HELP PowerMac G5 problem!

[Dr. Steve Brule]

I have a problem with my PowerMac G5, so lets see if some of you can point me in the right direction!

Model is the powerpc(powermac) g5 dual 1.8ghz
It's running OS X Tiger

It boots fine and what not but after a little while of use it randomly freezes up and I have to hold down the power button to get it to turn off.

It had 4g of RAM installed and I pulled all the third party RAM out leaving 2g of apple RAM so I'm pretty sure I can rule out the RAM as the issue.

Any one have any idea what the problem could be or at least a direction they can point me in?!

Thanks guys!

 

[Dr.Pants]

I concur that this is a problem! (Couldn't help myself )

Have you tried the third party RAM sticks instead of the Apple ones? Try booting with RAM in different slots? I doubt RAM is the error here, but one needs to be thorough if they're going to test it. Apple's RAM could have gone bad as well, or a slot is failing.

It may be an OS problem. If you have your original boot discs, try booting with them and running diagnostic utilities - if the computer freezes up then, it most certainly is not a problem with the OS or HDD. If the computer does not freeze, backup then "Archive and Install".

If the computer freezes during while booting from optical media, its the logic board or CPU. Are there screen artifacts? That's a good indication of a GPU error...

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

If it freezes after long use, I'd suggest blowing the dust out with an air compressor(or compressed air in a can) as the heat sinks may be clogged and then overheating causing your kernal panics.

 

[Dr. Steve Brule]

I concur that this is a problem! (Couldn't help myself )

Have you tried the third party RAM sticks instead of the Apple ones? Try booting with RAM in different slots? I doubt RAM is the error here, but one needs to be thorough if they're going to test it. Apple's RAM could have gone bad as well, or a slot is failing.

It may be an OS problem. If you have your original boot discs, try booting with them and running diagnostic utilities - if the computer freezes up then, it most certainly is not a problem with the OS or HDD. If the computer does not freeze, backup then "Archive and Install".

If the computer freezes during while booting from optical media, its the logic board or CPU. Are there screen artifacts? That's a good indication of a GPU error...

No I have not I'll give that a shot

I dont have my hands on a tiger disc as I am still looking for someone that has one when I get it I'll give that shot.

Also I've heard of people re seating their processors too.. Thoughts?

 

[Dr. Steve Brule]

If it freezes after long use, I'd suggest blowing the dust out with an air compressor(or compressed air in a can) as the heat sinks may be clogged and then overheating causing your kernal panics.

heat sinks are totally clean as is the entire computer!

 

[Kwill]

Could be a sleep issue

The same problem with my G5 was resolved by adjusting the Energy Saver preferences:

Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for: Never

 

[Dr. Steve Brule]

The same problem with my G5 was resolved by adjusting the Energy Saver preferences:

Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for: Never

Changed my setting lets see if this helps


Edit: Worked for a few hours then It finally froze up againn

 

[UAofE]

Uncheck "put hard drives to sleep", click "options" button and set the CPU to "highest".

 

[CubeHacker]

Did you do any physical changes to the computer after which this started happening? Such as upgrade the RAM or video card? Freezing CAN be due to overheating, but if they computer detected that it was getting too hot, you would have heard the fans speed up to try to cool it down before it actually froze.

It could also be a software issue, but i'm not sure if you want to format the HDD and install OSX from scratch to check. Any strange peripherals attached? Anything you can think of that you did before it started happening? It could also be a motherboard problem, possibly leaking capacitors, though I have not heard of that issue in the Powermac line, only the iMac G5's. You never know, though.

Edit: It could also be an overheating/defective video card.

 

[Dr. Steve Brule]

Uncheck "put hard drives to sleep", click "options" button and set the CPU to "highest".

Thanks for the tip I'll give it a go and see if that helps!

 

[Dr. Steve Brule]

Did you do any physical changes to the computer after which this started happening? Such as upgrade the RAM or video card? Freezing CAN be due to overheating, but if they computer detected that it was getting too hot, you would have heard the fans speed up to try to cool it down before it actually froze.

It could also be a software issue, but i'm not sure if you want to format the HDD and install OSX from scratch to check. Any strange peripherals attached? Anything you can think of that you did before it started happening? It could also be a motherboard problem, possibly leaking capacitors, though I have not heard of that issue in the Powermac line, only the iMac G5's. You never know, though.

Edit: It could also be an overheating/defective video card.

No changes done by me besides removing the third party ram

Yeah no change in the speed of fans at all
And i will look into the video card

Looking to soon to updated the OS to leopard I'm hoping that this will fix any problems I'm having