TWO Cubes!

Hey guys, I've been following a few G4 Cubes for a while now and just haven't been able to justify the ridiculously high prices they're going for.

However, I've been watching this one for a while and and have been hoping that it could be salvageable. The machine boots up and chimes, but then proceeds to a completely blank, white screen - as opposed to a sad Mac, flashing folder etc.

I've never come across a Mac that's thrown up a blank white screen before - do any of you know what the issue could be?

Thanks.

Intell said:

Reseat the video card and video card riser board, then reset the PRAM. Do you have the Cube speakers and hear it chime?

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I haven't bought the Cube yet - it's currently at auction. If it was in my possession that'd be the first thing I'd do.

I've been contacting the seller for a couple of days now and he said the machine's been in storage for 8 years, was working when it entered and now it's not. He's not fussed on touching any of the internals as he's afraid he'll break something. The most I could get out of him was the fact that it chimed (through the Cube's speakers) and proceeded to a blank, white screen.

As it's been in storage for so long honestly it could be anything, I'm just hoping it's (as you said) something as simple as a loose GPU.

Alrighty then! I'll go for it - will report back tomorrow if I win.

I won the auction! Including postage it's cost me £55, which is a pretty damn good deal, even if I can't get it working.

Should be here within the week.

Okay, I've just gone a little trigger happy on eBay this last week but this one I just couldn't turn down, I've now got (along with the aforementioned Cube) a 1.2GHz, upgraded (and fully working) Cube, complete with Studio Display, speakers, the lot. All for £50 ($80).

I'll probably end up now taking the better parts from each and frankenstein them together.

Intell said:

That's a good deal. The G4 upgrade in that Cube alone is worth more than what you paid for it. The display and speakers make it an even better deal. I hope you didn't pay too much for shipping.

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Only a tenner ($15) for shipping. Looks like it's packing this CPU.

Let's just hope they both arrive in one piece.

Right, the 1st Cube turned up yesterday.

It turned up, well packaged. Every thing was where it was meant to be and the Cube itself on first inspection was in good condition. I plugged it in, and booted it up, to see the status quo. And as per the description, it booted up to a blank, white screen. I couldn't hear the hard drive spin up either.

I then notice a red LED on the logicboard, labelled 'DS2' - after researching I've still got no conclusive answer, hard drive or video card by the looks of it though.

So I flip the Cube around and start digging in to the system, first things first, smack a new hard drive in.

On my way I noticed the optical drive was bent, with a disc jammed inside. I ripped that out and there was a Tiger DVD in there. Guessing whoever owned it lasted tried reinstalling the OS before everything went tits up.

I continued to swap out the 20GB (original) Apple drive with a 160GB Maxtor drive. I put everything back together and again, white screen. Nothing.

So then I decided to swap out the Rage 128 GPU that was in there with a GeForce 2MX. Easy enough, everything back together and AGAIN, nothing. White screen. And still the HDD wouldn't spin up.

So I dug back in to the Cube and this time moved the hard drive over in to the optical drive bay. Again, put everything back together, and again, white screen. HOWEVER, the hard drive did spin up this time.

I reset the PRAM, still no change. I held down Option to get in to the drive selection screen and it did proceed to that screen, however everything was unresponsive (ie. timer icon stuck and mouse not working). I tied booting up into Target Disk Mode to see if the PowerBook could see it but it refused to boot in to TDM.

Is there anything else I can do? What does the DS2 LED mean?

UPDATE: I'm into Open Firmware! The keyboard is working, however I how idea how this can help me. Is there anything I can do here to help the Cube out?

Reset the PRAM and NVRAM, to no avail.

The firmware version is 4.1.9f - still refuses to boot in to TDM.

The second Cube turned up today, again, packaged really well. Plugged everything in and booted it up - everything is working without a hitch! Massive score, the Cube itself is in near mint condition, inside and out. Same goes for the monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse.

Just as a last shot, I tried the GPU, RAM, PRAM battery and HDD from the working Cube in the faulty Cube, and still no change. I did the reverse (GPU, RAM, PRAM and HDD from faulty Cube in working Cube) and it booted up perfectly, which leads me to think it's almost definitely a logicboard or CPU issue.

At this stage I'm going to cut my losses on the first Cube and sell it as-is (should breakeven at £50 to be honest), and I'll keep the second Cube around. Gorgeous machine. I'll get some pictures when she's all set up.

Here they are!