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Cube: Will not power on

Flyinace2000

Flyinace2000

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 28, 2004
666
0
I jsut bought a used cube from a local computer shop. It was abbandoned by its owner. I saw the computer running last week when it was in the shop. I went to pick it up today and got it home. I can't get it to power on. The power "button" pulses when i push it but nothing happens. The ACD display that it came with gets power. I have tried reseating ram, reseating the DC to DC board and the graphics card riser. Any ideas?

-Will
 
The only thing I can think of is maybe the power adapter went bad on you? I know thats a tough thing to test too as its specific to the Cube (I have a G4 Cube too). Do you hear like the CD or DVD ROM make a slight noise (like the scanner slide slightly) when you press the power button? If you have speakers for it (USB only) do you hear the Mac chime at all? I know its a PITA to get another power adapter for it just to test and they're not going very cheap on eBay either.

Did you try a different outlet just to be safe?

Also, on mine, if you have it tilted slightly it will either turn on all by itself if its shutoff, or shutoff all by itself if its turned on. It must have a sensor somewhere inside it where if it gets tilted it triggers the power either on or off. Maybe its just mine, I don't know. So make sure its on a level surface with the slotload optical drive facing upward. Let us know how you're making out. Like I said I have a G4 Cube that I use at work all day long so if you have any questions please let me know.
 
mklos said:
The only thing I can think of is maybe the power adapter went bad on you? I know thats a tough thing to test too as its specific to the Cube (I have a G4 Cube too). Do you hear like the CD or DVD ROM make a slight noise (like the scanner slide slightly) when you press the power button? If you have speakers for it (USB only) do you hear the Mac chime at all? I know its a PITA to get another power adapter for it just to test and they're not going very cheap on eBay either.

Did you try a different outlet just to be safe?

Also, on mine, if you have it tilted slightly it will either turn on all by itself if its shutoff, or shutoff all by itself if its turned on. It must have a sensor somewhere inside it where if it gets tilted it triggers the power either on or off. Maybe its just mine, I don't know. So make sure its on a level surface with the slotload optical drive facing upward. Let us know how you're making out. Like I said I have a G4 Cube that I use at work all day long so if you have any questions please let me know.
Click to expand...
\

I have the apple care service manual and i think the power supply is good. According to the manual if the Green LED is lit inside the case then the PSU is fine. I hear nothing when i press the power button. THe light just kind flashes randomly until i release it. If i press i hard it stays lit and softly goes out when i let it go.
 
Tried removing/replacing the PRAM battery? I've had a lot of older G4's that exhibit the exact same symptoms. The power light just flashes and dies with no boot.
 
Eidorian said:
Tried removing/replacing the PRAM battery? I've had a lot of older G4's that exhibit the exact same symptoms. The power light just flashes and dies with no boot.
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Damnit! RadioShack just closed. I will hit them up tomorrow for the battery. FINGERS CROSSED,
 
If the battery doesn't work, check Cubeowner.com forums. There are a lot of helpful people there that will be able to help diagnose and fix the problem.
 
If the power button on the Cube lights, and the display gets power, then you know the DC supply is not bad. Have you tried powering it up from the button on the ADC display?
 
IJ Reilly said:
If the power button on the Cube lights, and the display gets power, then you know the DC supply is not bad. Have you tried powering it up from the button on the ADC display?
Click to expand...

I have tried pressing the power button on the ACD and nothing happens. I have a new battery, but i have Cisco class after work and won't be home till 10:30pm. I hope the battery fixes it.

Here is the real question. When i bought it i was told all it needs is a OS. SHould i try to return it or keep trying to get it to work. The whole set up only cost me $150 and i do not want to sink to much money into it.
 
Flyinace2000 said:
I have tried pressing the power button on the ACD and nothing happens. I have a new battery, but i have Cisco class after work and won't be home till 10:30pm. I hope the battery fixes it.

Here is the real question. When i bought it i was told all it needs is a OS. SHould i try to return it or keep trying to get it to work. The whole set up only cost me $150 and i do not want to sink to much money into it.
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Tiger for PowerPC is around $40-60 right now AT MOST. The battery is around $15.

Considering the Cube can go from $250-400 itself you're doing well.
 
