Comprehensive Guide to Servicing G5 Quad LCS

[mac57mac57]

Hello All,

As promised, I have been documenting everything as I have gone through the arduous process of servicing my Power Mac G5 Quad LCS.

I have written a document that I hope is a comprehensive A-Z guide to servicing a G5 Quad LCS. This is a large guide (55 pages!) but it is rich with images and photos, which pushes up both page count and the file size (61.1 MB for the PDF version, 14.5 MB for the Word version).

I would like to encourage the more knowledgeable readers here at MacRumors to go through it critically and reply back with comments. I would like this document to be as accurate as possible - it is my contribution back to MacRumors for all the help you have given me as I went through this task.

The guide can be viewed/downloaded from:

https://inverary.net/LCS/Power Mac G5 Quad LCS Restoration, A-Z Guide, v1.1.pdf

The original Word document is in the same place - just change the ".pdf" at the end of the URL to ".docx".

Comments and feedback MOST welcome!

 

[Matias_]

Hello,

This is my first post to MacRumors but I have been following your Quad Chronicles since the very beginning. At the time I had just gotten my first quad working (rescued from a casemod, got the machine in parts and reassembled it completely from scratch, soldered a ribbon cable behind the HDD cage back together that the previous owner ripped during disassembly but the dual pump LCS still worked so I had to do nothing there. Had to replace the dead power supply. It was actually a really incredible and fun story, perhaps for another day). So I have some experience with these machines.

Shortly afterwards I acquired three nonworking quads all with the single pump LCS. I intend to restore at least two of these, the third one might be repairable but the PSU exploded and tripped the breaker when I plugged it in. I have most of the tools and supplies I need but I haven't gotten around to it yet, when I do I might make my own thread about the process.

Thanks a lot for your comprehensive guide, it will be immensely helpful! It's the most complete one I have seen yet. I wanted to write something like this myself but I realized that I suck at documentation and I will probably not be able to write a guide as good as yours within a reasonably timeframe haha.

Some points of interest (to me, at least ):

The URLs in your PDF don't work for me, not sure if it's an issue with the Firefox PDF reader?

The steps you outline for removing the LCS from the machine are also mentioned in the Apple service manual for these machines. Which is by no means a bad thing, I think it's actually really nice to have everything in one document but I also think it's good to take a look at the official service manaual to get the full picture.

There is an easier way to boot ASD that does not involve rebooting. Simply hold option to enter the boot picker and then iirc press the e key. This will eject the optical drive so you can insert the disc and push it closed again. Then press the little refresh button in the boot picker and it should show up!

Your guide makes no mention of the little filters contiained in the inlets of both CPU blocks. From what I understand you got rid of them but it might be good to at least mention their existence, the other guide referenced below also takes note of them.

There are two other old but excellent documents going over servicing this version of the LCS along with it's pump. Again, this is by no means to discredit your guide! It's just handy additional information to have. I can't remember where I found these, it might have been somewhere else on this forum. But I will attach all the relevant documents below to have everthing at one place.

Let me know what you think. And thanks again for your work!

PowerMac G5 late 2005 service manual

 

[mac57mac57]

Excellent comments, @Matias_, particularly the one about the inline filters... Thank you! How could I have forgotten to include those? I am already working on an up issue of the document. I will add the inline filters to it.

Your ASD boot trick sounds excellent... I will try it out and add it as well once I can get some screen shots.

Thanks again!

 

[mac57mac57]

@Matias_, thanks for the two documents as well. I read that document early on in the process, so I am well aware of it.

Nonetheless, this is another good catch: perhaps I will add a "Related Works" section to the end of my document, and list of all the related documents and blog posts I can find. Regrettably, links go stale over time, do this will have only a time limited value.

However, it would be a great addition - provides other points of view, other techniques, etc

Thanks!

 

[Matias_]

Perhaps an idea could be to capture a copy of all relevant links with the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and link to those instead? It is less likely for an entity like the Internet Archive to disappear over time than it is for personal blogs and the like.

 

[mac57mac57]

@Matias_, thanks for the two documents as well. I read that document early on in the process, so I am well aware of it.

Nonetheless, this is another good catch: perhaps I will add a "Related Works" section to the end of my document, and list of all the related documents and blog posts I can find. Regrettably, links go stale over time, do this will have only a time limited value.

However, it would be a great addition - provides other points of view, other techniques, etc

Thanks!

 

[mac57mac57]

Thanks to everyone who has provided comments on v0.1 of this document. I have incorporated all the comments received to date and released an up-issue (0.2) of the document. I have updated the links in the original post to point to the new document, and for your convenience, reproduce it below:

https://inverary.net/LCS/Power Mac G5 Quad LCS Restoration, A-Z Guide, v0.2.pdf

Again, comments, criticisms, gratuitous praise etc. all welcomed!

 

[mac57mac57]

I have released a new up-issue of the document, v0.3, incorporating additional comments and adding more detail in various places. I have updated the link in the original post to point to this new version, and I reproduce the link again below for your convenience:

https://inverary.net/LCS/Power Mac G5 Quad LCS Restoration, A-Z Guide, v0.3.pdf

As always, comments, criticisms, gratuitous praise etc. all welcomed!

 

[mac57mac57]

...and once more, I have released a new up-issue of the document, v0.4, incorporating additional content in the loop building section. I have updated the link in the original post to point to this new version, and I reproduce the link again below for your convenience:

Power Mac G5 Quad LCS Restoration, A-Z Guide, v0.4.pdf

As always, comments, criticisms, gratuitous praise etc. all welcomed!

 

[mac57mac57]

...and once more, I have released a new up-issue of the document, v0.5, incorporating additional content in the loop filling section. I have updated the link in the original post to point to this new version, and I reproduce the link again below for your convenience:

https://inverary.net/LCS/Power Mac G5 Quad LCS Restoration, A-Z Guide, v0.5.pdf

As always, comments, criticisms, gratuitous praise etc. all welcomed!

 

[mac57mac57]

...and yet again, I have released a new up-issue of the document, v0.6, incorporating additional photos in several sections. I have updated the link in the original post to point to this new version, and I reproduce the link again below for your convenience:

https://inverary.net/LCS/Power Mac G5 Quad LCS Restoration, A-Z Guide, v0.6.pdf

As always, comments, criticisms, gratuitous praise etc. all welcomed!

 

[mac57mac57]

...and yet again, I have released a new up-issue of the document, v0.7, incorporating additional tips in the CPU pasting area. I have updated the link in the original post to point to this new version, and I reproduce the link again below for your convenience:

https://inverary.net/LCS/Power Mac G5 Quad LCS Restoration, A-Z Guide, v0.7.pdf

As always, comments, criticisms, gratuitous praise etc. all welcomed!