Headless iMac Adventure

-


About 4 years ago, I came into possession of a nice iMac. I was pretty stoked about it because it was 500 MHz model- pretty respectable for an iMac of that time period.
I had even heard of them running OSX!

I took it home, plugged it in, and turned it on. An unsettling "ZZZZZZZT!" emanated from the back of it and it lost power. Not to be dissuaded, I tried it again- this I looking into the back of the case through the vent slits. Same noise and I saw lightning bolts up to 6 inches long in there and it lost power.

I noticed this model had a sexy VGA port on the back of it and an idea began to form..

During the next couple hours of searching on the net, I came to the understanding that what I was imagining had been done before and it had a name. It had come to be known as the headless iMac.

I couldn't use the power supply after disassembly because safety is fairly important and the high voltage part was inseparable from the part that supports the logic board. So I needed to use an ATX power supply (gasp! Not a pc part!)
Unfortunately, another couple hours searching on the net revealed ONE site that told how to do it- in French. I don't speak French. Or read it. Enter translate.reference.com! Weeee!

After the translating and soldering, it worked.

And booted into OSX. That's right- OSX! The person before me had loaded OSX. Sadly, he did not read that you must update the bios before you bring it up to X or you get a blurry screen. Note the picture below- that is not a cam quality issue you are seeing on the screen (well some of it is)- the dock actually blurs toward the right like a comet.

Here is where my memory fuzzes a little in- terms of versions. I bought a disc on eBay to reload it to the old os 8.6, I think, so I could update my BIOS. I never got it to work and lost heart.

Now my lonely little headless Frankenstein iMac/PC sits on a shelf between 2 PowerPCs.

I know what you are thinking! Just update the BIOS. By 'just update the bios,' you are saying reload 8.6(because that bios update utility will not run on OSX- which I don't have the disk) update the bios THEN re reload OSX- which I don't have that disk either.
But one day...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Click Bait Using Logan Paul's Name and Face

-
Image
It's not really clickbait since I am commenting on him. I want you to look long and hard into his face and think about what you see. Before the trending tile on my tablet directed the browser to his apology video, I had never read or heard his name. I watched a few seconds of it and didn't see anything of value to me. As in, I was bored. My first impression told me he had a weird looking long face and his hair was stupid.  I know that is shallow and of no consequence so I gave it not another thought.  Over the next few weeks, more an more things about him touched my consciousness and I watched a video made by a former friend of his. Later, I was shocked to learn he earned a million dollars a month making outrageous videos popular with preteens. I didn't watch any of his videos and still haven't. This is my opinion- he's nothing; empty. He gettin pizzaid to be nothing.
Read more

Fate of the Furious Ending Scene

-
Image
I was watching the ending scene where everyone is hanging out of the rooftop. As the camera pulled away from the actors I noticed something strange. The focal length of the camera was changed as the camera pulled away.  I decided to figure out where that was. I knew it was in New York City somewhere because of the establishing shots. After watching the sweeping shots in and out of the picnic scene and looking for visual clues, I found it: 767 10th Ave, New York, NY 10019  It's the building wherein resides Sonny's Groceries.   I wish I would have captured some images from the DVD but the library wanted it back. Before that, however, I matched up my view from Google Earth to fit the frame as best matches it in the movie.  You will have to watch it yourself to see how well I did. The whole city is a CG model and that rooftop is a fiction. Also, the tall building behind the one in the scene was made much shorter or removed altogether so the twin Clinto
Read more