iMac G4 fuse question

Stranger_Than_Fiction

Can anyone advise? We had a power surge last night and this morning our pretty old iMac G4 will not work. The fuse in the plug has now been changed but can anyone tell me whether there is a separate internal fuse?

There is a lot of really important work on this computer which we desperately want to get off. Yes, it should have been backed up but blame OH as it's his, not mine.

Any ideas would be welcome.

isofa

I don't know specifically about this model, but most computers have a fuse in their power supply too.

Also try this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1712?viewlocale=en_US

Leopard

"Will not work" is not wonderfully helpful in diagnosing what is wrong with it.

I run all my own Macs on surge-protected Uninterrupted Power Supply units - they aren't expensive. You should, at the very least, be using surge-protectors.

If you can mange to get it up into Target Mode you could access the data on its hard drive by means of a Firewire lead.

Stranger_Than_Fiction

Leopard wrote: »

"Will not work" is not wonderfully helpful in diagnosing what is wrong with it.

I run all my own Macs on surge-protected Uninterrupted Power Supply units - they aren't expensive. You should, at the very least, be using surge-protectors.

If you can mange to get it up into Target Mode you could access the data on its hard drive by means of a Firewire lead.

Will not work as in will not turn on or do anything...

Leopard

The likeliest answer is therefore, as suggested by isofa, a problem within the power supply unit - perhaps just the fuse.

Best to take it to an Apple dealer or an Apple Retail store.

Removing the hard drive (which is probably intact) of a G4 iMac is not a simple task.

Stranger_Than_Fiction

Leopard wrote: »

The likeliest answer is therefore, as suggested by isofa, a problem within the power supply unit - perhaps just the fuse.

Best to take it to an Apple dealer or an Apple Retail store.

Removing the hard drive (which is probably intact) of a G4 iMac is not a simple task.

Thanks, that's why I was asking if there was a further fuse other than in the plug. Am I being dense here but I assume that's what you mean when you refer to power supply? We're going to try re-setting the PMU later on to see if that has any effect - it was the only other thing I could think of.

Leopard

Worth trying, I guess, but if it's not receiving any power...

They are, as you say, a beautiful Mac (the only iMac I've ever liked - I wish they'd made an Intel version) but the downside of their clever design is that getting inside them and working on them is very tricky.

A new or repaired power supply unit would probably get it up and running again, though, if that's all that's wrong with it. There's a good chance that otherwise it's fine.

Still, it's difficult to give an informed view without actually seeing it.

Good luck!

almillar

The power supply, in the context of a normal desktop PC, is the part that the mains cable comes into from the wall. It converts the AC power into DC, and gives different amounts of power to the motherboard, hard disk drives and other components. I THINK that the iMac G4 has this internally (There's no 'power brick' on the cable to your computer?), so you'd need to take it apart to find a fuse.
Taking Macs apart is much easier if you use the guides on this website http://www.ifixit.com/ let us know how you get on...
HTH

Leopard

almillar wrote: »

The power supply, in the context of a normal desktop PC, is the part that the mains cable comes into from the wall. It converts the AC power into DC, and gives different amounts of power to the motherboard, hard disk drives and other components. I THINK that the iMac G4 has this internally (There's no 'power brick' on the cable to your computer?), so you'd need to take it apart to find a fuse.
Taking Macs apart is much easier if you use the guides on this website http://www.ifixit.com/ let us know how you get on...
HTH

I don't have a picture of the power supply arrangement in a G4 iMac to offer, myself, but one of the pictures in this eBay item illustrates where the power lead feeds into the back of the iMac.

Power Supply Units are not something it's wise to mess about with if you don't know exactly what you're doing and accessing the internals of a G4 iMac is not an exercise for the faint-hearted.

Apple has this and this to say about it.

Which I'm sure the worried OP has already studied.

Crucially, though, it should be possible to retrieve the OP's important data direct from the hard drive which should itself be intact - even if this means removing it from the iMac or perhaps plugging external leads into the drive while it is still in situ.

But who knows, maybe re-setting its PMU will bring it to life...

Otherwise, like Apple, I'd recommend a visit to the nearest Apple dealer or Apple Retail Store with it.

Messing about with computer components is one thing but nobody should post on here advice that could lead to somebody inexperienced getting electrocuted. :eek:

DatabaseError

almillar wrote: »

Taking Macs apart is much easier if you use[STRIKE] the guides[/STRIKE] a big hammer

Fixed it for ya

//runs off and hides under a bridge

Stranger_Than_Fiction

DatabaseError wrote: »

Fixed it for ya

//runs off and hides under a bridge

Ha, we had thought of this! :rotfl: