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Best place to buy parts for old PowerPC computers

ojfl

ojfl

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 6, 2015
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We have an old PowerMac G5 dual 2.5 GHz that I wanted to put back in service. I had installed Debian a while back on it but now it will not boot constantly and I believe it is related to a defective video card. I want to check on prices for video cards for those machines so I can bring ours back to life but I have found very few places that have parts for those computers. Do you people in the forum have any suggestions of the best places to get parts? Or is it just the luck of ebay?
 
there is an EbAY place in syossette NYC that had everything for my powerbook g4 while i was in 2009
best i can do!
 
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ojfl said:
We have an old PowerMac G5 dual 2.5 GHz that I wanted to put back in service. I had installed Debian a while back on it but now it will not boot constantly and I believe it is related to a defective video card. I want to check on prices for video cards for those machines so I can bring ours back to life but I have found very few places that have parts for those computers. Do you people in the forum have any suggestions of the best places to get parts? Or is it just the luck of ebay?
Click to expand...
What kind of video card are you looking for? Simply a replacement of your stock card? An upgrade, best known that you can get? What you're looking for determines the quantity/quality you can find and thus what eBay will return in a search.

You can also keep an eye on craigslist for your area. Sometimes, Mac-specific GPUs come through. Also, don't be afraid to buy a broken Mac or a Mac that is listed as 'for parts or repair" just to get the GPU and other parts. Dead Macs can be a wealth of replacement parts.
 
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eyoungren said:
What kind of video card are you looking for? Simply a replacement of your stock card? An upgrade, best known that you can get? What you're looking for determines the quantity/quality you can find and thus what eBay will return in a search.

You can also keep an eye on craigslist for your area. Sometimes, Mac-specific GPUs come through. Also, don't be afraid to buy a broken Mac or a Mac that is listed as 'for parts or repair" just to get the GPU and other parts. Dead Macs can be a wealth of replacement parts.
Click to expand...
I was thinking of a mere replacement card as I will not be installing macOS on it but rather either Debian or MintPPC, most likely the former. I would not be opposed to getting an upgrade, as long as it is not too much more expensive. Would you have any pointers? It is a good idea to look for a broken Mac. Thank you for that.
 
ojfl said:
I was thinking of a mere replacement card as I will not be installing macOS on it but rather either Debian or MintPPC, most likely the former. I would not be opposed to getting an upgrade, as long as it is not too much more expensive. Would you have any pointers? It is a good idea to look for a broken Mac. Thank you for that.
Click to expand...
Since it's just a replacement, that should be fairly easy to find. Just do a search for your type of GPU card. What card do you have? Others might be able to suggest a modest upgrade if you let us know.

As far as pointers, no, I don't really have any. Try and confine your search to as little search terms as possible though. That makes things easier to find. You do want to make sure you're searching for an Apple card though.

Keep an eye out for vendors who post Macs for parts/repair because of a blinking question folder on boot. Around here, we all know what that means and it's a simple fix. But for most PC-oriented vendors this isn't anything they are familiar with. I've bought a Mac or two at a good price because of this.
 
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eyoungren said:
Since it's just a replacement, that should be fairly easy to find. Just do a search for your type of GPU card. What card do you have? Others might be able to suggest a modest upgrade if you let us know.

As far as pointers, no, I don't really have any. Try and confine your search to as little search terms as possible though. That makes things easier to find. You do want to make sure you're searching for an Apple card though.

Keep an eye out for vendors who post Macs for parts/repair because of a blinking question folder on boot. Around here, we all know what that means and it's a simple fix. But for most PC-oriented vendors this isn't anything they are familiar with. I've bought a Mac or two at a good price because of this.
Click to expand...
I forgot which card we have. I will probably have to look for the information on the card itself. When our computer boots we do get the blinking folder but that is because the computer has a fresh hard disk on it so it is expected. But most times we get nothing on the screen at all and the computer just sits there until the fans start revving up. That is what makes me think it is a graphics card issue. Thank you for the pointers you have given me.
 
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ojfl said:
I forgot which card we have. I will probably have to look for the information on the card itself. When our computer boots we do get the blinking folder but that is because the computer has a fresh hard disk on it so it is expected. But most times we get nothing on the screen at all and the computer just sits there until the fans start revving up. That is what makes me think it is a graphics card issue. Thank you for the pointers you have given me.
Click to expand...
This is a common issue with the PowerMac G5 because of the age and that is, when it's stored for long periods of time, it will start to act like it boots up perfectly fine some of the time, but some of the time it boots up and the fan revs up on high. I have seen several of these PowerMac G5s exhibiting these issues while working at the non-profit recycling facility and recycling them for sale and they all point to either a logic board problem or an imminent power supply problem. My first dual PowerMac G5 died because of the logic board issue. My second single 1.8Ghz PowerMac G5 with a more reliable logic board died when the power supply blew up. It was showing the symptoms 6 months with 90% booting up to desktop while 10% of the time, the fan revs up and did nothing until I shut it off and then powering on again. Then one day, I heard a big bang while working with the G5 and I can see smoke coming out of the fan ports and the smell of blown caps.

Usually those video cards on the Dual 2.3 are reliable as that was my thought as well when diagnosing those machines, but it turned out to be mainly power supply issues as well as the logic board. Just sharing my experience with you so you don't buy a video card only ending up not solving the issue. You may try the diagnostic procedure listed below out of the G5 service manual for your Dual 2.3 to isolate your particular issue.

