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1.8 G3 Tower Dead

Huntn

Huntn

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
May 5, 2008
24,830
27,905
The Misty Mountains
I stepped out today and when I came back I found my ancient G5 tower turned off although I had left it running. Curiously this happened a few days ago, but then when I pressed the power button it restarted. This time, no such luck. It's dead. It might be a good time to replace it but I'd like to troubleshoot first. My first culprit would be the power supply.

What's the easiest way to verify if my power supply is dead or alive? Also any online hardware troubleshooting links would be appreciated. I'd be willing to pay for a new power supply, and maybe even a new hard drive, but would a completely dead Mac be indicative of a bad HD?

I also have a 2011 MBP. If none of these easy things work, my next choice would be to upgrade to either a new iMac or MacPro. I really don't want to pay more than $2400, but I also want a Mac that can handle games relatively well, maybe better than my MBP. I've always liked the upgrade options that come with the MacPro tower so I need to think on it. I see the new iMacs only have i5s while my MBP has an i7, but I remember some good vibes about the $1999 iMac's gaming performance. Do those processor numbers reflect relative speed?

Any thoughts on my meandering would be appreciated. Thanks! :)
 
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The i5's in the iMac are faster than the i7 in you MBP. You can also get a iMac with an i7. About your g3 tower, Sounds like either the motherboard or the power supply. Try re seating the ram too. At first it sounded like it might be overheating. But since it won't turn on at all anymore, that's most likely not the case.
 
Huntn said:
What's the easiest way to verify if my power supply is dead or alive?
Click to expand...

I am not sure about apple machine specifically, but I know most power supplies have a tiny button on them somewhere for testing, sometimes even a small LED when powered. Can you tell if the motherboard has a indicator light on when it's plugged in?

Examine the motherboard closely for any odd looking capacitors or signs of burning. Hopefully its not that serious though.

Reseat the memory, double check all connections, then triple check them and let us know what you find!
 
If you have a multimeter I suppose you could always try playing around with the pins on the power supply --> motherboard connector and seeing if there's any current there.
 
Thanks guys! I'll examine the guts of my machine and see if there are any signs of life. I've got a volt meter I can use if I knew where I could check the power supply for juice. I might even call around and see if there is a Mac dealer who would give an estimate. It's got to be something cheap/easy or it's upgrade time. This tower is such a beautiful engineered box, it would be a shame to trash it...
 
Huntn said:
Thanks guys! I'll examine the guts of my machine and see if there are any signs of life. I've got a volt meter I can use if I knew where I could check the power supply for juice. I might even call around and see if there is a Mac dealer who would give an estimate. It's got to be something cheap/easy or it's upgrade time. This tower is such a beautiful engineered box, it would be a shame to trash it...
Click to expand...

What is a G3 1.8? You mean a G5, right.
 
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