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s33n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 31, 2007
5
0
Hi folks looking for a bit of help here, My mates just got himself a g5 mac of ebay and brang it to me to help him get it working.
Im no mac expert just use them at work and have a mac book, but no more than him on the subject so trying to help!

In the product description of the item it said it just needed a start up disk to work, i have no start up disk for it so cant test this right now.

Is this common with macs? im sure my book came working right away with out this trouble?

when i press the power button the led lights up and makes 'the mac on noise'
and apears to be working, the display doesnt do anything and it sits there sounding on but doing nothing.

is it possible that the machine has no os installed?

has my mate been ripped off and paid for a broken mac?

any help would be ideal, as im out of my depth here, ta

Edit: the monitors a Apple Cinema Display.
 

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
The PowerMac G5's video card may have shifted during shipping, it was a common issue at one point.
 

s33n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 31, 2007
5
0
When you say shifted do you mean come loose? have just had a look and it apears to be firmly in its slot.
:)
 

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
When you say shifted do you mean come loose? have just had a look and it apears to be firmly in its slot.
:)

I mean shifted, but still firmly in the slot.

Moved just enough to break the signal on a few traces, in the slot.

Apple's first couple repair tips beyond is it plugged in, check the cable/and card socket for bent pins, and resetting PRAM is -- reseat the video card. But there is/was a site on diagnosing video problems on the G5, but I have no idea where anymore.
 

s33n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 31, 2007
5
0
The Monitor apears to be powerless, no display at all.

there is a hard drive in there yes and its connected.
 

s33n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 31, 2007
5
0
I mean shifted, but still firmly in the slot.

Moved just enough to break the signal on a few traces, in the slot.

Apple's first couple repair tips beyond is it plugged in, check the cable/and card socket for bent pins, and resetting PRAM is -- reseat the video card. But there is/was a site on diagnosing video problems on the G5, but I have no idea where anymore.


Ok will give this a go :)
 

disconap

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2005
1,810
3
Portland, OR
Ok, from reading your opening, are you trying to boot without an OS? Macs don't boot into "bios" without a bootable hard drive present, they actually do nothing (or at least the G4s did, so I assume the G5s do the same).

Try this--download the bootable disc image for the PPC version of Ubuntu, burn it to disc (CD size), and try to boot from it. Here is a link to the disc image. The try booting from this disc (hold down the C button after the Apple tone). This should test whether or not everything is working if you don't have an OS disc, but you're eventually going to need a hard drive and an OS...
 
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