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No display and fans blasting on Powermac G5

W

wobegong

Guest
Original poster
May 29, 2012
418
1
Hi all,

Had an issue when I woke up this morning, left the G5 (Powermac Dual Core 2.3) on overnight (not running anything) and when I woke this morning there is no display (blank screen) and the fans were running full blast.

I had to power off with the power switch, restarted and so far is OK (using it now to write this).

I've suspected some dodgy RAM chips for a while (my last set were second hand) and have already ordered a complete set of brand new chips from Crucial - do you think this could be the issue or is it a dreaded overheating/system board problem?

Also will look at replacing the battery, it's probably never been replaced since new but I thought a sign of that was a reset date/time and in this case that is still being reported correctly..

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
W

wobegong

Guest
Original poster
May 29, 2012
418
1
wobegong said:
Hi all,

Had an issue when I woke up this morning, left the G5 (Powermac Dual Core 2.3) on overnight (not running anything) and when I woke this morning there is no display (blank screen) and the fans were running full blast.

I had to power off with the power switch, restarted and so far is OK (using it now to write this).

I've suspected some dodgy RAM chips for a while (my last set were second hand) and have already ordered a complete set of brand new chips from Crucial - do you think this could be the issue or is it a dreaded overheating/system board problem?

Also will look at replacing the battery, it's probably never been replaced since new but I thought a sign of that was a reset date/time and in this case that is still being reported correctly..

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Update.... It's just done it again with the crash screen and a garbled background after about 45 minutes... Damn..

Just reset PMU/SMU and vacuumed out the inside though not very dusty and running a permission repair (its finding quite a lot to repair...) CPU core temps reported as Core A : 58 degrees/Core B : 71 degrees (while running permission repair), anyway will see if it happens again and get a new PRAM battery and wait for the new RAM.
 
Last edited:
Nameci

Nameci

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2010
1,944
12
The Philippines...
wobegong said:
Update.... It's just done it again with the crash screen and a garbled background after about 45 minutes... Damn..

Just reset PMU/SMU and vacuumed out the inside though not very dusty and running a permission repair (its finding quite a lot to repair...) CPU core temps reported as Core A : 58 degrees/Core B : 71 degrees (while running permission repair), anyway will see if it happens again and get a new PRAM battery and wait for the new RAM.
Click to expand...

I have encountered the same on few occassions on both my 2.3 dual core and the quad. And it all points to faulty or unstable RAM stick. Most of the time I would clean the memory slots and reinsert the RAM sticks and it would work out fine after that.
 
W

wobegong

Guest
Original poster
May 29, 2012
418
1
Nameci said:
I have encountered the same on few occassions on both my 2.3 dual core and the quad. And it all points to faulty or unstable RAM stick. Most of the time I would clean the memory slots and reinsert the RAM sticks and it would work out fine after that.
Click to expand...

Thanks - been alright since but will get that new RAM fitted as soon as it comes in.
 
noodle654

noodle654

macrumors 68020
Jun 2, 2005
2,070
22
Never Ender
wobegong said:
Thanks - been alright since but will get that new RAM fitted as soon as it comes in.
Click to expand...

Have you checked the crash log when you restart? I thought I had bad RAM but it was actually a USB device with an old firmware that was causing most of my KPs on my DC 2.3. Updated the firmware and it works perfectly now. You could always run Memtest.
 
W

wobegong

Guest
Original poster
May 29, 2012
418
1
noodle654 said:
Have you checked the crash log when you restart? I thought I had bad RAM but it was actually a USB device with an old firmware that was causing most of my KPs on my DC 2.3. Updated the firmware and it worksYou could always run Memtest.
Click to expand...

Thanks, hadn't thought of that.
 
R

RedCroissant

Suspended
Aug 13, 2011
2,268
96
noodle654 said:
Have you checked the crash log when you restart? I thought I had bad RAM but it was actually a USB device with an old firmware that was causing most of my KPs on my DC 2.3. Updated the firmware and it works perfectly now. You could always run Memtest.
Click to expand...

I agree with this as the most likely cause. I had the same issue with a PMG5 quad whenever I plugged in an older Targus bus-powered usb 2.0 hub. After I stopped using the hub, I didn't have another problem. Just recently sold the PM though. :-(
 
W

wobegong

Guest
Original poster
May 29, 2012
418
1
Just as an update it looks like it was faulty RAM, installed a full bank (16Gb) of brand new Crucial memory over the weekend and over 48 hours later (much of it 'stressed' running memtest (thanks noodle654 for putting me onto that) and no problems at all :D
 
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