Imac problem.......won't turn on
 

Ok don't bash me about having a mac, i'm fixing it for a friend and I need some honest opinions.
It's a iMac G3 slot load 600mhz machine. The problem is that it won't turn on the slighest bit. I took out the battery and it seems to have a voltage of only about 3.0-3.2 volts and its a 3.6 volt battery, I'll try replacing that first. But does the power supply usually go out? I did press the PRAM switch and no go either..

I doubt the battery is your problem, the only thing that really does is keep track of the clock settings. First thing to try is pull the battery, and hold the pmu in for 30 sec, wait a minute and put the battery back in.

Sounds like you may have already done this...

Next thing I would shoot for is the memory, I doubt this is your issue, but it doesn't take any effort to try it, pull the sticks and only use one, trying different slots for both, if you still have no go, I would say it is one of 2 things, power supply, or the MOBO. Is it showing any signs of life when the power button is hit? (Led lights or any power surge noise as the tube charges up)

Is this an iMac desktop? or an iBook/powerbook laptop? It sounds like your having problems with your iBook, not an iMac. Am I correct?

iMac Desktop

You won't really notice an issue with the battery unless the voltage drops to 2 volts or lower. Its only for time keeping when the unit is powered off.

As mentioned above, I would suggest the power supply and motherboard as well.

And by the way, why would anyone bash you for having a mac? I would love to have a mac to play around.

Thanks for clearing it up, Apple has had a lot of problems with their 2001-2002 iBook's logic boards, and the symptoms you were describing sounded a lot like an issue related to the defects in the iBook logic board.
I've had a few power adaptors die on me, so I'd swap it out for one that works for sure. My next guess is the logic (mother) board, which unfortunately can be pretty expensive.

So your friends iMac desktop http://www.apple-history.com/images/models/imac.gif or http://www.apple-history.com/images/..._flat_down.jpg or http://www.apple-history.com/images/models/imac_g5.jpg might have a bad battery?

Do you mean you really removed the lithium battery cell from an iMac? You have to remove the cover, logic board/mass storage chassis, and open the logic board. That's fricking complicated. And it's probably not to blame.

Possible problems:
-the power button is stuck. This is the most common problem with the CRT display models, and is easily remidied.
-the poewr suppply is on it's last leg, and is unable to supply enough power.
-A major component (hard drive, CDR drive, motherboard etc) is drawing excessive power thus pulling down a power supply rail and activating the crowbar.

Don't forget that the typical life of an iMac with decent use is about 3 years. If you really want to fix this, your best bet is to go to a Mac specific repair shop.

By 3.6 Volt battery he is talking about the 1/2 AA battery that is on the motherboard that is used to keep settings, similar to a cmos battery on a windows board. Basically pulling the battery does the same thing as resetting the bios on a pc

I'm a mac tech for a college, so I get to deal with these things on a daily basis, I would say that its toast. We have a few that are the same age and have had a fairly high failure rate on them after 3-4 years, so I wouldnt say it is unlikely.