I have gone though two iMacs in two weeks. The frist one was a G3 350MHz slot load system.
I killed it after upgrading it. The monitor started displaying werid colors and then died. I got another iMac but the older Rev A system that has a tray-load. The CD-ROM goes nuts when I use a burned CD. I cracked open the iMac Rev-A and noticed it uses a diffrent setup for the CD-ROM. I did some research and found out you can have two drives on the harddrive's IDE but you need a extra power supply and a real long IDE cable and run the device externaly.
Since the newer iMacs use the same connections for the CD-ROM and harddrive I was planing to copy the part from the iPC mod for the CD-ROM but ofcorse it will be external. I can't seem to find the points to sodier the +5V and the Ground to the CD-ROM. If I can get this working i'll try this to a 4x DVD Drive that I pulled from another iMac a while back. I may also
make a mod that has several drives connected to the system. Like for a example a external box that will have a old 250watt AT power supply, 40GB drive for backing up, DVD drive and also a older 100MB internal Zip Drive. I can have all of them connect to the same IDE controller but can't run them at the same time. I will only beable to power one at a time. but if I want to use say the zip drive but the DVD drive is on I will have to reboot the system and quickly flip a switch to turn off the zip and turn on the DVD.

I know this may sound confusing or lame but it gives me something to do.

Post edited by: TCPMeta, at: 2005/07/27 07:55

Ahh, the joys of computing and modding. I would start by letting go some of that hardware
you have. Get yourself a jumpdrive for exchanging files and get a combo drive. The slot load
combo drive will work. You will need to modfiy the facia of the iMac, but with some thought
it is doable without making a mess. Skip the multiple drive set up and settle on that. That will
give you the tools you need of the less hassle and probably work better too. Good luck.
-maestro

"There is no such thing as living outside the box, for there is no box." -me

Well I got it to work after looking at the iPC pics for the sodier points. Right now I have the 24x slot-load hooked up. Now i'm going to try it with the DVD drive and install MacOS 9.1 and try watching a DVD.

Good for you man. Keep us updated. Maybe you could make a mod guide. They are so
valuable to our users. A lot of people are using low end mac like yourself so it would get lots
of use.

-maestro

"Perception of reality is existance." me

Im with maestro on this def do a mod guide, I love diggin' around inside my iMac! :P

Well the DVD drive works also. I'm having a hardtime with this. the setup im using doesn't let me beable to use the stock tray-load CD-ROM and for some reason it won't let me boot from the DVD Drive.

After I get this all done and overwith i'll make a guide with pics and sources.

Anyone know where I can find some SO-DIMM PC100 or PC66 128MB or higher for a real cheap price? This way I can install Mac OS X on it. Right now I only have 64MB of ram in the iMac and runs a bit slow with Mac OS 8.6.

I have found something out. the tray-load CD and the Hard drive share off the same IDE controller. I modifyed the casing some so the ribbon cable came out the side that gave me back the space for the tray-load cd-rom. I had the DVD and the tray-load hooked up and the system would hang when I turned it on. I disconnected the DVD and it booted up fine.

I should pull out the tray-load and find a way to make the DVD bootable or the 24x slot-load CD-ROM. It's probly a jummper issue on the drives. I should set the CD-ROM to master and set the hard drive to cable select.

sounds good. Don't forget to take pics so you can make a mod guide

Be carefull of the ram you buy...I got a good deal on a SO-DIMM PC100 but the iMac didn't like it. I took it to work and tried it on a wintel laptop and it was fine. I dont remember the brand though... :blink:

I will take Pictures when i'm done with the mod. When I make the pictures i'll take the iMac apart and show peice by peice of the mod. Heck I might make a video instead that way it can be a bit easyer and also maybe with some pictures to help on the harder bits.

It's still early so we shall see. I've been planing to start a website for my mods anyway. Sadly they're mostly PC mods.

Anyway, i'm still fighting the iMac to work correctly. I should of never installed that frimware update.Since the update the system hangs alot.