CRTGAMER wrote:That is sweet. I included your earlier picture that shows the difference. Suggest posting this suberb fix on any major iMac Forum site, get the word out! Replacement 17" and 20" LCD widescreen monitors are plentiful and inexpensive at Thrift and Recycle Center stores.
Thanks, CRT! I appreciate your vote of confidence.
You know what they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention," Right? I've been impoverished most of my life. (who am I kidding? I'm barely above the poverty line now!
) I learned early on the value of fixing what's broken instead of throwing it away. My grandfather taught me that we live in a "throwaway culture" where nearly everything seems disposable, but if you invest your time and sweat into fixing something you get an even greater value. Sometimes this requires a stubborn personality because it's always easier to quit and give up when you hit a wall. You just have to get creative and improvise until you come to a solution. The solution isn't always obvious, but if you keep attacking the problem from different angles, you just might figure it out.
Don't get me wrong, it ain't all "grampa wisdom" and gumption.
I also use google and ifixit just like everyone else.
TroubleshootingCRTGAMER wrote:Now if there were a similar guide for the earlier G3 CRT combos, some have a history of the video failing. Usually an over saturated pink screen caused by the PCB failing and not the tube though.
Hmm... This is an interesting problem. I don't have a lot of experience working on Cathode Ray Tubes, but I'm sure you're familiar with them, eh CRT?
I understand you own more than one G3 iMac, right? Do any of them have a pink screen problem such as you described? If so, what's the model number and emc number? I'd like to look into it out of curiosity.
Before we say for certain that this Pink Screen issue is a hardware problem, let's make absolutely sure we rule out software problems. What if the problem isn't actually in the CRT display itself? Maybe this comes down to the instructions that the Mac is using to communicate data to the display. It never hurts to try zapping the PRAM and the NVRAM. That's a simple quick fix that works more often then one might guess, and there's practically zero risk to harm your system. Might as well rule out simple things before we progress to more complicated things.
I'm assuming you probably have OS9 installed in a dual boot configuration, right? I would try booting into both OS9 and OSX. You might also try booting to a target disk in another mac. Do you have the pink screen on both operating systems? If not, then you have found where your problem lies. If the Pink Screen persists irrespective of the operating system, then I think we need to look at the firmware next.
I have heard that some of the G3 iMacs need a firmware update, or conversely, that they need to be restored to their previous firmware. This would probably be a job for OS9 I think. Make sure you download all the different firmware revisions for your G3 iMac. Have them handy on a flash drive or burned to a CD-R. Try the most recent firmware first. If that doesn't alleviate the problem, move onto progressively older firmware. If none of these works, make sure to re-reinstall the newest firmware at the end of this step. Newest firmware is nearly always the best firmware.
Once we rule out the Software and the Firmware, let's move onto the hardware. From here we remove the internal monitor and try to replace it with compatible parts.
Standard disclaimer: Be careful; CRT monitors can carry enough charge to harm/kill a careless person. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that, CRTgamer.
I think I mentioned before that older tray-loading G3 iMacs have an
internal VGA connection buried inside the machine. I failed to mention that back in the day, Apple used a proprietary connector for VGA signals. Sound familiar?
Apple's gonna apple. The old school Macintosh VGA connector is fifteen pins just like every other VGA connector, but it's shaped a little differently. Instead of three rows of five pins, The Macintosh video connector has two rows of pins (eight on one row, seven on the other row). The one in a G3 still transmits a VGA-compatible signal, you just need to source a cheap adapter. These used to be more common back in the day, but I haven't spied one in a few years. Looks like this:
more info on the adapters here:
http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/mactovga.txtIf you can find one of these adapters, you could replace the monitor inside a tray-loading G3 iMac pretty cheaply.
Edit: Found more info on connecting a VGA monitor inside a tray-loading iMac here:
http://lowendmac.com/mail/mb07/0725.html