New iMac G3 but player not working

[Pmg]

Hello everyone,

I just bought an iMac G3 for 50 euros.
I can't find out the speed of its processor but a priori it is a 500 MHZ because the line “500/IN/64/20/CD/ULTRA/56K” is written on the label glued below. When I go to the menu about this mac (os 9.2) the processor is not mentioned but only the RAM: 192mb.
I prefer to say it here right away, I don't know anything about computers (or not much) and don't know this OS at all. My first mac was under Tiger.

I bought this little beauty out of nostalgia for the days of these devices and to do a little retrogaming. The computer is completely empty, without any program or file installed and no CD was sold with it, not even the OS.
The computer boots quickly and well, unfortunately the drive does not work.

I opened the lower part of the device by following a tutorial. I did not risk removing the top cover of the tube for fear of dying.

I removed the rack from the HD and the player, disassembled the player, replaced the small rubber band, released 2/3 things, reassembled everything.

There was no CD in the drive, the roller system was definitely seized up. Now he eats me (lazily) an audio CD (that's all I have available) but he comes out immediately. It is not a burned CD and I tried with a second same result.
Either he rejects it because he has no software to manage it or the reader is definitely dead.

In the second case, either I order a compatible CD or DVD player but I don't know where to find the ref (mine is a CRN8242b but only available in the states on eBay) or I order an external USB or firewire player. Firewire is faster right?

I found an external player from Lacie ref 300986 300987 near my place. I’m about to buy it but will I be able to boot from it ?

Best regards,

[DrNo7]

Hi Pmg,

Welcome to the forum !

Slot-loading drives are not ageing well and are unfortunately in need of replacement when they refuse to take any disk (maybe there is some refurbishing tutorial somewhere on the internet?). For the replacement, you should be okay with whatever slot-loading drive that uses the same connector (usually for laptops). However, I am not sure if you will be able to boot from it. If it is a drive from another apple computer it should be good but it will be old.

As to the FireWire CD drive or CD burner, it should be the simplest way to read CDs and they should be bootable (you need to press Alt at boot to choose the bootable drive ).
The other good news with FireWire enclosures is that they use full size IDE drives that are very available and cheap.

Have fun preparing your retro rig !

[Pmg]

Thank you DrNo. I bought a copy of OS9 and the external drive today. I will keep you posted

[ssp3]

IIRC,  key combination "cmd+opt+shift+delete" worked to boot from Plextor drive in my PM8500. For it to be able to read CDs, I used hacked Apple CD extension.

[GaryN]

Hello everyone,
I just bought an iMac G3 for 50 euros.
I can't find out the speed of its processor but a priori it is a 500 MHZ because the line “500/IN/64/20/CD/ULTRA/56K” is written on the label glued below. When I go to the menu about this mac (os 9.2) the processor is not mentioned but only the RAM: 192mb.

"About this Mac" is near useless. You want to run the "Apple System Profiler". That's a small app that normally is found in the 🍎 menu right under the "About this Mac". It resides in the "Apple Menu Items" folder inside the System Folder. If it's not there, look in the "Apple Menu Items (Disabled)" folder. If it's in there, drag it to the Menu Items folder and reboot.

[Pmg]

I do not find « Apple system profiler ». I looked for it where you told me (Apple menu items) but didn’t see it there neither. There is no other folder called « Apple menu items (disabled) » or something close to that in french.

I bought a Lacie/Porsche DVD player/burner in firewire 400 (35€). I just plugged it into the mac with an audio CD inside: it works!
I tested it with a PC CD-ROM, it also mounts, I was able to open the folder.

I tested (with audio CD) to boot while holding Alt, it does not work, it only shows me the volume of the hard disk. I hope it's because it's not OS9 inside.

Then I bought OS9.2.2 as well. It's gray and it says iMac on it in white, hope it will work!

[GaryN]

I do not find « Apple system profiler ». I looked for it where you told me (Apple menu items) but didn’t see it there neither. There is no other folder called « Apple menu items (disabled) » or something close to that in french.

Then I bought OS9.2.2 as well. It's gray and it says iMac on it in white, hope it will work!

It will be great if it does, but even if not, you should still be able to find the "Apple System Profiler" in it and copy that to the iMac.