17 years since release, iMac G5 finally gets an upgrade after tinkerer shoves M1 Mac Mini inside
- Reference: 1615290421
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/03/09/m1_imac_g5/
- Source link:
It was a favourite of developers, sound engineers, and schools. But progress stops for no man – or machine – and this sturdy workhorse has since been relegated to the history books.
[3]
Enter Hans Strupat, an Orange County-based Mac enthusiast and tinkerer, who managed to jerry-rig this antiquated all-in-one to house an M1 Mac Mini.
[4]Youtube Video
[5]
Regular readers will note we recently [6]covered the exploits of Luke Miani , a popular tech YouTuber who shoved an M1 Mac Mini into a 2011 iMac, creating among the first Apple Silicon iMacs. Although impressive, it did have some drawbacks, with the power button and USB/Thunderbolt ports completely inaccessible.
Apple unveils iMac G5 [7]READ MORE
Strupat's attempt differs slightly. Like Miani, the tinkerer stripped the iMac of its internal components to make room for the logic board and power supply of the M1 Mac Mini. Strupat also used a conversion board to pass video signals from the machine's HDMI port to the iMac's 17-inch display.
But this implementation went further still. With a bit of soldering, Strupat connected the M1 to the iMac's rear-mounted power switch, allowing him to turn the computer off without having to disassemble the entire machine. Extension cables gave him access to the machine's onboard connectivity, including the built-in Thunderbolt and USB-A ports.
This setup isn't for the faint of heart, and requires a decent amount of electrical engineering nous – not to mention the courage to required to void the warranty on a brand-new, £800 computer. And on a practical level, it's not exactly something you'd want to use on a day-to-day basis. The [8]machine's tiny screen and low 1,680 x 1,050 pixel resolution is far removed from the standards of contemporary display technology.
Still, for a proof of concept, it's pretty neat.
Sold between 2004 and 2006, the G5 iMac has proven itself weirdly well suited to experimental (potentially warranty-voiding) hardware experimentation. As is the case with a lot of computer hardware from that era, it suffers from the dreaded " [9]capacitor plague ". Over time, the electrolytic capacitors that regulate electrical flow within the PSU and logic board will start to leak, spilling their corrosive contents onto the surroundings.
This fluid literally eats away at the printed circuit board underneath, as well as any other nearby surface-mounted components. In some cases, it's possible to remove the spilled fluid with a splash of isopropyl alcohol and replace the faulty capacitors with some handy soldering work. In other cases, the damage is too severe. And while this has been bad news for collectors of retro Apple kit, it does allow creatively-minded techies to repurpose the dead machines for other, more novel projects.
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The "capacitor plague" wasn't limited to the G5 either. Early Mac computers – particularly those produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s – were notorious for it. With that in mind, it's only a matter of time until someone tries to shove an M1 into the guts of a Macintosh Color Classic. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2004/08/31/apple_imac_g5/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2001/09/17/motorola_completes_1_6ghz_powerpc/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YEeprquCAiiLFRMKxKf4RAAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OZf-vpvthI
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YEeprquCAiiLFRMKxKf4RAAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/04/the_worlds_first_apple_silicon/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2004/08/31/apple_imac_g5/
[8] https://support.apple.com/kb/sp69?locale=en_US
[9] http://schutt.org/blog/2011/10/the-capacitor-plague-strikes-again/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YEeprquCAiiLFRMKxKf4RAAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Capacitor Plague @Red
Whilst that is true, there were a number of years when seemingly new manufacturers, often from China, were producing absolutely junk capacitors which often failed well before their MTBF (and yes, I do know that that is a measurement of the average failure time, the operative word is well ).
I repaired any number of TVs, monitors and Satellite STBs, (and a fair number of computers as well) from the early 2000s that had problems because of failed capacitors, whereas the HiFi amps from the '80s and '90s still work with their original capacitors, although I think one big difference was the increase in the use of switch-mode power supplies that are very intolerant of failed capacitors.
Re: Capacitor Plague @Red
This is true. The original Xbox, for example, is notorious for having faulty capacitors. It'll make them a scarce commodity in the coming years.
I don't understand why you'd go to all that effort but not upgrade the screen. Surely you could get a modern 17" LCD panel in there.
Maybe because the original panel is 1440x900 and a new 17" LCD is likely to be, at most, 1920x1080. It's probably not worth the trouble and expense of replacing it, considering that it's not a vast increase in resolution.
1,680 x 1,050 according to the article.
You can buy 4k panels that size as replacements for broken laptop screens.
The Reg article says it's a 17" iMac and links to a spec sheet that says that the 17" is 1440x900, whilst the 20" is 1680x1050. Since the video says 1680x1050, I guess that the Reg has reported the wrong screen size and it's actually a 20" iMac.
The G5 iMac was 17 years ago? How the tempus doth fugit.
I bought one of these iMacs for my (then) partner, expecting that she'd use the Mac and I'd continue to use Linux (Gentoo back then) for my main PC and Windows for games. I played around with Mac because I though that knowledge of OS X might be useful (and it was Unix underneath). What I didn't expect was that I started to use the Mac for almost everything and, eventually, retired the Windows and Linux machine and switched completely to Mac.
These days, we've still got Macs at home for everyday use, plus a couple of Linux Mint machines for WFH and NAS.
"(and it was Unix underneath)"
[1]Its a Unix system! I know this!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URVS4H7vrdU
Not just Apple...
Later Commodore Amiga's suffer badly with capacitor leakage. The A600 and A1200 were the first Commodore computers to use surface mount components, and the capacitors are more than happy to try and eat away the circuit board from within.
The earlier Amiga's are largely safe, due to having through-hole capacitors instead that seem to hold up much better.
Apart from the A500+, which included a Varta rechargeable cell to provide power to a clock circuit, and also has something of an electrolyte incontinence problem.
Bah, a plague on both your houses.
Re: Not just Apple...
Yep. There's actually an entire cottage industry where people will re-cap vintage logic boards/PSUs/analog boards. Amigas are common patients, as well as pre-historic Apple kit. If you're a dab hand with a soldering iron, there's decent money to be made.
Dell Too
Dell went through a phase of capacitor problems on desktop motherboards. No spectacular explosions but for a while it was routine practice that if any problems were experienced you'd whip the lid off and look for the doming. To be fair Dell were very good about the replacements.
Re: Dell Too
Aahh yes... the Dell GX260s & GX270s. I was also quite happy with Dell's response to repairing them, or was it Getronics?
Re: Dell Too
Yep, we had to replace caps in several hundred Dell Optiplexes. Wasn't fun.
Capacitor Plague
This is a general problem with electrolytic capacitors, so is not restricted to Apple and any electronics with that type of capacitor will tend to suffer. It's partly dependant on how much headroom both the designer of the circuit and the manufacturer of the capacitor give between the conditions under which it is used and the absolute limits. the closer you get the limits the shorter the Mean Time Between Failures.
What's most fun is when the capacitors finally declare that they have enough and explode, emitting a shower of confetti when they do, along with the obligatory magic smoke.