iMac G3 distorted chime and audio playback

[zippysticks]

Hi Folks,

just collected an iMac G3 and noticed the sound - including the startup the chime - is very distorted.
Popped an audio CD in the slot loader drive and notice the audio play playback has the same problem.
Apart from that it seems to be fully working.

So far have only checked the PRAM battery condition and it all seems good - no sign of leakage,.

Not had one of these before - any ideas where to start looking ?

Thanks

 

[jafir]

You might check if the speaker surrounds are all deteriorated. I heard that was a common problem for early iMacs these days.

EDIT: Here is a youtube video showing someone fixing some. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc8NGDw5aSQ

 

[VERAULT]

Not to nit pick but this is a power PC based unit listed under the 68000+ based machines. Do we not have a power PC mac section?

Jafir is right. the speakers foam surrounds melt to dust....

 

[zippysticks]

Not to nit pick but this is a power PC based unit listed under the 68000+ based machines. Do we not have a power PC mac section?

Jafir is right. the speakers foam surrounds melt to dust....

No Power PC section. I searched for other iMac posts and they seem to gravitate here - hence my post. I could of course have used the 'other' section. Happy for an Admin to move the post elsewhere.

Thanks for the speaker foam suggestion though - will investigate.

 

[VERAULT]

admins we need a power pc macintosh section!!!

i found some harmon kardin similar speakers sold new and inserted thrm tinto thr clear balls in the imac last time i replaced them. send me a pc tomorrow and ill search my emails for where i got them from.

 

[Chuck(G)]

These?

 

[VERAULT]

if not that something very similar have to look it up tomorrow.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

The cone surround is made of that horrible rubber that turns to goo, so eventually the cone is only supported by the spider and it will launch out of the speaker magnet from not having enough support. If the unit is stored in a non-climate controlled environment, they deteriorate more rapidly, but it will eventually happen regardless.

It's been awhile since I repaired a set of them, but I remember them being a weird size that wasn't standard. I found that some of those old iPod docks have the same type of speaker in a similar size, so you can build your own speaker box and shove them inside the iMac. it doesn't look pretty, but it works.

 

[VERAULT]

these are the ones I bought to replace the speakers on my trayloading imac https://www.ebay.com/itm/26442625183...QAAOSwI~FdTmWR

I hink I had to modify the clear bubbles slightly to accept the new speakers. Nothing is just a drop in replacement.

 

[zippysticks]

Thanks all.
A pair of those (from either source) cost more than I paid for the whole machine. I might investigate disconnecting the broken speakers and mounting something I already have in my box of bits elsewhere inside the case.