logic board on J9, which
according to the manual means the analog/video/
power board is badalso found a place to buy the part...
preowned.com... $129 and they said they have
so far had 10,000 of this product sold by them
over the years
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