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Broken PM G5 Quad from eBay

noodle654

noodle654

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 2, 2005
2,070
22
Never Ender
So last week I won a PM G5 Quad on eBay for $25. It was 'broken' and the seller didn't provide a whole lot of detail besides "doesn't work". Oh well, only $25 so whatever.

I just opened it today and started to work on it. First, the whole thing was loaded with PC-3200 RAM...so removed all of that. The only RAM that works is a 2GB (1x1) set of PC2-5300 RAM. No flashing RAM indicators, but the LED #7 is lit, which according to the service manual is a CPU hang.

I took apart the LC unit and everything looks really clean. Minimal dust, no leaking or anything. I put the CPUs back and reapplied thermal paste. They are seated perfectly but I still get the #7 warning, however I get the chime.

The service manual says "replaced processors/logic board", but I don't know what processor is bad (let alone how to test). The thing is the computer boots fine! It displays video and loads but eventually the prohibited sign appears and nothing happens. Unfortunately I don't have any of my install disks, extra drives, extra RAM or my copies of ASD to test. I booted into verbose and get the following:

AppleSMU -- shutdown cause = 3
"Something about not being able to find boot device"

Anybody have any bright ideas here? Or am I SOL?
 
As of now both LED #2 and #7 Red are lit. There seem to be many possibilities, but I am leaning towards either one (or both) of the processors are dead or one of them is dead. The only other thing I can think of is the liquid cooling unit, could the fluid evaporate? Perhaps one CPU is shutting off because it is overheating?

EDIT:

Tried to boot from ASD, would not boot. Looks like this thing is done. If anybody wants any parts let me know and PM me, otherwise it will most likely be recycled in the next week.
 
Last edited:
noodle654 said:
Tried to boot from ASD, would not boot. Looks like this thing is done. If anybody wants any parts let me know and PM me, otherwise it will most likely be recycled in the next week.
Click to expand...

Looking at the readme file for ASD 2.6.3 for this quad (which I assume has to be a Late 2005), there's this note:

"*ASD 2.6.3 for PowerMac G5 (Late 2005) will not boot on the OS portion the DVD, only OF testing is supported. If you attempt to run Diagnostic (OS) from the system picker the system will hang while trying to boot into OS."

So can you run ASD from the OpenFirmware environment?
 
Unfortunately I can't even get to the boot screen to select the OF portion of ASD. This thing just hangs, even in OF it becomes frozen and I can't type.
 
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