Cube G4 not starting up

[Berenod]

Hi, got an almost perfect looking cube G4, only, the thing doesn't start up.

The green led on the DC-DC convertor is on when the power supply is plugged in, when I put my finger on the power button area, it lights up, and dims when I take my finger away, but absolutely nothing else happens.

Have an LCD connected to it with VGA cable (don't have an ADC monitor).

Any ideas?

 

[Berenod]

Just checked the pram battery, dead as a dodo. Apparenty the g4 cubes can go woky when the battery is totally dead?
Unfortunately I don't have one lying around, used the last one as a replacement in a G4 iMac (same battery)...

 

[GMShadow]

These things are pains in the butt, frankly.

It will boot without a PRAM battery, but chances are the power button gasket is the real issue if it's lighting up and then turning back off immediately. Usually cleaning that will get it to work properly.

It's a shame CubeOwner went offline, they had a ton of info on all this and I don't think the site was ever properly archived.

 

[California]

The workaround for the dead Cube power button was to buy the Mac keyboard with the power button.

 

[Berenod]

Small update...
Apparently nothing wrong with the powerbutton...
Taking the PRAM battery out and resetting the PMU (why did they have to hide that button under the friggin videocard??), and the machine booted straight up to the Apple logo, then got stuck. I do know the harddrive has intermittent issues so no surprise there.

Waiting for the new battery to be delivered before continuing, with new harddrive (wel, going to be an mSata in the mSata to pata adapter).

 

[cubeover]

SSD in a Cube would be way cool. Tiger worked best, but Leopard is the newest you can go. I loved the UI design, consider it moved backwards but may spiral back into place with time… those were the days….
i still have some parts so PM me should you want any for the price of shipping from Australia.

 

[Wouter3]

An SSD in the Cube also makes it completely silent and more stable. I have installed a Sata SSD with an Sata to IDE adapter. However, it was not recognized at first. I had to change the settings on the adapter to slave in order to have to SSD and the DVD drive work correctly.