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iMac G5 iSight 20" won't boot up

Nilscollection

Nilscollection

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 17, 2011
219
1
The Netherlands
Hi everyone,

A friend of mine has an iMac G5 iSight that won't boot up. If you press the power button, nothing happens. Only thing to hear is a really light 'ticking' sound from inside the case.

Now, we've already taken it apart and we figured it could be a failing power supply since he's had some troubles booting it up recently (he had to move the plug inside the iMac a bit for it to boot). Now, we thought it could be the capacitors but they seem to be okay from the outside.

Is there a way for us to test if the power supply works? It looks okay from the outside but it may not be okay on the inside...

It could also be the mainboard, but we want to exclude the power supply first since it's the cheapest thing to replace.

Does anyone have an advice on how we can fix this? Will it get too expensive? Is it better for my friend to buy another Mac?

IMAG0055.jpg
 
M

macdatadrive

macrumors regular
Apr 25, 2011
126
0
The city of Macintosh :)
Nilscollection said:
Hi everyone,

A friend of mine has an iMac G5 iSight that won't boot up. If you press the power button, nothing happens. Only thing to hear is a really light 'ticking' sound from inside the case.

Now, we've already taken it apart and we figured it could be a failing power supply since he's had some troubles booting it up recently (he had to move the plug inside the iMac a bit for it to boot). Now, we thought it could be the capacitors but they seem to be okay from the outside.

Is there a way for us to test if the power supply works? It looks okay from the outside but it may not be okay on the inside...

It could also be the mainboard, but we want to exclude the power supply first since it's the cheapest thing to replace.

Does anyone have an advice on how we can fix this? Will it get too expensive? Is it better for my friend to buy another Mac?

Image
Click to expand...
I think the ticking might be the HDD since often problems with booting and ticking relate to HDDs. It could be the power cord since you had to wiggle it, but to be honest I've never heard of a power supply doing that.
 
Nilscollection

Nilscollection

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 17, 2011
219
1
The Netherlands
macdatadrive said:
I think the ticking might be the HDD since often problems with booting and ticking relate to HDDs. It could be the power cord since you had to wiggle it, but to be honest I've never heard of a power supply doing that.
Click to expand...

It seems that a failing power supply is a well-known problem with both the iSights and the white Intel-iMacs. The power supply is known to tick as well if it fails.

Besides; if it were the HDD, the iMac would still boot up right? So I guess the HDD is fine.

The problem might be the same as the one described in this blog, or am I wrong?
 
M

macdatadrive

macrumors regular
Apr 25, 2011
126
0
The city of Macintosh :)
Nilscollection said:
It seems that a failing power supply is a well-known problem with both the iSights and the white Intel-iMacs. The power supply is known to tick as well if it fails.

Besides; if it were the HDD, the iMac would still boot up right? So I guess the HDD is fine.

The problem might be the same as the one described in this blog, or am I wrong?
Click to expand...

If it was the HDD that was failing, you wouldn't be able to boot it up (not in all cases though)
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
If it would be logic board, fans would spin at least. If you get absolutely nothing except ticking sound - PSU is first suspect. HDD has nothing to do with these symptoms.

macdatadrive: if you have never heard about something, it only means that you've never heard about it, nothing more ;)
 
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