I have had an iMac G5 for 3 years almost and lately the USB ports are failing they stop functioning and maybe after restarting they work again.The problem has happened again and I don't know what it can be,can anyone give me any advice? Also with this problem another problem has appeared...when I introduce a CD it makes noises and it doesn't read 'em but also after restarting it is usually fixed
I guess it is not a hardware problem because after restarting the problem usually stops but what kind of software problem can it be??
Thank you!
-Macintosh001
Hardware issue indeed, but the problem causing your sympoms may not be what you think.
For the first-generation iMac G5, there is a known problem with the electrolytic capacitors, they tend to expand and die - some may burst. FYI- in 2004 a company began creating these capacitors based on an incomplete spec of the main supplier of these capacitors, but for much cheaper. The entire electronics industry was duped by this, not just Apple.
See:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302181
When these capacitors go, and they go gradually, wild, weird and wacky things can happen. A friend of mine's display would turn on, anothers USB ports stopped working altogether, and myself, I'd start it up, it would glerg on the spinning apple, after letting it warm up in that state, I could trounce it for a normal startup.
I'd see an Apple repairer soon...
