2.5 Quad Core G5 PowerPC - monitor failure

[dmanzer2]

Hello all, I have an (old now) 2.5 Quad Core PowerPC where all of a sudden the display stopped working. Prior to this happening though, the monitor would periodically shut off and go into "Sleep Mode" then I would hit the space bar and it would come back, until finally the monitor just stopped coming on. I thought it was the video card so I replaced that, but no change. I do notice that NO power is getting to the monitor, meaning the keyboard and mouse via 23" cinema display are not receiving power. I also tried another monitor (VGA) with the system and it did not work either. Any ideas as to what is causing this. I really don't want to retire this beast yet! Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

 

[128keaton]

Hello all, I have an (old now) 2.5 Quad Core PowerPC where all of a sudden the display stopped working. Prior to this happening though, the monitor would periodically shut off and go into "Sleep Mode" then I would hit the space bar and it would come back, until finally the monitor just stopped coming on. I thought it was the video card so I replaced that, but no change. I do notice that NO power is getting to the monitor, meaning the keyboard and mouse via 23" cinema display are not receiving power. I also tried another monitor (VGA) with the system and it did not work either. Any ideas as to what is causing this. I really don't want to retire this beast yet! Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

1. Try a video different cable.
2. Try the old video card.
3. Clean the video card contacts to the Mac and the cable.
4. Try a different power cable.
5. Reboot the Mac.
6. Reset the PRAM (reboot, hold cmd, opt, p, r all at the same time)
Report back!

 

[Altemose]

Hello all, I have an (old now) 2.5 Quad Core PowerPC where all of a sudden the display stopped working. Prior to this happening though, the monitor would periodically shut off and go into "Sleep Mode" then I would hit the space bar and it would come back, until finally the monitor just stopped coming on. I thought it was the video card so I replaced that, but no change. I do notice that NO power is getting to the monitor, meaning the keyboard and mouse via 23" cinema display are not receiving power. I also tried another monitor (VGA) with the system and it did not work either. Any ideas as to what is causing this. I really don't want to retire this beast yet! Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

Try a PMU reset. If you had screen sharing enabled, try remoting into the Mac and see if the GPU shows in System Profiler.

 

[dmanzer2]

Tried recomendations

Hi, thank you for taking the time to help troubleshoot this issue. I cleaned the connections to the video card slot and tried the new video card again with no luck. I then took out the new video card and tried the old one again and still no luck. I'm pretty sure it's not the cable because the cable on the other monitor I tried did the same thing. I also tried to reset the PRAM and that had no affect. Also "Altemose" mentioned the screen sharing option and I've never had that enabled, so I'm pretty sure that's not it. There's one thing that seems to be happening. I strongly feel the mother board is not giving power to the video slot anymore. Is this even possible?? The reason I think this is because nothing plugged into either video cards receives power. Both monitors once plugged into the video card just stay off like they are not getting power. 23" cinema display and dell 19" get the same results, no power. Any other thoughts on this issue? Thank you so much for the help!!

 

[Altemose]

Do your GPUs need supplemental power from the PSU through a second cord?

 

[dmanzer2]

The cinema display has it's own power supply but the dell monitor does not. It plugs into the outlet. Since the Dell does not get power via a power supply like the cinema display does, has power (viewable settings & dell splash screen) until the hard drive starts to power up. At this point the dell monitor just goes into a sleep state or into a standby mode. Thank you for the help! Could it be the power supply for the cinema display and the dell not working is a completely separate issue?

 

[Altemose]

I was referencing a cable going from the PSU in the Mac to the video card.

 

[havokalien]

Did you try ?

The motherboard cuda switch?

All that on and off and unplugging I would bet your pram battery is dead. Dead pram batteries cause a host of issues or show problems before they come.

I suggest pulling the battery and hitting the push button on the motherboard and try again.

If not your power supply may be giving up and not feeding the 28 volts and such to the card.

 

[dmanzer2]

Tried recomendations

Hi All! Thank you for your help! Still no luck trouble shooting this.

I tried a new battery and hit the reset button. No change. The only thing left on this list is the cable and the power supply. I'll pick up a cable this weekend. Do you really think it's the Power Supply?? The power light (front button) still turns on and the hard drives seem to boot as normal but no display. Could the power supply just not power the video card??

Thank you!

 

[128keaton]

Hi All! Thank you for your help! Still no luck trouble shooting this.

I tried a new battery and hit the reset button. No change. The only thing left on this list is the cable and the power supply. I'll pick up a cable this weekend. Do you really think it's the Power Supply?? The power light (front button) still turns on and the hard drives seem to boot as normal but no display. Could the power supply just not power the video card??

Thank you!

Maybe your PCI pins are damaged, but it really might be the PSU.

 

[Nameci]

Hi All! Thank you for your help! Still no luck trouble shooting this.

I tried a new battery and hit the reset button. No change. The only thing left on this list is the cable and the power supply. I'll pick up a cable this weekend. Do you really think it's the Power Supply?? The power light (front button) still turns on and the hard drives seem to boot as normal but no display. Could the power supply just not power the video card??

Thank you!

Can you hear the boot chime when you turn on your powermac?

If not, then it would be a failure on the memory modules. Failure on the memory modules would make the power to not complete its boot up sequence. If the RAM has failed or is not present there will also be no video signal going into the monitors.

Try populating only the two middle memory slots.

If you need a copy of the service manual, just send me a PM or mail me at icedotginandoyatmedotcom.

 

[dmanzer2]

Still troubleshooting

Thanks Nameci!

Yes, the chime does happen. I have 14 GB of ram and I took all out but 2 in the middle slots and tried to restart. Same thing, chime but still no display. PSU replace??

Thank you!