Think I killed Dads G5!!!

AoWolf said:

Ok heres the deal. I was playing a little world of warcraft and itunes and the computer froze. Not sure that it was a full kernel panic because iTunes was still playing in the background. After no luck with a force quite I restated it and got a black screen. So I checked the monitor cables all good. And tried again. No luck. So I booted in fire wire mode on my ibook and it worked fine except there was no fire wire icon on the display. Called tech support no help there. Next I frantically tried to reboot into a system install disk but there was nothing on the screen. After that I tired in vain yet again to boot normally. I found out that if I hit speaker keys the volume will go up and down. Also it makes the classic mac startup sound. Any idea


Sorry for bad spelling or weird sentences but I am really starting to lose it...

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Sounds like you lost the graphics card possibly. What G5 is it? Have you tried resetting the PRAM. If it is a tower, try reseating the graphics card. Try a different display if possible. If it is a iMac G5, get it in to be fixed by a techy.

Okay.

What varmit said in more detail.

First power on the Mac and immediately after hold down Apple-Option-P-R all together. The Mac will bong again. Let it play the chime about 5 times and let it start up normally. If that doesn't work, then turn the G5 off and unplug everything except power. Touch an open PCI slot cover and then unplug the G5. Open the case and remove the graphics card. Dust it off but don't touch the chips or the gold connectors. Reinstall the card and reconnect everything. Be sure that the air deflector is in place.

Now if it's an iMac, you may have lost the display. You can take the cover off and look at the indicator lights on the inside. More detail is at http://www.apple.com when you click on support. Too lazy to get the actual URL.

Make sure you hit your brightness up controls just to make sure. It's a small chance but I've done it before. I felt pretty stupid afterwards.

jon

The best way for it to not happen again is to go to the apple
menu----------->shutdown. Then, back away very, very slowly. Once you get out of the room, run far far away.

How about NOT playing the stupid game again....

ezkirk said:

How about NOT playing the stupid game again....

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I agree

ezkirk said:

How about NOT playing the stupid game again....

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The trouble is (in my opinion) that no computer should act such a way if you are playing a game.

Stojamow said:

The trouble is (in my opinion) that no computer should act such a way if you are playing a game.

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maybe the game is somehow corrupted. Try reinstalling. Might I ask what game it was?

Ok, we figured its the game that has messed it up. Have you repaired permissions after you got the monitor back and working? Does that graphics card make it within the limits of the World of Warcrafts minimum requirments? And what resolution are you playing the game at? That last question is the most important. Because I think the game is changing the resolution of your display to play, just like Tiger Woods Golf on my parents iMac G5, and when you leave the game, the monitor is all out of wack. iMac goes to 800X600 type resolution when it normally 1440 by something. Also a suggestion, don't play itunes at the same time you are playing a game, it could be over loading it.

Black screen of death

The G5 is fine. You got the G5 black screen of death. It happens with that graphics card. I can usually fix it by turning it off and unplug it from the wall and plug it back in and turn it on. If it still is black, I wait about 10 or 15 minutes with no power then plug it in. If it doesn't work still then leave the power on for about 15 minutes then I shut it down (hold down the power button or unplug it from the wall). Next I turn it on and it is fine. Other methods include using compressed air to spray the card of any dust or just opening the case and closing it.

I plan to upgrade my graphics card because I really hate this happening. I did take my G5 to an Apple store while it was under warranty but it worked fine in the store. I heard of other stories of this same problem.

I plan on just replacing the card with that monster card from Nvidia. I don't use the PCI slots anyways.

iJon said:

Make sure you hit your brightness up controls just to make sure. It's a small chance but I've done it before. I felt pretty stupid afterwards.

jon

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But I'll bet you never took your ibook apart because of brightness turned down. In my defense, though, the backlight wiring running through the hinge was already cracking, so I thought it was completely shot at that point.

Have you tried playing another game?

Could be an ATi Radeon issue (9600 and 9800 OEMs on Rev A G5) where sometimes the computer seems to lock up... more often than not it occurs when using OpenGL (games, iTunes visualizer etc.).
Strange thing is that the G5 still can be remotely controlled (via SSH), so a "safe" reboot can be achieved....