iMac Video Problem?, What do I replace? Options

[usafjerzy]

Well I guess the real question is "What's Going On And How Do I Fix IT?". I purchased this old iMac PowerPC G3 233mhz. The CPU and memory have all been upgraded. The CPU I belive I saw was at 433mhz? and the ram was at 512mb. It had OS X on with the CD's so I went to put a bigger hard drive and reinstall the OS. When I put humpty Dumpty back together I get this.Click Here For Screenshot! Now I double checked and triple checked all the connections to make sure something didn't come loose, and I still get the picture you see before you. Is there someone who can tell me whats going on and how to fix it. Also I know there are people going to say it's not worth fixing, but this computer and me have history id like to have like new again. Thanks..

[serges2]

Heya, I have no experience with Macs, but it took soooooo long on my shtty dial-up connection to see your screenshot that I gave up. I have a question or two, you put a bigger HD in, was it totally clean( ie. 00 formatted)?? If it wasn't idenical to the the one installed I can see issues. Put the old one back in and see if it still works. Use another machine to dump your HD info on the new ( reformatted) drive), install the new drive, dont do other things at the same time get that working first. Installing a new OS on a machine thats not functioning in the first place is a NONO, you supposedly work on these things you should know better It is my thoughts that you should have reformated the new drive first, then installed it, then, with a totally clean PC installed the OS. Little steps man. Personnally I'd have done the dump on the new HD, if it didn't work then there is something wrong in the format? Dunno, just thot I'd be the first to answer ya (heya I'm an admitted novice, but logical). More info would be great, like model no.s of what you have and what you're workin with, its how you ask the Q's as much as what is wrong

[usafjerzy]

Thats was one of my first thoughts when I put it back together the first time. I had reformatted the bigger drive before I put it in. Than when that picture showed up a wierd, I put the old HD back in. I still got the same picture. So i have checked the connection about 8 times and still no change.

Also sorry about the pic it's 1.1mb!

[serges2]

Well I finally had time to look at your (huge, Irfanview, great resizing utility search 'resizing' here or google it ) pic, could it be the graphics card isn't seated properly?? The image really doesn't tell much eh 'cept you've got problems, can you test the HD's in another machine? Can you get into your bios or anything or is that it? No post? Any beeps or some such? I'd check all your components seatings, try a lower/other RAM, switch what you can with the origional HD in place, is it possible to flash the bios? Was it running fine before you mucked with it? Has it travelled since (maybe knock a bit?)? Sorry about more questions than answers here, my curious nature at play. Dunno, going to go google Mac problems, keep us posted on your developments

This post has been edited by serges2: Oct 8 2006, 08:42 PM

[serges2]

I think I may have stumbled onto your answer/problem, please read through this thread, esp. the part about firmware updates and doing an install of OS X without them, seems that it doesn't play well with your vidoe card , it is here> http://groups.google.ca/group/comp.sys.mac...f2ffa9d392f9627
Oh I do love Googlin'!!
Hope this gives you some ideas

Regards, Serge

This post has been edited by serges2: Oct 8 2006, 09:00 PM

[usafjerzy]

Sweet Jesus! Thank You SERGES! Lets see if I can fix this.