I acquired two of these so this is the first in a 2 part series on Apple iMac G3 Renovation.
This iMac G3 is a model M5521 Indigo with a 500MHz PowerPC cpu, 320Mb Ram and a 20Gb hard drive.
The first issue I noticed was the state of the keyboard so decided to give it a thorough.
Keyboard Disassembly
I started to remove some of the keys which wasn’t too difficult as they pry off.
I thought I would try to make things easier by removing the upper plastic trim. I was wrong!.
That trim was really difficult to remove due to the clips along the bottom edge, you can see the square holes for them. The holes are barely big enough for the clips so unclipping required much use of the heat gun and very careful bending and prying of the clips. The clips are very thin. I managed it but it took a long time.
You can see the dirt so time to remove the keys
Keys removed and in for a soaking with warm water and a little washing detergent.
Looks like I have my work cut out. 20+ years of dirt and god knows what!
At least the membrane looks healthy
I inspected all rubber domes which are good.
Clean, Reassembly and Test
I gave it a good clean around the main case.
All back together. Power on for good test.
I also purchased a nice retro apple mouse pad which adds to the retro feel and makes the mouse much more responsive as back in the day they relied on a machnical mouse ball to sense movement.
A quick vid of boot and keyboard testing
A bit of game testing I think. Anyone for Battle Girl?
I’ve added a dual boot to the OSX with OS9 for better compatibility with software.
I’ll add more to this Apple iMac G3 Renovation soon.
On sale now here
Available on Facebook here
