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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / June 2007G4 iMac -- bad Ethernet port?
It seems like I may have a bad Ethernet port on my G4 iMac (gooseneck). The router port flashes on and off when I plug it in and the machine is unable to connect to the router. My other Intel iMac works from that same port (or any other) on the router. I suppose there's an outside chance the router is going, but the way it's behaving, would seem to imply that the iMac's port is bad. I did switch the Ethernet cable and plugged in a new one. No change. Questions: There's no way to test the Ethernet chipset in the G4 to determine for sure if it's working or not? I was told one can buy an external Ethernet card that plugs into a FW or USB port. Anyone know where I can get one? Does anyone think it's worth trying to have the G4 repaired. It's over 3 years old and out of warranty (and the supplementary Apple Care ran out after two years). 8-( > It seems like I may have a bad Ethernet port on my G4 iMac (gooseneck). > The router port flashes on and off when I plug it in and the machine is [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > 8-( That's the bummer of the all in one compact Mac design, no easy way to add component like a PCI card for the functions like Firewire, USB or Ethernet card if one of those fail on the motherboard. I have on of those G4 iMacs 1.25GHz with flexible mounted 17" LCD display. No easy way to get to the motherboard battery, hard drive or upper RAM slot without a significant disassembly (not impossible but not easy). Ethernet is built in on those models on the motherboard so you are up the creek on that unless new motherboard. I vaguely recall some external card adapter for Ethernet. Try Google search. Good luck. Someday I may face the same dilemma with my G4 iMac. Morenuf  Signaturemorenuf@nobodyhome.com.invalid > > It seems like I may have a bad Ethernet port on my G4 iMac (gooseneck). > > The router port flashes on and off when I plug it in and the machine is [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > Ethernet is built in on those models on the motherboard so you are up > the creek on that unless new motherboard. Yup. And I checked with one local Apple shop. The motherboard is $350 and labor is extra. > I vaguely recall some external card adapter for Ethernet. Try Google > search. I asked the guy at the Apple repair place about that. He said they are mostly designed for Windows machines and most of them don't have Mac drivers. Apparently, they are not simply plug 'n play. It's a tough problem to troubleshoot. I tried a backup Asante router I have and the light stays steady when the iMac is plugged into the backup router, but I can't get it to see the Internet. It keeps losing its settings for some reason. Plugging it back into the working router, the port light just blinks on and off slowly, as if it couldn't synch. > I asked the guy at the Apple repair place about that. He said they are > mostly designed for Windows machines and most of them don't have Mac > drivers. Apparently, they are not simply plug 'n play. Go to <http://www.sustworks.com/site/news_usb_ethernet.html> for possible drivers. Signatureemail to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com. > > I asked the guy at the Apple repair place about that. He said they are > > mostly designed for Windows machines and most of them don't have Mac > > drivers. Apparently, they are not simply plug 'n play. > > Go to <http://www.sustworks.com/site/news_usb_ethernet.html> for possible > drivers. Thanks. > That's the bummer of the all in one compact Mac design, no easy way to > add component like a PCI card for the functions like Firewire, USB or > Ethernet card if one of those fail on the motherboard. Or like in my case when a clumsy idiot (ME) accidently ruins the port socket, try having a RJ45 come out at an angle, my guilt, my fault! Fortunatly my B&W had a free PCI slot and I had several compatible cards with drivers. If it was my Imac G3/400 (SCREECH! DITW! (DEAD in the Water!) I may try replacing the connector someday but it is only a revision 1 board and I have NO idea if it is going to be possible to desolder the socket and put a new one in, multilayer board most likely, needs special tools to do a repair for those. Might be cheaper to find a Revison 2 board. while trying surgery on the old board while the new board is doing its thing, If fixed, later get new case/ps and parts and put it to work again. > I have on of those G4 iMacs 1.25GHz with flexible mounted 17" LCD > display. No easy way to get to the motherboard battery, hard drive or > upper RAM slot without a significant disassembly (not impossible but not > easy). Been there with my Imac G3/400! to change its battery and upgrade its HD. SignatureFrom the Desk of the Sysop of: Planet Maca's Opus, a Free open BBS system. telnet://pinkrose.dhis.org Web Site: http://pinkrose.dhis.org, Dialup 860-618-3091 300-33600 bps The New Cnews maintainer B'ichela > > That's the bummer of the all in one compact Mac design, no easy way to > > add component like a PCI card for the functions like Firewire, USB or [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Been there with my Imac G3/400! to change its battery and > upgrade its HD. I was given a quote by a local shop of $350 for the board and $120 for labor (plus tax). $500 is too much to repair the machine, though. Ain't worth the money. > I was given a quote by a local shop of $350 for the board and $120 for > labor (plus tax). $500 is too much to repair the machine, though. Ain't > worth the money. Check out Ebay. I am sure you could find another board. or if it is worth the challenge you could replace the ethernet socket (if it is broken like mine.) SignatureFrom the Desk of the Sysop of: Planet Maca's Opus, a Free open BBS system. telnet://pinkrose.dhis.org Web Site: http://pinkrose.dhis.org, Dialup 860-618-3091 300-33600 bps The New Cnews maintainer B'ichela > > I was given a quote by a local shop of $350 for the board and $120 for > > labor (plus tax). $500 is too much to repair the machine, though. Ain't > > worth the money. > Check out Ebay. I am sure you could find another board. or if > it is worth the challenge you could replace the ethernet socket (if it > is broken like mine.) That would mean resoldering something, which is probably more techie than I am capable of. Unsoldering and resoldering an Ethernet chipset would be pretty funky. I suppose I could, as a last resort, replace the motherboard myself, but the damn thing costs $350, which is a lot of money. >> Check out Ebay. I am sure you could find another board. or if >> it is worth the challenge you could replace the ethernet socket (if it [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > motherboard myself, but the damn thing costs $350, which is a lot of > money. Well. You may find a better price than $350 for the board. If you are talking about desoldering one of those VLSI SMT beasties with pins the size of human hairs... AiEEEE! NOT for ME either! I for the heck of it looked at my G3 b&w board. the socket itself doesn't look too bad but one of those chips looked like a NIGHTMARE! Changing the board itself doesn't look too complex (in my b&w system.) Whereas changing the board in my Imac G3/400 would be definatly more labor intesive because of where the CD/HD carrier sits. If you can find on Apple's or another site a service manual for your mac. READ the disassembly secton to make sure you take it apart the right way. Of course you will want to find the motherboard for less than $350 say around $100 before it becomes "economical". You may even find a G4 where the monitor may be broken but the rest of it good. then transfer your monitor assembly to the new one. Sometimes I see cracked screen G4s on ebay or machines that are selling specifically for parts. SignatureFrom the Desk of the Sysop of: Planet Maca's Opus, a Free open BBS system. telnet://pinkrose.dhis.org Web Site: http://pinkrose.dhis.org, Dialup 860-618-3091 300-33600 bps The New Cnews maintainer B'ichela > >> Check out Ebay. I am sure you could find another board. or if > >> it is worth the challenge you could replace the ethernet socket (if it [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Sometimes I see cracked screen G4s on ebay or machines that are > selling specifically for parts. Question is, is the problem the port or the chipset. The iMac is exhibiting anamolous behavior. Yesterday, I plugged it into a backup Asante router that was not connected to the DSL modem. I was able to connect to the router and tweak the settings. However, if I connect the Ethernet cable from the iMac to my working router/DSL, the lights on all the ports start flashing on and off! They stop when I remove the cable. Doesn't sound so good. > Question is, is the problem the port or the chipset. The iMac is > exhibiting anamolous behavior. Yesterday, I plugged it into a backup [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > the ports start flashing on and off! They stop when I remove the cable. > Doesn't sound so good. Don't sound like a problem with the port itself. Since it worked with the backup router... and jabbering with the main router, sounds more of a software problem than hardware. Could it be that your Imac is probing for a Appletalk setup? My network has a central Appletalk file repository that is also the firewall (running Netatalk under Slackware Linux, it also provides dhcpd services for the in house machies.) when both of my macs first fire up they do a broadcast for a appletalk server/neighborhood. Usuaslly they calm down in less than 6 seconds here. I am connected via a 8port SOHO hub with BNC coax feedthrough as my lan is coax based. If you fire it up and let it jabber does it eventually calm down and indicate it CANNOT find the dhcp server? If so is the TCP/IP control panel set to get the address via dhcp? is it set to use the ethernet port for those things? and expecially important under Classic. Make sure the tcpip control pannel is active at all times. Do the same with appletalk unless you REALLY don't want appletalk on. that means that you would not be able to use appleshare under the chooser. If however, you are using Mac OSx..... you probally would be using NFS anyway. Some routers/switches btw are not able to handle appletalk packets without a fight. Asante probally does but the DSL router may need to be adjusted to deal with Appletalk packets. SignatureFrom the Desk of the Sysop of: Planet Maca's Opus, a Free open BBS system. telnet://pinkrose.dhis.org Web Site: http://pinkrose.dhis.org, Dialup 860-618-3091 300-33600 bps The New Cnews maintainer B'ichela > > Question is, is the problem the port or the chipset. The iMac is > > exhibiting anamolous behavior. Yesterday, I plugged it into a backup [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > packets without a fight. Asante probally does but the DSL router may > need to be adjusted to deal with Appletalk packets. Well, it looks like it was the old Asante. I replaced it with a replacement Asante router I had on hand (identical model) and managed to configure it. The solution (I can't explain it) was to configure the replacement Asante when it was NOT connected to the WAN. Save settings. Reboot router. When I plugged in the WAN cable, the gooseneck came back to life. Go figure. The AppleTalk stuff is not being routed over the 'Net, just to my HP printer. Yeah, I noticed both machines do an ATalk probe when they wake up. Many thanks. > Well, it looks like it was the old Asante. I replaced it with a > replacement Asante router I had on hand (identical model) and managed to [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Yeah, I noticed both machines do an ATalk probe when they wake up. Many > thanks. Glad to have been a help! Saved you around $500 according to your figures. SignatureFrom the Desk of the Sysop of: Planet Maca's Opus, a Free open BBS system. telnet://pinkrose.dhis.org Web Site: http://pinkrose.dhis.org, Dialup 860-618-3091 300-33600 bps The New Cnews maintainer B'ichela > > Well, it looks like it was the old Asante. I replaced it with a > > replacement Asante router I had on hand (identical model) and managed to [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Glad to have been a help! Saved you around $500 according to > your figures. Well, I wouldn't go that far, but having a backup router around sure helped -- even though it's a bit weird to set up. I do appreciate the feedback, however. |
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