Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

BigJohno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2007
1,453
519
San Francisco
Hey everyone, just picked up a 2005 g5 2.3 single processor machine. Have been wanting a G5 ever since they came out but never had enough money. I currently have a hex mac pro right now but found one on Craigslist for cheep so I thought I would splurge. Anyway, it didn't come with any hard drives. I had an extra HD from my macbook pro and formated it to boot for PPC. The issue is that when I boot from 10.5 cd it doesn't see the drive when plugged into the internal SATA ports. It did however see it when I plugged it into the usb port using an adaptor. Will this drive work internally? It's from a 2010 macbook pro.
 

rabidz7

macrumors 65816
Jun 24, 2012
1,205
3
Ohio
Hey everyone, just picked up a 2005 g5 2.3 single processor machine. Have been wanting a G5 ever since they came out but never had enough money. I currently have a hex mac pro right now but found one on Craigslist for cheep so I thought I would splurge. Anyway, it didn't come with any hard drives. I had an extra HD from my macbook pro and formated it to boot for PPC. The issue is that when I boot from 10.5 cd it doesn't see the drive when plugged into the internal SATA ports. It did however see it when I plugged it into the usb port using an adaptor. Will this drive work internally? It's from a 2010 macbook pro.

is this a solid state? I had the EXACT same issue when trying to install on a ssd.
 

BigJohno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2007
1,453
519
San Francisco
is this a solid state? I had the EXACT same issue when trying to install on a ssd.

No but it is a 2.5 inch drive. I was able to get it to work last night. I held down the option key and selected the drive. Another issue came up when I checked out the system profile. I noticed that it only read 512mb ram. It has 4 sticks of 256 stock and two 1gb sticks from owc. I took them out and reorganized them and now I get two beeps and the fans go crazy. I know the ram needs to be in the order from inside out but dont have the time to fix it. I will take a look tonight. The owc ram in it is 4200ddrm2m1gb. Is this compatible ram?
 

MisterKeeks

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2012
1,833
28
Hey everyone, just picked up a 2005 g5 2.3 single processor machine
The 2.3 only came in Dual Processor/Core.
No but it is a 2.5 inch drive. I was able to get it to work last night. I held down the option key and selected the drive. Another issue came up when I checked out the system profile. I noticed that it only read 512mb ram. It has 4 sticks of 256 stock and two 1gb sticks from owc. I took them out and reorganized them and now I get two beeps and the fans go crazy. I know the ram needs to be in the order from inside out but dont have the time to fix it. I will take a look tonight. The owc ram in it is 4200ddrm2m1gb. Is this compatible ram?

It depends. If your computer is Dual Core, it should be. Not sure about Dual Processor. For the hard drive issue, when you boot Leo from the disk, go to utilities>Disk Utility. Hard Drive should show up there. Format, and it should appear.
 

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
The 2.3 only came in Dual Processor/Core.

2.3 DC is still single processor. And if OP has DDR2 memory installed, he must have a DC then. You can't fit DDR2 in DDR slot. Notches are placed differently.

DDR2-vs-DDR3-RAM.jpg


OP: listed memory is compatible, but might be dead (one or both sticks).
 

drorpheus

macrumors regular
Nov 20, 2010
160
1
BigJohno, when you install the ram it has to match up, so heres the layout.

there's 8 ram slots from top to bottom.

1
2
3
4

5
6
7
8

You'll need to put the sticks in matching sets so put one of the 1gb in slot 4 and the other 1gb in slot 5, then put the 256mb in slot 3 and the other in slot 6, and then the last two in slots 2 and 7.

with the hard drive sometimes if its not jumpered down to SATA1 (jumper pin on 5/6 or the 3rd row of pins from the left or the 3rd pin on a 2.5")it wont recognize the drive automatically. SATA2 and 3 are sometimes bad with the auto recognize.

And the best way to tell if you have the dual 2.3 single core dual socket or the 2.3 dualcore single socket is the number of G5 logos on the cpu cover plate, 1 g5 is usually the dualcore single socket (late 2005) and 2 G5 logos is generally the single core dual socket (early 2005)
 

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
And the best way to tell if you have the dual 2.3 single core dual socket or the 2.3 dualcore single socket is the number of G5 logos on the cpu cover plate, 1 g5 is usually the dualcore single socket (late 2005) and 2 G5 logos is generally the single core dual socket (early 2005)

There are other ways too:
– AGP/PCI/PCI-X (DP) or PCIe slots (DC)
– 2 ethernet slots (DC) or 1 ethernet slot (DP)
– PSU cable
...etc ;)
 

BigJohno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2007
1,453
519
San Francisco
Hey everyone. Update on the G5. Took it outside and put about 5 cans of dust off into it. Took all the fans out, cpu cover, and drives. There was a ton of dust! The guy had not cleaned the computer for years! I clean my Pro once a month haha and any mac for that matter. Anyway, I reseated the ram and the computer sees all 3 gb of it. The 2.5" hard drive works in the internal drive. So needless to say everything works like it should. Maybe the dust was causing issues... I guess it doesn't have an airport card but has all the hook ups for it. What should I look for on ebay?

Thank you for your help on trouble shooting the issue.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.