Apple Archive

Death of an iMac

- 2001.03.30

When we bought our Rev. B iMac, USB was a brand new thing. There was one consumer printer available for the iMac, the Epson Stylus Colour 740 (not the 740i - that came later). We bought the iMac (and upgraded the RAM to 64 MB) and the printer.

The old iMacs had a number of problems. First, as new printers and USB devices were introduced, these iMacs wouldn't support a number of them. Our printer didn't come with the iMac installer CD, and after several hours of being on the phone with tech support, we found out we had to download the software. The iMac was set up on the Internet (that's where the 'i' in iMac came from), so we downloaded it.

The iMac came with Mac OS 8.5, which was the latest from Apple at that time. It was probably one of the most popular OS upgrades ever. Of course, 8.5 wasn't bug-free, and soon came 8.5.1 and 8.6.

We downloaded the OS 8.6 update, but it wouldn't work on our Rev. B iMac without a firmware update. We installed that, and then the 8.6 update. Shortly after Mac OS 9 came out, we installed that on the iMac, along with another firmware upgrade. It worked great, but was a little slow. A RAM upgrade to 160 MB helped. The day 9.1 came out, we installed that. The old iMac ran it well enough.

We were all ready to install Mac OS X on it, but just two days before that happened, my mom asked me to come look at the iMac. She had noticed that it would make arcing noises when she woke it from sleep. I told her to put it to sleep and wake it up again, so I could see if it was just her imagination. We put it to sleep, and I heard the noises as it went to sleep. I waited a second and hit a key on the keyboard. I heard the hard drive spin up, and then the noises started - but they got very loud this time. My mom mentioned that it wasn't this loud before. They started getting loud enough that I knew the end was near.

In just a couple seconds, the little power light blinked off, and all was silent.

We immediately unplugged it and called our dealer. The dealer thought it was going to cost about $300 to have it repaired. Considering that a used iMac like ours can be had for $400 or less on eBay, it would probably be a better deal to buy a new iMac.

What model to choose? The entry-level iMac is a lot like the Summer 2000 iMac DV (in fact, I think it is the same). The 500 MHz iMac iMac 2001comes with twice as much VRAM (16 MB vs. 8), a CD-RW drive, and a 500 MHz G3 instead of the 400 MHz of the entry-level iMac. Not to mention the 500 MHz model is available in Indigo, Blue Dalmatian, and Flower Power.

The high-end iMac runs at 600 MHz, includes 16 MB of VRAM, a CD-RW drive, and is available in graphite as well as Blue Dalmatian and Flower Power.

We generally keep our computers for 3-4 years, so the iMac was due for replacement next year. In buying a new computer, part of the question is "how long do you want to keep it?" If you want to keep your computer for only one or two years, buy the base model. If you want to keep it for three or four years, buy either the base model and upgrade it as much as you can, or buy a higher end model and upgrade as you go along. My mom chose the latter, buy a higher end model and upgrade as she goes.

We ordered a 500 MHz iMac in Indigo blue. The next thing we have to do is buy some more RAM, and then my mom will have a fast system ready to run OS X.

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Opinions expressed are those of their authors and may not reflect the opinion of Cobweb Publishing. Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all.
  Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2016 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Low End Mac, LowEndMac, and lowendmac.com are trademarks of Cobweb Publishing Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad, iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, Mac Pro, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
  Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it, and we don't share the information we have with others. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Page not found | Low End Mac

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

Page not found | Low End Mac

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
Cult of Mac
Shrine of Apple
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
The Vintage Mac Museum
Deal Brothers
DealMac
Mac2Sell
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End Mac FAQ

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
Macgo Blu-ray Player
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay

Low End Mac's Amazon.com store

Advertise

Well this is somewhat embarrassing, isn’t it?

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching, or one of the links below, can help.

Most Used Categories

Archives

Try looking in the monthly archives. :)

at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link