iMac, meet display
The other day
I posted about a reader who had
removed the dead display from a Powerbook, and then connected it to an external display. While writing, I thought,
"Well I have an old 333mhz iMac in the basement with a dead display. I wonder..."I opened up the iMac and removed the display connector. I attached an Apple Multiple Scan 1705 Display, booted the iMac and ta-da! It worked. When set to a resolution of 800x600, it looked perfect. See the picture to the right.
I've since put the iMac under my work bench like a PC tower (upside down, since the bottom is off), with the big, 17" CRT above. New life for an old Mac! Next I'm going to put a hole in the bottom plastic so I can sit that iMac right side up. More pictures after the jump.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Fabienne Serriere said 6:46AM on 2-05-2006
I love the post-it notes on the screens! The notes evoke: "please fix me. i'm cute!"
cheers,
fbz
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ambimb said 7:31AM on 2-05-2006
I did this same thing a couple of years ago and now my mom uses the old iMac as her only computer. It's too bad there's no easy way to get rid of that big old dead iMac monitor once it dies, but at least you can still use the rest of the machine.
I have an old iBook w/a dead screen, too. Maybe I'll upgrade her to that soon....
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fra said 7:37AM on 2-05-2006
Are you gona trick Tiger to install on it?
I love how you link to Apple.com when we click Read *cough*
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Chris said 7:43AM on 2-05-2006
This is why I'm a Mini owner. I can't afford a Power Mac, and I refuse to own a macine with a built-in display.
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lokipo said 7:49AM on 2-05-2006
What's that thing left to your 17" CRT in the last picture?
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Brad said 7:53AM on 2-05-2006
That's hot. Makes me want to go and use my iMac right now.
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Kaegan Donnelly said 8:04AM on 2-05-2006
Apple has themselves in a bit of a pickle. I heard someone suggest just recently that Apple offer an iMac minus the display. The problem with that is it would probably sell better than the actual iMac, so it would kind of muddle up the product line. I guess the mac mini does a good job of it, however. Come to think of it, the Cube was that sort of product when it was introduced, and it didn't sell well. So who knows.
I own a 20" iMac G5, and I have a 3 year applecare warranty. I've never lasted with a computer longer than 3 years, of course that was on the PC platform... so who knows. I'm sure I'll give into my urge to upgrade before then, though.
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Greyson said 8:45AM on 2-05-2006
I did the same thing with my old iMac rev. A when the analog board quit. Instead of using 800x600 I chose to hook it up to a 21" Dell Trinitron and run it at 1600x1200 through a db-15 to VGA adaptor. The iMac case supports the table the hulk of a moniter sits on.
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mike said 8:47AM on 2-05-2006
Does someone knows how to reverse this method? Like: My iMac's computer is death, but the monitor is still working fine, and now i would like to connect my Mac Mini trough it.
A link or explonation whould be appriciated. Thanks in advance.
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Dezro said 8:49AM on 2-05-2006
You should take all the iMac guts out, trash the broken display, put the rest in a cheap case, and fishtankerize the iMac case.
I mean, it's almost tradition.
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Dave said 9:43AM on 2-05-2006
Fabz: The sticky notes list each machine's stats, like RAM, HD, OS, etc. And yes, some of them simply say "RIP." :)
lokipo: That's a G3 All In One:
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3aio.shtml
It was the iMac's immediate predecessor and was available only to schools. I've got two. Nice, upgradable machine.
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Dave said 9:53AM on 2-05-2006
Dezro:
I've thought about just transplanting the iMac's guts. We'll see if I'm inspired by the right case.
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eric Silverman said 9:57AM on 2-05-2006
yeah, if you want yu cant just set it up with a tiny atx power supply (its very simple, just google it)
then put it in a slimline case, and your set
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alex said 11:13AM on 2-05-2006
#9: You should be able to remove the iMac's mobo and other assorted guts, and then only have the monitor left in there. The monitor connects using the old Apple connector, but all you have to do is get an adapter to VGA and you can use the Mini's included DVI to VGA connector. Then, just throw the mini somewhere in the case... you might want to rewire the power button somewhere.
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Wojtek said 12:01PM on 2-05-2006
Fra: there's no need to "trick" Tiger. I've got Tiger running on an iMac 350SL and on an iMac 233TL (meanwhile upgraded with a 333MHz processor). I just upgraded Panthers running on these computers with Tiger (CD version, yet another 14 bucks) and they're OK.
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Twist said 1:01PM on 2-05-2006
The old iMac's with dead displays are fun. I have an unfinished case mod project that uses one. You can check it out at http://www.deviantart.com/view/4493919/
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Ivan Lubiano said 12:28AM on 2-06-2006
That G3 all-in-one is sex in a nice form factor, seriously. I've been looking everywhere to get one, since I used them in school. Really hard to come by, it seems.
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Max said 1:10AM on 2-06-2006
"That G3 all-in-one is sex in a nice form factor, seriously. I've been looking everywhere to get one, since I used them in school. Really hard to come by, it seems."
You can pick one up on ebay quite cheap these days the place is swarming with them, thats where i got mine.
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Stephen Holland said 9:25AM on 2-06-2006
#9 (Mike) & #14 (Alex) I have the same problem. My iMac G4 (1st one) has a bad processor. It works fine until I try to compress video, then I get a kernel panic. I would really like to salvage the monitor and hard drive and put a mini in there. Alex, would you be willing to step me through? I'm pretty savvy about most things mac until you start talking about this sort of thing, but I sure would appreciate the help. --Stephen
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Wordman said 9:57AM on 2-06-2006
When resurrecting a funky iMac DV, I found it difficult to locate information. I eventually found info that solved my problems, particularly with the firmware. I posted the results here: http://asteroid.divnull.com/?m=200411
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