What to do with a dead eMac?

[XerdoPwerko]

Greetings, everybody.

Yesterday, I went to my brother's house to pick up some books I needed to read, and he told me he had been given a dead eMac.

I checked the serial number on the machine, and it's not covered by the eMac warranty extension. The machine starts up (I get the typical mac sound), the CD drive spins and probably reads, and the mouse and keyboard seem to work... but the CRT gets no power and probably no signal. What I've seen on threads that I read about this issue, is that it's pretty much not worth the hassle or money to fix the machine.
The Apple service people told my brother's friends the same thing.

So, with this being a community with plenty of hackers, and with my brother's permission to do pretty much anything (I get to keep the machine!), if anyone has a creative idea of what to do with this thing, it'll be very welcome.

If any of the components can be salvaged and given any better use, that would also rock.

[WolverineDK]

Hmmm what about, if you can get some kind of display through something. Then install linux , or something else. And make it a hardware firewall , perhaps closedBSD could be a suitable solution ?

since the emac itself is a "good" machine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMac.

Or something else funky, like maxing out the ram. and do something funky with it :)

[madhatter256]

you mean this iMac? http://images.apple.com/pr/photos/iMac/imac-medres.jpg

Not worth it. The CRT in it might feed off the same power supply in it, and not all CRT tubes are the same. All that I think is salvagable is the HDD and probably RAM.

**edit**

Just posted a few minutes after DK did, and saw the actual difference. Didn't know there was a thing such as an eMac. But anyway, since it is still one of those types of Macs then the chance of switching out the CRT from a standart CRT is out of the question due to variations. There is also the possible danger from the capacitors in them.

[Blur2040]

You lucky devil, I've always wanted a newer Mac. My Mac Laptop is ten years old. Boo!


Anyhoo, I guess my first instinct is to see if theres any way you can save the computer part of it (if you have any use for it). I assume theres no VGA out or anything like that to hook up an external monitor?

At the very least, there has to be a spot where you can hack on a connector.

[madhatter256]

You lucky devil, I've always wanted a newer Mac. My Mac Laptop is ten years old. Boo!


Anyhoo, I guess my first instinct is to see if theres any way you can save the computer part of it (if you have any use for it). I assume theres no VGA out or anything like that to hook up an external monitor?

At the very least, there has to be a spot where you can hack on a connector.

Most likely 'no' on standard VGA output. IF it is, then thats great but if not, then well you'll have to dig around for service manuals or something that has a pin out of the video connector connecting to the monitor and create your homemade VGA output and you pretty much 'fixed' it if you accomplish that.

[Barc0de]

I thought Macs used a different standard video connector than the VGA d-sub?

[XerdoPwerko]

Yeah, they do. You need an adapter.

Madhatter: No, it's not that model, but it's the last model to use a similar casing, the white Emac.

[Chip]

You try 'zapping the PRAM' yet?

Hold <Apple><option><P><R> and turn on your Mac. Continue to hold until you hear 3 dongs.

http://www.techsurvivors.net/faqs/pram_how.html

[madhatter256]

Yeah, they do. You need an adapter.

Madhatter: No, it's not that model, but it's the last model to use a similar casing, the white Emac.

Yeh. I read the link WolverineDK posted.

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

Well, just to point out the obvious, if you can determine that it isn't a software problem, you might try opening up the machine to see if there are any loose cables or anything. If the monitor is dead, it might be possible to wire the lead coming from it to another monitor. You'd need a circuit diagram for that.

[XerdoPwerko]

Okay, thanks for the info, Chip. I zapped the PRAM and got the Dongs, but no dice on the screen.

MadHatter - sorry, yeah, it's the one Wolvie posted.

[social_drone]

the emac has a video monitor port on the back, you just need a cheap adapter to use an external VGA monitor.

and you could allways carefully take out the guts, ditch the internal monitor..and shove it all in a pc case. carefull with the crt though, mishandling it could be deadly. maybe have someone who knows what they are doing disassemble the emac.

[liquitt]

I think this is the only thing you could do :)

[XerdoPwerko]

Awesome idea, Liquitt, but I unfortunately dislike fish as pets.

It seems I'll have to salvage components, and make something creative out of the case, other than an aquarium. I'll think of stuff.

[liquitt]

Terrarium maybe? I think you'd find enough geckos or other reptiles in Mexico :)

[nem]

How about an ant farm? :nod:

[XerdoPwerko]

Bright idea, though it may be a VERY stupid question.

Can the hard drive be salvaged in some way, either to connect to a PC or to become an encased USB external? That would rock so much...

[Anhaedra]

You should ask about this on the AppleFritter forums.

www.applefritter.com

[ServiceGames]

Bright idea, though it may be a VERY stupid question.

Can the hard drive be salvaged in some way, either to connect to a PC or to become an encased USB external? That would rock so much...

There's no reason you couldn't use the hard drive in another system. It's probably just a common fujitsu drive. Don't let Apple fool you into thinking that they use special parts. ;)

[Barc0de]

Give it a proper eFuneral :lol: (available for download on iFuneral online funeral service, by Apple)