Computer not reconizing HD, CD Room and Airport

T

TheSketch

Registered
Hello, hopefully someone can help me here. I feel like I'm missing something rather obvious here...

I've got an old iMac G4 700mhz flatscreen that I'd like to give to my brother. The cdrom hasn't worked for about a year and the SMART status on the hard drive has been failing for a while. Finally some time around 3 months or so the thing simply stopped recognizing the internal hard drive . So I figure it's time for sugery.

I ordered a new CD Rom and hard drive making sure they were compatible models and went through the process of taking the old ones out and putting the new ones in. Piece of cake so far.

I start it up and get the same chime and the standard folder with the question mark indicating it can't find any bootable drives. To be expected. So I load 10.4 on a firewire disk and use that to boot up, which goes as expected and it tries to walk me through the installation process but it can't find the new hard drive. I run the Disk Utility and it only offers me the firewire drive - no sign of the new one. I open the system profiler and it can't find the CD Rom, hard drive or the airport card installed in the bottom.

I should also note that hitting the eject key on the keyboard doesn't open the drive.

Everything seems to be connected – any thoughts as to what might be wrong? The SATA cable seems to be intact, there's nothing that's obviously disconnected. Could be the connection to the board, or I am I totally missing something obvious? I'm thinking it could well be the latter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Depending on the HD, are the dip switches set correctly? Should have come with instructions, but you may have to contact the HD mfgr's site or call tech support.
 
I'll double check, but I'm pretty sure they were in the same position as the last one. Would this account for the fact I can't get it to detect the CD Rom or airport card?
 
The Airport card has no relationship to the HD/CD drives. That just likely needs to be reseated in its socket. Is your Mac not seeing the card at all, or just no signal? Make sure the little antenna connector inside is reconnected as you reassemble your iMac.

The hard drive/CD needs to be rechecked. Verify that the drive jumpers are correct. I can't find definitive info about which jumper positions SHOULD be correct. So, both drives must be cable select. If THAT doesn't work, then jumper the hard drive for master, and the CD drive for slave. Unless the drives are clearly marked, you must check on the web for accurate jumper settings. Just search for "jumper settings for (and supply your own drive part number, as listed on the drive label)". DO NOT simply rely on the positions of the jumpers on the old drives, unless you are replacing with EXACTLY the same manufacturer's drives. You should be able to determine if the old drives were jumpered as cable select, or master/slave, so you can use them to help you decide which you need, but newer drives, even from the same manufacturer, may have different placements for the drive jumpers. If you are incorrect, the drives may not be recognized at all. Oh, be sure to double-check that the power connectors are securely plugged in to each drive before your reassemble everything.
 
Hi. Been on the road, so I'll try your suggestions out DeltaMac. Thanks and if I can get it working I'll let you know.
 
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