Eidorian said:
Tiger for PowerPC is around $40-60 right now AT MOST. The battery is around $15.

Considering the Cube can go from $250-400 itself you're doing well.
Click to expand...

I already have a copy of Tiger from my ADC membership.
 
Flyinace2000 said:
I have tried pressing the power button on the ACD and nothing happens. I have a new battery, but i have Cisco class after work and won't be home till 10:30pm. I hope the battery fixes it.

Here is the real question. When i bought it i was told all it needs is a OS. SHould i try to return it or keep trying to get it to work. The whole set up only cost me $150 and i do not want to sink to much money into it.
Click to expand...

You got a bargain, and it's worth keeping even if it needs some work.

You said you know the display is getting power. How do you know?
 
Eidorian said:
Pff the Cube is in good condition and you got it dirt cheap w/display. Keep it as a cool collectors item, guest Mac, or Classic powerhouse.
Click to expand...

Its going to be a wonderful file server with my 3 external FW drives (about 700+ GB)
 
IJ Reilly said:
You got a bargain, and it's worth keeping even if it needs some work.

You said you know the display is getting power. How do you know?
Click to expand...

Yeah its definitely worth keeping. Good question...How do you know the display is getting power? Have you tried powering up the Cube without the display attached?

And you've gone through it and made absolutely sure everything is connected correctly and securely? I know its hard to do because everything inside it Cube is very tightly put together. I would go to the point as to try anything and everything, even if you know its probably not the issue. If it has 2 sticks of RAM, take 1 out, then the other. I seriously doubt thats it, but it never hurts to try and thats like a 5 second thing to do on the Cube. If absolutely nothing works, then it could be a logicboard failure. I cant remember if you can power up the Cube when its out of its casing. My Cube is at work so I can't try it right now. Possibly the touch sensitive button isn't functioning properly, as in its too sensitive and shuts the system off as soon as it turns it on.

Do you know if its had any CPU upgrades, from PowerLogix, or Sonnet? If so, maybe they took it out and screwed something up while putting it back together? I'm just throwing out lots of ideas.
 
I put in the new battery and i have new symptoms!

1. Now there are 2 green lights illuminated. (one on the DC board showing the PSU is good, this is not new. The other is directly below it by 7 inches.
2. The RED LED light is illuminated next to the ram slots.
3. Now when i press the power button (on either the monitor or computer) i can smell a subtle burning. Its not strong but its definelty there. As soon as I unplug it it goes away.

The ram in the computer is a 256mb pc133 (i thought it came with pc100). I found some old pc133 at work and brought that home. i tried it and it has no affect on the computer.
 
I am thinking this weekend i will take eeverything apart and put it all back together. Unless some one has a better course of action. The three LED's are really encouraging, but the smell isn't.

What ticks me off is that it was runnign two weeks ago at the shop, and now its DOA.

Another note: One of the USB ports is mangled (missing the plastic "tooth" in the center and the contacts look all sorts of messed up. Could that be the short? if so should i de-soldering te port off the logic board?
 
Well, we have asked you a bunch of time how you know the display is getting power. If you could answer that question maybe we could help you better.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Well, we have asked you a bunch of time how you know the display is getting power. If you could answer that question maybe we could help you better.
Click to expand...

Well i pressthe button on the monitor and the button lights up. The backlight for the monitor does not go on. But the button works.
 
Okay. If I had to guess, I'd guess a bad DC-DC board, which supplies the low voltage to the logic board and drives. The other possibility that comes to mind is a faulty power button on the Cube. If they're overly sensitive (and many were), then the Cube is prone to sleeping randomly or not starting. I fixed this problem with my power button by taping a thin scrap of paper onto the inside of the lucite housing right above the switch.

Incidentally, a Cube core can be run outside of the case. I'm not sure if this will help you with your diagnostics but it might.
 
Honestly I would take it back to where you got it from and tell them its DOA and has never worked since you got it.
 
mklos said:
Honestly I would take it back to where you got it from and tell them its DOA and has never worked since you got it.
Click to expand...

I might, i originally offered them $50 for a non workign cube, but when they told me it was booting and just need an operating system. $50 to $75 would be a fair price for a DOA cube, no?
 
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