[G4] Flicker on an older i-mac

[Ron Steinke]

Whoever suggested that you might have a loose solder joint has a loose 
solder joint in his head. Solder doesn't come loose except when it is 
subjected to repeated stress such as removing and replacing cables in 
sockets or other such activity. A fly-back transformer, on the other 
hand, can suffer degradation over time and fail completely.

Unless you have had your iMac case open for maintenance/upgrading, 
there should not have been any movement of the video cables inside the 
case, so that narrows or rules out the possibility of cable coming out 
of their sockets and causing improper connections with concurrent color 
problems.

Therefore, it appears that your iMac is simply getting old and needs to 
be replaced. Many of the older iMacs suffer from fading video and 
eventually end up not being able to boot at all because of other 
circuit problems associated with the video circuitry. They will power 
on momentarily and then shut off entirely as if they have over-heated. 
The cost of repairing this problem is almost as much as the cost of 
replacing the machine.

  My suggestion is that you back-up all your data to an external drive 
and look for a replacement computer soon. While you can, make sure that 
you have current back-ups that you can access with another computer. 
The current models and prices entice me to suggest that you look at an 
eMac with a super drive. This combination can be less than $1,100 from 
some dealers/vendors if you shop around.

That would give you a G4 with CD burn ability, more RAM, probably a 
larger hard drive, maybe faster ethernet connections, FireWire sockets, 
and a bigger monitor screen to boot. Besides, you probably wanted one 
already and this would give you the perfect excuse to spend money on 
yourself.

On 26 Apr, 2004, at 7:46, rich northouse wrote:

I have an older i-mac G3.  The screen flickers and sometimes has a 
green cast to the color.  I have been told that it might be a "flyback 
transformer" or perhaps a loose solder joint.

Since it is an older machine, I don't wish to spend a great deal of 
cash fixing it. I have technical abilities and am not afraid to try to 
fix it myself. I am aware of the high voltage on the flyback and CRT. 
Anyone have any ideas?