" Power-On Self Test: RAM and Processor Verification

A power-on self test in the computer’s ROM automatically runs whenever the computer is started up after being fully shut down (the test does not run if the computer is only restarted). If the test

detects a problem, the status LED located above the power button on the front of the computer will flash in the following ways*:

1 Flash: No RAM is installed or detected.

2 Flashes: Incompatible RAM types are installed or RAM installed in wrong slots.

3 Flashes: No RAM banks passed memory testing.

4 Flashes: No good boot images are detected in the boot ROM (and/or there is a bad sys config block).

5 Flashes: The processor is not usable.

  • Note: The status LED lights up when the power button is depressed at startup. Do not count this light as one of the diagnostic flashes.
Diagnostic LEDs

Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) logic boards include a set of LEDs to help service providers troubleshoot the computers. The LEDs are located to the left of the top bank of DIMM slots.



Block Image



Power-on LED illuminates when power button is pressed and fans spin continuously but there is no boot tone or video

Reseat video card. (Make sure video card is fully inserted in connector and end of card is secured by the connector latch.) For video cards that require power cables, check that they are connected.

Verify speaker cable is fully seated.

Reset logic board. Refer to “Resetting the Logic Board” in this chapter.

Check diagnostic LED 1 and LED 6 for processor connection

Replace processor

Replace logic board

Power-on LED illuminates when power button is pressed, fans spin, and boot tone chimes, but there is no video

Reseat video card. (Make sure video card is fully inserted in connector and end of card is secured by the connector latch.) For NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics card, check that power cord for card is connected.

Reset PRAM (restart computer while holding down Command-Option-P-R keys until second boot tone chimes)

Reset logic board. Refer to “Resetting the Logic Board” in this chapter.

Replace video card

Replace logic board
 
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iluvmacs99 said:
This is a common issue with the PowerMac G5 because of the age and that is, when it's stored for long periods of time, it will start to act like it boots up perfectly fine some of the time, but some of the time it boots up and the fan revs up on high. I have seen several of these PowerMac G5s exhibiting these issues while working at the non-profit recycling facility and recycling them for sale and they all point to either a logic board problem or an imminent power supply problem. My first dual PowerMac G5 died because of the logic board issue. My second single 1.8Ghz PowerMac G5 with a more reliable logic board died when the power supply blew up. It was showing the symptoms 6 months with 90% booting up to desktop while 10% of the time, the fan revs up and did nothing until I shut it off and then powering on again. Then one day, I heard a big bang while working with the G5 and I can see smoke coming out of the fan ports and the smell of blown caps.

Usually those video cards on the Dual 2.3 are reliable as that was my thought as well when diagnosing those machines, but it turned out to be mainly power supply issues as well as the logic board. Just sharing my experience with you so you don't buy a video card only ending up not solving the issue. You may try the diagnostic procedure listed below out of the G5 service manual for your Dual 2.3 to isolate your particular issue.

" Power-On Self Test: RAM and Processor Verification

A power-on self test in the computer’s ROM automatically runs whenever the computer is started up after being fully shut down (the test does not run if the computer is only restarted). If the test

detects a problem, the status LED located above the power button on the front of the computer will flash in the following ways*:

1 Flash: No RAM is installed or detected.

2 Flashes: Incompatible RAM types are installed or RAM installed in wrong slots.

3 Flashes: No RAM banks passed memory testing.

4 Flashes: No good boot images are detected in the boot ROM (and/or there is a bad sys config block).

5 Flashes: The processor is not usable.

  • Note: The status LED lights up when the power button is depressed at startup. Do not count this light as one of the diagnostic flashes.
Diagnostic LEDs

Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) logic boards include a set of LEDs to help service providers troubleshoot the computers. The LEDs are located to the left of the top bank of DIMM slots.



Block Image



Power-on LED illuminates when power button is pressed and fans spin continuously but there is no boot tone or video

Reseat video card. (Make sure video card is fully inserted in connector and end of card is secured by the connector latch.) For video cards that require power cables, check that they are connected.

Verify speaker cable is fully seated.

Reset logic board. Refer to “Resetting the Logic Board” in this chapter.

Check diagnostic LED 1 and LED 6 for processor connection

Replace processor

Replace logic board

Power-on LED illuminates when power button is pressed, fans spin, and boot tone chimes, but there is no video

Reseat video card. (Make sure video card is fully inserted in connector and end of card is secured by the connector latch.) For NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics card, check that power cord for card is connected.

Reset PRAM (restart computer while holding down Command-Option-P-R keys until second boot tone chimes)

Reset logic board. Refer to “Resetting the Logic Board” in this chapter.

Replace video card

Replace logic board
Click to expand...
Thank you for the detailed reply. It is very well written. The computer POSTs fine, I already removed and re-inserted the graphics card, checked all of the cabling, which was good as I cleaned the machine, so I am hoping it is the graphics card and not the logic board or the power supply so I will buy a graphics card and hope for the best, otherwise it will be reclycling the machine and have a broken heart. But once again, thank you for the thoughtful reply.
 
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pipetogrep said:
I hope it helps. I actually just called them with questions about a couple of parts. They seem really helpful.
Click to expand...
It helps a lot. I had ordered a card from eBay but now I have a great single place to get other parts.
 
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